Personal Web Design. Feedback please.

[misanthropy26]

Greetings to all! I'm working on a personal web site at the moment and I'd like to hear some thoughts on my design. I'm using Fireworks 8 and SWiSHmax to create it. Do the colors go well with each other? Should I use different fonts? Is it way over-the-top? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Here's the link: STAT1STICK

Thanks for your input!

[tobedesired]

Hi

your site is looking pretty, the chrome effect works well, i would try to mkae the text on the home page a little bit more readable as i struggled at some points, i think this is because the chrome text and the reflection you have on the red background. otherwise it looks very profesional you have obv been playing around with fireworks and the other software quite a bit

[Natsia]

Wow. Thats er, very shiney.
Too shiney. You dont see that you have a rollover effect on your buttons, you cant read the text in your main body.
At least "matt" that section down so that the text is ledgible.
Im not going to critisize your buttons because while they are kinky cool, they are big and distracting. I didnt even look at the red glow effect you put there until I noticed that that button was lighter than the rest.
I dont really know why, but I really dont like the black in the background at all... It makes the whole site seem heavy.
However, on the artwork itself its impressive, looks almost like you did a enviromental wrap to get that chrome effect. Did you make these in Max?
Nice Effects, site needs some rethinking.

[Black_phoenix]

Hi, I'm not a massive fan of it (sorry)

You have sound and no way of stopping it, do I turn off the CD i'm listening to or stop looking at your site?

The buttons look very big, the chrome is ok but could be much as Natty says a bit gawdy, keep the chrome but get a tighter design for the site.

I do like the S logo and the main Statistic text box, possibly make them a bit smaller, the main text box is over the top, also as has been mentioned the use of that font doesnt help people read with ease. Its a hard font to read, I would get rid of it.

Also I would look at getting your own web space, the ads on the right are most annoying. If you made these elements, then you have quite some skill, I would just apply that skill to a slightly better design.

All my sites start of with eg 5 sections, over time I will get a brainstorm and add new sections to the site, if your buttons are small then there's no problem, if they are massive then you cant get them on one page without scrolling, nightmare navigation.

If you do alter it please post it again so we can see how its developed

bp

[Natsia]

As always your eloquence, structure and imput makes for an unrivalled, true and helpful crit Bp.

[misanthropy26]

For some reason... I get most of my ideas right before I go to bed. I had an idea to change the entire text box. I made it so that it branches off into a few screens which hold various info. The first change you'll notice is the loading bar. I modified it so that it matches the rest of the site. No more red rectangle! I also changed the hard to read font to simple verdana. I got rid of the "home" button. This allowed the site to be shorter in the browser and take away from the scrolling aspect. I removed the bg sounds and only kept the mouseover ones. I also added a on/off control for the sounds as well. I changed the STAT1STICK title banner to match the rest of the site a bit more. I made the secondary navigation bar smaller and changed the "LED" bar so that they had more of a bevel. I'm not sure if I want to change the buttons quite yet. I haven't really come up with an alternate design. Do you have any ideas?

Natsia - You said that the black bg made the site look heavy... What do you think would be better? I'm not a professional web designer. I'm not really sure how to make a bg in flash and have it sync up with the html bg. All the times I've tried, they always look sloppy. I guess that's why I stick to single colors.

Black_phoenix - I didn't make the text box smaller... I just made it less clunky. I don't like the idea of having a lot of blank space on the site so I try to fill it up with whatever I can. If I did make it smaller... What would you suggest I use to fill up the empty space? I have also acquired a new web host. It's still a free host but there are no ads. I'm quite happy with it. However, I will not upload to it yet. I'm going to wait until I get a good portion of the site done.

Thank you guys for your input and feedback. Please keep it coming. It helps a lot.

(you can still use the same link)

P.S. - I use Fireworks 8 & Alien Skin Impact to create all of the chrome and glass effects. I would definitely recommend those to anyone! I only use SWiSHmax to make the mouseover effects, use sounds, and to generate the flash file.

[Natsia]

I would try softer more washed out tones from the stronger colours you've used for your design, think of the spectrum: you have chrome which is 4 different variants of grey, black and white
then you have the reflective red which has four different variants of red, cherry, pink and white.
look at using an off white background, look at the colours and use a warmer softer fill. perhaps a VERY subtle off-white red. but I think your safer bet would be a grey. A lighter variant of what you've done your text in might work.
Having said that: The site is still gaudy. Its too much. Very well done and obviously took a lot of work but you need to rethink this one hun, its HECTIC too hectic.
I don’t want to sound horrible, so please don’t think that Im just being mean. There are probably thousands of people who would visit that site and be like "OMG this is frikking insanely awesome!" I stick to what I've said repeatedly, lovely graphics, but they dont work for a site. A game: hell yes, a site: no.

who else has Frank Zappa's Valley Girl running through their heads now? *Toooadaly aaaawesome!! Fursuuure!* I need to improve my vocabulary

[Commander Q]

I dunno. For a site dedicated to digital graphics, gaming, anime and (i assume) electronic music loops, it sort of fits. The chrome effect looks good, and red and black with this sort of retro meets future interface vibe makes sense. It looks like a portal to a Flash gaming site. In a futuristic diner sort of way.

You could avoid some readability and chaos issues but simply cutting the amount of text way down. No need for all the jibber jabber. I can read it but I don't want to . Just the facts and maybe some images. Nav could be a bit smaller, but I can see the rollover effects and I found the on/off for the sound.

Looks like you had fun making it and I would want to click through it if I landed here. That's really the point I suppose.

My .02¢ - Q