My Website All in Flash !!!!

[erol]

Hi all, this is my website,
I've designed it all in Flash, hope you like it...

http://www.etw-design.com

[the tree]

That's really quite horrific, it's far to stretched to be legible.
Why is it all in flash anyway? Do you specifically not want it to accessable?

[febrocks]

I'm not design expert but it's not layed out very well. You got big gap on the left side of the page. But I do like the flash. You should make the guys head move and then palse few seconds, repeat.

The only browser I can really see it normally is Opera 8. IE is not bad but FF and Netscape stretch it where it's not readable.

Eugene

[robbiew24uk]

Hi

Not to sure on the whole site, just a couple of questions...

1. What is your field, web designer, print, advertising???????

2. what is a body wedge??????

Thanks

[robbiew24uk]

lol, I just viewed your site in firefox and it looks pretty good but very squashed, from what I can see your work looks good and the layout seems well done, just a shame about the layout in firefox. I like the transition you have aswell

Anyway keep up the good work

:)

[pottersdt2k]

I hate being overly critical, and I try not to criticise without good reason...

I don't like this site!

The site is so stretched horizontally, I can't even make out the navigation, text or understand what the images are.

As a result of this, once I saw your index page, I closed the window.
Therefore, you've just missed out on a visitor, and one who won't return unless the site is changed drastically - i.e. that over-stretch is fixed for a start!
If you were a profit-seeking business, you could've just lost a potential major customer as a result of this basic design error...

But you were lucky; I don't usually look at, or stick around for "100%" flash sites - being bulky files, it can take forever to download over a 56k connection, which is what I'm running right now.

If you must have a flash site, make sure you provide an alternative "standard" non-flash site - some people (particularly surfers just starting out on the Internet) may not have flash installed, or understand why they need to download something to view your site. And if they have a 56k connection like me, they may not be patient enough to download the site to view it...

Remember that most users will only stick around for 10 seconds waiting for a page to load - anything longer than that and they'll "Back out" of the site...

Site Review:
Browser: Firefox 1.5.0.2
Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Connection: 56k dial-up

[erol]

ok guys, thanks for all your comments and letting me know the problem with it :-),
I believe I have sorted it out now, I've checked it with IE, Netscape and Firefox and it all seems to work well, just a quick reminder, you'd need Flash Player 8 to view my Flash site......
answer to some questions asked --> I don't do html although I'm in the middle of learning a little more, I just design in Flash only as I choose to and have been doing for a good while now but still learning more, Bodywedge is a one page Flash website !, if you would re-visit the site , each section has a button below so it can be viewed in a new window.
I believe it should work well with a slow connection as each section loads seperately and no more than 300kb so it should load pretty fast,
I will be building a non Flash site for my portfolio too as and when I became a little more familiar with html and Dreamviewer :-)
but overall I just love to design in Flash and since I had a few good happy clients I put some of my work together and built my site in Flash.
thanks again for all your comments and critisism and for checking out my site......

[wh666-666]

yes to most of whats been said ... also get rid of the counter .. totally misplaced and they look rubbish anyway and your site has no possible need for it

[NogDog]

Well, since I intentionally don't have Flash installed on Firefox, all I get is a hit counter and a couple useless links. So basically the web site is inaccessible to people using text-to-speech browsers, text-only browsers, etc., as well as those of us who just find 99% of Flash on the web to be annoying eye candy. (I do have Flash installed on IE for any Flash sites I absolutely have to visit for some reason or other.)

[drbearded]

i personally like the site but why in ALL flash

[a.g.r.c]

Erol, This site is almost an exact copy from a tutorial CD supplied by the guys at learnflash.com, the link for it is

http://tutorials.learnflash.com/flashtips/website_tour.html

thanks for saving me the cash as i was going to go on and buy this, but now having seeing it actually implemented online, i think oiginality is the key forward. The website is okie it has been implemented alright, the dodgy hit counter puts it off slightly and maybe think about looking into the software "poser" as to animating your cool dood of a mascot. Your site has been a learning curve for you i bet, as for me also. I now realise, stick to what you know, get ideas and inspiration from others and your surrounding, but seeing the same thing on numerous level website is not a cool way to do things.

