First freelance Flash site - need some opinions

[jerryCLEMENT]

Hey all,

This is the first Flash site i have published for pay and i need a few opinions on the site.

1. In 3 sections a "pull out" cloth is used to display information. Do you find it tedious to have to "hold" the cloth out to read information?

2. In the "sublimation" section the background image is multicolored. I have replaced the original blue and black image with a multicolored one at the clients request. Is this image too contrasting or do you like it?

3. This site has been tested on Mozilla and IE on both Mac and PC platforms (built on a Mac). Has not been tested on Netscape based browsers yet. If you noticed any problems with viewing please let me know.

Thank you for your time of review in advance. It is greatly appreciated.

BTW the site isnt fully finished, you may notice a few images being different, and some minor details may change before official launch. Also the Home section is blank as far as text information goes. I'm still waiting on this info from the client.

The site is located at http://www.melbert.com/beta/index.htm


Thanks again!

PS. If you click on any of the designed by links it will go to my home page which is blank at the moment. I will have a placeholder up by the time this site launched next week or so.

[saracenvii]

Nice site, like the transitions and the design.

To answer ur questions:
1. YES, very

2. Seems fine to me, and the image is good.

3. FFox here so can't help.


A few things I noticed which u may or may not know in the products section:
The menu loads before the movie has finished loading.

The text menu and movie menu aren't in the same order.

1st picture on the 2nd row doesn't match enlarged pic.

the view product samples button is still active when the samples screen is up. As it is a rollover that can get annoying if u accidently go over it

[aaron.bennett]

I really like the look of this site. Especially the sketch drawing in then the pic fading in after, works well.

I also like the transitions from one section to the other, very fluid.

I was frustrated with having to hold the paper out, but once I realised it done that, I could accept it.

Will test it on my Mac in Nutscrape, IE, Safari and Firefox for you later to make sure it works as expected.

I Like it a lot.

[jerryCLEMENT]

Originally posted by saracenvii
1. YES, very

Opinions so far (my friends, client) are mixed about 50/50 about this. This is one thing i wanted get more opinions on. If enough people think its annoying i will end up taking it out.

A few things I noticed which u may or may not know in the products section:
The menu loads before the movie has finished loading.

Yea, the menu is located on the main movie file, with the products section loading dynamically, i need to disable the buttons for this section until the .swf has fully loaded. Or possibly load the .swf before the buttons appear.

The text menu and movie menu aren't in the same order.

Yea, i was gonna rearrange this. Havent gotten to it yet.

1st picture on the 2nd row doesn't match enlarged pic.

Im changing all of them this weekend.

the view product samples button is still active when the samples screen is up. As it is a rollover that can get annoying if u accidently go over it

I agree, ill fix this as well.

Thank you for your opinions. They are greatly appreciated.

[adi4x]

Looks very good..

But why do you have to load each time you press a button.. !?

[jerryCLEMENT]

Originally posted by aaron.bennett
I really like the look of this site. Especially the sketch drawing in then the pic fading in after, works well.

I also like the transitions from one section to the other, very fluid.

I was frustrated with having to hold the paper out, but once I realised it done that, I could accept it.

Will test it on my Mac in Nutscrape, IE, Safari and Firefox for you later to make sure it works as expected.

I Like it a lot.

Thanks =). I'm on a Powerbook G4 1 Ghz with 768Mb of RAM. All the Mac testing i do is on this machine. For OSX Panther i have tested it for IE, FF, Camino, Opera, and Safari. It appears to be fine on all these browsers. The one thing i don't have is a PC, so i can only check it once in a while at a buddies house or something.

[aaron.bennett]

I also have a pc laptop and will download netscape and test it for you.

Should reply within the next hour or so and let you know if its okay.

Aaron

[aaron.bennett]

Okey Dokey.

I have had a run through your site with netscape 8, and to be honest it seems to work better than IE.

It loads really quick (although I do have a 2meg connection) and everything looks identical to IE - the animations seem smoother and the colour is identical.

I think its a job well done.

if theres any specific sections you want me to check, just ask.

Hope that helps.

Aaron

[devikit]

After reading other posts, i was going to say "because im on a laptop and prefer using the mouse pad for all clicking etc, it would be awkward to keep it held out like so", but i did the appropriate thing of actually visiting the site first, and i have to say that it works BETTER to keep it held down, and is also an interesting and unusual touch, which will impress non technical minded people.

However, you should take care to not have too much information in this, maybe find out how long people are willing to hold the button down before it loses its novelty and becomes tedius. If the information is not too bulky and clearly displayed (not too small etc), then this feature is a definite keeper.

