A Site For My Sister

[FTBWEBDESIGN]

Well actually this is version 2.. I kinda got in a lil deep cause i chaged it completely.. so i am still workin on it... but i need to know about the load up, font, sound, transition, user interaction, graphics and so on... the pics are not the best but hey i used what she sent me.. what can i do ... anyway BE NICE

i love yall

yo main man lenny

[FTBWEBDESIGN]

i know i know.... here is the site my sisters site

[theDude78]

it only shows up in the top 1/3 of the browswer window... maybe not Mozilla friendly?

Its impossible to navigate like that.

[SjEjAjRjCjHjEjR]

I don't like that you don't have a main preloader,I prefer that instead of waiting it to load peace by peace,I don't like that pink style you have,I know that you can think of something better if you think for a while,and that windows in the site is just making it all mixed up,it's better to make some navigation buttons and the signs of the different members of the family are vertical I think that if they're horizontal it will be better.

[FTBWEBDESIGN]

dunno if i agree with all the points.. sounds like you kinda nick picking the site... i ahte to go to a flash site and see the "standard design" come on lets work to do different stuff.... if we all make flash sites that look the same .. that load the same... it will get all quite boring... and loading up piece by piece gives the visitor with 56k something to look at.. it makes it kinda familiar to see... it also lets them know something is going on... that way they are not just sitting there looking at the same old bar moving slowly across the screen..... and i tell you its painful to see that when you have 56k... so i make it so that if you look away from the site you might just miss somthing.. so you keep looking so as to not miss something.... here is another site where i did the samething the link these things i do at the request of the people i make the site for... they know flash and they know what they want to see happen when they go to the site thus they know my style and they know how to dictate to me how they want it to go.... and from them i learn a lot about what folks like and what they don't like... as far as other flashers.. they often hate the style... but hey show me two flashers with the same style and i will show you a copycat... anyway all in all thanks for the feed back...

i love yall

yo main man lenny

[SjEjAjRjCjHjEjR]

I had no intention to "pick on" your site ,I'm just telling you what I think,I like that you have your own style but it's not bad to think of something new(in the same style) there is no use to make a second site almost the same as the previous,and about the loading,I guess this way is better for the most of the people but I just like to see how much loaded the site,if you can make a main progress bar along with the same loading(seems impossible but who knows) I think it will be better.But that's my opinion I could be wrong.

[polkapower]

I'm not nick-picking but.. your movie is scaling on gekko-based browsers... honestly it is

[FTBWEBDESIGN]

explain what you mean by gekko ?

[polkapower]

Originally posted by FTBWEBDESIGN
explain what you mean by gekko ?

mozzilla/safari since I'm on linux/mac

[FTBWEBDESIGN]

how can i fix the problem... is there some code i can put in the html?

[N_R_D]

the big nate site scales on all browsers..makes the pictures look bad.....either use it as a pop up or open it up normally in the browser. not 100% height and width

[ZeroInspiration]

Well the % value your using wont display right in mozilla that and setting 100% to a movie that has bitmap images in it distorts the images. Im on a 17 inch monitor and it looks like this
mind you thats on IE on firefox its a whole different story
Now as far as the comments made before usablity is your first concern always because if its not no one will want to stay and your work wont be seen. The font you used is best viewed at smaller sizes because it tends to just look heavily pixilated at larger sizes. The interface in its self looks cluttered and thats a turn off to alot of people right away becuase its hard to navigate. We have all argued the Im an artist with my own style point before but sooner or later we realized that our vision insnt always usable in fact most of mine arent. Honestly some people here might give you **** but over all any pointers people here give you are just that things to make you better. Take it as it comes and learn from it there is alot of good advice here and listening to it without getting mad will help you out alot in the long run.

[FTBWEBDESIGN]

Yo i never said i was madd never.... because i know that there are a million and one ways to make a flash site and not all people will like it.. but it will always be more who like it then who don't like it... ... and to the scale issues.. i hate when i go to a flash site and it wont scale with the window so why would i not make my sites scale??? its just the way i like to do it... i like to argue style because a designer with no style is a designer with no vision... i am still waiting on that html code for mozilla... i saw it on here a few weeks ago but i forgot what it was...

