My first web site! Opinions and criticisms

calliopeia

This is my first website (it's not finished yet) I would love people's opinions and criticisms. I already know it loads really really really really slowly, Sorry! Don't know how to fix it yet. Just tell me what you think, the good, the bad and the ugly! There's not much on it yet.
Thanks
http://www.freewebs.com/calliopeiad/

Bob the Builder

Great Idea but too much flash and too big and too slow!
Also, colors aren't the best for websites, they will burn people's eyes immediatley on entry to the site

Crap loading time, as you have pointed out.
Full Flash Website! Yikes! A seach engine and browser alike look very poorly at flash websites.
People like having access to their homepage as a link on the page they are viewing...I can't find the link :rolleyes:

Well they're obvious problems which I encountered, sorry if I have been a little too critical, I'm not one to talk as I amn't great at design myself. A little flash mixed with a little HTML, with a little static images on top of that looks a lot better than 100% flash.

Run a google, many orums etc. say how 100% flash isn't great. Keep up the good work, it's your first site and be sure to learn too, rather than just keep making adjustments...

mneylon

The main page is confusing. You've got sections all over the place, so it's very hard to navigate

Sorry, but it's simply too slow to load. I tried a couple of pages and gave up

If you are using Flash you should be able to preview the load times and trim it down. There are probably tutorials on Flashkit etc., that would help you

Hal1

The bit of flash you have is taking some time to load, the site itself loads instantly for me. You could add a logo to the top right of the home page, revise the links button layout, and include some copyright information on the bottom of the home page for effect.

7aken

sorry but i gave up after first one or two pages. it looks bad at 1024x768, too much effort to navigate. idea is ok though.

daymobrew

Typos in the CV. I'm annoyed that it is in Flash and that I can't simply copy/paste the text.
"ensure that they our getting": our -> are
"there where 2 to 5 people" and "there where 1 to 3 people": where -> were
"membership forms in there correct file": there -> their

I get blank pages when in paintings.htm, flashgraphic.htm and Photoss.htm. I'm guessing that the page load stopped before the flash movie was loaded. When I did Shift+Reload it took 3 or so minutes to load.

Typo in Photoss.htm page: "but there on": there -> they are

I too would prefer a fast loading HTML page.

Gordon

It's way too large imo. Due to the flash loading times you should have a loading bar so that people don't think it's just made up of blank pages which is what I thought when I clicked a few links.

Seth Brundle

What screen size have you esigned it for? Im on 1024*768 and its way too wide - too much horizontal scrolling.
Does the photo page contain anything? I gave up waiting for it to load. That page is also untitled.

louie

Too much Flash.
If you want to keep as Flash design, i would change the size to 800px width and 600px height.

It takes too long to load (a preloader will fix that).

Nice ideea.

Rollo Tamasi

a preloader won't fix anything about the file size which is the problem and it certainly won't make the file load up any quicker.

what format are your images in? They're probably way to large
if you're going to use flash and the file is going to exceed about 300KB then use loading containers so that you can load smaller external swf files into the one large file...for example

Main.swf >

• Link1 > file1.swf
• Link2 > file2.swf
• Link3 >file3.swf

When you click on link 3 then file3.swf is loaded into main.swf

An alternative is to use onload actionscript so if you're using a timeline you can set it up so that at frame 200 an external .swf file is loaded into the container.

I'm not sure of the level of your flash as i didn't have the patience to wait for the files to load but if you want to learn further about what i just typed then check out the articles and tutorials on actionsciprt.org and visit gotoandlearn.com to if you're looking at getting into advanced flash with php/myslq

CuLT

Your CV is better off without any of those jobs listed.

Obviously very few designers start off their working life in design, but if you're leafing through the CV of someone you're considering hiring to design your company website, you don't want to hire someone who's only experience lists "sales clerk" in a few different places.

I think the previous posters have covered the rest of the issues pretty succinctly.

Gordon

Your graphics page (graphic3.swf) is 6 megabytes. Are you compressing the images in Flash? Are you compressing for Flash5? Are you using .tiffs? That's way too big for one page, and I'm on a 1meg connection right now!

calliopeia

Thanks so much for your comment and criticisms. You’re all very very very honest! I'm a little traumatised now, but I'll get back on the bike and give it another go.

