De-Bugging

Here is my current 'completed' and 'to-do' list.

Completed from Last Week's Tasks

• Initialize 'Site Wide Search' Link
• Final Proof of content
• Add Audio Plug-ins to some pages ('Matter' & 'Scarabaeid')
• Check on all browsers and screen resolutions (esp. Mac!)
• Check all links
• Solve playback control issues on Flash animation
  

To do

• Debug for resolution 800 x 600
  
• Write one page summary

Feedback

I received some excellent feedback from several viewers this week, including my colleague Melissa.

Forum: LPW503 - Discussion Group

Date: Tue Oct 31 2006 13:39

Author: HUGHES, MELISSA SELINA

Two main issues consistent with Melissa's observations were the overlap problem with low resolution (800 x 600) of the global navigation links and the lack of playback control on the flash animation. I have solved the playback dilemma by moving the .swf flash to its own page with a 'start animation' button on the main page and a 'stop' and 'return home' button on the animation page. Now the main page can be refreshed (returned to) without the animation starting up again, and again!

This choice was made after extensive research of options re playback control:

Animated content can greatly enhance the experience provided by multimedia content. However, media content that changes unexpectedly - by scrolling, flickering or flashing, or otherwise moving around, can also cause some people significant access problems. The solution is not to stop providing animated content, but to allow as far as possible options for users to control animations, and at a minimum be able to slow down, freeze or turn them off. http://www.skillsforaccess.org.uk/howto.php?id=112

The overlap problem at the resolution of 800 x 600 is proving more difficult to solve. At first I thought, who uses such a low res anyway? I 'googled' for an answer and found that plenty of people do!

The most popular screen resolutions on the web in the world are:

1.	1024 x 768	56.15%
2.	1280 x 1024	15.79%
3.	800 x 600	12.04%
4.	1280 x 800	4.09%
5.	1152 x 864	3.90%

http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox43-screen-resolutions.html



To the left is a screen shot of the page viewed on a friend's PC at 800 x 600.

The title bars overlaps into the search function and the global links disappear behind the main content. Compare this screen shot to the one below.



Following is a screen shot from my computer using my preferred resolution of 1154 x 864 (curiously the least popular res world-wide).


Here there is no problem with overlap but to make the page consistent and functional for all viewers, I'm going to have to shorten the global links. I'll eliminate the 'quantum theory' links altogether, drop one link per heading and use a smaller font. (80%)

I'll post a screenshot of the results when complete.

Finally, here is the screen shot of the page at the low resolution of 800 x 600.


I have eliminated some of the global links to avoid overlapping and taken out the 'quantum' links altogether.

Now there is no problem with the global link 'research' overlapping into the 'search' box or the drop down links disappearing behind the content page. Now to fix the other 4 pages!

And then on to the summary.