help me improve?

[yagran]

hi im making a website with at the moment, to replace the current http://www.mcfluffit.com

i want a MUCH smaller wesite, with a more..were a design company feel.

i started playing around last night and ended up making this:
http://www.mcfluffit.com/BeTa

problem is im not sure if its quite right..

could you just let me know what you like and dislike so far?
i know theres not much there to look at but just the navigation and the general look...

thanks a bundle

 

[dcv]

Sorry but what's with the old-fashioned pub wallpaper background?!!

Also the top of the page is disappearing off the screen for me and there's no way of scrolling to see it; I have to maximise my window.

 

[Nicolasdec]

I like it, But the back ground isent that good.

 

[ambient]

i like the colours.. just maybe not the wallpaper

 

[jng]

the background is pyschedelic

i hate moving navbars

 

[yagran]

Also the top of the page is disappearing off the screen for me and there's no way of scrolling to see it; I have to maximise my window.

could i ask what size screen resolution you use? also does anybody know of i way i can make flash check screen resolution then open one movie for high res and one for smaller screen sizes?

the background is pyschedelic

i hate moving navbars

ok yeh ill change the background lol. and i like the navbars so theyll stay haha

 

[dcv]

could i ask what size screen resolution you use?

At work I'm actually on a 1280x1024 screen but I never maximise my windows. At home I use a 12" PowerBook so 1024x768 - I haven't tried it from there yet. The main part of your site appears to be something like 720px high so a lot of notebook users might not see the whole thing and it appears to cut the top part of the page off (probably due to the vertical centering), which is a bit of a problem considering that's where your navigation is.

 

[yagran]

ok so i changed the background. better or worse? any ideas on a good looking bg?

 

[iBlue]

Yes, the top of the page seems a bit high out of reach and the wallpaper is really not good.

edit: I see you changed to stripes. While it looks better than the previous it's kind of distracting. Maybe just a little more subtle?

 

[yagran]

Yes, the top of the page seems a bit high out of reach and the wallpaper is really not good.

edit: I see you changed to stripes. While it looks better than the previous it's kind of distracting. Maybe just a little more subtle?

ok so i still need to hear a bit more about the top going missing, i know its a resolution issue, im no sure how to triiger the scroll bars tho as the flash is set to 100% size so...any ideas?

i changed the background to a nice subtle BLACK lol.
i also made menu and titlebar colour more vibrant.

 

[Nicolasdec]

ok so i still need to hear a bit more about the top going missing, i know its a resolution issue, im no sure how to triiger the scroll bars tho as the flash is set to 100% size so...any ideas?

i changed the background to a nice subtle BLACK lol.
i also made menu and titlebar colour more vibrant.

The Black looks good. Much better than the Green.

 

[werther]

I actually don't care much for the plain black bg. The first one was way to busy. And the second one was a little distracting, however I liked it the best.

....wait a minute, now I see you still have the pattern in the black ....I like the black the best.

 

[Trogloxene]

Not black, that's too dated for your type site. How about a light grey, or pick an opposite color of the main colors of your page. You could also do a gradation from lighter to darker vertically.

Look at some site you like clone.

-T

 

[yagran]

hmmm ok thnx alot for all this btw.

i hope im not cming across as dumb, or as a bad designer here, i just wanted to test some new ideas on fresh eyes, you know how you make something and you look at it and think 'nah thats bad, ill chnge tht later', then you look at it again later and it looks less bad cos you been looking at it and blah blah. as i said fresh eyes are cool

ill make some more changes maybe tommorow and ill post here asap, if yall wouldnt mind checking back and giving me a thumbs up/down

also, i have been making a set of templates with another designer in my company which i will be selling on templatemonster for around $100 a piece ($3000 unique price), but im willing to give a few copies away for free to some trusted individuals for beta testing so either pm me or ill pm you seeign as you are helping me out here.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

The original background colour was hurting my eyes.

Try something like a light grey to dark grey gradient it looks cool and suits most sites.

 

[iBlue]

ok so i still need to hear a bit more about the top going missing, i know its a resolution issue, im no sure how to triiger the scroll bars tho as the flash is set to 100% size so...any ideas?

i changed the background to a nice subtle BLACK lol.
i also made menu and titlebar colour more vibrant.

I'm using a 15" powerbook so this is not an unreasonably small screen or anything. A lot of people browse with sizes such as this and smaller, so for that reason I'd definitely try to sort that out. (So it doesn't cramp at the top of the page) I'm not entirely sure how you'd do that unfortunately but it's like the entire thing needs shifting downward. I'll just attach a screenshot (does the same in Safari and Firefox, for what it's worth)

The wallpaper might look best with something lighter and more subtle. Anything too bold is hard on the eyes.

 

[dcv]

ok so i still need to hear a bit more about the top going missing, i know its a resolution issue, im no sure how to triiger the scroll bars tho as the flash is set to 100% size so...any ideas?

I don't know anything about Flash or how you're embedding it/doing the vertical centering etc but perhaps turn the vertical centering off and just set the 'top' of your site at 30px or whatever. The site at 700+ pixels in height is rather large. Maybe make it smaller overall or have an alternate (smaller) version for notebook users? Most non-scrolling, everything-on-one-page kind of sites I've seen tend to be about 500ish pixels in height to allow for the 1024x768 users to view it, including all the browser chrome.

 

[yagran]

Ok ive shrunk it
the box now measures just 490px high
i hope this fits better, you would need a browser space of < 600x470 to not e able to see the full website now.

oh yeh. and i changed the backgroundto a gradient which auto adjusts on browser resize.

i do think now that the logo and navigation take up too much space in the box, so im thinking about moving them across and stacking them vertically on the left and then having content load on the rhs, what you reckon?

some people said th logo looks a bit like marks and spencers lol, i think its different enough though:

thnx

http://www.mcfluffit.com/BeTa
(in case you forgot )

 

[redrabbit]

I have a question. I'm new to design so don't bash

That tree image is a wallpaper from interfacelift. Are you the author of that image? If not, is it ethical/legal to use it, or did you obtain the author's permission? Just curious how these things work in design. Thanks

 

[tominated]

yagran: Personally, I don't like it. The interface and everything id great, but it is in flash. Just about everything (including the animation can be done in xhtml, css and the script.aculo.us javascript framework

 

[yagran]

I have a question. I'm new to design so don't bash

That tree image is a wallpaper from interfacelift. Are you the author of that image? If not, is it ethical/legal to use it, or did you obtain the author's permission? Just curious how these things work in design. Thanks

this is beta site and is making me no money so i dont see a problem, if i were to include this in final deign obviously permission would be obtained and most likely i would consult the deisgner about purchasing the rights, however mcfluffit prides itself in being as nice as possible to everyone so i have no emailed the company to let them know.

yagran: Personally, I don't like it. The interface and everything id great, but it is in flash. Just about everything (including the animation can be done in xhtml, css and the script.aculo.us javascript framework

but i am a flash designer primarily and once the site is complete it will include many more features, i find my self more comfortable in the flash environment and i dont see why i would waste time coding into longwinded languages to achive effects which can be created in a single line of code in flash. the site is < 50kb any way s even slower connections should have no loading problems. flash and as 3.0 are the future and are something css and javascript strive to keep up with, so wh use them over flash when flash has a more common useful visual environment and is clearly the leader in the field?