Browser compatibility

[Thorn]

Some people have sent me emails saying they can not view my web site. Browsers that I use are Netscape 6.2, IE6 and Opera. Far as I know these are the three main browsers that most use and I dont have any trouble useing them to view my website. Maybe these people use window 3.2 or something. I have tried those website garages but they dont seem to make any sense on there reports. Im looking for someone who has a older OS and browser/s that have a few extra mins to visit the website I have build. List OS and broswer if you could plaese and let me know if you had any trouble. Thanks !

www.thelunchboxcafe.com

[glc]

If you would post the link, I would be happy to check it with IE 5.01, Netscape 4.79, Mozilla 1.0, and Opera 6.04, all on Windows 2000.

[Thorn]

There are times this site will lock my browser do to the java on it. But thats the only problem Ive found with viewing it so far.

[glc]

The site is functional in all 4 of my browsers.

Now - I know you didn't ask for this, but may I comment on the site? This is constructive criticism, so please don't be offended, that is not my intent. The site takes way too long to load on dialup because of your heavy use of Java. Even after it has loaded completely, I get serious flickering when I scroll down the page (except in Netscape 4.79 - go figure - I expected this one to give me the *most* problems) - and my system is not exactly a lightweight (P3-800 with 512 ram and a Radeon video card). If I were the average potential customer, I would not stick around the site. Customers who are not technically oriented would not be impressed with all the animation when it causes a sluggish page response. I would recommend that you rethink your design philosophy for this site to make it more streamlined - I have to wonder why you are using full-blown Java for this? The only other comment I have is to consider putting up HTML menus, not everyone will be willing to do a 10 meg download of Acrobat Reader just to see what's for breakfast.

Perhaps some of our other members who are experienced in website design may be able to make some specific suggestions for you to tweak the site and make it less resource-intensive and more browser-friendly. The technology you are using is more suited for a "high-tech" site than for a small restaurant in my opinion.

Please accept my criticism in the spirit in which it was intended.

[Statica]

They are merely intended to provide you feedback of your site.

If it is the one that is listed in your profile http://www.thelunchboxcafe.com/
The reason the site isnt accessible is probably your zealous use of Java applets. With the issues with M$ OS' & browsers and their incompatibilities with Java VMs, not everyone has a good working copy of the Java VM.
In my humble opinion, there isnt anything on that site that you cant do without Java. The 2 scroll boxes and even the button bar is just overkill, not to mention the status bar scroller. It not only eats up a lot of processing power of most casual users and their computers, but you also leave yourself open to clients not being able to browse effectively. In addition to it all, a lot of people have been known to turn off Java applets from a pure safety aspect.
While the use of technologies is great, there must be an effective reasoning to using them. In your case, you would probably reach a higher customer base more satisfactorily by using tasteful designed text or even grafical menus.

Again this is based on the lunch box cafe website, if that isnt the one, I apologize.

[Thorn]

Thanks for your constructive criticism. You both put some valid points there. I have made some changes and plan more later. It should be loading a little faster now that I removed some things. Lets talk about that 10meg 8.6 download of Adobe Acrobat Reader. Most people or at least I think most people would all ready have it on there systems. My father creates his menus using publisher and it would be alot of typing for me to do retyping it in html format. So I just convert the publisher file to pdf for them to view and print if they wish. Perhaps if I did offer the html page of the menu and then offer a pdf format of the menu for them to print. Maybe that would be best. Thanks for your input.