www.flamedesign.ca

grease · #1 (**permalink**) 05-06-2004, 02:23 PM

We just completed a major site upgrade. I am looking for constructive critisims for Navigation, Compatibility issues, Professionalism, Content, Aesthetic appeal, and any other areas of concern. All comments welcome.

Thank you kindly,

Grease

thepeoplesdesigner · #2 (**permalink**) 05-06-2004, 03:11 PM

grease,

1. i like the white space
2. i like the type
3. flash is cool
4. examples are nice
5. very thorough (case studies, etc)
6. made me want to look at the whole site!

nice website so far.

dfwdesigns · #3 (**permalink**) 05-06-2004, 04:23 PM

yea, really nice work. I love the flash..made me want to spend a few minutes looking through it! Good Luck in the future!

carju1 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-07-2004, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grease

We just completed our first major site upgrade. I am looking for constructive critisims for Navigation, Compatibility issues, Professionalism, Content, Aesthetic appeal, and any other areas of concern.

The whole site reeks of professionalism, clear cut lines, well thought out look/feel, great imagery. The site says this is a company who will get the job done to a very high standard visually. Unfortunately it also says to me 'they are going to cost a lot' but thats not always a bad thing.

The navigation is fine, easy to use I think the direction the arrows point is a bit random and makes me feel a bit of script isn't working properly (6 point right, 4 point left) The content is fine and the case studies great. Though I think its a mistake not to have links to the finished sites or to sites where the branding is in use, especially for a foreign audience who may not know a lot of the Canadian brands.

Hope this helps and overall great site.

Julian

matauri · #5 (**permalink**) 05-07-2004, 09:40 AM

Grease... I blink & its different! Was only in your site a week or so ago. Wow... flash change! (excuse the pun)

I'l basically echo what Julian said. And yes, I admit a tad confusion by the directions of the arrows...but I put that down to artistic licence ;-)

The only thing that threw me compared to the rest of each page, was the alignment of the text to the left. I found that made the pages not look as clean as they should. Was there a reason why you didnt justify it? I just think it would enhance each page so much more if they were straight columns.

The one thing that I do like on both your old site & the new one, is the pic of you & your colleagues. I think that is a nice touch. Young go getter professional image, always a drawcard.

But, as always, impressive work. I can see a few new techniques your using now. :-)

fathom · #6 (**permalink**) 05-07-2004, 10:51 AM

Ok everyone enough with building grease's ego! :-)

I really only have one thing that stands out...

In the portfolio the black boxes look a little wierd. I love the rollover "brighter" idea but think the black boxes might have been better if something natural in the room plus I didn't know to rollover (and did by accident).

Superb job nonetheless!

trippleweb · #7 (**permalink**) 05-07-2004, 01:15 PM

Looks great from this side of the Country, I really like the logo.

grease · #8 (**permalink**) 05-07-2004, 05:18 PM

Thank you all for the reviews.

Carju - I totally agree, the website links in the case study areas will go up shortly.

Matauri - yeah, I guess the idea with the arrows was to give a 'sign' feel, as though the visitor was in an institution or museum. I'll think that one over. You're right, it needs a justification...I'll have to create a new style..that one will mess up other things that can't be justified ;)

Fathom - agreed. For starters, we'll expand the hotspot quite a bit. The boxes represent displays in an art gallery.

Thanks again,

Grease

drew-z · #9 (**permalink**) 05-10-2004, 04:00 PM

I certainly concur it is a very well done site.

A few general thoughts.

1. When going through the case studies it would be nice to be able to go from one to the next. At this point it appears a user needs to return to the main case study page every time to read the next. Most often people want to rip through case studies and barely skim the content.

2. The content on the home page has usability problems to me. In order to read all three colums, i need to scroll down for the first, then scroll up and then down again to read the middle, and then do the same again for the far right. I doubt anyone with an 800x600 setting will ever attempt to read this content.

3. as related, the arrows and navigation methaphors are more confusing then anything. they don't add value IMO.

calypso_webmaster · #10 (**permalink**) 05-10-2004, 04:15 PM

The site is currently not working for me...

When it is back up I will def check it out and review it..

Blackicicle · #11 (**permalink**) 05-10-2004, 04:21 PM

The first thing I tried to do was click on the "Why flame", "Approach" and "interact" text on the main page.

I first glance I thought they were links.

I had no idea that the "a little brighter" text would take me to the main page...

The man holding the match on flame makes me very uneasy... I can't cant concentrate on your site when I have that picture im my head...

...Everything else others already said.

srdill · #12 (**permalink**) 05-10-2004, 04:42 PM

Grease,

Overall, impressive. I got a little hung up on the "A Little Brighter" hot spot in the upper left - took me way too long to realize it was just another way home ( I was at the home page already and kept expecting something to change inside the room or in the picture frame on the far wall.)

