I just created this site for my buddy keith within the past 3 days. Yes, 3 days. Minus sleeping hours, of course.
Anyhoo… I would LOVE for you to critique it. Tear it apart. Make me cry. Tell me I’m the worst designer ever- or tell me you really like it… just be brutally honest. PLEASE? haha.
so the site is http://forthetaking.com/slowdance/
I used my own photos and video clips. I think it’s the best site I’ve made so far… even though I’ve only made like 3 sites. haha.
THANKS in advance!
EDIT
I know there isn’t much content on the site yet, but I am letting the “client” do that on their own… and they are in the process of doing so. 
so sorry about content. Don’t critique that… i’m looking for design critique.
things like… functionality, usabilty, loading time, colors (good or bad?) and stuff like that. does the layout work… you know.
Over 700 kb for navigation is too much. Slow dance hmmmm what kinda slow dance is it? The site is kinda creepy. The scroll button…when u click it, it open a new page.
the 700kb thing made me hit the big x in the upper right corner of my browser
oooooooh thanks for the input. I KNEW i had to change the scroll problem- i just forgot! haha thanks for reminding me!
and the menu is now 595kb. I don’t know how to make it any smaller. I shall try though.
ok now it’s 500kb.
if i lower the quality any more it’s going to be cruddy looking.
Is it really necessary to add those video for the navigation?, My whole site isn’t even 600 kb(not included the music loop), so a 500 kb navigation still not going to make it unless the video is a must have for the navigation.
It’s going to be about 300kb soon.
do you suggest I make two different sites? one for high bandwidth, and one for low? or what about streaming instead of loading?
is 381kb too big?
Well it’s 400 kb now, better then 700 kb. I don’t really have a problem loading, it loads in less then a second in here. You might wanna ask the slower connection users on how long is the loading.
Well goodluck man.
yeah that’s kinda what i’m going for…
input from slow connection users. 
i think i scared them away though.
it loaded pretty fast for me (Im using a 128 kbs connection), In fact I was impressed that loaded so fast and the buttons included videos, I like the general layout but I dont like the font of the buttons and of the content…the site just need to be polished a little bit
I love it, the tv thing is a sweet idea!
The tech content box doesn’t look quite right. It doesn’t match the rest of the site with all the grungy look.
I’ve got it set up so that my client can update the pages himself, but he’s using MS word to do it… so I kept the font simple.
I thought that the css would override any MS word formatting of the text, but it didn’t! arggggggg.
its’ the only way I know of that my client can update the site by himself without teaching him HTML.
Overall I like it, however it needs to be polished I think. The first thing that drew my eye was the crisp lines around the box where your text goes I think it’d look better if you grunged it up or something. The second thing i didn’t like was the bold text in the body. It’s up there on my pet peeves list when people use <b > like it’s going out of style. The third thing i dion’t like is that there are too many fonts that don’t match.
Other than that I think you’re on your way to a solid site. I really like the border and the picture you used.
okay… does this layout look better???
a link to the layout image- before I actually make the changes -> http://forthetaking.com/slowdance/layout2.jpg
check that image out and tell me if that would work as a better content box or not.
Heck Yea! Looks way way better. Nice work!
Now I know you’ve put a lot of work into the video and it is a cool effect but the site would be so much better without it. Faster loading and you could extend the main content box or add some more cool artwork into that area.
My point is that I really hate how every freakin’ flash site nowadays has all the content hidden and I’m sick and tired of scrolling. C’mon mrE. Let go of the nav. We can even create a memorial thread for it if you want.
Sincerely,
William H. Marr
awwwwww man!!! are you serious?!?! dangit.
well… does anybody else agree with canadian guy? lol because I really really like the flash menu. i spent a lot of time on it, yes… and i love it.
wait… canadian guy… is it just because it takes too long to load? because if that’s the case… i could like… delete half of the videos and only keep a couple. that would still be good, right?!
mrE I’m sorry bud. No it’s not just about loading time. I just don’t think it’s worth breaking up an otherwise very cool design. I love the look of the new one. love it! but I don’t think the navigation is as cool as the rest of the layout (don’t get me wrong it’s cool just not the right type of cool). It’s too in-your-face and cartoon-like.
lol. I’m really laughing at myself. mrE for the love of god! I’m only pushing this subject so much because after seeing the second layout I really do feel that you could have a killer design without that nav.
:: Copyright KIRUPA 2024 //--
