jpajicek Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 hi everyone, check out my new website. All comments are appreciated. thnx. ww w.grafart media.com [remove spaces] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Looks like your existing site is flash only... makes it a bit harder to review, since we often look at how the site is coded. Overall though, I find the flash site very confusing to navigate. When I land on the flash home page, I am presented with four image thumbnails. From this page, I have no idea what the company is about (though it might have something to do with graphics, since that "media" is in the logo) I have to crane my head and move in extremely close to the screen in order to read the small vertical text (which I thought might be navigation, but no), and I have no idea where the navigation is. After rolling over the four thumbnails... nope, still have no idea what clicking on them will do, until I finally notice the dark gray titles in the background. Assume that is the main navigation, those titles need to be a lot more obvious, otherwise most users will miss them. Once I clicked on a section and moved to a subpage within the site, I found the text very hard to read since it was so small and in most cases didn't include paragraphs to improve readability. The fact that the navigation isn't immediately obvious, and actually fades out when the mouse stops moving, makes it much much harder to find my way around the site. I'm also not seeing a clear place to contact you, though perhaps that is hidden somewhere and I just couldn't find it. I would expect that it should be a main navigation item though. Also, do you realize that if the user has a 800x600 screen, some of the content disappears off the edge of the screen, and there is no way to access it? I personally don't design for 800x600 any more, but it is important to remember that some people will have this screen resolution still and they at least need to be able to scroll. I've been doing this for quite a few years, so I can only imagine how hard it might be for someone who isn't as technically savvy as I am to navigate. In most cases, as a regular user, I would enter your site, see it was in Flash, probably go to the flash home page, and then leave when such essential features like a clear, consistent way to navigate was missing. Based on the screenshots in your portfolio, it would appear that -- from a navigation/usability standpoint at least -- the new site is a step backwards from your old one (the portfolio says it is here: ht tp://www.old.graf artmedia.com/ but apparently that link no longer works) To improve the site, I would definitely scrap the existing navigation. It is just too unclear and makes navigation quite difficult. I would switch to something that is consistent throughout the site, and uses readable text rather than image thumbnails to explain where the links go. I would also increase the size of the text to make it easier for visitors to read and have a clear "contact us" page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newseed Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 (edited) I concur with Ben. It certainly took me a bit to figure out what it was about and how to navigate around and I have very good surfing skills along with web design experience. Your flash site is cool but lacking simplicity. Why make it difficult for the average visitors? Edited February 17, 2009 by newseed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpajicek Posted February 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Thanks for your review and your detailed comments. I agree the navigation of the site is not the simplest or the most conventional, but that was sort of our intention; to make it a little different. That is also why there will be both HTML, as well as this Flash site to accommodate average visitor and more "artistic" one. I agree the navigation might be a little confusing at first, and we will try to make the background text a little bigger, so it pops out more. However, I disagree that the navigation is not consistent throughout the site, since it pretty much stays exactly the same with the exception of its location and disappearance. We also thought about the issues with the 800x600 resolution, but we decided to design this site for larger resolution, since majority of people doesn't use such a small resolution anymore. I will add the scrolling option, however, in case someone does view it with that resolution. We will also see and try to play with the text, so it is easier to read. Hopefully, this unconventional approach of a web site design didn't hurt the overall look and feel of a website and doesn't discourage the visitors from exploring the content in more detail. Thanks again for your critique. All ideas are welcomed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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