Echo's new personal page... Beta 1.1... Flash+Pshop+HTML

[Echo419]

Alrite, well I decided a while ago I wanted a page that I was actuall going to keep up and add on to as needed. I'm not too sure if I chose the right design template of mine to do it with, simply because this design is REALLY basic, compared to what flash and pshop is capable of... but it looks pretty sleek as is...

For the past week I have been doing extensive work on it the site, since i dropped it back in 04 (you can tell by the update news i keep on the home page).

Something that is extremly unique about how I did this page, is that I incorporated HTML right smack in the middle of the page, this is not an easy thing to accomplish in flash... In flash sure you can make scrolling text boxes all you want, but you can only have ONE color, ONE font, ONE size, in the same box... So the way I did it is i'm having flash call in a html file with all of the encoding already written up inside of it... Its kind of cool... Well enough of me talking.. Let me know what you guys think

Looking for critique and stuff to add

LINK - http://www.browndotdesign.com/AttackingEcho
(note.. in case you guys couldnt figure it out click enter on the flash page...)

-echo out

[Echo419]

Note:
You guys know those search engines like: Dog Pile, Singing Fish, and stuff like that? That search the internet at places like Yahoo! Music, and stuff and turn up with like songs that have been hosted on the internet?

Well I wanted to have some music on my page, but I didnt wan't to do it illegally... So i have about 22 songs rite now (of my taste maybe not yours), that can be listened to in a matter of seconds, i think its just a cool feature :D

[Echo419]

Just added 14 more songs.

[MarkM]

I will start it off for you with an honest review.

Align left is so out of date...popup window with a restricted window size for the actual flash site is annoying, Type face is also annoying like an over fancy calligraphy exam, colours are ok and the songs part I didn't listen too but then if it is skater stereotypical then I wouldn't want to. Never send a site live without at least 1 thing on every link...I have one page like that on my site but at least it trys to have a laugh with what is there, and if it is read correctly it will become apparent that there is never going to be anything there ;) (just in case you go for a visit and try to pull me up on that)

[Echo419]

Thank you for your comments Mark...

I dont see the align left as a style that can be put out, its human nature to look to left first, but I can see what your saying. The fonts? I believe the fonts are what add some charachter into it, its not like im making the body font radical. The Fixed window, I did that because i dont like using full HTML pages, and I just like having personal pages kinda small like that, not full blown, also I did that so IE wouldnt stretch the page. And since it is a personal page does it really matter when I send it live? Also the music isnt skater stereotypical, i used that to describe what I wear and what I look like.

It seems all your critique was personal preferece not actual flaws in the page... I thank you for your comments I really do. But most of what you mentioned as bad, I see as good. Not tat i'm not open to critique, its just... u know what im sayin :)

[Will Wood]

Doesn't work in Firefox. Fix that. :)

[gimp]

I'm using Mozilla and it's not working for me. The flash thing on the first page isn't loading. I right click on it and it says 'movie not loaded'. I'm using version 7 of the flash player, and I think Mozilla is version 1.7.3.

I did look at it in IE, and I liked the site. There is one thing that bugs me. To read any of the text, you have to scroll down a lot. Maybe make it a little wider so you could fit more in there or something. That bugs me on a lot of sites though. You did a good job with the graphics.

[Echo419]

Thank you for your comments, and how exactly can i get it working with firefox? I made it really just to brush up some of my design skills... i really could get a rats butt about the content, except well the music page is purty cool... thanks for ur compliment gimp

[Kai]

You're deffinately getting alot better, I can say that.

I'm going to disagree with MarkM about the annoyance factor of the fixed-size popup window. While you don't see them very often with more traditional websites, they're a pretty standard feature of many art-related sites.

The font-choice really could be better, though. It reaks of 'downloaded from popular gigantic font website' , and I wouldn't be surprised if I found it on angsty teenage photoshop artworks around the internet. A good, less angst-ridden font choice could greatly increase the visual appeal of the entire website.

The scroll bar is another thing that sticks out as a problem... The 3d effect you've got on the actual bar is a deffinate no-no. A solid orange bar is what I'd go with, personally.

Finally, the images that make up the background could be a little crisper. Jagged edges make my eyes sad.

This was all meant to be constructive, please don't take any of it personally. It's not a bad looking site, it could just use some tweaking.

[fire1811]

yeah dont leave firefox users out

[quik]

look here's my website guyz.

http://www.siteofthefuture.com

[steimway]

yeah dont leave firefox users out

It's not working on safari either.

[Echo419]

Kai thanks for all your imput, and the scroll bars we're actually never ment to remain in that retarded 3d, i just had forgot to redo them haha... But whats so bad about the jagged edges?

