Anybody want to road test my new site?

Ok, text is supposed to be courier, not Roman. I'll change that. The Gallery was a design I did several years ago, and apparently, is a huge issue. It's gone until I an integrate it better.

Now, on to the flash. Aside from the intro, how did the flash work for you? Should I add a player with controls to all of the flash?
 
Capt Quirk said:
Ok, text is supposed to be courier, not Roman. I'll change that. The Gallery was a design I did several years ago, and apparently, is a huge issue. It's gone until I an integrate it better.
Click to expand...


Courier is still a seriff font. It clashes with the look. I would still go with a sans-seriff font like suggested by others (and myself). It fits the theme better.
 
Alright, just a couple thoughts. My two cents...

1. The sidebar and topbar are redundant design elements. Pick one of them and stick with it. If you want people to navigate with the sidebar cool, use that one, or the topbar, cool. Having both choices is like having a dog with two tails. Kind of cool at first, but creepy after the first day.

2. The colors are too dark. Black just tends to swallow up the eye, and whenever I see it in websites I think of it as a beginner making a website. Try something lighter that doesn't swallow up the viewer.

3. The graphic with the high def writing is unclear. Already mentioned by everyone else, but I'll reiterate.

4. Simplify the design and text in the portfolio section. At the moment all of the text blends together. I think your header and text information is all bold at the moment. I would just keep the header bold and then text unbolded. Also, I would put a lot of that info into a clickable resume, and just have portfolio for clips. It would clean things up.

5. I think a short blurb on your services on the home page would be good.

6. I'm not a fan of gear sections. Hardware doesn't sell your skills, it just says you have the toys but doesn't say anything about the skills. You need a strong reel and clips that display your past experience. Everyone has gear.

7. I would look at other video sites out there for inspiration. Look at what you like from each site, and also look for the elements that each good site shares.

8. Don't forget that people surfing have short attention spans. It's kind of like watching tv, you want to keep things short and sweet. People aren't going to read your whole gear section, but they will watch your polished reel.
 
Isaac-
1. A lot of what you say is true, about the redundancy of the two navigation bars. This is something I have been doing in all my frames built sites, in case a single page is opened, they can still surf the other pages. I know there are a lot of frames haters, but I still end up going back to them, but I'm trying to phase them out.

2. I'm in a black phase right now, and it matches my camera ;)

3. I tried using a png instead of a gif, and it is readable to my old eyes. But, I will rework it for others.

4. Noted, and will do.

5. The home page will get done, when I'm able to get the rest of the site "tight".

6. I'm not a fan of gear sections either, but it helps answer some questions. For instance, number 1 question asked? "What camera do you use?". I feel it is important to list, in case somebody with a DVX wants a second shooter. They will know there is a world of difference in the two formats. I think I will phase that page out, and list some specifics on the home page.

7. I have seen many other sites, but this is a design idea that has been bugging me for a while. So I might as well get it out of my system, and if it still doesn't work, I can always do another redraft. Right now, I'm trying to make it work well.

8. Ahh... the demo reel. I really wish a I had a lot of cool stuff to throw into one, but I don't. Two thirds of what I have shot, has been as a second camera, where I hand the tape off at the end and never get to see it again. Again, that is something I'm working on. When my camera returns from being repaired, I'll go through all my old tapes, and try to put something cohesive together. And that is what the whole intro page was supposed to be, only it doesn't want to work right.

Thanks you for your observations, they really do matter. However, it would also be nice to know what resolution you are running, so I can scale the graphics properly. I don't know what you are using, so I have to go by what I'm using. Hell, I used to do everything for 800x600, just so that it would work for most everyone. If they were using 640x480, they were already pretty screwed, so it didn't matter anyways.
 
I don't mind somoeone listing gear if it's gear worth listing. If you have 3 varicams, 4 quad core networked workstations and a grip truck, that show me that you have resources and probably can turn around a project quickly and professionally.

But telling me you have 2 batteries is reaching a bit.

If I know about gear, listing an ATR 55 will tell me your audio experience is limited. If I don't, it won't matter what you list.

Telling me you have a Sony DVD RW is like saying you have a cell phone. Who doesn't have that or something similar? My niece is 12. She has a laptop with a DVD RW.