[jerryCLEMENT]

Originally posted by adi4x
Looks very good..

But why do you have to load each time you press a button.. !?

Honestly, because of bandwidth. Literally everything that loads after the initial preload is loaded dynamically. The reason i did this was to cut down on bandwidth. The hosting service provides 10Gb monthly transfer and the main site alone is 500k. The only other section that jumps that high is the products section, which also weighs in around 560K. So you figure even 1000 unique hits a month will put her (the client) over her bandwidth limit and then prices start to soar. Thank you for your input though, i appreciate the compliment =).

[jerryCLEMENT]

Originally posted by aaron.bennett
Okey Dokey.

I have had a run through your site with netscape 8, and to be honest it seems to work better than IE.

It loads really quick (although I do have a 2meg connection) and everything looks identical to IE - the animations seem smoother and the colour is identical.

I think its a job well done.

if theres any specific sections you want me to check, just ask.

Hope that helps.

Aaron

Thanks a lot for this. This was the one platform i hadn't tested, but i'm glad it looks good. One thing on Netscape though. Could you possibly tell me if the right click menu is disabled on Netscape? I was having problems with this before, but i think i got it fixed. Thank you again for the testing.

[jerryCLEMENT]

Originally posted by devikit
After reading other posts, i was going to say "because im on a laptop and prefer using the mouse pad for all clicking etc, it would be awkward to keep it held out like so", but i did the appropriate thing of actually visiting the site first, and i have to say that it works BETTER to keep it held down, and is also an interesting and unusual touch, which will impress non technical minded people.

However, you should take care to not have too much information in this, maybe find out how long people are willing to hold the button down before it loses its novelty and becomes tedius. If the information is not too bulky and clearly displayed (not too small etc), then this feature is a definite keeper.

This is exact argument with the drag thing. It took a while to get right, and i had a lot of help from FlashKit on it too. I really like the feature and i think it promotes her product very well while creating "interaction" for the user, therefore keeping them interested in the site. I personally don't find it annoying at all to hold the mouse button down to read this. Do you think maybe if i changed the rollOver text that dissappears to something like "Drag and hold for info" or something like that? Either way, if i get enough people who don't like it, unfortunately i am going to take it out. Her main audience is corporate customers, this site is meant as a product promotion type thing. Her e-commerce site is scheduled around late August, early September (which i am also doing) and this will be the more professional, HTML based layout.

I am also thinking about sound too, but something subtle like background music and rollOver sounds, thats it. But i appreciate your input. Especially since you support my drag idea =).

[mal pacino]

i kept pulling out the menus and expected them to stay in place but they kept going back. I'm very seasoned in web related navigation - but god knows what a regular web user would think of this

nice look man, nice blurs etc just do something other than the drag out menus

nice design overall - pro feel

[mal pacino]

the site would be perfect if they stayed in place once pulled out

[jerryCLEMENT]

Ya, i think im going to end up taking this out. One of the main reason i put it up here was to get feedback on the pull out cloth. I have spent a lot of time going through various flash sites on the net, i was probably just aiming for something different. Since this is my first real flash site i have finished alone, it will be getting a lot of views from future clients and from my portfolio site (no where near done, i really just dont have time atm). Thank you guys for the feedback, i very much appreciate it. Semms everyone though likes the site. =D

[devikit]

I think it would be a great shame to lose the pull out thing, its a fresh alternative to "click here click there".

Maybe you could have it only stay out if its pulled all the way out, if not just bounce back, and then once it stays out, if you drag it slighty left and left go it will automatically bounce back. What do you think?

[jerryCLEMENT]

Hmm, thats an idea. I'll check this out.


On a seperate note:

What kind of audio do you think would be suitable for this site? I wanted something non-intrusive, but i was thinking minor sounds like rollOver sounds for the buttons, maybe something very subtle for background music. What do you guys think?

[devikit]

The sounds should definitely be soft, like a softenned "ping" ( not like a microwave though! ) for the rollovers, and if you were to have background music you would need something without drums ie constricting timing, it should be soft sustained sounds, in a major key with notes fading in and out to "spell out" the major key its in.

[jerryCLEMENT]

Yea, i was definately thinking "ambient" for the background audio. A close friend of mine is a killer audio designer, but he has been back in LA working E3 so none of his equipement was here. The show is over now and he should be back in AZ within this week, so he will be doing the audio stuff for the site, so i will let you guys know when the audio has been added. I'm working some finishing touches on the changes you guys suggested and should have the new version up by later tonight. Thankks for the input Dev, you were feeling the same thing i was for the audio stuff, and as you know great minds think alike. =)