Banzora!

[kiltair]

Hi,

I like to go to concerts, but I usually know about them when I read the report in the newspaper.. too late to witness the performance myself!

So, when I left EMC last year, I wanted to make a website that provides this information. Finally, it's finished: http://www.banzora.com

It has nothing to do with kilts or skirts for men... However, the Banzora businessplan mentioned that Banzora wants to become the Google of the music performances. So, if in time, Banzora gets some coverage in newspaper or magazine.. I will appear in a kilt :cheer:

Banzora is now beta-version and soon going full release. Let me know what you like or dislike about it. Any suggestions, comments, remarks are welcome!

Thanks

Jan

[Milfmog]

Hi Jan,

Looks like it could become a useful site. A couple of points for you:

--> The map of Judie Tzuke's gigs shows Salford Quays as being somewhere south of Ghana. Now that might be a good place for Salford but it's a long way from where I last found it

--> There does not seem to be a facility for adding venues, if they are not in your list it is not possible to add dates. I found three venues that you are missing (PM me if you want more details).

--> The "Please report any errors to php master" button returned an error when I tried to tell you about the above. (Hence my post here, with apologies to everyone else).

Have fun,


Ian.

[Sashi]

Well I really don't know anything about going to concerts, but what I do know is web design. The colors seem a little plain to me, but nothing really wrong there. I just personally like colorful things, so of course that would sway my opinion on the subject.

The biggest thing that caught my eye, though, was the page width. My ruler shows the total content area of the page to be around 590 pixels in width. That leaves you with around 400 pixels of unused space, at least at my screen resolution of 1024 x 768. Now, this might not look so bad if the content (sidebar included) of the page were in the center of the screen, rather than aligned left. I would suggest doing one of two things:

• Center the containing elements of the site, so it doesn't appear so small to the eye. Sort of a visual trick I guess
• You could also make the main content container of a fluid width (such as a percentage or em width) so that it will resize itself based on the user's screen resolution. The two most common screen resolutions are the aforementioned and 800 x 600, although as people continue to buy new computers with new monitors, even 800 x 600 will diminish.

Of course the second option is not only a little harder to pull off, but it might not be what you are shooting for in terms of design. The other thing I noticed, although it is more aesthetics than anything else, is that it seems you need a little more padding on the right for your Logon and Search boxes' content. Three to five pixels should do wonders in matching it up better with the left side. In fact, if you don't have left padding set, now would be a good time to do that.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. At least in Firefox 2, the Go button for the search box overlaps the input field above it by about three pixels, at least as far as my eye can judge. Not sure what's causing it to do that, nor do I have time to look into the matter for you. Just have the time to give you the heads up. Anyways, from what I can see it looks like you're doing a pretty good job so far. Good luck with your site!

[kiltair]

Ian,

Thanks for the reply and the critical comments!


--> The map of Judie Tzuke's gigs shows Salford Quays as being somewhere south of Ghana. Now that might be a good place for Salford but it's a long way from where I last found it

I use 2 services to convert a placename into geographical coordinates. eg. London is converted to 51 latitude and -0.1 longitude. However, in a very few cases, the service can't find a match. Salford Quays is one of them. So the coordinates stay at (0, 0), which places it indeed in Africa... I should not display these on the map!

--> There does not seem to be a facility for adding venues, if they are not in your list it is not possible to add dates. I found three venues that you are missing (PM me if you want more details).

Venues are added together with the gigs. At each update, I add tens of venues, so eventually your venues will also be included in time..

--> The "Please report any errors to php master" button returned an error when I tried to tell you about the above. (Hence my post here, with apologies to everyone else).

That was a bug. Luckily, I get an email if such a problem occurs, so I fixed it within minutes.. My apologies!

Thanks again,

Jan

[kiltair]

Sashi,

Thanks a lot for your critical comments. I'm more a programmer than a webdesigner, so I felt I could better use 'plain' colors than make a colorful design that eventually hurts the eyes.. As the colors and layout are controlled by CSS, it's a (relatively) small addition to create 'skins'.

