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Thread: Load and Look

  1. #1
    Senior Member Shotsy247's Avatar
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    Load and Look

    Hi All,

    I'm looking for some people to do a quick check of my site. I'm really interested in the load speed and the look of the site (do you see anything funky, such as missing fonts). Things look good on my end, but then I built it so I have all things needed.

    Thanks. All comments are welcome.

    _t

    http://www.interactiverain.com
    I don't feel tardy.

  2. #2
    Dignitary rynoe's Avatar
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    At work here we have a t5 or whatever (I'm not a hardware guy) but I know that the bandwith is huge and lightning fast. I very, very rarely see long load times. I can go months without seeing a preloader or waiting beyond 2 seconds to see a webpage no matter how much graphics or backend crap is going on. At times I look at webpages at work and send to my email to look at from home and at home I am shocked at how long it takes to load.

    I am at work now and it took at least 2 minutes to load. I figured that might be a fluke so I refreshed, and took at least 2 minutes to refresh.

    Sorry if this is bad news, perhaps it is just something else........
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  3. #3
    Senior Member Shotsy247's Avatar
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    Thanks for the reply. The site is a bit shy of four MB, so it really shouldn't have taken that long to load. I've had another friend at a different location than me test and he didn't find a long wait time.

    I guess I'll wait for others to report on load time before panic sets in.

    Any other comments? What was your overall impression of the site . . . besides a long load?

    Thanks again for the reply. All comments good and bad are welcome, as that's how things get improved.

    _t
    I don't feel tardy.

  4. #4
    Bearded (M|G)od MyFriendIsATaco's Avatar
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    4MB?!

    Do you realize how unreasonably large that is for a website?

    I have it clocked in at exactly 4.2MB. Site needs a diet.

  5. #5
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    so does mine! lol JENNY CRAIG! good stuff mate by the way. i like
    Last edited by LacosteMedia; 07-01-2008 at 04:50 AM.

  6. #6
    Senior Member Shotsy247's Avatar
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    Apparently I do not. Why is it to large? With my connection it loads in less than 30 seconds. What was the load time like and what type of connection do you have? Thanks for the feedback Taco.

    Thanks for the compliment Lacoste.

    _t
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  7. #7
    Bearded (M|G)od MyFriendIsATaco's Avatar
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    I have a 7Mb line here, and it was probably around a minute and a half to two minutes.

    Your site should be under 1MB. I don't remember the last site that I've built that hit even close to 1MB.

    From within Flash, go to the Export options. Check the "Generate size report" box, export the movie, and paste the results from the size report here.

  8. #8
    Bearded (M|G)od MyFriendIsATaco's Avatar
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    [edit]I take that back. My latest one is 1.5MB TOTAL. HTML, scripts, css, swfs, AND preloading 7 large 900x900px photos.[/edit]

    [edit 2]Oops, that was meant to be an edit of my last post [/edit 2]

  9. #9
    Senior Member whispers's Avatar
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    HOLY COW 4MBs??

    WHY? and how? are you NOT loading all content externally? (you should)

    unless you plan on making your users watch/view something that has a big file size... let them click to view any content they desire.. (load on demand attitude)

  10. #10
    Senior Member Shotsy247's Avatar
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    Yes I know I should be creating a more dynamic site that only loads the content that it needs when it needs it. However I needed the site up and fast so I broke my own best practices and created this via frame based animation and loaded all of the content into one swf.

    I do plan to rebuild once I have learned AS3. Then all things will be nice and light and I will be able to easily update the site (not so easy as it currently is).

    I do have to say that the site loads very fast for me (seriously under 30 seconds) and it's not cached. Go Comcast High Speed Cable. I guess it's blowing all of your connections away.

    Thanks for the feedback.

    _t
    I don't feel tardy.

  11. #11
    Senior Member whispers's Avatar
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    The connection isnt really the point.. its making ONE design that is acceptable to all users..

    I mean you've effectively cut of all modem users.. and maybe most with DSL..


    and using AS3 really should have any bearing on whether or not the site is easy to update? What would you be doing different in AS3 that you wouldnt/couldnt have done in AS2 for this??

