Hey… I just signed up, it looks like there is a lot of great help here… Anyway, below is the link to my second flash site… just to clarify a few things… there isn’t a main-site preloader… and I need to take down the commercial music before I get sued :beam: But I just wanted to hear what you guys thought of it. Right now I’m working on a completely new one… and this one is going to be taken down… but I haven’t really gotton professional opinions on it. Keep in mind… not a lot of it is optimized, and there isn’t a main site preloader… it was kind of rushed… and it might be a little buggy…
You definitely should put up a preloader, I know the site was rushed and all. But a preloader is simple to apply.
2)The Fullscreen chromeless window in unnecessary. I really don’t mind at all, but most people (from what i’ve heard) don’t seem to like it for some reason. (If you wanna do full screen, make it the regular browser window, instead of the chromeless)
3)You have your movie set too 100%x100% which is no good. Especially since i’m on a 22" monitor , everything looks too big and pixellated.
4)You definitely need to add some more color and some graphics.
Truthfully, I don’t really like the site…IMHO The site just seems rough and not complete. (don’t take this statement to the heart, because i’m not trying to offend you)
And since you said you’re working on a completely new one, it’ll be better to post that one up once it’s partially complete.
I’m sure fellow kirupa members will try their best to give you valuable suggestions to improve your site.
Also, there’s something I noticed recently.
Most “designers” (especially the new ones) seem to start a project, but never “really” finishing it. I see you just released v2 on the 5th… but you’re already working on v3… Yet, v2 doesn’t look complete at all… My advice is, whatever project you take on -
try to finish it all the way instead of ditching it and starting a new one. Try to modify it as much as you can , w/help from people from places like kirupaforum. Also, before you start your v3, plot everything(draw on paper, photoshop etc…) out first before you open your Flash program.
Finally… Take your T I M E. Don’t rush.
Those fundamentals alone, should make you into a better designer…
Yeah I know what you mean… I need to finish things. And I went about doing this one all the wrong way… I just jumped into it and kept going from there… But with V3 I started with a sketchpad and all of that… so I’m getting better abou that sort of stuff. Thanks for the comments though.
Other then the popupp window I kind of liked this. It was clean and simple and didn’t have a ton of trendy junk animation on it. I would leave your menus out and fixed so the user doesn’t have to find them. I liked the news calander. It is basic but I liked this site purely for its clean look.
I don’t like to critisise so I have some stats. I am taking an ecommerce class and I happen to have some statistical results on internet users and what drives them away from a site.
Unrequested popout or popunder windows.
Full screen windows.
Poorly structured navigation. (buttons that are hard to tell are buttons and/or confusing or complicated cascading menus).
Misleading Links.(Not 404)
No search functions.
We are taught that the best sites are the one’s were the visitor has complete control of what he sees and where he goes and how he sees it and does not want to be removed from his back or refresh button no matter what browser he is using.
Multiple windows is a big no-no. and NEVER take away thier control of the screen in front of them with an unfamiliar full screen window (VERY VERY BAD IDEA). The first thing they do is try to figure out how to get control back of thier computer. And when they figure it out you completely lost thier attention and focus. They will first try to figure out how to regain control by closing the window you so rudely interupted their control with.
Technically you have a very well written site and a great grasp of all the programming languages used on the web but I would trash the entire site and rebuild from ground one with your first priority on the reason you are building it: the customer.
But once again I disagree… I think the site is really good. I also think that have given you some good points. I know people do hate when their normal screen goes away, so I would look into changing that. The other thing, when you open a new section have the other one close. I am in the minority and I like when the page is full so take that for what it is worth. I think you have a VERY good start and a few more modifications you will have a very clean, functional site. I also agree that you should completley finish site before moving onto the next site, but I also know what you mean when you start creating flash you come up with so many other good ideas that you want to start over and do it again.
