Web shite design :-*

Nixxon · Mon 23/02/2004 18:17:56

Hey all,
Just finished a web site for a band I know and would like some comments on the layout graphics etc. They're pretty happy with it but alas I'm not sure how it would fetch reguarding a proffesional job (ie if i were payed, lol). Non of the links currently work so don't be too concearned about that.
Tell us what you think, any suggestions reguarding improvement would be greatly appecited

www.22links.com

MrColossal · Mon 23/02/2004 18:26:05

first thing i see that bothers me is on the home page the grey bar on the left goes all the way down to the bottom of the page while the middle grey bar doesn't

know what i mean?

it does on Biography, however

also, can you get rid of the loading animation in the flash? [or can you get rid of the flash?] because everytime a link is clicked it runs through the loading thingy.

the reason i say to get rid of the flash is cause it isn't really doing anything for you. if I were you I'd just have a different fuzzy image in the table for each link instead of this flash movie.

Nixxon · Mon 23/02/2004 18:29:36

Thanks mate,
But..... $:-\$

Quote from: Nixxon (IbeX) on Mon 23/02/2004 18:17:56
Non of the links currently work so don't be too concearned about that.

Just having probs with the URL scripting in flash

MrColossal · Mon 23/02/2004 18:32:04

that's not what i ment by not doing anything for you

what i mean is that all it's doing for the website is showing some images and making the images kinda staticy

i don't think that's a good reason to keep it.

Nixxon · Mon 23/02/2004 18:33:33

But it's so shiny and l33t!!

MrColossal · Mon 23/02/2004 18:36:25

hehe it's ultimately up to you, or them i guess if that's what they want.

but to requite flash for a menu bar and having no other way of navigating the site without it... i dunno baby

Nixxon · Mon 23/02/2004 18:38:06

Aye, the truth hurts.
Ima have to have a think tank session

Thanks again

Chicky · Mon 23/02/2004 18:43:47

i like, but only because ive got flash

could you send me some of the bands music some time, anything punk is my scene.

oversizedchicken@hotmail.com

cheers

-OVC

Nixxon · Mon 23/02/2004 18:54:14

Upload now sire

www.22links.com/songs/Unsung.mp3

Wait about 10min... from the time of this post.

Chicky · Mon 23/02/2004 19:03:22

brilliant song!

but is it meant to be cut off half way through? hehe, i really gotta keep up to date on that site, i love this band!

-OVC

Nixxon · Mon 23/02/2004 19:08:16

lol it's currently 80% uploaded...

give it another 5min

Thanks mate, i'll be sure to tell em

edmundito · Tue 24/02/2004 06:32:27

2 comments....
1) Don't use Times new Roman for normal text.
2) put some padding on the contents area (where it says "Welcome, this for....")

Other than that, I like it.

Takara · Tue 24/02/2004 20:21:56

I like the general layout of the site

What you've done in the flash could be fairly easily recreated with an animated gif and an image map.

Also, you could create the website in a table with no need for frames (frames can cause problems because you can't send someone to a page within the website without them losing the navigation bar!) - especially since you're not really making use of frames properly (usually used to prevent having to reload navigation/title just change what's in the main frame).

Personally, I have no problem with Times New Roman as a general text font, depends what fits with the general style of the website

However, you could really used some padding around the main body text as NetMonkey mentioned, would make it look much better.

If you need any help with coding just PM me, I'm a website developer and happy to help!

Takara.

Nixxon · Tue 24/02/2004 21:13:40

Thanks guys,
Takara I really appreciate your offer! I was thinking about using 1 table with dif columbs etc. Just the thought of resplicing everything turned me off (unless there's another way?).
I wanted the flash to reload the page into the main.html window only, but seemingly the only options are (blank, self, parent, top) So i'm not sure how to get around this. I must leave in a short while but shall continue in a day or two, thanks again for the offer, If i have any probs i'll be sure to PM you. Cheers

makri · Wed 25/02/2004 13:59:25

The first index page is useless and listing system requirements is a very bad idea (just as "designing" a web page for certain resolution and browser). The most important thing in designing a good web page is that it works on any browser, any colour depth and any screen resolution. Flash (or any other non html method, such as javascript) should never be used as the only method of navigation. Also, as mentioned earlier, frames are rarely a good design option. The total size of over 200k is also way too much.

Drop the frames, flash and the doormat page and shrink the size to somewhere under 40k* and it's a good page. I like the BW look.

Also, when considering alternative way to make the navigation, I'd make it static as movement, was it flash or gif anims, distracts from reading the actual content. Most surfers hate anything that moves on a page.

* Usability studies state that users leave a page that doesn't load in 8 seconds and look for the info somewhere else. Fast modem connection loads 40k page in 8 seconds. Most internet users are still using a dialup connection.

Takara · Thu 26/02/2004 02:31:31

Okay, so I couldn't resist....

http://www.starlitskies.co.uk/22links/

There's only 58K of images on that (which is still rather a lot... but hey, it's a pretty site) and it's all in one file, no frames

Should be pretty much xhtml compliant now, and I used a style sheet too... obviously you don't have to, but I'm a web developer, I can't help it!

If you want all the code and images I used go here
http://www.starlitskies.co.uk/22links/22%20Links.zip
That's about 60K

You'll find I joined some of the pictures together into bigger pictures because they were stupidly hard to align as separate ones!

(Though I think I might've used the wrong one on the right hand edge of the NewsBar.jpg)

Also, I set the table width to 750px, this is fairly standard practise and allows it to be happily viewed by anyone at 800x600 + which is pretty much everyone these days

Also, stops you having to worry about the table resizing and not looking pretty anymore!

I have to say, I too am not fond of doormat pages, want to just go straight into the website. I don't mind animation on a page so much, as long as it's not too distracting. I quite liked your nav bar, though I don't think it really requires Flash

Hope you don't mind my playing and that maybe some of it is useful!

Takara.

Kinoko · Thu 26/02/2004 04:08:54

The only suggestion that jumps out at me is to spell "cuming" the right way. I don't know, maybe it's just me and my dirty mind but that spelling brings things other than arriving at a destination to mind. Plus, I just really, really hate bad spelling ^^