Shine Design company site

Hi everybody. I'm looking for some constructive critisism on my latest version 2 site for my company, Shine Design. The links within the main flash movie aren't active yet, as I'm not positive if I like how the content is animated into the movie. So, if you have any ideas you think would look just AWESOME with my layout, let me know! Thanks!

Oh yeah, the little cartoon dude you see at the bottom left (actual cartoon of me :) ) will eventually be the site assistant. He'll talk, possibly move, etc...

http://www.shinedesign.org/new -actual site
http://www.shinedesign.org -under construction page

I like the design of the site. can't wait to see the guy talk and that. You may want to fix the sound menu, rethink it or something.

fix the sound menu? How so? What needs fixing? It's designed so that when the click any of the sounds, it unloads level 3 and loads the appropriate external swf file containing the audio along with the equalizer back onto level 3. This makes it so they don't need to preload the audio for the site, which is a big plus.

Layout is nice.

I would watch what Font I used. Some on your site looks blury the loading text and up near your logo. They look jaggy. Smooth them up a little dunno.

Try the fps around 30. it might make things smoother.

Nice. Like to see the guy talking me through things :D

Mmkay, fonts have been changed as crisp as I can make them. (only had to make them 3 points larger, to their respective size incriment (8,10,12,14,18,20,24,+) They look a bit better now.
Upped the frame rate to 30, slowed down my animations to how I like em, only thing is now the rain in the main movie is real fast as well. It's actually an external movie being loaded on frame load, anyway to make this slower through actionscript without editing the external movie? dun think so, just askin.

Thanks, anything else?

suggestions:

The splash page needs some work
The audio section needs to be less spread out
If the logo is going to have an effect, it needs to be cooler

I am not quite sure if the guy fits .. it is a bitmap background with a vector person.. seems out of place.

Did you make the background? it is cool.

Patrick Johnson

[The splash page needs some work]
-please expand upon this...what would you change? I want it to be very simple, but pleasing. Just a quick introduction displaying the logo.

[The audio section needs to be less spread out]
-do you mean less physical space in between each speaker button? If so, this won't work to well, as each button, when released, is loading an external audio file onto level 3. There needs to be at least that much space in between in order to make the equalizers evenly spaced without overlapping, even those they can't since they're unloaded when a new one is clicked. I could, however, put all the external audio movies equalizers in the exact same place and shove the buttons that load them right next to eachother, but I'm not sure if I like that.

[If the logo is going to have an effect, it needs to be cooler]
-expand upon this please. What would you add to the effect? Again, I'm not after super complex effects and a bunch of animations at the same time all around the screen. I've noticed in the corporate world, simple yet pleasing is most times the best choice. Something easy, simple, and impressive.

You're right, the guy is vector (traced from a pic I took of myself) and the background is bitmap. But, it would be an amazing addition to the site, when a user views it, to have the cartoon walk them through their visit. What would be a good idea to make it work out? Maybe I should add a vector background, maybe like a "movie theatre box window" around him? Ideas please :)

No, I didn't create the full back image. Half of it was already created. I then added more highlights, extra various images and designs, stuff like that. The base template of it wasn't created by me though.

Just added some stuff, take a look.

Anymore comments?

http://www.shinedesign.org/new

I am not sure if I like the spheres or not.. don't get me wrong.. they are nice spheres. The blackness kind of takes away from the background.. maybe, make that a little lighter. It is starting to remind me more and more like 2 advanced everytime I look at it.. which can be taken both ways, I guess... good and bad. Anyway, you are definatly progressing. I think the splash page should be cooler if you are going to have one. no fading out.. and cooler graphics.. better fonts.

Patrick

yea the 2advanced feel is there. Like 2a's old site but with the new site color. Also the clicking of the links and the way the page loads up is just like 2A's new one.

The background image is nice, something to look at, but if your going to have text or pictures over it, it's to bright and will over power the text your trying to get across.

Your "Simple is better" yes I know this design use it all the time KISS (Keep it simple stupid). Your design is just that simple. It gets your point across and thats what I take you wanted. But for the simple design it has to be pleaseing to the eye and some effects are not "clean" they are jaggy. The one effect that stands way out is up at the top your "S" that is bounceing in and out. It seems to slow, or just a effect that does not need to be there. Can't tell which.

The drawing is well, nothing to shout at =). It just looks out of place right now. Maybe if you made it alot smaller and went with "pixel art" for the guy instead.

Your flash in, once you get to the main page, the white to a dark grey alpha. It's not like a smooth flash but it's a nice effect.

Your loading.. it's telling me nothing, when I go to it it just says loading. Wondering if your going to improve that later. Improveing as in adding something to give the end user a idea of how long or how big it is. Cause they could be waiting and waiting and just give up. But if they see that have 5 more min left they might just wait it out.
This can be done with simple action script. You can look into it on the tutorals on this site if you don't know exactly how to do it.

The Faster fps , I think helped out alot. Your site has a smooth feel to it now when it loads up. When your logo comes in it looks really nice. The way the logo enters in on your intro. Make that a movie and use that when your main page loads up. Shrink the movie and put that animation up at the top. So once the end user gets to your main site, there eyes again get attracted to your logo and they read it again. Placeing the name of your site back into there memory.

