[Ben]

Hey!

Welcome to part 2 of Website of the Month for January 2009.

The reason we have a part 2 is because we had 2 websites tie to be the winner with 23 votes each. I thought it best to run a final, shorter voting stage to make sure we get just one winner!

Voting will be open until midnight Wednesday 4th January 2009

The 2 finalists are:

ChristopherDarling
www.christopherdarling.co.uk

&

Eskymo
www.eviemilo.co.uk/blog_lovehate/

[traxor]

Once again, it's got to be Eskymo for me. Sticking to my guns.

[Iris]

It's Christopher Darling for me.

[notbanksy]

Eskymo all the way baby

[wizely]

Would you look at that! I voted again and at this stage it's 7 votes each so heading for another tie!!!!
They're both really good and whichever one wins it will just be down to personal taste.

[Raoul de Boer]

Christopher Darling ftw for me

congrats both for getting this far!

[wizely]

wizely, on Feb 1 2009, 13:21, said:

Would you look at that! I voted again and at this stage it's 7 votes each so heading for another tie!!!!
They're both really good and whichever one wins it will just be down to personal taste.

I put the kiss of death on you Eskymo - sorry! (7 straight votes for Christopher after I voted and commented!)

[Skysurge]

You really did there, wizely!

Personally I think Eskymo's is better...

Christopher's portfolio is kind of out-of-date looking, red is a gross color for web designs (maybe that makes it, unique?), and it isn't even fully compatible of javascript is turned off. The type is small and hard to read, as is the entire design.

Eskymo's design is not only much more modern, its nice to see something that isn't a god damn web-development portfolio! I don't know how many more about me, services, and portfolio pages I can take

I' m voting 100% for eskymo!

[ChristopherDarling]

Thanks for everyone's votes so far..!

@skysurge
Your opinion is appreciated.. I personally happen to like red and don't consider it as a gross colour.

What features aren't working with JavaScript turned off? - I can't find any.. nor do I experience the 800x600 problem you're getting, which is strange..! What browser & OS are you using?

[Skysurge]

The spacing problem is in FF3. Now that you mention it, it could be a client size problem because I used the web developer toolbar resize feature (to set the window to 800x600). I just tested it and it was, sorry about that! I'll take it out of my above post.

With javascript off, there is a loading GIF permanently at the bottom of the page, and the footer is no longer attached to the bottom of the page. Also, on your portfolio page, the gray design you made, doesn't display (only two sites show, Bamba Beads, and your Portfolio itself (ahh infinite loop! ha))

Red is really hard on the eyes, and doesn't give a very relaxed feel.

Also, I didn't mean to sound like you had a bad design, but for the sake of argument for deciding one site or another thats what mattered. It is a nice design.

[ChristopherDarling]

No problem, I appreciate that not every design is everyones taste, it is a form of art after all.

Thank you for bringing my attention to the loading GIF, I actually don't experience that problem, but I think that's because of the resolution on my Laptop (800px high). I've made the changes, so that problem shouldn't be the case anymore.

Also, the portfolio grey design does show. You're pressing the |< >| (skip to front, end) buttons, rather than - +

Cheers for the input!

[Skysurge]

Oh ok, well + - didn't seem like a better option to click than |< >|... It makes sense when that bar is in the middle, then you can tell what the buttons do (from where the slider moves)... I'm pretty good with interfaces, it may confuse other people too!

[tigerlabs]

Sorry but Eskymo is the one.

[tigerlabs]

@SkySurge 800px by 600px is way outdated and nobody uses it, design your sites for 1024x768

[ChristopherDarling]

800x600 is outdated, but it's worthwhile to test it to see how it does present on that small percentage of target audience.

As for the interface, admittedly it does loose some of it's functionality & usability without JavaScript, but majority of people do have JavaScript enabled.

[Skysurge]

Meshach, Christopher's site is quite obviously designed for 800x600. I don't design for 800x600 myself.

Just for fun I checked my Analytics, for my most popular site I still have 4% using 800x600. 1024x768 is at 42.65%.. 20% Still using IE6

To Christopher, speaking of javascript availability, Facebook.com doesn't work at all without javascript now!

[ChristopherDarling]

It's not design FOR 800x600.. it's designed so that it will still fit 800x600.

[Skysurge]

I have to pull my 1680x1050 monitor closer to read the 10pt text on your page! Its pretty damn tiny.

[kree8or]

Has to be eskymo, As I said before CD's doesn't seem "finished".

[Boyles Web Design]

I went for CD's site, I like the look however I didn't vote for eskymo because I think I am a little spoiled since I see her portfolio and then I compare all of her work to that Its gonna be hard for her to have anything come close to her portfolio site