[BLOOP!]

Hi guys!

I havent logged in here for the longest time as I and my friends have been working on our portfolio site. Its not done yet, but we're close to launch.

Check it here: Bloop Designs

I know it's not hardware related and It's not the best site out there but any inputs would be great. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks guys!

[DerekDRP]

Originally Posted by BLOOP!

Hi guys!

I havent logged in here for the longest time as I and my friends have been working on our portfolio site. Its not done yet, but we're close to launch.

Check it here: Bloop Designs

I know it's not hardware related and It's not the best site out there but any inputs would be great. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks guys!

Not bad lose the embedded music and your site will rock.

[Frodo Baggins]

Originally Posted by BLOOP!

Hi guys!

I havent logged in here for the longest time as I and my friends have been working on our portfolio site. Its not done yet, but we're close to launch.

Check it here: Bloop Designs

I know it's not hardware related and It's not the best site out there but any inputs would be great. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks guys!

I like it. And I don't say that often about sites. Especially those done in Flash.

There's a couple of things I usually disapprove found on your sites. One is the Flash (as far as I know, it was a bit of a fad years ago). The second is the effects (music, mouseovers, sound effects). When it comes down to it, as an artsy exercise, it's a nice site. Clean design, unobtrusive music and effects. But as a website, I'm not sure what it's purpose is. Businesses tend to favour non-flash/non-flashy designs for compatibility. Are you planning on using it for a portfolio, or will it have more practical uses.

Sorry, that shouldn't come across as harsh critique. It's a nice site and well done. But I can't name a single flash site that has survived into my daily web activities. I guess this is meant as a one-view thing?

By the way, can you share the artists for the music selection? It's very relaxing music!

[cw823]

front page configuation is missing an r - configuRation. And before that, sentence doesn't make sense, very easy to update, customised, and understand. very easy to update, customize, and understand works better.

I didn't look any farther than that, may want to have someone proofread everything.

[BLOOP!]

Originally Posted by DerekDRP

Not bad lose the embedded music and your site will rock.

Thanks! I own and lead the team but they dont want to drop the music. They over-powered me lol. Instead Ill have it not play on page load.

Originally Posted by Frodo Baggins

Businesses tend to favour non-flash/non-flashy designs for compatibility. Are you planning on using it for a portfolio, or will it have more practical uses.

Sorry, that shouldn't come across as harsh critique. It's a nice site and well done. But I can't name a single flash site that has survived into my daily web activities. I guess this is meant as a one-view thing?

By the way, can you share the artists for the music selection? It's very relaxing music!

Dont worry, I didnt get it the wrong way.

I tried everything to make the site as usable as it can be. Browser history (Back/Forward), and Refresh buttons work normally, all the pages can be tracked by Google Analytics. Try this link and you start at the portfolio page. So its not like any other flash sites that you cant send out your internal pages links.

To answer your question, the site is not going to be like a something that anybody would visit everyday to check on if they have messages or something. I am pro XHTML valid sites too. But in this case, this is something to show my/our clients our skills and what we're capable of doing. In short it's a portfolio site.

Sorry I'm at work right now. I will get you the info later.



@ CW: I got it. Those are gonna go when I launch the site this weekend.


Thanks for the replies guys! Keep 'em coming!

[Elif Tymes]

It's sort of ironic that you say you specialize in SEO and yet do your website in flash .

[JamesXP]

Not good for people with slower internet, took awhile to load for me with a 2MB connection..

Looks pretty, I'm not a fan of flash sites though...

[masakabassist]

I think its a really nice site. I have very limited coding knowledge so I'm not going to even bother looking for that sort of stuff.

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

Not completely visible at 800x600 rez and no scrol bar to see the rest of page....the music is a bit loud, and the page takes a lot of time to load...for dialup it would be an eternity...but for showing off your skills I think you are on the right track.
You might want to add some text with bulletts, so they don't end up thinking that you're hung up on Flash.

[BLOOP!]

Originally Posted by DocClock aka MadClocker

Not completely visible at 800x600 rez and no scrol bar to see the rest of page....the music is a bit loud, and the page takes a lot of time to load...for dialup it would be an eternity...but for showing off your skills I think you are on the right track.
You might want to add some text with bulletts, so they don't end up thinking that you're hung up on Flash.

