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TYPICAL QUESTION: One question I typically get is "who designs your website?" This usually comes from people who like what I'm doing with the website. This Ruel.Net website is maintained by only one person -- me, the one and only Ruel -- who built up the website from the ground up and who has maintained the website over the years since 1996. People in the interactive television and consumer electronics businesses seem to be happy with the website because several people in those businesses have told me in person and via email to not change the website's basic design and layout. If they are happy with the website then I know others must at least think the website is okay also.

BROWSER COMPATIBILITY: FYI, for compatibility purposes, I use three primary browsers: (1) Microsoft Internet Explorer; (2) FireFox for Mozilla-type and Netscape-type browsers; and (3) MSNTV-WebTV browser. Microsoft Internet Explorer is a very forgiving browser regarding webpage formatting and I assume PC users have at least Internet Explorer version 5.5 or higher since most of the world's PC users are using Internet Explorer. Then I would take a look-see at the webpage using FireFox (for current mozilla-gecko browsers such as Netscape) to see if there are any noticeable formatting errors since Mozilla is not as forgiving as Microsoft Internet Explorer. And then I would use the MSNTV-WebTV browser (also called a "viewer" and a "simulator") which helps to show when things won't work on TV. For Mac users, the webpages should look okay when using the Mac version of Firefox. And the webpages also look okay when using Microsoft Internet Explorer for Mac although there is a weird vertical javascript centering problem which is very surprising for a Microsoft browser even if on a Mac. Nonetheless, IMHO, Microsoft Internet Explorer is the most forgiving of browsers that tends to successfully display the webpage as the webpage author intended despite any HTML coding problems, errors, or other complications. For those folks working on TV browsers: Make the browser compliant with HTML 4.0, particularly compatible with IFRAMEs, and be very forgiving as to format problems and other screen-size incompatibilities because there are a lot of websites out there that are not designed for TV.

BOTH COMPLIMENTS & COMPLAINTS: And then there are the website critics who want to redesign Ruel.Net. I've received "constructive criticism" from well-meaning people who for one reason or another did not like the design or the colors of the website. I've received *BOTH* compliments and complaints for the *SAME* things about the website design of Ruel.Net. So I know that I can't please everyone.

LINEAR WEBPAGES: One complaint I once received was from a visitor who worked at an electronics manufacturer who was complaining about the length of the webpages. He was complaining because he was printing out the webpages for the research he was doing. Well, I figure if people are in the interactive TV and consumer electronics businesses, then they can afford to buy the paper to print out the long pages if they want to print. The long linear pages are for the scrolling-through-webpages type of behavior that I know non-technical non-computer non-internet people do. There are a lot of people out there who don't click when they should click -- but they will scroll because scrolling is straightforward. FYI, the long linear format of these webpages is also an online version of what I'm used to in real life writing on LONG yellow legal notepads. This website is not necessarily intended to be a "fast-food" click-and-go website, but is instead intended to provide detailed information, comments, and links. Also, nowadays, if you look at the proliferation of blogs, you can recognize the linear format that the webpages on this site have long had even before blogs came along and became popular.

BLACK BACKGROUND MOTIF: One PC user, who was apparently working on his own website, wrote in to say he did not like the black background motif for the webpages. At the time, and this was years ago, he was spouting off about what he said were the typical webmaster rules about design, colors, etc. But he was thinking in PC terms. This website was designed in part to look okay on TV sets also. The black background motif for the website originated from the set-top side of the website. At this point, it's a matter of personal taste and also the black background motif has been in place for years. With only one person (me) maintaining the hundreds of pages here at this website, it would take a great deal of time and effort on my part to redesign this website's look-and-feel -- read further below to get more of an idea as to how big of an effort it would be to change everything. Fortunately, only a tiny number (3) have complained about the black background including the one mentioned above and another one from someone else who apparently should be using a different screen resolution on his PC's monitor (suggestion: if you wear glasses or simply have bad eyes, don't use a screen resolution that makes the normal-size text look tiny). FYI, if you don't know, there are MANY PC-oriented websites and videogame websites that use similar dark background motifs.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS: The navigation with the menus and links are very simple -- I figure that providing menu-type links and written directions or certain links in various areas of the different webpages found on this site should be sufficient to help people get around. The flat non-dynamic nature of these webpages is also in part designed to be compatible with non-PC browsers (such as with TV set-top boxes) that may not be as advanced as the browsers that you have on PCs. Designing or redesigning a website can take a good deal of time and work -- particularly if you want to redo hundreds of manually written webpages. For instance, a couple years ago, I took several months to make various unseen "under-the-hood" changes to the website while keeping the same overall look-and-feel. The "under-the-hood" changes included major webpage tweaking to allow automatic wholesale changes to supporting content throughout the website. There are close to 800 pages here at Ruel.Net -- and the "under-the-hood" changes were meant to help me spent less time in the future fixing the website. If you have ever worked on a website, then you know how time-consuming it can be if you manually-by-hand-using-notepad to write and tweak all of the HTML code for each and every page. And if you have a real life outside of the web, then you could probably understand how time-constraining that work can be even if you use an expensive web design program. Overall, I'm pretty much happy with the design (particularly with the "under-the-hood" tweaking) of the Ruel.Net website. And you're getting to see the site for free without having to worry about the work that was put into it over the years since 1996. The site design works for me and has worked for me as such over the evolving years.

Thanks for visiting Ruel.Net.

Cheers,
Ruel

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