Form is now working

Okay I have successfully used https://www.response-o-matic.com to get the form working on my site. Unfortunately the free version serves an advertisement but that will do for now.

Response to Feedback

So more than a dozen people looked at my site and gave me feedback, and overall I was really pleased with the results. Most of the issues were content related, rather than usability related. Here are some of the issues that were raised and what I have now done to mitigate them:

Content:

• Photos not understood why chosen - have now added 'title' tags to every photo
• Lots of typos identified and hopefully now fixed but probably still some exist
• Rio listed under "Australia" - now changed to 'Central Coast', the place I am from and linked from the 'About Loz' page also

Usability

• Mostly intuitive to click the small gallery image - have added "click for larger image" title tag anyway
• Layout confusing for some, side panel navigation not defined - have added a border definition using CSS and even got rounded corners (which I got very excited about learning over at my other blog)

See title tag added to image and side navigation defined

• Users didn't realise there was a 'key' to the site (the little money and backpacker things) until i had already read it all - debated elevating the how to image on the front page to the first image but agreed with the lecturer that the 'news' article was more engaging. Have added a new page to the footer to explain in more detail.
• The means of contacting 'links' (facebook, twitter etc) did not open in a new page - these now open in a new page

And here are some issues that were raised that I have not yet fixed

Content:

• Need more places, having just one city under each country means its pointless to have the spry collapsible panel function - will add more as soon as the rest is 'perfect'
• More relevant content would be where this place is and how to get there - I want to go through and change accomodation to be this but this will take some time and can be done in a 'bitsy' manner. I will aim to get this done during the week

Usability

• Form doesn't work - don't I bloody know it!!! Pat (lecturer) has suggested 'Form-o-Matic' will try this later
• News article on homepage - people really want to read this, whereas I only envisaged the headline being important, I will need to review how I can make bigger.
• Re the 'key' to the site - I also want to go through and put a title tag on each symbol to make more descriptive and perhaps link to the 'how to use this site' section 

Anybody reading this who would like to add more feedback the latest version of the site is now live at www.talesfromloz.com and you can fill out the survey again here.

Gallery Changes

Oh I will just mention a change I just made - previously the thumbnails in the gallery on each of the content pages were 'squashing' the thumbnail pic, and they were also not flush up to the bottom of the fullsize image. I have edited the thumbnail size using CSS to widen the image - I remember Paddy quoting in class that people were particularly sensitive to misshapen images - especially when they were human faces,and also I have trimmed the main gallery photo (or WILL to 450 x 306 pixels) to ensure the bottom isn't cut off if I add a caption.

First Feedback

Ok so first feedback is in... lesson 1 - don't bother asking mum, she cant be a critic! I did however receive some very valuable feedback from my biggest critic, my sister. This also correlated with feedback received from others. The key points are around content:

• Need MORE content to look like an expert - currently only listing one city per country - not enough to make get on a plane and visit
• More information on where this place is and maybe how to get there
• Need more info for the photos - like captions to describe what is going on or why this photo is interesting

More work in the pipeline then. I will wait a couple more days to see if any more feedback comes in and then review the best changes to make

SITE LIVE FOR TESTING - round 1

Ok. So after an extreme battle with my web hosting people (the online chat at webhostingUK have absolutely no personality at all) and Dreamweaver, my site is now live at www.talesfromloz.com.

Remember that the objective of this site is to provide a memoir of my travels and that the primary audience is  likely to be family and friends. I have selected 10 people (including my mother, haha) and sent then the link to the site, and the link to a survey to get feedback.

My form does not work.

I am going to help with that next week.

Forms!

Reviewing the last weeks notes on forms and doing Lynda.com tutorials on inserting forms in dreamweaver - can't believe I am excited by this! I want to create a radio button and comment form for the sidebar of the 'Contact' and 'About' pages - make the site interactive and ask the user where they think I should go next! Hope my form works - here goes!