80% Flash Site: comments appreciated

[Totnak Boy]

i'm doing a site for a certain company, and i wanna show it to the pex resident critics first before leaving it out in the open.

here's the link: http://totnakboy.sphosting.com

Some pointers:

1) It's got no preloader yet (one part because it's still unfinished, and another because i'm a li'l *ahem* busy *wink*) so it would be a li'l better if you'd wait for the whole movie to load... but then again, you wouldn't know if it's fully loaded anyway... ah well...

The file size is 73 kb, btw, so it shouldn't take too long.

2) Don't mind the text inside. I was lis'nin to my ol' set of mp3s, so sue me.

3) Once you're inside, you'd notice that the history portion takes a whole crapload of time to load (the company history goes a really long way it seems) so in the future i'd be chopping the huge text into portions: hence the (for now) empty links to the left of the screen.

4) The top of the screen is reserved for the headings (e.g. News, History, etc.) but my brain cells haven't mustered yet the capacity to think of neat-o animations.

5) No intro yet... nor sounds, nor music... notta. Suggestions on these parts are extremely welcome.

6) If you're gonna argue a scrollbar vs. scroll buttons argument, heh you definitely hit the spot. I'm lazy, and I know it's not an excuse... so I'm trying to work on one right now...

...

AH! yes, it's not too much a pressing matter in this situation, as I am trying to trim down each link into at most 1 1/2 screenfuls, as much as possible. heh, sly eh? ^_^

6) Oh, and i'm still a newbie, so you might wanna ease up those criticism thresholds a li'l bit, awwight? ^_^"

Thanks.

[akuse]

I just went to see your site...

here's what i think...
i'm not sure what kind of company the website is for but you must first think about the usage of 100% (80%?) flash website. It has to come down to the effectiveness of your design, not the technology behind your design.

If it's a corporate website, I'd recommend a hybrid (flash + html) site. It will take some loading time off and will make the text clearer. Use little flash animations on headers, etc to add spice to the website.... basta, a corporate site must deliver its information fast, and it has to be straight to the point... in business, time is money....

If your making a site for pure entertainment, then go ahead with all flash. make it a fancy as you want since your audiences dont care much about time...

to sum it all up....it's an issue in the proper usage of design technologies...



:)

[Totnak Boy]

actually it's a site for an NGO (if you've looked a li'l closer in one of the links then you would've known the name of the company ;)) but anyway, we're doing both html and flash versions of the site, so people who'd want info fast can access a simpler page that's even faster to load than a "hybrid" page :)

the html page is not yet up, so maybe i could provide a link once it's also finished. actually we're thinking of fusing the two versions maybe in the future, but so far, we do not see the logic of squeezing flash thingies to spice up an html site when the purpose of building an html site is to make info available faster. We could always use photoshop to spice up things anyway, and that's a more logical option. Still we're looking into the idea :) thanks for the comments.

[seav]

Hmmm...at least you'll be providing an HTML version. But I doubt people would want to see the Flash version if there's an HTML version. People usually go to the web to get information. And unfortunately, Flash as a medium of sending information gets abused a lot.

About your design. The page transitions are a little too...hmmm... irritating? I don't get the point of the blinking.

The layout itself is kinda simplistic. Where's the branding? How do you distinguish it as an NGO. Right now it screams: "Personal Home Page!!!" You've got to make it more professional-looking.

Also what purpose do the blinking honeycombs serve? If it's to show people that you know something in Flash, I doubt people visiting the website of PAMET would care. PAMET as an institution doesn't need extraneous visual effects.

I would definitely suggest that an (X)HTML site would serve the purpose of a PAMET website better. If you're wondering that it would look like all the other corporate websites out there, that's the job of the web designer.

A web designer's job isn't all about graphic design and visual aesthetics. It's also about communicating effectively and providing information usably.

Sorry for the criticisms. I don't even know if it's constructive enough. :)

[Totnak Boy]

don't worry, they are :) at least it's giving me more angles to look at, and from a presumably more experienced perspective at that.

actually, the purpose of all the effects (blinking honeycombs included) is to project a somewhat more "futuristic" PAMET (as per their drive written in some of their text), plus the blinking transition should have been somewhat like a picture tube blinking/fading out, and then another screen fading in (btw, that huge square in the center is supposed to be a "futuristic" screen). If these weren't communicated effectively, then I guess I would have to think of more effective ways to project the message, perhaps taking out the blinking effect and replacing it with a simple fade-out. And I was actually thinking of using alphahelix strands for the effects, but I may have to rethink that...

Regarding the simplicity, I would like it to keep it that way: simple. I haven't done any touches yet to project the website's for pamet (I haven't even used the pamet logo in the site!) hence the lack of branding. Plus we'll be adding a background to the page, so don't worry.

Maybe we'll post the flash site again soon, once we update it. Thx again for the comments :)

[protein]

there's something about the color combination that irritates me.

[sadirmata]

Originally posted by protein
there's something about the color combination that irritates me.

ako rin, sorry. parang hindi bagay yung green, violet, dark red at iba pang colors sa background na bluish o faded blue. parang walang unity o harmony kumbaga. kung consistent sanang blue halimbawa ang color scheming mo?

pansariling taste ko lang naman yan, btw.

[Totnak Boy]

alam nyo, believe it or not, I agree with you 100%. The first time I did the scheme, I made it all blue (at least with different tones), and there was color harmony. Then I showed it to my client, and they told me "baka pwede sanang mas makulay". I'm the type who don't usually use too much color in webpages, so doing these color combinations was a bit "pilit" (it was a bit irritating to an extent, in fact).

Sa bagay, personal tastes lang naman yan. Yun ang taste nila. So maybe I'm gonna experiment with the colors a li'l bit para gawin kong makulay and at the same time harmonized. :)

[sandstig]

I don't see the point of a completely flash-based site if it's for an association of professionals. Accessibility becomes a problem for one thing since the text can't be read by software for the blind.

The blocky menus, colour combination and the, pardon the word, cheesy animations remind me too much of the web back in 1997 to bring forward that "futuristic" look you're trying to attain. My advice would be for you to surf around and get some ideas from other similar organizations and some design firms to get more of a feel of how to make a site more in tune with your client's needs.

[protein]

k@ntot boy, wag mo lang gagayahin ang ginawa ng www.icshere.com. kung hindi, tototnakin kita ng insulto.

[Totnak Boy]

sandstig: that's exactly why we're putting up an html version of the site. in any case, i'd still be working on the flash site. the company wanted one, so we're giving it to them.

btw, in case you're all wondering, the html site is completely different from the flash one, and it loads pretty quickly. It's a bit similar to Anita Roddick's site (www.anitaroddick.com) but it's an old site so we've done major improvements of our own.

protein: hoy, kaya ko nga binaligtad ang pangalan ko para di na obscene e, binaligtad mo naman uli ^_^"

[seav]

Totnak Boy, Hmmm... at least you know that somehow the design is bad. Too bad your client doesn't see that what they want isn't necessarily what is best. Hey, do you frequent A List Apart (http://www.alistapart.com)? They've got interesting articles there on web design and some more (heck... they even got an article on clients that should know better). :)

Good luck on your site! :)

[Totnak Boy]

thanx for the link, but I'm not sure if I can visit it in the near future, i'm a bit more into reading database/server tutorials right now (access, unix, etc.), and I'm actually planning on focusing on them in the future so I could do without the headaches of proper design... well, you can always put some aesthetics in Access databases, but that's another story :) call me a bad web developer, but right now I'm thinking of just giving what the client wants, not necessarily what is best, so I could focus on other perhaps more lucrative opportunities. thanks anyway dude :)