As I posted in another thread, I just completed a new section to my website. This new section was done at the request of my mother so that she could use it in one the environmental classes she teaches. As stated in the other thread due to larger design requirements and considerations the width of my site is locked at 756px and can not be made wider until the percentage of my users using a screen width of less than 1024px drops to below 5%.
The new section is based on the U.S. Department of Transportation's "Hazardous Materials Table" from U.S. federal regulations 49 CFR. The layout of my version of this table is designed to mimic the layout of the actual table in the printed regulations as closely as is possible. The width of my site, the size of the table and CSS limitations created some really unique design challenges for me.
What I need to know is how effective I was at balancing the conflicting design requirements I had and how usable the new section of my site is. I will be meeting with my mother's class and discussing the usability of this new section with them, but they already some familiarity with the DOT HazMat Table. What I need to see is how easy it is for someone who has never seen the DOT HazMat table to find information on my version of it. As such I am asking folks here to try out this section of my site and see how easy it was for you to find certain pieces of information. Any participation in this test and any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am especially interested in feedback from Safari users as to any significant Safari specific rendering and/or dynamic menu issues (screen captures of problems would be appreciated).
Beginning point for test: http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/hazmat/table/
Goal #1: Find the UN ID# and Qty Limit for Passenger air/rail for the chemical "Ethylenediamine"
Goal #2: Find the proper shipping name and hazard class number for UN ID # UN1708. What is the name of this hazard class? What color is its placard (the diamond shaped sign)?
Goal #3: What is the proper shipping name and UN ID# for the first Class 2 material listed under Division 2.2? What color is its placard?
These three tasks should reasonably test the usability of this new section of my site. I'm not going to give any hints about using the table as many people who hit this section of my site will have never seen the HazMat table before.
Again I would greatly appreciate anybody who has Safari to do a side by side comparison between Safari and other browsers to see if their are any issues that need to be addressed.
Bookmarks