Sorry budd good job on implementation of a tutorial, but thumbs down for lack originality.

Goodluck.

Alistair Rossini

[felgall]

You need a bit more on the site than a counter and some flash (that a lot of people don't run and so wont see) if you want people to visit.

[tylivia]

Flash sites are great, if you're intended audience expects to see a Flash site.

Some example are:

1. Band sites
2. Entertainment sites
3. Gaming sites

I like to use Steve Krug's 6 second rule: "A page that does not load in 6 seconds will in most cases result in the visitor closing the browser or moving on to another site."

A solution for this, if you are hell-bent on having a flash site, is to have an alternative "non-flash" version of your site.

[tylivia]

Erol, This site is almost an exact copy from a tutorial CD supplied by the guys at learnflash.com, the link for it is

http://tutorials.learnflash.com/flashtips/website_tour.html

thanks for saving me the cash as i was going to go on and buy this, but now having seeing it actually implemented online, i think oiginality is the key forward. The website is okie it has been implemented alright, the dodgy hit counter puts it off slightly and maybe think about looking into the software "poser" as to animating your cool dood of a mascot. Your site has been a learning curve for you i bet, as for me also. I now realise, stick to what you know, get ideas and inspiration from others and your surrounding, but seeing the same thing on numerous level website is not a cool way to do things.

Sorry budd good job on implementation of a tutorial, but thumbs down for lack originality.

Goodluck.

Alistair Rossini

You know, I was recently duped by one of my clients. They sent me a template that they said their first web designer started. They wanted me to use the template , but to make changes to the color, text, etc...

Someone on this forum made me aware that the same exact style was at www.owsd.com.

Talk about embarrasing! I actually had the members do a usability review on the site, as I do with all of my sites. I enojoy everyone's input here as it is almost always constructve and sometimes brutally honest.

I am in the process of re-designing that site now...as I have made my client aware of the template hi-jacking!

[wh666-666]

Templates are good though but its ultimately the designer in the end. One could argue nothing is truely original and all ideas derive from somewhere. If a designer looks at a template for inspiration, what they like and dont like and alters it to such an extent where their happy and it isnt a template but a personalised site then thats fine. But for a designer it is horrific! Anyway lancaster in UK? if so then thankfully not a threat to my designs!

[tylivia]

Templates are good though but its ultimately the designer in the end. One could argue nothing is truely original and all ideas derive from somewhere. If a designer looks at a template for inspiration, what they like and dont like and alters it to such an extent where their happy and it isnt a template but a personalised site then thats fine. But for a designer it is horrific! Anyway lancaster in UK? if so then thankfully not a threat to my designs!

Thanks for not making me feel worse about it than I already do! :)

[cojemeachin]

Templates are made for studip clients

[cojemeachin]

I dont like flash effects. I dont like a lot of graphics. I dont like colours used by you.

[erol]

ok, cojemeachin denis, I understand you don't like flash and all that, not many webdesigners do, I respect your opinion and others !, I just checked your site and I don't like your site and the colors you used , gotta respect to each others opinion !, not to mention calling a lot people "stupid clients" as there as lots of respectable people out there who may like to use templates by choice.

wh666-666, lots of other good designers out there may say "thankfully not a threat to my designs!" to you, how would you like that? I don't think that anyone in this forum is trying to be in competition but learn from each other as it was my purpose for joining here but I know one thing that I don't need to learn here is manners as some may still need to improve.
nobody has to like flash, html, graphics, java or whatever in designing, but it doesn't cost to be nice , I respect anyone whether they are top professionals or beginners.

Thank you all for all your comments, no disrespect to any designer but I now think I'm in the wrong forum...

stay cool and happy designing.......

[Ultimater]

The site can be enhanced by providing a text-based hyperlink to the Flash file for accessibility
http://www.etw-design.com/etw-design-index.swf

[tylivia]

I agree with erol, there is no room for using such childish language. This forum is for critiquing and offering advice.

I believe some here need to read over the rule: "Keep your critique respectful." Here is the link for those who haven't read over this yet.

http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72205