and about the big nate site... its not the scalling of the image that makes it look bad.. its the image that i am using... i told him that the pic was not the best res for what we wanted to do but he wanted it anyway... so what can i do tell him no... We had a few other pics taken with a good digital camera and at less then 100kb they were still flawless but he liked this pic for some reason... and i hate pop ups.. and i know a lot of people who hate pop ups too.. so i can't go that way.. to scale it to me is the best way because you give the user the option to make the site the size that they want to see it at.... now by me saying all this.. does that mean i am madd??? come on guys for me flash is an art.. i do it not for the money but for the love... I am a teacher (not flash) thats what i do for money and if you were commenting on how i teach my students then maybe i would get madd how can i get madd at yall when i love yall.. we got something in common we love flash.. anyway can someone tell me about the time it took for the site to load?

i love yall

yo main man lenny

[bolt1872x2]

Originally posted by FTBWEBDESIGN
i hate when i go to a flash site and it wont scale with the window so why would i not make my sites scale???

You don't want to make your site automatically scale to 100% b/c of people like me. I've got a wide-screen laptop, so all of your fonts and images look terrible because my screen a non-standard size.

Designers create their sites at a fixed pixel size because it ensures that the work will appear the same on many different machines. I can tell by your work and your comments in this thread that you're having fun being creative, and that's great. Art is about communication, though, and when you make a piece of art, if you want it to communicate what you designed it to, it's important to be able to control the way it's displayed.

[FTBWEBDESIGN]

You want to control what they see but you don't want it to be a dictatorship.. and i see most flash sites doing that... and i hear many people talking about how they can't expand this or move that.. for them it gets frustrating...... i started allowing the scale, panels, and other sizing methods beacuse i got the complaints about people not being able to do it more then not..... and when you deal with african american clients ect. like i do.. you find them more demanding and insistant then others... i dunno maybe its the difference in taste... who knows... ok ok maybe i am talking about one extreme and you are talking about the other.. cause i mean even for me some flash sites the font is so small i can barely read it and the graphics so samll i can barely make out what they are.. mind you they are clear real clear but damm whats clear got to do with it when you can hardly read it or see it... so i see your point fo real i do... but i guess we just have to agree to dissagree on this one... so how did it load up on your side?

i love yall

yo main man lenny

[ZeroInspiration]

I would have to agree that it has become a really annoying practice in making fonts really small. This whole fade is driving me nuts I cant read what most of them say but that would be their problem not mine I think no matter what a 12 point font is standard this is what they taught us in school people. But I think bolt1872x2 makes a very good point you can call it dictating but it’s for the best if you want your viewers to see the work at its best. A point I would like to make is that you might be looking into this a little to much people of course want all the content to fill the page that is a must so as not to come out with a tacky looking layout but when it comes down to the choice of distorting the overall layout or giving them what your vision of the product it should a no brainier. This is where html and background images come in. A good analogy to use would be that you wouldn’t see a classic piece of art with a nail going through it, no they would frame it. Your argument that you deal with people in the African American community is invalid which becomes blatantly apparent when you look at any of the web sites that deal with either African American culture or African American celebrities. If you can show me one site of any notoriety that uses that technique I will drop my point all together but as it stands a tasteful layout consists of two things the elements that make up the content (the classic piece of art I referred to in my analogy) and the background (the frame in the analogy). Now you can argue that its be monotonous all you want but no one in their right mind would send out there art without a container and that’s because of two things one it preserves the artwork so it is not destroyed by human error and two because the container can be used as an accent to further increase the visual value of the piece. A better solution, which many of the successful digital artists have adopted, is to find out what is a standard monitor size and design from there. Today it’s a 17 in monitor running an 800x600 screen size that gives you some were between 10x8 and 11x9 inches. Which if you look at the current trends that is more than enough. When you want to focus on accessibility things like web standard code and a notification on a splash screen that provides a breakdown on what type of media can be expected are things you should keep in mind not sacrificing your vision. But whatever route you choose to pursue is your business not mine this is after all just a suggestion a rather long-winded one at that so Ill leave you be.

