Just uploaded our new look website - as ever with these things there are bugs and issues with a few bits and bobs, but nothing that can’t be ironed out.
This was my first full flash site, and it is primarily down to the help and resources of Kirupa.com that I have been able to complete it. There is a lot more content to be uploaded too, but we just needed to get something uploaded as soon as we could!
May I say a huge thank you to the content, tutorials and most importantly you, the users of Kirupa for all the help during the development process - here’s to the next one!
i agree with faster that you nav (and really the whole site) could use a little more flavor. you’ve done a good job, i like the layout (though, it feels a little low, like the whole thing could go up 15-25 pixels)
when i click on Portfolio nothing loads initially. the section changes but then there are just these boxes. it was annoying not knowing what to do next; wait for some images that might be loading (cause i saw the place holder boxes) or click on a project and load it myself… it’d be much more intuitive if it loaded the first project (or most recent project) or something to let the user know what’s going on and get them engaged then leave them wondering what’s next.
Thank you for all of the crits/suggestions so far - as I say its the first full Flash website I have built, and pretty much the first website I have ever built from scratch!
I have to agree with everything said so far, and will definetly take it on board.
Faster: How could we define flavour? razzmatazz?
Anoger: I appreciate the comment - to be honest I only ‘know’ Flash so far! I definetly know what you mean, though!
Haam: I appreciate the positive comments regarding the design. Also, your suggestions regarding the portfolio are fantastic, will definetly look at implementing that! I’d love to hear your definition of flavour too, if you dont mind?
Too much white space above site, also blurring the logo when rolling over adds no relevant value to the user’s experience. Would like to see the navigation above with logo. Site really seems blah, seems like you guys do really nice work, but that seems to have not followed over to the web site.
I agree with nav being brought above the site container, maybe right align it so that its on the same level as the logo
as for flavour, it needs some… pizzazz (lol, yay for substituting one word for another)
think about adding dividing lines inbetween each nav item, and maybe a better rollover effect…
I Agree about showing the most recent portfolio item by default, if you do this, you would have to design some kind of indication of which portfolio sub-group it came from…
If you were to put the nav above the site, you would need to put the section titles somewhere else (which is probably a good thing, because having the font’s baseline touch the top of your site container is kind of borked … nowhere else in the site you do that, so it seems out of place, plus it makes “portfolio” look a lot like “oortfolio”)
@LMP - haha, i dont know how to define “flavor” per se, but it does seem to me that the sections are falling a little flat. for instance, on the homepage, flat images. perhaps you could give the slideshow a nice frame or a drop shadow to create some feeling of “layers” - nothing big, the whole project could just use a few elements to make items and sections stand out. another example: in the about section, the text is just so static and sits there. what about a photo of the owners of the company or a few thumbs of some work they’ve done or some blue prints. that block of copy has no flow (just a box of text). if you played with the typographical layout or added an image for the text to wrap around it’d give it flow and make it more interesting to look at, thus drawing the user into reading the info rather than just being scarred off by how much text there is.
nav suggestions - again, very flat… what if when you rolled over the button an actual background appears making it feel nice and clickable or maybe they appear more as tabs.
logo roll over - it’s strange to me that the text in the logo blurs on rollover but the icon doesn’t. just weird. make them both blur… and THEN once they are blurred, sharpen it back out again so the entire animation goes SHARP - rollover - BLUR - SHARP instead of SHARP - rollover - BLUR - rollout - SHARP - no one wants to see their logo completely blurred out, even on rollover. extending the animation to sharpen up immediately after it blurs will solve this.
headers/section titles - it’s a cool idea that your baselines are touching the top of the blue bar but in some cases there is a full pixel between the type and the bar. make the titles a little bigger, maybe even a little thicker in font weight, then bring them down so they are MORE than touching the bar, maybe two or three pixels overlapped, i think that might look nice.
check out some other sites. you’re not far off, but pay attention where the killer sites are including tiny details to make the designs and flow of the sites better. you’re off to a good start, now FINISH HIM!!!
I think you could (as Anogar said) take better advantage of the visual effects that flash can offer. Otherwise it would be well suited as xHTML/CSS/JS.
However, in the long run, you did a great job with the design of the website…it’s simple, clean and easy to navigate. Furthermore, given your target market and the average consumer’s lack of concern for top-shelf visual effectiveness, I think your site design will serve your company’s goal well, which I’m guessing is to drive more interest in your service.
Given the above statements regarding visual effectiveness, design, and usability, I’d give you an A-. (If I were grading this as part of a course, that is :P)
My one suggestion would be to look into simple transition effects on the pages and in the gallery to increase interest in the design.
Keep at it!
For the record: It took me maybe 2 seconds after the site loaded to find the navigation (which was fine as I was treated to the imagery on the homepage while my eyes surfed the page).