Seth Brundle

Asking for and listening to advice is a good way to improve your work!
Good luck!

Bob the Builder

kbannon wrote:

Asking for and listening to advice is a good way to improve your work!

100% Agree. Good Luck!

calliopeia

Already change the graphics page and it loads alot quicker on "my computer"! Thanks for the links Rollo T!

Gordon

The graphics page is still quite large at 2.2megabytes. It should be smaller than that seeing as you are using certain graphics (the red boxes around the edge) that can be created as vectors in Flash which will severely reduce the filesize/load time. What compression are you using in Flash for the images?

Incidentally, why don't you buy a domain name instead of using freewebs? www.calliopeiad.com seems to be available. It will be looked upon in a better light to prospective clients if you have your own domain.

mneylon

Gordon wrote:

Incidentally, why don't you buy a domain name instead of using freewebs? www.calliopeiad.com seems to be available. It will be looked upon in a better light to prospective clients if you have your own domain.

And get some hosting to go with it

*cough*

Seth Brundle

you should get some of this Michele

louie

rofl. Indeed there is medicine for that nasty cough you have.

mneylon

louie wrote:

rofl. Indeed there is medicine for that nasty cough you have.

Ya think?

calliopeia

Gordon wrote:

The graphics page is still quite large at 2.2megabytes. It should be smaller than that seeing as you are using certain graphics (the red boxes around the edge) that can be created as vectors in Flash which will severely reduce the filesize/load time. What compression are you using in Flash for the images?

Incidentally, why don't you buy a domain name instead of using freewebs? www.calliopeiad.com seems to be available. It will be looked upon in a better light to prospective clients if you have your own domain.

I'm planning on buy a domain name and get hosting, But I thought would get the pages working properly, getting people opinions on it etc. Actually learn how to build a website!!! Before I spent the money... Just thought freewebs was handy for a test run (I just got broadband)

Dave!

Photo page took 5 minutes to load And it's only got 1 picture!!!

I think lose the Flash altogether mate! I hate Flash so much -_-

Figment

I Paula, it is very busy and confusing. I would say simplify the interface and let your work be the main focus, not the site itself. Try and keep the interface consistent throughout the different sections.
Also have a read up on loading bars in flash so that you can let users know how long until the site loads.

Adam

CV looks really bad imo. You've gone to all the design trouble with everything else, and yet your CV text is just wordpad-tastic! use a more attractive/professional font and space it out a bit more, its very cramped and hard to read, i gave up half way through Apps.!

spidermonkey

your cv says you can use
"Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator CS, Macromedia Flash MX 2004,PaintShop Pro, "
so in my opinion you should use these skills to produce something visually pleasing.
would you go out with some one who looks like a dogs arse?
based on your site i wouldn't employ you for design
you also have knowlege of
"Programming Languages (Advanced to Intermediate Knowledge) C, C++, HTML"
so why not put them to good use and produce something functional.
there is a wealth of useful knowledge& tutorials on the net.

honesty, unfortunatly is the best policy

looking forward to an updated site!

calliopeia

spidermonkey wrote:

your cv says you can use
"Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator CS, Macromedia Flash MX 2004,PaintShop Pro, "
so in my opinion you should use these skills to produce something visually pleasing.
would you go out with some one who looks like a dogs arse?
based on your site i wouldn't employ you for design
you also have knowlege of
"Programming Languages (Advanced to Intermediate Knowledge) C, C++, HTML"
so why not put them to good use and produce something functional.
there is a wealth of useful knowledge& tutorials on the net.

honesty, unfortunatly is the best policy

looking forward to an updated site!

Your honesty is harsh ("true") But harsh! In my defence I have little time and I wanted to play with flash (badly, yes!) But I'm going to work on it.

Gordon

If you have little time you shouldn't be playing with flash tbh. Work on a static site and then when you have time you can convert to flash (if you still wish, but bear in mind that even though this is the Webmaster/Flash forum; people here are rather anti-flash here [for very good reasons imo]!).