I've re-designed my website..

[laura_83]

Hello All,

I've re-designed a website (http://www.laura-brown.co.uk/bradleys/index.html) I made when I was at uni for my final dissertation.
Now without the pressure of deadlines I have been able to get it exactly as i want it. (only English version complete at present).

Its for a bar my brother runs in London. Let me know what you think, all criticism welcome.

Something i considered changing is allowing advertising along either the left or right hand side, in the black area.

Thanks, Laura

[sappo]

Hey there,

I love the rose, and the way it animates. I just don't understand if you know how to do such a nice animation why haven't you put transition on the pages. Or put a nice fade on the English button, on the homepage.

Basically I would say is I really like most the site and you must have a lot of talent. But for that reason the site has an unfinished feel to it. To me it felt like you were going to do transitions and simple fades but you haven't got around to it yet.

I would say all you need to do now is dot your 'i's and cross your 't's.

Sap

[Sadil]

(Using Firefox on a 1280x1024 resolution)

I personally don't know if using Flash for this was such a great choice....

Layout-wise, I dislike how 'feathered' the border is on the black (fading out), and the contrast of white on black doesn't appear very inviting. The contents-area for the text is kind of small is the first thing I noticed as well. You have plenty of room and the layout slightly changes when clicking on different links anyway, so why not expand it?

Although I like the idea of an image as background, just like the white on black the greys aren't overly inviting.... It looks more like an old boring house from 1920 than a cozy Spanish bar.

I really *DO* like the Jukebox page though. It's the best out of all pages - in this case, the grey background works since the foreground has different, warm colours. The upper right corner is a bit empty, but I'm not sure if that's a bad thing. ^_~ I like the selection of songs to play, but unfortunately nothing plays for me since Firefox doesn't have the missing plugins and I can't be bothered to install them.

The pop up window I get when clicking on a Jukebox song link is too small - it scrolls both horizontally as vertically to me. Which can be annoying, perhaps making it a bit bigger helps?

As with the index page, the reviews section could use a bigger contents area. And perhaps a visible scrollbar rather than just arrows?

The photographs section and location section are pretty nice though. :)

Overall, I like it 50/50. It's a Spanish bar, black and white doesn't suit a Spanish bar nor do I really see anthing typical Spanish used as logo(s) or additional graphics. It's easy to navigate and doesn't get confusing, even when the contents box is a tad small. A definite plus on that!

So basically, all I'd change is the colour composition, making the contents area bigger and adjusting the pop up windows a bit. :) :thumbup: :heartbeat

[Horus_Kol]

Flash-only website - nightmare with search engines... they will completely ignore you because they can't index you.

You can manage most of that without the Flash - just a bit of creative javascript and voila (it's what I did my corporate site after taking responsibility for it - googlebot now visits fairly regularly again) - plus you can make better use of the screen because you don't have to restrict the height and width for loading times.

As far as the layout and graphics you have - pretty good, although the font used for the navigation makes it look lilke you've gunned someone down.

[erisco]

a) The text "Virtual Bradlys" goes a bit too far off to the right.
b) You need some sort of top banner... image... something to introduce the page.

Good job, some good use of flash.

[GarrettW]

it takes way too long to load over dial-up. i just closed the window after what seemed like at least 2 minutes. sorry.
i would say this: on a site like www.homestarrunner.com, i expect some of the content to take minutes to load. but the intro and home pages there, all done in flash, load relatively quickly. i think that anyone who comes to a site should have something to see fairly quickly. if there's something that will take a while to load, make some kind of front page (no pun intended) that will load quickly, allowing serious visitors to continue on in. also, your first page could be one (in HTML, no flash) that allows people to pick a version of the site to see - HTML for a slow connection, Flash for a fast one. but of course, that would involve you making a non-flash version in addition.

[Vege]

GarrettW has a point. Atleast make a loadingscreen from where people see how long it will still take.

[laura_83]

Hey,
Thanks for all your great input.... I will continue to work on the site to get it up to scratch.
I'll let you know how i get on.
Lau

[comprookie2000]

The tour won't work with linux and firefox, the music starts playing and then it needs some kind of plug-in that is not available.

[Vege]

The tour won't work with linux and firefox, the music starts playing and then it needs some kind of plug-in that is not available.

Overall works well with FF 1.5+flash , jukebox works with mplayer plugin for FF. Alltough major flaw is that the textbox in the center is empty.

What tour are you preferring?

[corfu]

i will have to agree that the intro takes too long. but i like the feel of the site when you finally get there.

[laura_83]

The tour won't work with linux and firefox, the music starts playing and then it needs some kind of plug-in that is not available.

It needs a cortona VRML plugin - i do provide a link for this at the bottom of the page.... it was a 3D VRML movie i created at uni, and thought it was kinda cool so i wanted to include it.

Alltough major flaw is that the textbox in the center is empty.


If the text box you refer to is the media player panel, then it seems to work fine on my FF.

I guess i have got a lot of improvements to make... That should keep me busy for a while.

Thanks guys

[GarrettW]

interesting. i've never used vrml, much less known much about it.

[Raef]

I really liked this, and I'm not usually one for flash sites. My main problem was squinting at the tiny text box. There was a great amount of skill, as most people said. For for an all flash site, this was exceptionally well done (boy have I and many others I'm betting seen some terrors)