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Flash site

A

ambient

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 21, 2007
60
0
I am just finishing off a Flash-based site for a Surf/Skate shop.. any critique in terms of usability ect. would be appreciated.. im interested to know if it shows up fine in IE too (i only have safari and firefox)..

heres the link:

hillzeez.com.au
 
The site looks good it was a little slow loading but I think that that was my internet connection. I looked at it in Firefox and Opera.
 
So this is what happens when a bad flash website crashes into a myspace layout... neat.

Maybe some one more diplomatic than me can offer a better critique, but honestly this site is quite a mess. I realize that being a surf/skate shop is suppose to have a grungy feel, but right now it feels like I'm being assaulted by bad music, volcom stickers and japanese seizure robots..

Actually in visiting the volcom site myself I can now see where some of your "inspiration" come from. But honestly I think you need to rethink the creative direction on this site.

If you take a look at a website like West 49 it's still way over the top, but it doesn't force me to hear any music I don't want. And the animations are limited to the transitions between pages, it doesn't feel the need to have moving pictures on every page.

I hope I didn't come off as too negative, I think you just fell into the same trap many new designers fall into (myself included) of trying to do too much with flash. At the end of the day flash is an animation tool, not a design tool. Your designs should be just as effective without the animations and transitions as it is with.
 
the loading size is actually 1mb.. and the music streams later on...

as for the design the clients are actually happy with it and i am getting paid well to do it.. they wanted something kinda different... ehh i know i would get this response..the target audience is teenagers .... they are valid points the website is pretty intense..

thanks for the input anyway
 
I'm not a fan of the constantly moving pictures and I really don't like sites that autoplay music, but then I'm not your target audience, and I think it's in keeping with the type of site.

I think the thing that stands out to me is that it could have been built in HTML/CSS with some small Flash parts, rather than all in Flash. It would have effectively looked the same, but users would be able to copy and paste text from it (I quite often do this when I'm on shopping sites (copy and paste the names of 3 different jackets I'm interested in, for instance) or I might want to copy and paste the address so I can print it out and come to visit. There's lots of other things like this that make HTML/CSS more usable – printing the page, going back and forward between pages ("Ooh, I'll just go back to that jacket" <clicks back without thinking> exit site, "Oh, **** it, I can't be bothered to find it again"), google indexing, people who use screen readers or who need to increase the size of text, that kind of thing. I'd say out of the sites I've exited in frustration, 90% of them were Flash based.

Obviously CSS can't do the things Flash can and I don't have a problem with a experimental Flash site, but in instances when it can (i.e. the basic layout of your site) it's usually a better choice, in my opinion. Not something I'd necessarily change on this one now you've done it, but worth bearing in mind for future ones.
 
Lau said:
I'm not a fan of the constantly moving pictures and I really don't like sites that autoplay music, but then I'm not your target audience, and I think it's in keeping with the type of site.

I think the thing that stands out to me is that it could have been built in HTML/CSS with some small Flash parts, rather than all in Flash. It would have effectively looked the same, but users would be able to copy and paste text from it (I quite often do this when I'm on shopping sites (copy and paste the names of 3 different jackets I'm interested in, for instance) or I might want to copy and paste the address so I can print it out and come to visit. There's lots of other things like this that make HTML/CSS more usable – printing the page, going back and forward between pages ("Ooh, I'll just go back to that jacket" <clicks back without thinking> exit site, "Oh, **** it, I can't be bothered to find it again"), google indexing, people who use screen readers or who need to increase the size of text, that kind of thing. I'd say out of the sites I've exited in frustration, 90% of them were Flash based.

Obviously CSS can't do the things Flash can and I don't have a problem with a experimental Flash site, but in instances when it can (i.e. the basic layout of your site) it's usually a better choice, in my opinion. Not something I'd necessarily change on this one now you've done it, but worth bearing in mind for future ones.
Click to expand...

You can make text selectable in Flash, actually. So I think you can copy and paste. Of course, your critique is valid.

Although I have to agree with the others on this site being not that well designed, you would be amazed at how much teenagers love hideous designs. A good design is still better, but your target audience won't mind. (if they did, myspace would be deserted)
 
Macnoviz said:
You can make text selectable in Flash, actually. So I think you can copy and paste. Of course, your critique is valid.

Although I have to agree with the others on this site being not that well designed, you would be amazed at how much teenagers love hideous designs. A good design is still better, but your target audience won't mind. (if they did, myspace would be deserted)
Click to expand...


yehh.. making the text selectable could be a good option thanks for the advice... question: does making the text selectable in Flash allow it to be crawled by search engines..i have always wondered..

yeh i admit the site is not that well designed.. but that was kinda what they wanted... the designer that was meant to do had something very generic and they didnt want it so i got the job... so i kinda took the opportunity to cut loose a bit i probably wont get a job like this again.. the surf shop has very loud TV advertisements which you either love or hate.. if you understood the business it kinda fits i guess..

i know this site is not exactly the best example of design.. but i thought it would be interesting to see what response i get..
 
I think you can find that on the Google webdeveloper site. I would suggest using metadata to signify Google, adding a sitemap,...
Perhaps there is something about that in the Flash help too.
 
Macnoviz said:
I think you can find that on the Google webdeveloper site. I would suggest using metadata to signify Google, adding a sitemap,...
Perhaps there is something about that in the Flash help too.
Click to expand...

ok.. thanks for the help
 
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