Critique My Site - SMOOTH-MEDIA

This site launched on June 1st of this year, after a long time in development. I’d very much appreciate your comments, suggestions on any part of this site. Be sure to play around with the “Smooth Assistant” it features an AI bot.

http://www.smooth-media.ca

Thanks,

Jeff

Well… it not bad but not to great also. When I first get to the site, I see a spinning logo. Most people see a spinning logo like this as amateurish. When looking for the enter button I immediately click on the spinning logo, it doesn’t do anything. Then I find a small enter button that looks just like the download flash button. It gets kind of confusing. The splash page definitely needs work.
Once I figure out how to enter the site goes ok, but launches in a popup window (I hate popups!). The site looks ok now that I’m past the splash page. I like the squares, they give it movement. Why is the first square that goes by turn red? Everything seems to work ok, but slows down in different places. When hovering over a button, the site moves to a crawl. Fix that. Other than that, it’s pretty good!

Keep it up!
-3dnirvana

it uses tons of cpu and goes really slowly, and animation isn’t smooth, I don’t understand the text that goes partially back into the logo, but other than those things it’s very nice

I’m not trying to give you the wrong idea, but I’m starting to think the word media is overused now in names.

FreshMedia, NewMedia, 352Media, GeckoMedia, CymaxMedia…the list goes on and on. I don’t think the first name was good anyways…

For some reason your site is very choopy and slows down numerously.

Same problem as DJ - if it’s a site called smooth media i’d expect the media on it to run smooth. The main page feels a little empty, and I don’t think the spinning logo works well for it either.

when i first went to the site i thought if i clicked on the logo i could enter the site. the “enter site” button just blended right in with the “get flash” buttons (which i never look at being i have flash).

btw, you have a grammar error on your very first page. i’ll let you find it. you wouldn’t want to make your clients think thats the kind of attention to detail you give the work you do for them now would you?

Just a question - How old is Jeff Smith?

Granted I am a bit of a pervert…

…When you mouse over the text smooth media in the top right it sort of “goes into” the logo… All seems a little sexual to me.

With that being said I agree with the posts above.

Very slow, content boxes are a bit too much like 2A’s.

Why do you have a “get flash” button when your splash page is mainly flash? It makes no sence and looks very amature.

If the user doesn’t have flash they should be redirected to a getflash page, since your site is 100% flash.

yeah where have i seen those submenu buttons, maybe the 2advanced submenu buttons?

o and i was reading about how you get free webhosting, i think thats really great but u shouldn’t say “usually 40 bucks a month”, i mean most people think 10 and might get the wrong impression. good site…

thanks for the very usefull comments so far guys

Jeff Smith…still asking :).

The submenu you took a screen shot of 2Advanceds work and pasted onto your canvas and turned it blue huh :sigh:?

18

Not to be a big stick in the mud. I’m sure you put a lot of work into your site, but it really does look like you did a copy + paste and stretch to the 2a sub content areas.

I don’t know, seems like people have no more shame in copying someone elses work anymore…

:sigh:

Well spotted EthanM. I don’t know why people bother ripping stuff. I love the sense of achievment I get in completing an original piece of work. It’s well worth the time spent in creating it.

1.) Sharif spotted it. I just went and found what he was talking about. Ripping is a hard thing. I know we’ve all seen something we just thought “wow” about and didn’t know how to do it ourselves. I take inspiration from other sites all the time, but what I do is try my hardest to recreate the effect. That way I have something that in the end looks cool and also I learned something.

And not to pick on smoothmedia anymore, but if you’re going to borrow something from another site… don’t pick 2a. Every designer on the planet has been their current site and their previous site and they’re going to notice it.