the fantabulous steve and is new flash site

[steve_rat]

gday guys

yep its time. i've decided to stick up a flash review of my own

basically i've just come up with the layout and colours

i would like feedback about what you think of the

text fonts - legible? eye pleasing?
colours (gradients) - i want the red but i was unsure of a complementing colour (i didn't like green) so i stuck with grey
lines (that make up the layout) - too jagged or just bad looking?

and just basically the overall feel

we'll get some nice transitions and stuff later on but i wanna get this done first.

please be as ruthless as you want because this is beta beta and more beta. so critcise away or whatever you reckon

oh, but if you criticise, can i have some improvement suggestions to fix em up? thanks

flash url - http://members.optushome.com.au/rato...sign/flash.swf

or if that doesn't work there's the html which makes it a little small!

html url -
http://members.optushome.com.au/rato...ign/flash.html

thanks very much!


steve rat

[AndyLeaves]

After trying for 5 mins Steve told me that the buttons dont work, because they dont link to anything......

I think the colours either need to be brighter , or darker
(Personal opinion)

I really like the interface, it could do with some activity going on in there, I dont, like a glint of some sort?

One thing that does do me, you need to make the buttons, Buttons and not just active text, you know that you have to have the mouse right over the text to click , not that it does anything anyway.

NEWay
Peace

[sofiebel]

It looks a bit hughe, but that's probably because the swf scales when I enlarge my browser, my screen resolution is on 1280*1024.
The font is good, funny but legible. The lines are fine too. I don't really like the gradients, but it might get a different look once you've added content. You where looking for a complementary colour for the red, so why not just leave the content part white? You might also consider using some bitmaps to loosen up the gradients a bit, but I think it will all depend on how much and which content you'll put into it! I'd like to see it when it's finished! See... I can be nice if I want too.

[steve_rat]

thanks guys for your reviews! i will take them on board!

anymore?

steve rat

[_level 3]

Yeh no offense but I feel this is a perfect example of bad usage of gradients..Atleast try to add some texture to the gradients if you must use them..Dots, lines, etc..Also your hit stages on your links need to be larger, if you have them at all which from the looks of them, you don't..

But you have a great start here, just a little to much of the gradients for me..Looks sorda elementary..

Keep working at the design though your not far away from something very good, you'll get it..

We all were there at one time, just keep at it..Study the best and see what they do..Don't copy there work, but learn from there experience..You'll catch up in no time..

[steve_rat]

thanks very much

i seem to get the idea that gradients are not to be overused or in some peoples opinion not used at all. hehe, i say "hey gradients could look cool" and then i make the whole site out of em hehe

you see, i'm not a newbie at flash but i have the knowledge of a newbie if that makes sense. i've been using it for years but have never seriously done anything like this before! maybe i want a higher standard

and so it is incredibly difficult for me to come up with a design that i like and a design that is half decent

anyway, down to the point!

when you say textures, can you give me some clues as to how one would do this

any good examples of sites you got book marked?

also, for the links, hehehe. they have fooled everyone. look, i just made them buttons so i wouldn't have to change the instance later, but basically i have really edited them. i've just made them symbols and so they don't do anything. and yes there will be hits, you can tell an amateur by someone who doesn't use hit and then the user has to click the exact text to make it move. hehe

but yeah, i've been lookin at sites for years just for inspiration! but i still never really get anywhere.

[jamescover]

Hi Steve:

Thanks for reviewing my intro.


I'm not a big fan of gradients, but you've got a good start here. One thing I would say, it appears that you are using text for your buttons. I would put invisible buttons over all links to act as hotspots. If you mouseover the text, you will see what I mean, the mouse constantly changes back and forth between a cursorhand, and an arrow.

Keep at it. Let us know when you've added some content.

James
He is risen!!!

[steve_rat]

grrr. i dunno what to do!!

hmmm

but thanks for the review

steve rat

[_level 3]

You do not need invisible buttons for hot spots..Flash has this incredible feature called the hit stage in your buttons time line..Draw a square over the whole area where the text would be in the hit stage..

[steve_rat]

no no no

you've all got me terribly wrong. i know how to make a button work but theres no point in makin it active and delving into the finer points if its a shocking looking thing!

relax i know how to work buttons

i don't know what to do about the gradients

any ideas?

steve rat
[Edited by steve_rat on 07-26-2002 at 08:32 AM]

[steve_rat]

come on guys....

i've gone to page 2

steve rat

[dedéFlash]

Originally posted by steve_rat
come on guys....

i've gone to page 2

steve rat

Ok steve
I belive that makin the gradients just a little brighter... will improve the appelin visual of your layout.(personal opinion)
The fonts are allright, but... what about the content?!
Cya

Dedé
http://www.bhinfosite.com.br/brazil
;-)

[Prototype3X]

It needs some movement and sound.

[gshock]

use invis buttons instead of text. it would be easier for others to click on the links.

[stevietat2]

a bit too shiny with the gradients, but you seem to get the idea on those
and do fix up those hit states on the text buttons.
but nice design so far. itll be interesting to see where it goes.

[fugsat77]

Are you interested in the design or the animation aspects of flash? I believe that the beauty of flash lies in the interaction you can create with your audience, don't worry if its not the final "look" of the page.
You have the basics... you have a topic, and the layout is clear and ordered, you can replace sprites (I don't think their called that in flash) after you figure out what you want them to do.
Basically don't drive yourself buggy investing time in rethinking the colors or questioning the gradients. Get on with it, the site will define itself if you give it time. It has always worked out the best for me when I followed the Audience (Who are you talking to )-> Elements (What do you want to say) -> Layout (How best to clarify your priorities) -> Interaction (How do you want your audience to use your project... especially important with flash... to me its numero uno, why waste the extra hours to design a site flash site if it can be done simpler in another medium like HTML tables) -> Feel (what complemets the mood [after you've devloped it] funky, fun, sleak, sharp, professional with personality, ect.). I don't think colors and gradients are the questions to bother with. Please post when you develop your idea further, I'm interested if any of this well intentioned advice points you in the direction of your muse. You have the basics work with it until it tells you what to do. Hope that helps.
BTW- thanks for your time replying to my current project.
http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...hreadid=347572

[relandr]

wellsaid!:

So much critic' here and there on flashers that want to stray from the clean and flat minimalistic stuff to deep, more art-like and different...(dare to be/think different)....

I'm just a beginner but it seems to me that there is way too much restrictive thinking going on with stodgy old design conceptionists that really should stay with 'flat panel electronic flyers' (HTML)...

get yer ya-yas out....

[o0m]

well you gave me a response so I'll review your site. I havn't read any of the other posts so hopefully I don't just re-state them

I am running at 1600*1200 - your flash is really tiny and is less than a quater of my screen. Your buttons don't seem to have a hit state so they would be a real nuisance if this was your real site and not a test. I don't like the layout at all. It is not original and the gradients add nothing to it. There is nothing wrong with the colours - it is just everything around them that is bad.

Using flash just because you can is not a good idea. Judging from the fact that you have a portfolio button you must be a web developer (or trying to be). You would actually be better off copying something similar to 2advanced and adding a whole lot of cheap effects that you can get from sites such as this. It would at least impress your clients.

This is just my honest opinion. I don't mean to offend but it may be taken that way.

my site - http://on.to/o0m

[relandr]

hey did I mention I liked the " look " ...in spit of some mechanical issues....
( he said as he winced and looked over his shoulder to see if it was right behind him )