[Kai]

It just looks like they were compressed somewhat poorly. The edges are a little pixelated.

At second glance, it's not as noticable once the page is fully loaded, but it still looks a little rough.

[Echo419]

Hmm I intended it to be rough... but is it like bad? I think that adds to the page o_0

[MarkM]

Thank you for your comments Mark...

I dont see the align left as a style that can be put out, its human nature to look to left first, but I can see what your saying. The fonts? I believe the fonts are what add some charachter into it, its not like im making the body font radical. The Fixed window, I did that because i dont like using full HTML pages, and I just like having personal pages kinda small like that, not full blown, also I did that so IE wouldnt stretch the page. And since it is a personal page does it really matter when I send it live? Also the music isnt skater stereotypical, i used that to describe what I wear and what I look like.

It seems all your critique was personal preferece not actual flaws in the page... I thank you for your comments I really do. But most of what you mentioned as bad, I see as good. Not tat i'm not open to critique, its just... u know what im sayin :)

I agree it is personal preference but then a website visit is all about personal preference look how much was made of the AO forum colour changes ;)

Align left...sorry don't agree I have a largish monitor and I like to see a website that at least looks like it is meant to be on my monitor, much the same as when you visit a site and bad coding means you have to use the scroll tools to see stuff on the right, often covering the links, yours didn't do this but the parallel is there.
As for the popup window I still don't like them unless they are larger anything that makes me have to get closer to a monitor is bad in my opinion...and to see the original window underneath detracts from the site. Accessability needs to be full on so any coding changes you need to make to allow other browsers to access your site definately needs to be done. The trouble with Flash based sites is that unless you are a quick enough connection they can load badly if at all...Nike is Flash based and even that I have problems with and I have a broadband connection. website designers have gotten to be lazy lately with the big file sized sites that only work well on a really fast connection. I didn't have any issues with connection to your site but that comment needs to be taken on board...you ignored all the comments before when signatures were allowed and you were saying about the ones you were making were only a little over ;) this isn't a flame post in anyway a purely personal take on what you have provided...I notice you made no mention of the lack of content, as for the music side of things, the odds are in favour of the music being the same as your look/appearance so that is why I didn't listen, it isn't for me but then I rarely have my speakers on anyway unless I am downloading a video to watch. Take a look at WDP's ( www.wdp.tv ) site for a sensible way of doing a popup window together with flash.....oh and all centred.

[Echo419]

Thankyou MarkM for your post, and in no way am I taking anything you sya as flaming... As for lack of content, the site has really only been bieng worked on for 3 days so yah...

I dont know who mentioned the scroll bars (kai maybe?), those have been changed as of 15 minutes ago...

I could put all of this in one huge HTML page with it centered in a big blop of white if thats what you guys think I should do? Look at it again guys, let me know what you think about the new basic scroll bars (updated as of.... now)

[tony3]

A cool black screen with gray box, firefox rocks.

[Echo419]

Alrite... i'm sorry that it doesnt work in Firefox.. if someone would like to enlighten me on how to do that it would be great... Other than that, i'm not asking whether or not ur 3rd party browsers can see it.. so if you going to complain about that, atleast give comments on the site itself =/

[bornl33t]

Take a look at WDP's ( www.wdp.tv ) site for a sensible way of doing a popup window together with flash.....oh and all centred.


woaw! The loadtime on that site is none existant... that's imressive. I'm all about loadtimes...I also have no clue how to do em like wdp. I could care less for their markers, but their site is impressive..

[teufelhunden]

Alrite... i'm sorry that it doesnt work in Firefox.. if someone would like to enlighten me on how to do that it would be great... Other than that, i'm not asking whether or not ur 3rd party browsers can see it.. so if you going to complain about that, atleast give comments on the site itself =/


Uh, I wouldn't just shrug off Mozilla based browsers, there, champ..

[Echo419]

I kno mozilla is WIDELY used, I use it myself on my main comp... Its just kinda annoying when 5 peole post how they cant open it in Firefox, and there too lay to open it in IE so they can let me kno.. thats all :(

[Kai]

Hmm I intended it to be rough... but is it like bad? I think that adds to the page o_0

To me, it comes off as being a bad compression, not a style choice. So in a way, it is kind of bad. If you like it that way, don't worry about it.

The scroll bar fix was deffinately a good idea. That little change has helped a lot.

[SpecialBlend2786]

I like the design. Works well, nice job!

I'm starting to build a flash website of my own.

www.freewebs.com/specialblend_2786

Doesnt have much on it yet, just some AO/AIM quotes and some short stories

[Echo419]

Special Blend, can you contact me on AIM at your convienence... FoANickel

[matmc89]

nifty

[quik]

Im good with flash, very good with flash!

The best!