Hi -
I'm in tragic need of some constructive criticism. I've recently posted my site and am in need of feedback from anyone who's interested.
I don't want to say anything leading in, only that it is a 'portfolio' website (design/animation).
Here's the URL;
http://www.orrieking.com/jemma/
Thanks to anyone interested.
Shawn
Just some secondhand conventional wisdom I've heard over the years, is that it's a cardinal sin to have "guess what it is" as your interface, where you really don't know until you roll over the shape. That big graphic is so huge that the options look like three insignificant hyphens. I only went over there because nothing on the page looked like it did anything. They're way too small to be interesting or functional or intuitive. I think the text sits too low overall.
Here's the thing though. I'm using Flash 9, and because it's in beta, I got the "You don't have Flash" kind of message, so I went to View Source and opened the Flash file directly. If any of that is different on the actual site when it displays correctly, don't mind anything I said =)
Your site takes an exceedingly long time to load, with little indication other than that band thing that anything's going on. A status bar would be nice.
Fonts and nav are waaaaaaaaay too small. Why would any employer/client want to work that hard to read your text or click on a button? If you're trying to prove you can do tiny text on a coarse display like a monitor, fine; just don't use it everywhere.
The rotoscope work is pretty cool, but the animation definitely needs some work.
I'd organize my still image portfolio into groupings based on subject or technique or such if I were you. Then, make each section navigable with thumbnails or something, rather than linear. At the very least, let the viewer know how much longer they have til they're at the end.
Hope this helps.
I agree with what's been said. The dash interface is very confusing and I don't like the way the mouse cursor disappears when I roll over them. It causes me to loose my place and to feel disoriented. I also think that you should slow down your animation montage. I have a high speed FIOS conection, so loading wasn't an issue for me, but the montage went by so quickly that I couldn't really see the work.
I just completed a redesign of my own website, so I know how frustrating it is to spend a lot of time working on something and not have people understand how to use it. I thought that my first site had a unique design and was different than anything else out there, but too many people found it too complicated to use and lost interest in visiting the site again.
It's tricky to find a good mix between design and functionality, but the most important thing to keep in mind is the user. You could have the most interesting interface out there, but if no one can use it, they won't come back.
Sharvonique Studios
www.sharvonique.com
Animated By Sharvonique Blog
http://sharvonique.animationblogspot.com
AWN Showcase Gallery
Hey everyone -
Gotta say a big Thank You for all your critiques.
You all were most kind and earnest. I'll carefully consider all your advice - I guess it can be a fine line between avant garde and annoying...
I'll let you know when I've posted the re-design.
Thanks again,
Shawn
How big is your initial flash/page. I've been waiting 20 minutes.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Almost 8 megs you have to be kidding. This isn't avant garde it's not even fair to good flash usage. This is what gives Flash a bad name. Time to rethink your site.
I have more than 20 megs of material on my site, no one has to wait for the entire thing to download, that's what Flash was designed for to make the material available without the long waits.
Think about making your site modular, it's easier to update and certainly more user friendly. Only the sections the user wants to see have to download.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Hi there,
I'm new to this forum, but I am an Interaction Designer by trade - in other words I design and build user interfaces for web sites, applications, etc and have been doing so for 10 years. (Just want to qualify why I am giving some advice).
What has been said already, you should take heed to. One thing so *few* artists understand about the web is that it is about communication, not art. If someone is looking at your work with an idea of evaluating you for hire, you are in trouble. If it were me, I would not have spent more than 60 seconds on your site.
Users abandon web sites in a twinkling of an eye. Yours takes too long to load, has text that is way too small, and is incredibly confusing. Not only does that make your work inaccessible to prospective employers (or fans) it also says something about your design skills.
Plain fact - 100% Flash web sites are a bad idea, period. I can go on and on about the facts behind it, but I don't really want to type that much :) Use flash to present your pieces of work or even for galleries and so forth. But I would template the main parts of the site in HTML. The links, the page titles, the text you put there are all important and need to be readable - and more importantly - searchable.
I would do a little research on web standards and good web site design, even if it is not your field. The payoff will be worth it.
In a sea of artists, the truth is the easiest to use web sites get the most views - hands down. Impress people with your work. Your site doesn't need to be "avant garde" (which I agree, it is far from) or slick - what it needs to to is work, and work quickly.
Hope this helps - may sound harsh but I see this stuff all the time and all you are doing is shooting yourself in the foot.
Good luck!