HTML / CSS: File Manager Prototype

[visualAd]

I've just finished a prototype for a PHP application I am creating. At present the protoype is only the front end user interface, which is XHTML and CSS. Web design is not one of my strongest points so I thought I might post a thread here in hope of some critical comments and some hints on how to make it better.

The protoype is here:

http://www.sccode.com/projects/filemanager/protoype/

Some of the things I am indecisive about:

• Should I keep the UI as strict XHTML and use just style sheets for formatting or should I use transitional XHTML and use formatting tags too?
• I would like to give the user the option of switching between an normal view and frames view. Should I use iframes or normal frames?
• The upload application will allow users to upload as many files as they with and create directories too upload them into. This means dynamically creating form elements. I am not sure whether to use PHP or Javascript for this?

Feel free to make horrible comments. I know it looks like its been designed by a kid and I would be happy to take any suggestions.

Thanks

[visualAd]

** BUMP **

I knew I should have posted this in Chit Chat

[Merri]

Just stay with the strict XHTML (you can do stuff like this with strict XHTML and a multibrowser optimized CSS).

Anyways, I'd suggest adding a customized font and more colors, just plain white + black isn't too great.

BODY {
    font-family : arial, helvetica;
    font-size : 9pt;
}

Other than that, the interface itself is bearable

[techgnome]

Ditto - stick with XHTML strict and CSS. Could use a little more color especialy a background color.

TG

[NoteMe]

I think FF is blocking the Log In window or something. I had to click open in new tab to get it. But it works great if I press "Show Protoype as iFrame "

[dglienna]

I would reverse the top and bottom frames

[visualAd]

I like the site Merri - I only wish I could design them like that

I aimed for two main things when designing the user interface:

• I've given content priority over appearance. I want to the application to still function with a minimal user agent, such as a text only browser.
  
  At first I used divs, however without the CSS the content became muddled and the interface became very difficult to use, so I fell back on using tables and designed from the bottom up adding the styles last. Disabling CSS makes the interface look ugly but it is still usable and still works.
  
  If someone knows a way that I can acheive a similar effect using div's, please let me know, as it will make the coding in PHP a lot easier.
• Delivering just the necessary content. At first I had all the CSS rules in one file. I decided however to modularise it, as I will be using PHP this will be easy, so I've split the style sheets and Javascript's into many different files and deliver them only when necessary.

As for the colours I don't want to go overkill - I guess I am looking for an effect similar to VBF, simple and easy on the eye. I agree, that what I have got at the moment looks very dull. I'm not that good at matching colours so was wondering if anyone knew of any design sites I could use to assist me in choosing a colour scheme.

Using strict XHTML, can I still give the use the option of allowing the user to switch to a frameset inteface? I heard that you can only use frames and iframes with transitional XHTML.

Thanks too for the comments about the prototype page. I originally had with just the two iFrames but when I showed it to a friend. His first comment was yuk, iframes, why don't you use a separate window.

There should be one link that makes the iframe appear and disappear and one which brings up a separate window. When you click the link in the top iframe it should load in the bottom one and the pop up window (if open) and the popup window should become focused. Let me know if it isn't working - if you have a popup blocker then it may prevent it from working though. I tested it in FF and IE, the only thing that doesn't work for me is focusing the popup in FF.