Earlier this week I received a site submission I found very interesting. After reviewing the site I started typing out ideas that could help the designer. Some comments were about Flash, and were some about other design aspects. After reviewing my comments to the designer I realized that these were suggestions that many designers could take into consideration when developing sites.
The comments aren’t written in “article” form as this was an email, but you’ll get the idea.
I am just learning how to use Flash and have prepared my website entirely in it. Whilst the site is still being developed I would welcome your comments on the structure. I am not given to design for design sake and do not like lots of meaningless moving parts.
Yours sincerely
GQ
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Hi Geoff,
I took a look over your site and considering that your just learning Flash, the site is excellent. I do have a few suggestions that may help you out a little.
Loading Section:
On the loading screen I would recommend having the logo static with a percentage or bar preloader below it. Here is a tutorial to a simple bar preloader featured in FlashNewz and you can also use this component, which I use in the FlashNewz “FPS” example below.
Fonts:
Once past the intro the text looked a tad blurry to me. I would recommend using a different font. Perhaps Verdana or Arial (those are my favs).
Frame Rate:
Notice when your transitions on your images look a tad slow? If you increase your frame rate to say 30-60 fps that will make your transitions much smoother. If you’ll take a look at http://www.flashnewz.com/flash/ the background transitions are all set at 60 fps.
Navigation:
When I clicked on the web design section all of the navigation text moved down by 1px. This is very nit-picky, but something that users will notice.
Logo Animation:
I would either make the logo not repeat the animation, or take the animation on that section out completely. The silhouette with the orange that rotates is what I am referring to. It tends to pull the focus away from the content.
Design Elements:
Here are a few little design elements that you may want to consider. Make the picture of the guy on the home area a puzzle piece as well. It will help make the page flow a little better.
Hidden Elements:
On the images below the navigation I noticed that when I rolled over them there was text. I personally would probably make that text visible without having to roll over it. Had I not been playing with the mouse I may have missed that.
The 1,2,3,4,5,6 at the top in the bright colors I would take out and have the text fade in and out from one to the next without having to mouse over the numbers. Something very subtle, but without the loud colors.
Ok, Ok, so I had more than just a “few” suggestions, but your site has tons of potential!
Do you have any other comments on this design? Post them here.
Having created the outlines for FlashNewz and FLADownloads, John has become a strong voice in the Flash Community. His reviews and tutorials give great insight and knowledge to readers around the world. He has a keen eye for what’s hot and what’s not in the Flash world. He has also developed and continues to run his own flash portal as a side project to keep his mind on the Flash community
Being a key designer for advertising creative, he’s got style when it comes to grabbing readers attention. With a proven track record, there isn’t much this guy can’t handle.