It seems like you are trying to impress, but it's not working. It is more likely to show your limitations to anyone with any experience. If you want to list gear, just say you have " all the high definition video equipment and state of the art non-linear editing systems to meet your needs"...or something like that.

I think the site has a lot of potential, keep at it. It is remininding me how badly mine needs to be overhauled.
 
Ok Jim, point taken. On the other hand, what should I list? Maybe " JVC HD100u, package, including fluid tripod, shotgun mic, extended battery packs"? Is that simplified enough, while still answering the "What camera" question?
 
You need to have home... be home.

Right now I would suggest simplicity and visual stimulation. I need to say "wow, this looks great and it's easy to navigate". Right now I think the side navigation bar is too large and intrusive, while your website has 0% visual appeal.

(Easy to navigate does not mean large child like buttons either.)

Take a look at websites you like and take the best of their designs to build yours. Give it a visual punch.
 
Ok, I'm not 100% happy yet, nor am I done yet. But, I took the suggestions offered, and tried to implement them to the best of my ability, while trying to keep the original style in tact. Last time I'll throw this out there- Link

Thanks again everyone, and let me know of any problems with the way it works, and what browser it didn't work well in.
 
It is A LOT better. Especially with the font chosen. I'm still not a fan of it, but you seem to like the design.

The part that screams "amateur!!!" has to be the buttons on the side. Like I mentioned before, underlines are not very nice (it's just adding lines to a layout that don't fit). I understand that it's automatically underlined when you make a link, but this is why everyone makes a button. It's easy to do one. It's just a clickable image. I would make it a .gif with a transparent background, as Jpegs don't have transparency.

Also try to not do it italic for the links. Using italic is trying to be fancy, but the purpose of italic is simply to make something stand out (an emphasis) in a text. For example:

"I hate this place." -Agent smith

It shouldn't be used in design. It just makes it look amateur and looks like your trying to be fancy, but it just makes the text lopsided.

Italics in the CV though are fine IMO.

Last part has to be the animation of the menu coming in. I'm just not a fan of it. Feels like it's still trying to look nice and be fancy. But it doesn't bug me as much as the underlined links.

BTW, check your link
 
The hyperlinks are temporary, until I can figure out flash and dreamweaver's timelines, and finish filling the site out with content. My coding skills are limited, to say the least, and I'm using some new methods. Let me put it to you another way... I had to help my teacher with the frames exercise, because she couldn't get it to work. That was almost 10 years ago.

So, I'm polishing, trimming, and trying to get the look the way I want it. I'll get my camera back in a couple weeks (I hope!), get out my old tapes, and some new ones, and try to cut a better demo reel.

And I could still really use some help with that flash ;)
 
Mostly preloaders and load bars, getting the video to work smoother. I could live with that :) I don't have flash, and haven't found a full freebie program that will do what I want.
 
Jon Starr said:
The part that screams "amateur!!!" has to be the buttons on the side. Like I mentioned before, underlines are not very nice (it's just adding lines to a layout that don't fit). I understand that it's automatically underlined when you make a link, but this is why everyone makes a button. It's easy to do one. It's just a clickable image. I would make it a .gif with a transparent background, as Jpegs don't have transparency.
Click to expand...

You dont have to make it an image. You could just use some CSS for example. Images always have to load. And you can not change the link so easily, you have to create a new image instead of just typing a new link.

You can look at an example on my site if you want to:
www.nomis.de.vu

The links are all made with CSS. No images at all. And your possibilities are countless :)
 
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Interesting site Nomis. Nice to see someone else still using frames ;)
Unfortunately, I don't use CSS. It was another one of those things my teacher didn't fully understand either, and all those years ago, I figured I would never use it anyways. Now that I'd like to give it a whirl, I'm still not getting it.
 
Actually I am not using frames at all :D Where did you see them?

Ok, it was just an idea. I can totally understand not using CSS. I also had my problems in the beginning.
 
I checked out the page source, and definitely saw frames. Dude... it's not nice to mess with me in the morning :angry:

On a second look, I see there was a row of links at the top the first time, not there now.
 
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