http://what-is-what.com

[dotancohen]

Due to the many complaints about the lack of Internet Explorer support, I have recoded http://what-is-what.com. Most of the CSS code is from the excellent website PostitionIsEverything. However, I have taken great pains to meet these four goals with the new code, in this order of importance:
1) XHTML Strict Doctype
2) Content as high up in the code as possible
3) Internet Explorer support.
4) Design as similar as possible to the original

I would appreciate all comments regarding the layout, and display issues if anybody encounters them. Screenshots of different platforms would be nice. I have tested in Firefox 2.x, Opera 8.x and 9.x, Konquerer 3.5.x, Lynx, IE6, and IE7. All tests were performed on Ubuntu Linux, with IE running in virtual machines in VMWare.

Please, be harsh. Tell me about problems that you encounter, and things that could be made better. Note that I retain the IE-warning text to user agents that parse as IE. This is because I have spent over 9 hours making the site display in IE, after less than 2 hours' work coding for standards-compliant browsers such as Firefox and Opera. There is a good chance that the next update will not get that attention.

Note: As this is a rather subjective field, I have posted to several forums. While for some topics this would be considered cross-posting, I believe that in cases of opinion one should opt for as wide an opinion base as possible. Thus, the cross-post. Please do not be offended. Thanks in advance.

[Loonm]

Nice website, design looks lilttle bit childish, it seems you have a website like wikipedia i like their design its very simple, its a content website so think about it
Well i like it i give 4 out of 5!

[dotancohen]

Thanks for the feedback, Loonm. What do you mean by 'childish'? Could you give some examples of websites that look more professional in your opinion? Maybe I could adapt some ideas from them.

Thanks.

[Datawalke]

Hey there.

Here is my take on What-Is-What.com

Front Page
The bold maroon colors I find to flow nicely with the background, and you can get right to your main content easily. However I find the gap between the Menu area and the Content to be a bit large. Although it leads your eyes there if the white space was reduced a little it may flow more even.

I don't however like the redundant "Search" fields. The one on the top is great. (However I would personally move it to be aligned all the way to the right.)
And I would get rid of the one on the menu bar.

If a feature doesn't exist yet (Like the News Letter) Don't put it out yet. Only feature elements when they are good to go.

Your footer also if centered may look a little better rather than being aligned to the left.

Article Wise
When making a website you have to ask yourself a few questions. Do I want to provide a service? Do I want to make money? Do I want to provide a service and plaster it with ads? Most people (At least from an American stand point.) Read from left to right. Your articles tend to start off with the advertisement right off the bat. Why not move that over to the right hand side at least? So its a little less distracting. Or better yet take it out all together.

All around though, keep it up. It's a good idea. And although being hard to compete with websites like Wikipedia specialization always helps.
Keep up the good work man!

-Jim

[Fremeere]

The design in general is certainly clear. Some minor niggles though.

Are you going to do anything with that space under the right side of the header separator line? It looks lonely and forgotten about

Like the logo generally but the question mark being the same (or similar colour) as the 'A's really looks as if it ought to follow them stylistically as well, and it doesn't.

I note you've gone for a liquid layout. On 1280x1024 the gap between the left nav and the content is too large.

Personally I don't like the indentation in the nav bars but at least it has been done consistently. Why do neither the nav headings or nav options align with the left of the logo and header separator?

The left hand search box, button & options are too crammed together.

The articles themselves are rather big blocks of text that could do with being broken up into smaller paragraphs and/or having some graphics added. The occasional small graphic in the front page teaser would help break up the front page a bit as well.

No canonical name redirect. You are serving the same content on http://what-is-what.com/index.php and http://www.what-is-what.com/index.php this leaves you at risk of the search engines considering the domains as duplicate content. (However, nice to see a custom 404 that is both useful and returns the correct status )

The footer, again, does not align with anything and looks stuck on after the fact.

[AJKock]

Too many searches
Move search to right, it feels lost in the middle next to the logo
Align the footer to center
Put tags on front page (in form of cloud or any other means). I want to SEE information about topics I might be interest in. I don't want to go and FIND topics I might be interest in. I have a life.

[markbrown4]

Hello,

Your css file should not contain:

<style type="text/css">
/* <![CDATA[ */

or

/* ]]> */
</style>

I find the layout uneven, I think it's mainly because you're three main sections have no real borders - I'd try framing your sections to make it look more solid. Look at using faux columns.
the left navigation is too far left, the gutter between the left nav and the content is far greater than than the content and the right sidebar.
But i'm looking at it 1440px wide - Keep the gutters consistent in larger windows.

The text-indent on the main content section is a little off-putting.
The zig zag in your header doesn't look professional and leaves the page unbalanced.

You're footer needs some more love too, think of framing it and laying it out relative to the other elements on screen as it looks 'left to the side'.

[dotancohen]

Thank you all, some very valid points here. I have just been informed that a _major_ university exam is being pushed up to the 2nd of August, so until that time I will not work on the website layout. I will try to write articles, however. After August 2nd, I will address the issues one by one. Thank you all very much. Keep the comments coming...

[bigmike7801]

I don't think the colors work all that well. Also, towards the bottom, the text literally touches the side.

[Diver10000]

On question entry form borders are not shown (Firefox) - looks confusing.
Apart from that design is good and simple. Actually all white text boxes on white background have no border line and they are hard to see.

I would put few simple word of what is site about for visitors with short attention span.

[Overflow]

I like it, very simple.
I think each column needs borders, especially the input boxes.

The Google Search buttons looks terrible, please change it.