Site Review plz!

fluent

Hey Folks, looking for some feedback on new site.

http://www.fluent.ie

Many Thanks
Pete

aidan_walsh

Nice clean design.

Pity its Flash only, a HTML version would be nice for people without. And a way to switch the music off would be nice too.

fluent

cheers... just click on the music levels up top and it switches off!!!

aidan_walsh

Ah, so it does. I never noticed those...

Serbian

I like it, but would second a HTML version.

BizzyC

Nice design.

Most people try to be to flashy with flash*.
Get a html site going, and you'll be laughing.

[size=-2]*not meant to be funny....[/size]

Rollo Tamasi

the flash is excellent, well done, its not over the top or anything.
html version would also be nice to see

good work

(the resolution on the image for "print" seems to be of a noticable lesser standard res than the others, maybe its my monitor thou?)

mneylon

Nice site once you get into it, but aren't splash pages very 1996?

sticker

I'd have to say it's really quite nice - great work.

axer

Very nice design, but have you ever looked at your site with a text browser like lynx? because after the splash page you see *nothing* (i doubt thats good SEO).

fluent

blacknight wrote:

Nice site once you get into it, but aren't splash pages very 1996?

heya,
Whats wrong with splash pages ?

Thx for you feedback, but It sounds like a quote from a Hugs bros flick! That’s so 96!! lol Please ppl get over this bullsh1t on trends for webdesign...

Splash pages are the best way to provide an instant point of contact, ppl don't want to click 3/4 times if it’s just a Ph number or email address they are after. If someone really wants to view your site then a splash page is hardly going to deter them.

Not sure if notice but the majority of the best design work online have splash pages...they are there for a reason...

BN u not have broadband ? hosting n 'all .... its optimised for BB as it states.
on 2mb connection takes less than 10 seconds to access. totaly size is 800kb

Many thanks though, always open to hear constructive criticism
Pete

mneylon

You asked for feedback. I gave it.
I don't like splash pages - see my original comment.
It's got nothing to do with connection speed but general aesthetics. I hate websites adorned with "click to enter" or any variation on that theme.

fluent

axer : ta, yeah i have... its a mess i know... but this has been designed with IE and Firefox in mind as two most popular still to date. sorry for the hassel. wanna a laugh try it on a linux box !! lol

fluent

Yep BN
I Appreciate you feedback very much. And totally respect you opinion on aesthetics.
But "u asked" if they were 96 so just wanted to clarify my feeling towards the statment you made. no hard feeling!
thx again.

P&L

fluent, I gave you my opinion elsewhere, so no need to repeat here...

just want to comment on splash page and html comments - it seems you are really putting 'your design' first and user wants and needs second, a lot of people will here would disagree with that ethos, it's not "bullsh1t", it's an opinion - and an important one IMO.

fluent

thats kewl P&L... your entitled to your opinion also, personally i disagree...

The fact is that there have always been trends that web designers seem to get into and grow out off. for instance, To ask if a design feature is out of date, just reflects this point, its not an opinion or even a question, its a statement associating a design to a particular trend from a previous date in time...I am sorry, but this in my opinion is nonsense… and has nothing to do with design over function, just trends.

When it comes to my own personnel site yeah I do agree that my design is sometimes put before visitor wants, but I think im entitled to do so if I choose, as it’s a reflection of my own individual style. But this is only on my own site.. I have always put function over fashion a priority for client work and always will.

Regarding HTML, As I said before I not too bothered to get this particular site list at the moment as back to back, so no need for html at this point, most of the work I receive comes word of mouth etc, we all know that trying to get design work online is a joke these days, Again lets be honest its about who you know these days anyways… the majority of the major sites that’s are developed within Ireland these days reflects this..

impr0v

Oh look, the anti-flash flash mob has convened again, *yawn*.

Nice site, two comments though:

The music, while initially clean and complimentary to the site, eventually has a hypnotic effect that perhaps doesn't project the right image...might be just me.

The site needs another run over with a spell checker.

fluent

naw not anti flash ppl, different strokes different folks!! prefer ppls honesty over buttered up ****! yeah agree with music, will change eventually, for the time being by pressing the level icon uptop you can stop the audio... yep will do another check many thx

kstanl

impr0v wrote:

Oh look, the anti-flash flash mob has convened again

You mean underachieving, over-opinionated trend whores?

P&L

fluent wrote:

thats kewl P&L... your entitled to your opinion also, personally i disagree...

no... were actualy in agreement, just trying to explain you why you might be getting a lot of repitition in the responses, so hopefully you don't feel the need to be too defensive.

The fact is that there have always been trends that web designers seem to get into and grow out off. for instance, To ask if a design feature is out of date, just reflects this point, its not an opinion or even a question, its a statement associating a design to a particular trend from a previous date in time...I am sorry, but this in my opinion is nonsense… and has nothing to do with design over function, just trends.

Dead right, the CSS Vault clone is very tiring. I thought you and BlackKnight had sorted that? come on - she wasn't being arsy

When it comes to my own personnel site yeah I do agree that my design is sometimes put before visitor wants, but I think im entitled to do so if I choose, as it’s a reflection of my own individual style.

we all do!

we all know that trying to get design work online is a joke these days, Again lets be honest its about who you know these days anyways… the majority of the major sites that’s are developed within Ireland these days reflects this..

Only thing I disagree with you on, both online and offline can be a good source of work.

@impr0v
If you are even slightly directing that comment at me, you've got all wrong mate, I've already told fluent I love the site, and think some of those in their portfolio are quite beautiful.

