My bands site has been up for a while but I thought I’d post it to see what
the real deal flashers think. I am not an expert
You will realize this when you see the site, but I’m getting better so I am
planning on redoing it soon enough.
dude, how old are you? How many years do you have on webdesign and on flash?
:q:
Like i said, I’m not an expert. Thanks for belittleing me though. I appreciate it.
*Originally posted by zcarrington1 *
**Like i said, I’m not an expert. Thanks for belittleing me though. I appreciate it. **
Great comeback line.I’ll chuckle about this for a couple of days.
:beam:
jt
Thanks. I mean come on, I know the site sucks, it was the first one I ever did. I posted it for CONSTRUCTIVE criticism,
not to be made fun of.
That was not my intention.
*Originally posted by zcarrington1 *
…I am not an expert…
that don´t say much…
What I was trying is to find your level of experience with flash and design in general, you see I cannot give a good critic for a bad site made by someone with years of experience and I cannot give a bad critic for a bad site made by someone with days of experience.
Yes, your site is bad, very bad. but if you are begining then I have to say that is a good start.
You never gave a chance to explain myself, plz think twice in the future. I´m not here to make you, or anyone, inferior. I´m here to help.
Well, I’m sorry. THanks for clearing that up.
I’ve been doing web design for about 1 year and a half, off and on, I did this site when I first learned HTML flash (self-taught)
and pretty much haven’t touched it for a year and a half. I’m going to re-do it soon, so I was looking
for advice on what I should do to hook it up.
Phil have covered pretty much everything 
I make phil´s words mine words =)
Yeah, when you said that you have been doing webdesign for an year and a half and that you made this site a year and a half ago, wow :!: that means that you made this site with very little knolege and experience. That tells me that you have a great potential, so stick around and read some tutes here, they´re easy to understand and very intructive. I´m sure that in no time you will come with something gazillion times better! 
I’m fully aware you might be a beginner, but I don’t modify my critique based on age or level of experience. That only hinders growth. Anyway, my two cents are below:
Just like every other site, your site needs improving. I would recommend doing your site in HTML and not delving into Flash right away. First get familiar with basic principles of design and layout. When you are better in these areas, you will have no problem producing a good, Flash site.
I would get rid of the random floating guns. They are a bit distracting, and contribute to an overall noisy site.
The menu: This is what Jacob Nielson likes to call “mystery meat navigation.” The buttons are not labeled and I don’t know what they lead to until I mouse over them. I don’t agree entirely with Nielson on the subject; I think mystery meat is ok, as long as the icon can be graphically tied to what it represents (such as a little house as the “home” button. However your buttons are totally vague. I would recommend making them more symbolically representative, otherwise, label them.
I think it would be ok for your to enter your text directly on the page rather than inserting it in an iframe. It would be a better way to make use of your space and, as far as I can tell, placing them within the iframes serves no useful purpose in design or function.
Color: there is a little too much color going on your site, making the visual hierarchy and overall “flow” totally vague. Try choosing less colors, perhaps two low contrast colors and one high contrast, bright color, used sparingly for the areas of importance (such as headers and maybe the menu).
Meanwhile, try not to use too many bells, whistles and widgets (Flash, animated gifs and various scripting tricks). If you can’t design without them, you can’t design with them.
YES! That does help. I will take that all into consdieration when I start redesigning. Definitely
going to change the red text. Really, this is my bands website, and we kind of have a “dark, evil” thing going
and the guns are just basically our “symbol”.
Very interesting about the buttons though. I did them like that on purpose, so that each person who
saw them would decide for themselves what they were. So far I had heard eyeballs, wheels, points on a map and a host of others
, but never soccer balls. Those are gonna go anyway though.
But thank you very much, Phil. I’ll keep what you’ve said in mind. I’ve learned quite a lot over the last year, and I think I can pull off something halfway decent.
Ohh, more replys!
THanks everybody!
I hope thigs are ok between us. I really didn´t have the intention of insult you, and I´m sorry if looke that way. my sincere apologies dude.
RenaissanceGirl: my critiques are no based on age or level of experience either, but I try to be more patient and instructive on beginners and more objective to advanced users.
I can´t agree more with you, but why did you have to point that ???
This is really a bad day:(
Ofcourse I will see it, since I look at the last post and clearly it is being discussed
Guig0: you do it your way and I’ll do it mine. I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong, and I’m not saying I am right.
I just give my critiques in raw form without discrimination. It might seem harsh to critique a beginner like I would an advanced but I personally appreciated such comments when I request a critique and I like to think I’m helping someone instead of just giving them a standard sugar-coated response.
Phil, Guig0 and Renn,
Thanks a lot for the advice and fell free to call me whatever you like. Z works, or just plain old Zach.
Guig, there are no hard feelings or anything, I just took you the wrong way. I apologize
as well. I have decided that as soon as I get home from work, I’m shutting the site down and
getting started. I got really anxious sitting here (at work) thinking of ideas.
And Renn…your site is AMAZING! Jeez, that’s better than watching TV. I’m going to cancel
my Direct TV subscription and just play with your site all day…well…maybe not…but it is
very cool and VERY creative. I can’t even fathom how you did it.
Again, thanks for the help and I’m sure you’ll hear from me again as I will probably need help getting this
project done.
:P:P:P
I like to post before I read others stuff sometimes this is one of them.
Yes the site is pretty bad but. You do have soem good points. I assume that you are new to web design. You kept the navigation consistant which alot of experienced folks dont do.You attemptd to keep a theme which is good also. Now off to the other parts. Please never use red for text it is very hard to read. I am sure some one else pointed that out. Also I am not sure the nature of your music but maybe add some color to the site. Some dark and lightgreys will spice things up. Maybe use some back ground imagery. Also include pics of your band and some shows. When I think music I think energy. Your site makes me think nightmare on elm street. I think your message would be better conveyed thru imagery than words. Also labe your buttons. It becomes a guessing game at times remebering the position of a button. I look forward to you implementing some changes that will be given on this board.
Another good thing you did was come here for help. Peeps here are good peeps although you may not halways hear what you want you can believe it will be honest. And constructive.
Let me stick my foot in my mouth one more time
[SIZE=1]I think I´m getting used to it :P[/SIZE]
RenaissanceGirl: I understand you. I know that you´re not fighting, you´re giving a piece of your mind. I was just doing the same, just explaining my way. Plz dont think that I was yeling at you, cause I was not.
As Phil wisely noticed I was just sticking my foot in my mouth 
Hey Phil, come on…
I´m not upset with you man, I cannot be, not even if i want to.
I was just playing along with ya.
Cheers dude!:crazy:
Z: way to go man!:A+:
can someone shoot me and put me out of my misery?
[EDIT][SIZE=1]Before I offend someone else.[/SIZE]
It’s all good Guig0 - obligatory “tongue-sticking-out” smileys all around!
:P:P:P
