New Site Review
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- Last post
- 31 Responses
- mcfly
Finally made our new site live after months of development. XML-Driven dynamic navigation in a candy-coated Flash shell....
Love to hear words of wisdom from the people...
- Luckypp0
Hard navigation to use, not very user friendly. And the design is a little klunky.
- jevad0
why did you make it so wide? And yeah it's bloody annoying that you have to click and wait for the menu to appear..a bit clunky really...
- johndiggity0
looks nice. i dragged to the open area to the right though. any reason that's there? seems like it doesn't need to be that wide.
- canuck0
I actually like the navigation.
The width of it all is a bit of an issue though.
- ldww0
i like the site, but agree the nav is hard to use..
am i missing something, if i am in one project, i have to scroll over, click menu, wait for it to appear and click another project just to view the next project?
- mr_snuggles0
Sorry, I don't even know where to begin...I mean it's not horrible, but it's not very good either. Sorry not to be clearer...
- mcfly0
The width is variable for anyone with a larger screen size...you can always see 1 large project image per case study, and subsequent ones are available by pressing the "pages" button
The navigation is 2 fold: you can always click related items below in any project. It's dynamic navigation, so there is no "next", but anytime you want to use the main navigation, you can go back.
The idea was to minimize navigarion for people who just want to be cclick happy, but offer more "Operating System" based colum navigation elsewhere
- mcfly0
We are working to speed up the "back/forth" navigation IF you use the main menu, so that will quicken user experience, but:
there are 3 ways to see info
1)main menu, which is dynamic/XML driven, sortable
2) Related, or affinity-based navigation below every project.
Why is the scalable screen an issue for people? Basically, if you have 1024x768, you see one projkect image and all the info, just like a normal site. If you have higher res, you can expand to see as many images as you can fit.
The idea was to not be boxed into one resolution, seemed pretty flexible and user friendly to us...
- jevad0
I see.
I do like the design and layout...it's just not..it has usability problems I guess..and the fact I have a horizontal scrollbar even on my high res really bothers me....that could have been avoided very easily....
the work inside is very good
- mcfly0
Hi Jevad--what system are you using?
We could definitely turn of horizontal scrolling since it fits on 1024 x 768 no matter what--good idea, no one got that.
We're really trying to work out the usability issues--we're trying something different and want it to be friendly...
Idea was to appeal to "click-happy" people, and to people who want to get a really thorough look at our work whether by type, client, or industry.
Our thought is that once someone uses the site a while, it all becomes very easy to understand (we hope)
If the transition back and forth to the "main" menu was faster, would that help?
Any other specific ideas? Whether people like the design aestheticallly or not doesn't matter to us (we do), that you like the work inside is great, and thanks.
Getting ideas from users on tweaks to the usability would be great, we're really working hard on them
- dippy0
I think it's freaking people out that you force a horizontal scroll bar if the viewer's screen isn't wide enough. Instead, why don't you do what Joshua Davis does on his site (he's got a similar page navigation system anyway):
- dippy0
...but I see you've just addressed that in your previous post. Sorry mcfly. But it's definitely promising stuff.
- mayo0
the copy on the left seems a little too large to me.
- mcfly0
Dippy--thanks...I do think you and Jevad's point on the horizontal scrolling is a good one, reallly helpful
And I won't be bashful to say that Joshua's approach to displaying the "slides" of his work were a big inspiration.
So it was funny to me that it freaked people out initially, but now, RE H-scrollbar, it makes total sense.
Thanks, alll detailed feedback is really appreciated, we know we're trying something unusual here. It would have been easy to do a typical client site for ourself.
- nick0
i think it looks/moves really nicely... but i think that the usability in some places wasnt exactly thought through far enough.
for example, i'll give you a little thing i noticed right off the bat
i click on 'menu' to get away from that confusing collage [which by the way isnt exactly the most pleasant user experience when it comes to navigating through your work]. but anyways, then i click on 'about us' > then 'why MSDS?'... so my beef here is a) everything disappears and re-appears.. which kind of loses me.. and b) there's this sub-navigation i've never seen before thats in the bottom left.. and my main navigation has totally disapeared on me.
call me lazy, but i dont like having to think about teaching myself how to use a site. thats what the designer is for...
so anyways, i guess i'd just like to see it more straight to the point, and more streamline.
and the horizontal scroll bar bugs me too.. makes me think like i'm missing something [even though im on a giant monitor]
.. hope that was a little helpful, kinda rambled on there.
- cyberthug0
Did Jevad just use the word "bloody"? Dude just had a Madonna moment.
- lovaboy0
A few points:
-When I click on the portfolio items to drag them into the display window, it's pretty confusing that you have them cut up into different pieces. i understand you're trying to show every slide at once, but my initial impression was that each tiny square was a separate item (and thought, wow, this guy's done a lot of work:))
-The visual design on the front page is about 60% of the way there. I think the whole piece would work better if the copy on the left were shorter, and the type size larger. Right now, it's like you're trying to present too much information at once.
-Once you click on an item and try to go back, the interface becomes inconsistent. This is probably the worst part and comes across as kind of unprofessional. I think your drag and drop interface is more compelling, so I would stick with that rather than trying to revert to a file hierarchy structure.
- mcfly0
Nick, that is helpful---the left side navigation that appears IS what was in the section you were in...we're going to continue to lable clearly to make that more apparent.
We're DEFINITELY going to speed up the transition from Menu to Item, but it's more complicated than you'd think.
Lastly, we're making an HTML basic overview site for those who are not interested in exploring something different (even as we DO add improvements based on feedback)
thanks
- fifty500
you should be considering what your users' screen resolutions will be when they view your site. i'm looking at it at 1024x768 and it's too big for my screen.
keep in mind:
46% of the world uses 1024x768
32% uses 800x600
- mcfly0
Lovaboy--
thanks fpr very good feedback--we already targeted the "thumbnails" area as a usability issue, we're going to make it more apparent that they are groupings (9 feature projects to be exact)Also, we're going to make it that the feature area does not have mouse-respond action. It's useless and confusing people. Going to make it just clickable
The file structure menu is here to stay...drag and drop doesn't display well in terms of explaining to people the types of work across different mediums/types/clients.....so, we';re intent on taking all the great feedback and using it to improve what we have. It's going to take time, this thing is FUCKING complex....
The HTML Alternate site will be a good stopgap for those uninclined to experiment, which we're very aware of. In our client sites, you'll see our work is much more straighforward.
Matthew