The biggest thing that caught my eye, though, was the page width. ....

Yes, you are right. The middle pane used to be fluid, but I had to change that because of Internet Explorer. IE doesn't support Google maps within tables, so I had to convert the page-table into 3 divs. But then I run into problems (again) with IE, that the rightmost div (with the banner) will wrap under the page when the window becomes too narrow.
So, I had to choose the least of all evils and opt for a fixed-width layout.

The other thing I noticed, although it is more aesthetics than anything else, is that it seems you need a little more padding on the right for your Logon and Search boxes' content. ...
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. At least in Firefox 2, the Go button for the search box overlaps the input field above it by about three pixels,...

Thanks, I'll look into it later today.

Although html and css are 'standard' it's often despairing on how different browsers implement these differently!

Thanks again!

Jan

[iain]

wow, great site!!!

and forget about flashy colours and stuff--when people do that it makes everything so cluttered and clumsy you don't know where to look, like a crowd of hawkers all jingling stuff in front of you and shouting "over here, sahib!" "no, over HERE, mem sab!!"

you FINALLY get used to their jingling jangling everything-shuddering animated pop-upping confusion and then..

they CHANGE it so you no longer know where you are. the bathroom is on the ceiling, the garden is on the side of the house.. you turn on a tap and the television starts up.

All that stuff is to show you how clever the programmers are, nothing else.

I like how the album images jump out from the grey. keep it simple!! It's a favourite site of mine already!!

[Milfmog]

Jan,

I'm with Iain here, I hate fancy colour schemes and wacky gizmos on websites. Keep it simple, effective and low stress, the very fact that you've built the site proves you're smarter than I am, so no need for irrelevant, no added value, glitz.

Have fun,


Ian.

PS Using Firefox2 I did not see any problem with overlapping buttons...

[Sashi]

Sashi,

Thanks a lot for your critical comments. I'm more a programmer than a webdesigner, so I felt I could better use 'plain' colors than make a colorful design that eventually hurts the eyes.. As the colors and layout are controlled by CSS, it's a (relatively) small addition to create 'skins'.

...

Although html and css are 'standard' it's often despairing on how different browsers implement these differently!

Thanks again!

Jan

No problem! I'm sorta both, a designer and a programmer, so I'm always thinking about both aspects. Of course, I'm also aware the lots of people are just one or the other, and might have trouble trying to do both jobs. Either way, as I said before, nothing fundamentally wrong with your design there.

I can totally relate about how certain browsers *cough*IE*cough* have trouble meeting the standards properly. I have a website I'm working on that appears fine in all modern browers, but sadly so many people still use IE6 and that browser pretty much butchers it. I need to code up a seperate stylesheet just for that one browser.

For the people who don't care for fancy colors and whatnot, and this is just my opinion here, but I believe you can have a fancy color scheme and still keep something simple and easy to use. You just have to use the proper colors for the content, and of course make sure the colors go well with each other. Since color theory isn't exactly my speciality, I've found a good website to help me out: http://www.colorsontheweb.com/. It has two tools which are useful for me, usually to help in picking colors that go well with my initial choice(s). Either way, I do feel you can make a site colorful without overwhelming or confusing the users, but not all websites content goes well with a colorful design. Anyways, good luck on your website, Jan!

[kiltair]

... I've found a good website to help me out: http://www.colorsontheweb.com/. It has two tools which are useful for me...

Thanks!
The french say: 'les goutes et les femmes ne se discutent pas' (don't argue about colors and women).
I will implement skins and alternative color schemes when the rest of the main programming is done! There are some more features waiting to be released soon..

Thanks for your feedback!

Jan

[Sashi]

Hehe, no problem. Besides, until you get all the main features out of the way, implementing skins, color themes, et cetera are just not a top priority. While you do need some form of an interface, you don't necessarily need to include everything but the kitchen sink in it, at least at first. Afterwards it might be a good idea just to try all kinds of goofy things, just for fun. Maybe you'll land on something you love by pure accident!