@kstanl ...

fluent

Thx P&L
Wasn't havin a go a BlackNight, sorry if it came arcoss that way, this is the reason you replied to me original post though, so was jsut using it to make the point. Have allot of respect for BN's involvement within the industry, so again sorry if felt i was havin a dig. wasn't the case.
regarding the last point, I def agree that html has its uses, unfortunatally i have very little confidence in listing and work from it especially in Ireland, hence my feeling on the html side, there is more oppertunity from joining the few directories etc for work that there is from listing though... especially web work.
Thx again for you replies..

rsynnott

Music? MUSIC?! Are you MAD?

kstanl wrote:

You mean underachieving, over-opinionated trend whores?

Show me a well-designed Flash based website (ie. one that is in some way enough better than an equivalent real website to overcome the unavoidable problems of flash)

cgarvey

I'm with rsynott on that one.. music?? ffs if I wanted cheap Commodore 64 music, or bandwidth-hogging MP3 quality music, I don't visit some $random website for it, I fire up my own MP3 player. I think music is extremely tacky, and tend only to see (or hear, as the case may be) it used on sites that use it for the sake of "look, see what I can do". I think web site owners/designers/maintainers really need to ask "what's the purpose/function of this site" if you feel the need for music. There are certain exclusions, of course, but this site isn't one of them.

Flash is a very useful, and powerful, tool, but used in the right context. There's absolutely no need for Flash in this case, that I can tell. None whatsoever. Maybe the smoking chimneys is easier done in Flash, but that's all I can see. So instead, you design a website that excludes any alternative browser, demands a browser plugin (and demand that that plugin be enabled), is completely unfriendly to the dialup users (don't forget the vast majority of Irish home users are on dialup), and is not going to score you any SEO points.

That to me is a case of design more than functionality. As a web design company, I think that logic is very badly flawed, especially when there is nothing on that page that can't be achieved in xHTML.

I'd also like to point out the irony of Fluent's earlier post

ppl don't want to click 3/4 times if it’s just a Ph number or email address they are after

. OK, so I'm with you not having the user needing to click 3/4 times for a phone number, but instead you insist that I download 800KB, and then wait for silly animation. To cap it all off, I can't even copy the friggin number at the end of it all!

Don't get me wrong, it looks good, but your choice of deleivery platform, unnecessarily excludes a lot of users, and will undoubtedly have a negative impact on your SE ranking. The music, you could argue, is just a matter of opinion.

P&L

fluent wrote:

Thx P&L
Wasn't havin a go a BlackNight, sorry if it came arcoss that way, this is the reason you replied to me original post though, so was jsut using it to make the point. Have allot of respect for BN's involvement within the industry, so again sorry if felt i was havin a dig. wasn't the case.
regarding the last point, I def agree that html has its uses, unfortunatally i have very little confidence in listing and work from it especially in Ireland, hence my feeling on the html side, there is more oppertunity from joining the few directories etc for work that there is from listing though... especially web work.
Thx again for you replies..

Cool, we both know where we are coming from
Good luck with everything, hope to see pleny more from you.

Figment

I like it. Smooth, clear and slick.
In terms of flash v html, it works for its intended audience and use so that's all that really matters.

I am with others on the splash page, you are just adding one extra barrier between your visitor and the information they are looking for. I realise you have already picked out the important information that you think they will be looking for but what if that's not it? But its not a biggie

fluent

Cgarvey: Thx for your post,
Just to respond to a few points you made,
Quote:
“There's absolutely no need for Flash in this case, that I can tell” None whatsoever.

Isn’t that a bit self retches of you to say !?!

The use of flash for this site is personal choice as stated before. As you might use XHTML or php, asp whatever I choose to use flash, I’m well aware of the minor drawbacks flash comes with, but so do most applications for online content. Im a designer coming from a anim BG so obvious choice would be flash don’t u think, as you being a coder I take, you would choose something else perhaps. I’m well aware of the benefits each delivery platform has to provide, this is just my choice of delivery… for something different basically.

Quote:
"instead you insist that I download 800KB, and then wait for silly animation. To cap it all off, I can't even copy the friggin number at the end of it all!"

I don’t insist anything its freedom of choice and regarding ph number yeah that was an error, u can select it now! Nice one for noticing

Regarding having to load 800kb, if the site was say html and I was to view each page with same amount of content on each page including transitions etc on the image, it would well exceed the 800kb mark, so try put it into proportion you see there is an overall benefit of using a single flash files, uses great compression techniques for every element of the content. In my opinion Flash wins hands downs for delivery of large visual content over any other online media.
Yep agrees with the logicimage and xhtml statement totally, hence why its currently down, that site was more a test-bed for ideas than anything else, xhtml still need to learn allot more about.

As for SE etc that’s not my current aim for this site, have little faith in work from SE listings etc, As most of us do, it’s about who u know, networking and direct sales where the majority of web work comes from in Ireland.

I’m also well aware of ppl who might be left out, but home users aren’t my target audience and as for html, ive stated already my reason for lack of interest in it at this point.

As for browsers firefox and ie as standard, there are a handful of ppl/companies who actually use alternative browsers, As for plugins ie. Flash.. Isn’t it time they got up to date… Most ppl have no problem installing flash since more and more sites use it.


Appreciate your honest feedback and look forward to your opinions on further work soon to be put live! Many thanks
and hope i didn't step on anyones toes!

rsynnott

http://flashblock.mozdev.org/

fluent

lol nice one :0)

fluent

I should maybe have a linkon the splash to get flashblock instead of get flash plugin!

dangerman

I love the smoke coming out of the chimneys.

Good job.