mr. manning makes some good points about what is needed for “effective homepages”, but i really like the macromedia site. it’s crisp, stylish, with smooths animations, easy navigation etc. let’s face it: less than half the page is taken up by Flash animations at any time… not as much as he likes to think
admittedly, they’ve shot themselve in the foot with the whole compatibility thing… obviously needs sorting cough
The macromedia site is very hard on my work computer. Pentium two with IE5.5.
Yeah I have been saying for a while that I dont like that site…I only skimmed through the article but what I read was true. I find their site looks ok but considering who they are it isn’t all that impressive. I guess it really should all about content for them and not fancy flash work and stuff right??
However my biggest complaint is how crappy that site runs on my computer…
I dont know about you guys, but the flash interface on the exchange sites blow.
They are almost impossible to navigate without being able to use your back button.
Maybe k-man should email thier design staff on how to make a clean functional website
I’m with Fester - the Exchange sites are good to visit anymore - too much of a pain in the arse.
I really do like the look and layout of the site - but it’s not practicle for a company of thier size and stature. It’s almost the Bigger the company, the Simpler the site.
I visit them ‘A-lot’ and I get re~lost nearly everytime … :bad:
like a two ton sports car … may look nice but handles like sh*te,
…meThinks they’re getting a little too high on their own product :!:
I can’t stand the new macromedia site. The site takes a long time to load, and most of the stuff on their seem like a “lets do this just because we can” deal.
**From the article:
A study by User Interface Engineering showed that sites displaying menu choices instead of burying them in pop-ups did a better job of getting people to the content they wanted. **
“A study by me showed that people prefer to wave hello to someone instead of being punched in the face non-stop.”
:chinaman:
Please, of course people prefer sites that have menu choices instead of pop-up ads! Pop-up ads are the bane of the internet, and no one likes them - not even the people who use them on their own websites! But I’m not seeing Macromedia doing this, and it’s really misleading to put this information at the bottom of the article, because it implies that what Macromedia has done.
A large image which leads users to specific information isn’t something that’s going to disuade people from using the site. There may be other compatibility problems, but when you’re a company that sells graphics software, it just makes sense that your site has to be attractive. A New York Times or Yahoo style site just isn’t going to cut the mustard with the intended target audience.
Should be noted, however, that I prefer Adobe’s site to Macromedia’s anyway - I think their information architecture is superior, and easier to navigate. It’s also remained essentially the same for years now, while the design has been tweaked.
:pope:
I actually like Macromedia’s site and it doesn’t lag up at all for me. I am speaking from a design point of view though; I agree with the content being difficult to handle. The strange thing is, Hillman Curtis is probably responsible for both the adobe.com and macromedia.com design. He is the Creative Director for Macromedia and his site has Adobe.com listed in its portfolio.
Why the sites, even though created by the same individual, would be so different is beyond me. Then again, I have a bias against full-flash web sites. I find them clunky, difficult to navigate, and most of what Jakob Nielsen says is largely true when applied to a majority of Web sites…even Macromedia.
Adobe’s site is excellent - a combination of Livemotion (ugh) and Go Live!(double ugh) =)
Cheers!
Kirupa :cyclops:
*Originally posted by bleutuna *
“A study by me showed that people prefer to wave hello to someone instead of being punched in the face non-stop.”
roflmao!!
Thanks man, I needed that! 
IMO, bad designers makes bad flash. nuff said
I actually preferred their old site… I like the colour scheme of this one better, but it’s more aof a pain to navigate and get around…
