I've updated my site a lot since the last time.....can I have some more ideas on what needs work etc?.
http://greenmedia.ath.cx/
http://greenmedia.ath.cx/
greenmedia updated?
- Thread starter benp
- Start date
TommyWillB
Registered
- Me personally... I hate splash screens
- Me personally... I don't like the pop-up window (does that even work with pop-up blockers?)
- I have a screen resolution of 1280x1024... you have a pop-up window that is tiny (560x360)... What a waste of my nice big monitor (and even a waste of a 640x480 circa 1990 VGA monitor)... and being so small it forced you to make a scrolling window when it was completely unnecesssary
- Your page does not even fit in the tiny window you created... It has a horizontal scroll bar
- I think I personally dislike those floating iFrames even more than normal frames... (Yours are not iFrames, but something very similar you did in Flash.)
- The Flash navigation bar moves too much... I got me confused when it moved around
- Why is the back button so far from the rest of the navigation...
- As I "drilled down" within the site I got confused as to where I was... That might be because of the busy Flash navigation or because you have your entire site in a pop-up windows with no Address bar
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Overall it is pretty, but barely "usable". Unfortunately people will never read the content of your site if the interface interferes.
I hate to be mean, but this site doen't work for me...
I still don't understand why eveyone likes flash so much!
Here are my opinions (BTW: thanks for asking for input on your site, more of us should do the same).
1. You need to ask yourself (and you might have already), what is my target audience. If you are trying to appeal to a select few nerds or an audience that requires all the eyecandy, then go with flash (minus the splash screen, unless you will have useful content there).
If you are trying to appeal to the masses, drop flash or at a minimum make an html version and give the user the choice. BTW: I always choose HTML because most of the flash sites that I have visited are designed by artists who have no idea about navigation or content.
2. get rid of that pop-up stuff. Have everything load in the main window.
Repeat this phrase to yourself at least 10 times per day: "Popups are evil"
3. navigation is not consistant. You need a main nar area and then another area for the innerpages nav. Current nav is confusing for me and will be even more confusing for the average web usre
4. It took me along time to find the back button. Needs to be better placed. also, I clicked on services and wanted to get back to the main page. Naturally, I clicked on the big green blob in the upper left, but nothing happened. I expected to be taken back to the main page.
5. taking away the browser nav bar is not a nice thing to do. The average web user greatly depends on it and in "studies", read nonscientific, that I have been a part of, users do not go back to sites that take away their browser nav buttons. Really, they either get confused or angry.
My advice: Unless you are going for the artsy look (along with the stereotypes that go along with it) I would drop flash as the major vehicle for your site.
I would make the site in XHTML.
Also, if you need to make you site accessable to disabled users, then flash is the wrong way to go, it is almost completely inaccessable to screen readers.
START FLASH RANT
Flash is so overused for eyecandy that many people (including myself) have started to really hate it. If you have some info that requires flash (drawings, building schematics, cartoony type tours (virtual tours are the realm of quicktime), intensely visual activities) use it, if the information can be presented in a more user friendly format (without loss of value) then its better to go with the easier approach.
END FLASH RANT
I was not trying to shoot you down or anything. But, you did ask for our opinions.
DMG
Here are my opinions (BTW: thanks for asking for input on your site, more of us should do the same).
1. You need to ask yourself (and you might have already), what is my target audience. If you are trying to appeal to a select few nerds or an audience that requires all the eyecandy, then go with flash (minus the splash screen, unless you will have useful content there).
If you are trying to appeal to the masses, drop flash or at a minimum make an html version and give the user the choice. BTW: I always choose HTML because most of the flash sites that I have visited are designed by artists who have no idea about navigation or content.
2. get rid of that pop-up stuff. Have everything load in the main window.
Repeat this phrase to yourself at least 10 times per day: "Popups are evil"
3. navigation is not consistant. You need a main nar area and then another area for the innerpages nav. Current nav is confusing for me and will be even more confusing for the average web usre
4. It took me along time to find the back button. Needs to be better placed. also, I clicked on services and wanted to get back to the main page. Naturally, I clicked on the big green blob in the upper left, but nothing happened. I expected to be taken back to the main page.
5. taking away the browser nav bar is not a nice thing to do. The average web user greatly depends on it and in "studies", read nonscientific, that I have been a part of, users do not go back to sites that take away their browser nav buttons. Really, they either get confused or angry.
My advice: Unless you are going for the artsy look (along with the stereotypes that go along with it) I would drop flash as the major vehicle for your site.
I would make the site in XHTML.
Also, if you need to make you site accessable to disabled users, then flash is the wrong way to go, it is almost completely inaccessable to screen readers.
START FLASH RANT
Flash is so overused for eyecandy that many people (including myself) have started to really hate it. If you have some info that requires flash (drawings, building schematics, cartoony type tours (virtual tours are the realm of quicktime), intensely visual activities) use it, if the information can be presented in a more user friendly format (without loss of value) then its better to go with the easier approach.
END FLASH RANT
I was not trying to shoot you down or anything. But, you did ask for our opinions.
DMG