[FTBWEBDESIGN]

You can have a frame with out forcing the user to see the art work at one size.. i mean this is not something that is hanging on a wall.. so i don't think i agree with your analogy.. and saying that because most people have 17 inch screens with 800 by 600 res... i don't by it .. so just because they have that they should be forced to see the flash world at one size... see thats where the dictatorship comes in... we decide what the visitor should see in all aspects.. can't they have a say in this... and about the african american point... i really don't see your point... i was talking about the likes of african americans not the sites.. because the sites.. well the big ones and i mean almost all of em... are not made by african americans... but i guess we could argue that point all day long... i was just telling you what i hear from folks who no nothing about flash or webdesign but love surfing the net... i think that if you introduce to a people a style or a standard they will get use to it and thus that standard or that syle will become "tried and proven" so most people will go for that style or that standard.. i can deal with that.. but to say that style or standard is the only way to go because it has been "tried and proven" i don't by it.. attitudes like that will put flash in a box... difference is the whole reason flash is popular.. 3 years ago the "html pros" hated flash because it was to "different" and did not conform to web standards that were set up by "web design pros and programmers".. it was like they were saying "who do they think they are" That is why it is almost impoosible to fine a flash web site in a normal web search.. flash sites were and still are being banned all over the net... (haters) well i say that if the people were not so darn bored with the str8 html life less layout.. they would not love flash... but 3 years later "the flash pros" are conforming to their demands... and i think that will be the downfall of the flash empire.. (hahahah this sounds like a movie) anyway can you see Lenny kravitz making music like R Kelly.. well thats what so many people wanted.. they hated him for being different they told him he had to conform to the norm... meaning he was black so he had to make "r and b" music... he said i am an artist and i will make it like i wanna do it... and ummmm his albums just sell more and more... this cat is like an icon now.... so the "tried and proven" is not always the answer... but i guess we will have to agree to disagree on this point.... ummm what about the load up.. how did it load?

like the analogy? his name is lenny and my name is lenny... but the sad part is i can't sing.. well i can try.. but you know...

i love yall

yo main man lenny

[N_R_D]

if you "are gunna do it like you wanna do it", as you say then why ask us for our input. All wqe are trying to do is help make you a better designer, but you are set in your ways.

Done !

[FTBWEBDESIGN]

Just because i don't agree with a point or because i think there is a better way to do something, then what was posted, am i suppose to just agree and say nothing... no thats why its called a forum because through our posts someone else my be able to learn.. and they need to know that there is more then one way to do flash... these debates, i see em all the time here and elsewhere, help many people to understand flash... so don't get fresh wit me because i like for others to see my point... we all do flash so we all AGREE TO DISAGREE.. unless of course, someone is saying something helpful then you apply what they have suggested and i have done that more then not... but when some one says something that you feel that is not the best way.. then you debate because the next person may benifit from the dialoge... see there you go with the dictatorship... "Do it this way or be done!" Just because I say "hey look at this" does not mean that I can't respond to a post... then it would not be a forum (the sharing of ideas).. i mean i could be wrong about that.. maybe this forum if for one way dialogue... but i always thought a forum was a form of two-way communication... a good debate is always stimulating to the mind unless you are mindless and unstimulated by the exchange of ideas... me i love to debate.. well unless i am dead wrong.. and in this cause i have not found that the evidence put forth in the above posts prove that i am dead wrong... so why not debate the point so that others can see that there are infact other ways you can do flash... it is my hope that flash will never have a "standard" so that we can all be free to be artists... so when you comment on someones work be ready to debate your comment... if you love flash and i love flash can you think of a better way to spend your time then debating flash.. thats how you learn ..through exchange.. so i think you are right when you said "set in your ways" because i will always want to debate my point... but its all good because i love to talk about flash and read about flash and so on.. i do it all day... so for me these debates are a treat... anyway so how was the load up?

i love yall

yo main man lenny

[bolt1872x2]

Lenny,

I understand what you're saying about not limiting our creativity, not as you said, "putting flash in a box". In that way, I agree with you. Scalability is a great thing...when it works! The problem with your design is that the scaling creates distortion. It's not about creating a dictatorship, it's about design integrity. You're lucky enough to be in the position where you're working for your friends and family (at least on the sites I've seen). If, on the other hand, you were working for a paying client, I'm sure they would be none too happy if the images of their product became pixelated and distorted due to scaling issues.

In response to ZeroInspiration's post, I think 12-point font is fine when it comes to resumes and term papers, any kind of non-commercial print work. 12-point characters, however, I think, are oversized and clumsy when used as body text on a computer screen. I'd say 10 is the absolute maximum I prefer.

As far as the discussion regarding the likes and dislikes of African Americans, well, that's pretty silly. I work with plenty of black designers and artists and their tastes and styles vary as widely as anyone else's. Perhaps the people you work with have specific likes and dislikes, but I don't think you can say it's a direct result of the color of their skin.