I suspect you want the last question of the Web Design Quote, "When would you like...", to be in its own paragraph rather than within the question about the size of the inquiring firm.

The switchplate hotspot going to the Portfolio is a little obtuse, what's the connection?

I know your site is new, so the zero Google page rating for anything beyond the home page makes sense, but you are planning to improve the use of the page titles, keyword tags and page description tags, aren't you?

Hope that is helpful. I agree with an earlier observation that the site compels the visitor to go deeper into the site. That may well be the most valuable demonstration of your design talent to prospective clients!

SRD

swheller · #13 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 05:20 AM

Lovely Design, well thought out and easy to the eye, well done on an excellent site. By the way what font have you used for your body text.

Steve
Art by Design
www.artbydesign.co.uk

swheller · #14 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 05:37 AM

Grease

When I click on the light switch on the site map page and it opens a new window with the site map page in the image of the hand with the flame breaks up and shows 2 images

Steve
Art by Design
www.artbydesign.co.uk

drew-z · #15 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swheller

By the way what font have you used for your body text.

trebuchet font

luisarroyo · #16 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 01:49 PM

Grease,

Attempting to look at your site from a non-techie's point of view.....I truly enjoyed the time I spent viewing your site.....I pretty much noticed much of the same things that others have.

1. Take a look at the arrows point to the left and right.

2. To be honest, I'm not sure of the purpose behind the light switches on your pages? But, take a look at the light switches....Some of the pages do some weird stuff, when you click on the light switch. (Site map - gives you double match sticks)

I wish you the best of luck with your new site. It's very appealing.

Best regards,

Luis

urknighterrent · #17 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 02:24 PM

Very sexy site. Great use of flash.

You're not well optimized, and that's a damn shame because you've got everything you need to do it... text links, headers, ALT images...

What you don't have is a list of keywords or a good page title. Put your primary search keywords in your page title. I reccomend... "Flame Media Design/ Graphic Design/ Logos/ Branding/ Advertising"

If this was deliberate, I do understand. These are some damn competitive keywords. Still, that's no good reason not to try is it?

Also, I don't know if a short remark line is enough to throw off a crawler... I doubt it, actually. But just to be on the safe side it couldn't hurt to move your title tag up a line.

I only took a quick look at your sourcecode, but I didn't see ANY keywords. Add some, and try to use them 3-7 times in the body text on each page.

That's bad.

Hot site. A few invisible changes and the bots will love it too.

grease · #18 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 08:36 PM

Thanks for the reviews.

drew-z - great idea, we'll add next link on the case study pages.

blackicicle/srdill - the link has been removed from the 'a little brighter'. Normally I do not like to have a non clickable area on the screen, but in this case it seemed to be more confusing than useful.
The lightswitch is completely decorative - to reinforce the gallery theme. Many people commented that they enjoyed clicking it. We reduced the hotspot to make it more of a 'find.' It certainly isn't a critical link - it is just a click for inquisitive minds. The portfolio page is accessible from several other areas.
The hand and flame is there to stay :)

srdill/urknighterrent - that makes sense, we didn't begin our website optimization yet. We just popped in a few temporary words until we have the time ;)
(The pages with high ratings are from our previous site.)

swheller/luisarroyo - the double image appears to be a CSS flaw. It occurs when a small browser window is opened with the site. We removed the 'open browser window' but it also happens every once in a while on a full screen. If anyone has a solution to this problem we would appreciate the help.

Thanks again,

Grease

skeetergirl · #19 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 09:18 PM

A VERY clean, unique and well put together site. Makes me wish I could do more creative things like that. It would be nice to have clickable links to other sites that you have done... or did I miss them somewhere?

Deborah

urknighterrent · #20 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 02:50 PM

As a rule it's not a good idea to wait on optimization. It may be up to 7 weeks before you get crawled, and it might be 2 days. You may invite it, or it may just pop in uninvited from a link. It really is best to make your optimization and your copy/architecture a single process. Also, you will be better optimized if you know your keywords when you do your copywriting.

Jörn Malek · #21 (**permalink**) 05-18-2004, 04:12 PM

Flames !!

You want some critics: Here it is:
It definitely shows, that your background is advertising. I think it's a perfect page and lay-out for a brochure or an ad in a magazine. Clean, Classic good advertising.

But this is a web site:
1.) My personal preference is dark backgrounds it's easier on the eyes and our own statistics show, that people stay longer on the site that way. I admit, it is not everybody's taste, but these nice pictures would stick out much better on dark backgrounds ( by the way many didn't open for me, but that's probably because I have no flash on my mail-computer.

2.) I liked the idea of short columns, just like in good printed copy; I will try that on some of our pages. Since I am getting slowly blind with this business, I would rather have bold type.

3.) Looking at the code I assume that you don't need or don't want to be found in search engines. If I am mistaken, there would be long list of suggestions to give.

This is a very appealing site for a sophisticated clientele.

Have a happy day
Jörn