Studio Website

[jwalker80]

Hi,

Check out this sites design, I havent finished the content and I need to fade in transitions etc... but comments on general design would be cool

[solidgold]

bad things:

1) how long did it take to load?! too long
2) in order to access the info i had to scroll down, which was annoying
3) when i had got the info i couldnt use my scrollerwheel to read it all

now onto the good things:
1) its a modern design - (well retro, but you know what i mean)
2) the slideshow is well integrated
3) the background of the flash matches that of the webpage, how?!

[Jason]

I like the design, my gripe with it is that i don't feel it offers enough interactivity to warrant the use of flash.

I don't like the scrolling method to view the text. Also Entertainment, Clients and 2 other buttons display the same text.

[Steax]

I say get rid of flash. Trust me.

I say you use modern-day javascript to do all you want. Like mootools. Why?

Look at your design goals (as I see them):
1. A highly graphical page.
2. A slideshow.
3. A stylized text area.
4. A fading effect.

Ok. Those are all things flash can do, alright. But if you use a JS library, you...

1. Make a smaller page.
2. Allow users to copy text from your page.
3. Make your site a lot more accessible.
4. Have a lot of extra features like acceleration, bounce etc.
5. And retain everything you want (your design goals).

So, I suggest you to use a JS library for this. I use mootools for my sites. It has tools for your slideshow and your text area.

Good luck!

P.S. I usually don't say this, but I think you're quite ok using a table to layout your page. Not because it's better, but because I'd imagine trying to replicate your current design with floats would be hard to make (and even harder to achieve cross-browser consistency).

[solidgold]

just a little input, you can make accelerative movements and 'bounce' as you call it in flash, using motion tweens and easing

[Steax]

Yes you can, but they're just not as elegant as animating a HTML element with JS. I think the accessibility aspect is good enough a reason, although that might not be as important when your targets are wealthy people looking for a recording studio.

[solidgold]

i agree with the accesibility issues, but unlike many of the users of this forum, i dont completely dismiss flash, it has revolutionised the way we design websites and will continue to do so well into the future, used correctly alongside other technologies such as javascript, flash can be an unbelievably useful tool for creating beautiful and accessible websites at the same time.

[Steax]

I think flash is fine, if it's used for things we need it to be for. I wouldn't use a bulldozer to knock down a pile of wooden blocks. I just think that using flash for things which can be replicated via other methods is overkill... unless, of course, you have complex computations, in that case Flash would be OK.

[jwalker80]

Hey,

Thanks for the replies, I have added a few transitions, tweens and easing as well as embedding an mp3 player. I changed the scroller as well, its smoother and loads dynamically into the text field and user can copy the text. I put piano keys faded behind the content. I still have to link up the nav though.

[solidgold]

get rid of that stupid country music that plays without me telling it to.
it interfered with my listening to ed209!!!