It was the teams decision to drop users with resolutions lower than 1024 x 768. We are maintaining a couple of sites and just by checking those for the most part 90% have resolutions of 1024 and higher. And to be real, we are targeting clients that are here in the US which almost everybody has at least a 1M connection.

So the question is, does the user (small/large business or individual alike) that don't meet this requirements looking for an agency to develop their website? Probably not or I guess its a bad move.


Thanks for that tip! We do need to show something while the site is loading

[Elif Tymes]

Another thing to keep in mind is to design within the constraints you'd design for your client.

What do you do when your client wants flying text and spinny graphics that move and shine? If you give them to them, you're taking a huge hit to the utility of the website... Unless they're an art site or something...

You need to make sure that there's a good distribution between usability, findability, and design.

IMHO, it's better to have a site that looks plain yet is findable and usable than a site that looks insanely sweet and can't be found on google due to the fact that it's content is embedded in a flash page.

[Frodo Baggins]

Originally Posted by Frodo Baggins

By the way, can you share the artists for the music selection? It's very relaxing music!

I'm still interested.

Originally Posted by DocClock aka MadClocker

Not completely visible at 800x600 rez

When I made my site, I also took that into consideration. Looking at my current stats, about 40% are at 1024x768, 40% at 1280x1024 or over, 19% unknown and 1% at 800x600. I don't expect the 800x600 statistic to go up in the years to come.

You can't appease everybody, and designing your site for 1024x768 I think is fine -- especially a site like this. You can argue, actually, that the flash compatibility and size issues are an even bigger crutch than the 800x600 problem.

[JamesXP]

Putting something there while the page is loading isn't going to make people happy, it's a pain and annoying.(the waiting for the website)

[BLOOP!]

@ Elif: For that matter we are considering of making an AJAX/CSS version of the site. I dont know If we have time for that one anytime soon as we have a couple of websites to launch.

@ Frodo: Totally agree with what you said. I'll get you that tonight when I get home. BTW, you have a nice site.

Does it validate?

[Mr.Guvernment]

integrated musicyou cant turn off is a big no no, have a stop / start button at least, i hate music on sites i can turn off and i instantly close it and never go back, annoying hearing music if you already have music on and loud and then some website crap comes on.

[DerekDRP]

Originally Posted by Mr.Guvernment

integrated musicyou cant turn off is a big no no, have a stop / start button at least, i hate music on sites i can turn off and i instantly close it and never go back, annoying hearing music if you already have music on and loud and then some website crap comes on.

I agree with you very much so on this matter.

[curtis1552]

I think it looks really good.
My favorite is the watter dripping on the banner.
The links in the latest News sections are occasionally jerky, this could be my connection or it might not.
The icon that follows the cursor is annoying to me, but you should leave it to show that you can do it.
Wait, it only appears when the pages are loading, now that is really cool.
The pictures of you guys look good too, much better than cheesy 'stock' like photos.

PEOPLE - the music can be stopped, click on the music note at the top and click on stop.

[BLOOP!]

There is a play/stop button at the upper right part of the site. Anyway, the music is not going to be on by default. I'm going to change that tonight.

[twEEkerAreUs]

I like the template but

Get rid of the music and or allow easy access to turn it off/on. Also it is flash and normally flash sites are sort of a gimmick, but I really like the design of yours. Offer an all HTML version with no flash option to help scale, for all resolutions.

[Frodo Baggins]

Originally Posted by Mr.Guvernment

integrated musicyou cant turn off is a big no no, have a stop / start button at least, i hate music on sites i can turn off and i instantly close it and never go back, annoying hearing music if you already have music on and loud and then some website crap comes on.

Generally, yes. But for his intended audience, I would say the music is a stylistic choice, rather than a practical one. These sites are designed like movies and are intended to give customers an immersive experience. This is the only reason why I've grudgingly condoned some of the effects and music. You'll also find this in many official movie sites (I remember liking the one for Donnie Darko as a kid), and video game sites. They're usually meant as a one-visit thing.

By the way, you should always offer a non-flash alternative.

P.S. For an idea of what I mean when I say 'immersive experience', see here.