  12. #12
    Senior Member Shotsy247's Avatar
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    You're missing the entire point. I understand Flash best practices and don't need to be told that my site is too large. I know that. I plan to rebuild once I have learned AS3 as a project to help me become more aquanted with AS3. Not that AS3 would give me anything (it will) that I couldn't do in AS2.

    To be honest I don't care about people with a modem or DSL connections. All of the businesses that would be looking at my portfolio should have high speed connections. Connection speed really isn't the point, but knowing my audience is and they have high speed connections.

    _t
    I don't feel tardy.

  13. #13
    [Horse Thief] gotoAndCrash's Avatar
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    Just my 2 cents :
    I feel that the lines
    Quote Originally Posted by Shotsy247
    However I needed the site up and fast so I broke my own best practices and created this via frame based animation and loaded all of the content into one swf.
    Quote Originally Posted by Shotsy247
    [using AS3] I will be able to easily update the site (not so easy as it currently is).
    Quote Originally Posted by Shotsy247
    I don't care about people with a modem or DSL connections
    (WTF?!?!? to that last one, there)

    All of those lines go completely & whole-heartedly against the statement :

    Quote Originally Posted by Shotsy247
    I understand Flash best practices
    If one chooses to go against Best Practices, then they most likely do not understand them.

    This is what I would say, if whispers hadn't already said it :
    Quote Originally Posted by whispers
    The connection isn't really the point.. its making ONE design that is acceptable to all users...and using AS3 really shouldn't have any bearing on whether or not the site is easy to update.
    1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino is a portal of Hell.

  14. #14
    Senior Member Shotsy247's Avatar
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    That is not the point. The point is to make ONE design that accomplishes what it needs to accomplish. If I were to have taken the time I would have needed to code this properly in AS2 I would have missed out on the opportunity I was going after.

    Also, why should I care about connections that are not part of my target demographic.

    Whispers and Taco, I appreciate your feedback. As for gotoAndCrash, if you have nothing constructive to add (which your last post did not) then don't bother.

    If anyone else has anything constructive to add, beyond the size (I think we have that covered) please feel free.

    Thanks.

    _t
    I don't feel tardy.

  15. #15
    Senior Member whispers's Avatar
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    I mean all we can do is suggest stuff.. on how "WE" feel or what we wold do.. but as Shotsy stated.. he knows his target audience..

    designing for a specialty or a specific audience can supercede 'normal practices'..

    hope everything works out.. and the AS3 journey goes well I havent started mine..

  16. #16
    .:Build for Design:. kdesign1's Avatar
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    Im stuck at start screen. Some very tiny fonts says its loading creative or something, im out....oh wait its loaded now. Maybe want to animate the loading more, so its obvius your not on a splashscreen without any goal or something.

    You def need close buttons on your Experience/References/Contact screens. Also disable the navigation from your work when such a screen pop up. Thats anoying.

    Besides that your folio could use some more color in it.
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  17. #17
    Senior Member Shotsy247's Avatar
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    kdesign,

    Thanks for the feedback. Useful stuff. I'll be sure to incorporate some of that into the next build.

    _t
    I don't feel tardy.

  18. #18
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    Wow... I think you've just taken the award for the most ignorant defence. Your site is too large, full stop. I work for a Network Services provider and we have a very large connection and I still had to wait 2 mins for it to load. My company is in the top 50 FTSE listed in the world so I assume we would be in your target demographic. I'd have shut your site down after about 20 secs.

    As for the site, it's doesn't resize to fit into Firefox, so you have to scroll to get to the right side. Instant turn off for me.

    The actual content is fine, the colours are good, the graphics trasitioning is effective. Having to click twice to get the site thumbnail into the middle and then open is a slight annoyance but that's probably being a alittle pedantic. It would benefit incredibly from each element being loaded externally when required, to get the initial loadtime down to a few seconds. You could even have everything preloading in the background once the main site has opened.
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