Site Review Please - Flash website...

[johnmak]

Hi there.

This is the first full flash site that i have built.

I know that i wont win any awards for it but i think it is a decent attempt.

Its not 100% finished but can i get some feedback please?

http://www.houseofmulben.com

----- goto flash


Thanks.John.

 

[VBRookie]

Very nice John ... impressive for a first attempt. I can't think of too many criticisms. The problem I usually have with flash sites is that the navigation is not always intuitive but it seems to be rather straight forward on your site.

Bravo!
- VB Rookie

 

[glenmac]

Nice site, although I think it's a little too busy. I like your use of color. I'm not a flash person though and think your html site is nicer.

Glen

http://lantzvillecomputers.ca

 

[Stoemp]

Nice site, but I would place a skip-button on the flash intro. Once you've seen an intro, you want to skip it.

 

[jenmay]

I like it...I agree you should have a skip intro button. Also, I don't know if it was just me, but I had to watch it three times to be able to catch all of the quotes/comments. I would, perhaps, leave the quotes up for a few seconds longer as I think that is a good selling point. I'm always interested in what other people have said about services/products before I try them.
(Can you tell I'm in Marketing?!)
Anyway, great job! I think it gets the point across very well.


Jenny May

 

[Foamcow]

Please don't take this harshly (as it is a good effort), but why use Flash at all?
What does the Flash experience offer (other than the long intro and section transition animations) that could not be done with HTML?

One of the greatest "crimes" of Flash sites is that they are simply a gratuitous use of a technology. They use Flash simply for the sake of using it and don't actually enhance the user experience. In fact, they generally only succeed in adding a barrier to the ultimate aim of a site like this - communication of information.
Yours is by far from being the worst offender though! It is actually usable and legible.

Other than that, it's a very nice first go at a Flash site. Congrats.

PS.. add a skip intro button and perhaps a cookie to detect if the user had seen it before.
Also, think about what you can offer the user by using Flash as opposed to using HTML. If you are going to use a media then IMHO you should really use it.

On the whole though.. well done.

 

[dc20]

Intro "...prefferably 1 day in advance"
should be preferably (one f)

In archery, "...can be used by both men and woman"
should be women (plural).

Also in archery "...is great fun and throughly enjoyable"
should be thoroughly.

Regarding the use of tuition, such as
"...given full tuition on how to ride".
It might be a regional thing, but where I come from
that's a fee for instruction, not instruction itself.
So I would say ...given full instruction on how to ride.
But, whatever.

Nice website. Hope someday to own that software package to play with.

 

[Stoemp]

Another thing that I'd like to see different is the e-mail links on the website. The font is not that easy to read and the links are not clickable. When I want to send a mail to this address, I have to type it all in - that's not what I want.

 

[TruthInSatire]

I think it's a good first atempt.

I love flash sites myself, I think it brings more interaction to the web. The problem with your flash site is, like foamcow said, most of your transitional effects can be done with dhtml.

Using flash also hides most of your sites content from search spiders.

Flash, in my opinion should be used for movies, intros (which bother alot of people), training demos, games and other interactions like (

http://www.bacardidj.com/

) and to accomplish real off the wall navigation tricks. Good flash sites think outside the normal website navigation "box".

Your layout and function can be accomplished without flash and in my opinion, if you like that layout better use html to accomplish it.

I did think the graphics were better on the html site, and could be used to improve the look of the flash site.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
-Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

 

[ChrisHunt]

I'm with Foamcow in the "Why use Flash for this?" brigade. The only "features" it adds are irritating splash screens and transitions. Conversely, it seems to have less actual content.

In addition to the spelling mistakes that dc20 spotted (beating me to it, dammit!), on the fly fishing page it should be "The fish are rainbow trout which are defined with their colourful stripe through their body" (though I'd suggest "The fish are rainbow trout, identified by a colourful stripe through their body" instead). The clay pigeon page also talks about "men and woman". I was quite tickled by (on the home page) "In between sessions you can enjoy a fully cooked barbeque lunch" - you mean it isn't partly cooked? I'm glad to hear your chef is competent, but it isn't necessary to spell it out!

I know it seems picky to quibble about your copy, but it's little things like that that undermine the quality of the end result. While you're at it, some minor cuts (like that "fully cooked") could get each section to fit in the text box without scrolling - which would improve the design.

A pure design point - on the Map page, I'd like to be able to click on the flashing dot to zoom in, as well as on the "zoom in" link. There should also be a way to zoom out.

All-in-all it's OK, if you like this sort of thing. However, I think you'd be much better off concentrating your time & effort on building a good HTML site instead.


-- Chris Hunt

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

 

[MichiganRon]

I am able to submit the "contact" form without entering any data. You should check the form fields for data before allowing the form submission. Also, when I did submit it without any data, I got the following error message:

<error>

http://www.houseofmulben.com

is attempting to read from houseofmulben.com. This is a potentially insecure operation. Do you want to allow it?
</error>

You'll want to correct this problem. I did not try submitting with data, so I don't know if the error would occur. Also, I agree with some of the earlier statements regarding the intro. I had a hard time reading each screen before it switched to the next. Slow the intro just a little bit if you want visitors to be able to read each screen.

All in all, good job. Just a few kinks need to be ironed out.

-Ron

We all play from the same deck of cards, it's how we play the hand we are dealt which makes us who we are. -Me

murof siht edisni kcuts m'I - PLEH