Thanks for the input. The intro will be changed soon, I'm just concentrating on the main content right now. Which explains why the loading part for each section doesn't actually load anything, it's just there as a visual representation of what it would look like. No content is there yet, I'm getting the design done first. The section loaders won't need anything telling the user how long it'll take, since each external section movie won't be large at all. Even 56k will load it in probably a few seconds. It says it's loading for two seconds now because I added 60 frames in between the animations.

Yes, it does look somewhat like a design 2advanced would use. (I never saw their previous version, so I don't know how similar it is.) That's because I grabbed some of his ideas, like the section loaders. Fading from a dark blue to white, back to dark blue. That's from his site. I really think that is a great design concept, so I incorporated it into my site as well. The other stuff is original though, I mean, just because one site that's well known has a certain design nitch in it doesn't mean that no other site is allowed to make use of the same design, as long as it's altered either in shape, form, or whatever.

I'll work on the avatar assistant to make him blend in better. He also is only there for design placement right now, I havn't done anything to him since overdrawing the photo.

More comments are appreciated if ya got em :)

Agree with alot that was said already....
...except dont change the background to match the guy.
...make the guy match the background somehow. Does he have to look like you? Maybe a silouette of you would work? I dunno. I just dont think he fits.

Page cannot be found.

Page cannot be found? I just visited it again, it's there...I havn't changed any files around either via FTP. Maybe something is up with your connection.

http://www.shinedesign.org/new

none of thses design elments made by u right?
its all stolen even the blue balls and the background rain and alot of other thingz.
am not saying you cant use other peoples ideas ..yes you can but at least put some of ur own touches ...thats whats developing all about.

Hey Mk.GraFiX, before you make assumptions that I didn't put my own touches on those, you should take a look at them inside my movies. Like I said before, most of what 'anybody' does regaurding web design is coppied from someobody else's creation. Take a look at sites with programming, they copy the code from pre-made scripts. You're trying to tell me that the tutorials and movies on flashkit shouldn't be put into your own sites? hah. If you took a look at my actionscript for the rain, you'd notice that about half of it is completely different from the original source. The balls don't have the original animation, various components are no longer there, even the color is a bit different to match my color scheme.

I would suggest that before you make an "ass" of yourself by "ass"uming again, you find out all the details. That way, you wouldn't go about things being a shark out to point the finger and put other peoples designs down, and you'd actually come off as maybe a decent person.

I'd like to see things you've done, so that I can see how amazingly original it is. I'd only expect that from you, seeing as you expect that from others. Especially since you have seen some components of my site before in flashkit, that means you've been through most if not all of the movies and tutorials. Oh, but you only read them. You didn't use any of them...nooooo.

you need a better pre-loader dude, something indicating progress (ie a progress bar or something)

And i'd lose the old film effect @ the start, doesnt really go with the rest of the site

1st of all i didnt post my reply to insult u but u did insult me ...
however i know some people get mad when they hear the truth...
if u wanna see sample of my work u can visit

www.umi.com.jo (not my best but my latest)

u know what .. u r not a designer i can see that when u insert ur higley illustrated picture :) in ur homepage cant u see that it doesnt match ur stolen desin man..
comon people THINK .

Sooo mr Dj this is the thread. . . oh .. . ok, chill both of ya, lets not have a fight and loose time.
Dont make assumptions about something you are not sure (both) u wanted the truth, he told u the truth, its ok if u have used Fk movies thats what they are supposed to be for, so u wont start from 0, i havent seen the originals so i dont know if you did changed them and how much.
Now man get rid of the help dude or change him so he fits somehow with your design, it looks like 2a because of the transitions, the logo and the way its animated, however not everybody keeps checking those sites so not many potential clients will notice that, thats common, to get *inpired* from amazing work, but the difference is definetly the ones that r creative, those stand out.
And mr dont be so hard with people, specially when theyre starting, so what? when i first started i got *inspired* from someoneelse, however, u allways end up making your own style and doing new from 0 things.
Now as far as i know those movies have some protection, they are for learning purposes, have u contacted or asked for permission from any of the makers? i mean have u checked that u r allowed to use them for bussines purposses?
just some thoghts. . .
:D

Phreakdevil:
none of the movies I downloaded, and altered, had anything saying that they could not be used for any type of purpose. But the fact that I changed at least half of each movie would make it so that wouldn't matter, since it's not 'their' work I have on my site, it's my work that's been altered. Again, the 'help dude' hasn't had more than 10 minutes of work done on him total. In my previous posts, I've mentioned that I'm getting the rest of the site done first, and he'll be fine tuned at the end. He's only there as a placement guide.

MkGrafix:
"its all stolen", however you say it, comes off as in insult. And yes, actually, I am a designer. I just recieved a Graphic Design certificate as well as a Webmaster certificate from the university I am a student at, and in two years I'll have a masters of science degree in Computer Science. "Shine Design", if you havn't noticed yet, is a business. One I've owned and operated in San Diego for the past three years now. It's doing quite well on what design concepts and ablities I do have. I'd say that's pretty good considering the enormous amount of competition in my area. And seeing as I'm the only designer, the mere fact that I'm able to make a good income using the design talents I have is pretty good. I don't think I'm as bad as you say I am, and neither do my clients, who seem to love my work. Thanks for looking out for me though.

Are there any more "constructive" critisism ideas from anybody? Please don't post if you are having a bad day and want to critisize others work.