Just wanted to get some feedback on the site: kastera.com

Thanks

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www.flatplanetinc.com

Waaaaaaaay too image-heavy.

Took a while to load, and I'm on a quick connection.

Try optimizing ur images, and do away with them where you can (ie. menu).

Hope that helps.

Yes you definately need to optimize the images and speed up the frame rate of the flash animation. You may want to think about using a simpler navigation menu as that seems to really slow down everything else on the page.

It looks like you have some scripting as well that launches a bunch of text when you hover over an image. Basically you have WAY to much going on for a home page. Simplify it a bit.

Hi there,

There is to much theoretical design, probably from the marketing side.

Any mods out there, put this on the Flash forum.

Why are you using so much Flash when optimised graphics will do?

There is nothing particularly wrong with the designbut your visitor is getting sensory overload. No blank space to have a visual rest.

Some of the rest is good design but only for customers on broadband.

I see where you are coming from but it is not working.

Basically, to slow for the majority of you customers.

Apart from that there is something there, I just got frustrated waiting (ISDN) but the general design and that is good

If the MOD for this forum does not move this post, put it in the Flash forum to get your flash stuff optimised as that will help.

Keimos

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Keimos - Always learning something new each day
www.keimos.co.uk , www.keimos.net , www.selfpacedit.co.uk

Thanks for the input on the home page. Any thoughts on the rest of the site?

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www.flatplanetinc.com

While i feel it does have too much going on, the Screen shot is really nice. I use to work alot with real-estate developers and you have the look they like. I especially like that top-left movie. It should probably be the only peice of flash on the screen though.
Not just for asthetic reasons either. lash can wreak havoc on slower computers, especially laptops that have lousy video systems (most of them). I(f a web site mnake s a computer crash, the person isn't likely to come back.

Also search engines can't read any of the text in flash or images or script. So to a SE there's very little content on that page.

The mapping ROCKS by the way! that took a lot of effort and it'll make your site more memorable. IF it it doesn't crash the users browser. I would remove as much of the flash (like the thumbs on the left side of community-details.php)
as you can - replacing them with images or text or whatever) and still leave those wonderful interactive maps!

The "Room Designer" is excellent as well! I know from exp that a lot of work went into that and customers like it. Yours works well too!

Are you the developer or the web designer or both?

Tell us more about the mapping system will ya?

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Take a break and watch some stupid video clips

Thank you very much for the feed back. Our web development firm, Flat Planet LLC, has handled the entire project and are currently babying it.

The customer for this project has requested a lot of Flash and we are consistently working on how to further optimize the site while maximizing the "wow" factor. The community maps and designer are completely dynamic, pulling the information from a database and enabling the customer to add content with as little hassle as possible. We've utilized actionscript as much as possible to speed up the download time.

We are also working on a way to redirect a slower connection to another version of the site that implements little or no Flash. We've had relatively good success, but suggestion to help fine tune that would be appreciated.

We're also working with a few different ways of increasing search engine recognition with some roll-over content. We're hoping that will help with the exposure as well as implementing Flash meta data for Google.

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www.flatplanetinc.com

The site doesn't fit 800 pixel screen width. I never follow the thinking of building a site that is nearly OK for the 30% of visitors smaller screen resolutions. Why not go for 1040 or 800, rather than neither?

Why call the 'home page', 'main page'? Also the top right menu style on the home page is not the same as other pages. A small matter but in a whistles and bells site, it just adds to potential confusion, especially when a casual mouseover the top left Flash section reveals another menu.

The Flash debate will rage on; for me Flash is excellent when used as an interactive way as in the maps of houseing estate. But on the home page these are little more than animated gifs, that frankly IMO cheapen the site.

I do see what is trying to be achieved here - a sensational site aimed at a certain market, which isn't web designers...

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights

Hiya
I think the overall design of the home page is great - although you do need some content on there for SE purposes - a couple paragraphs of text explaining what you do and why you're the best at it perhaps?

The top flash movie on the home page is great, and I also liked the one within the site that showed shots of a kastera home, but other than this you do not need all this flash. It is slow to load - and I am on a fast broadband connection here - and it is uneccessary. Yes the customer wants the 'wow' factor but there will only be a yawn factor if you leave it like this whilst each user waits for it to load up!

The interactive room designer looked exciting but crashed my browser unfortunately.

Also I would HIGHLY recommedn taking your menu OUT of flash. On the home page it is just plain annoying, takes up too much space and means you have to move your mouse in an unnatural way to click on the 'life in boise' image. On the interior pages it just doesn't need to be flash - use of css throughout this site could get rid of flash, keep the slick design and increase page load tenfold.

A really really nice looking site with some great flash movies, just a few too many of them (IMO).

Good luck!

1. Is the goal efficiency?
2. Is it content?
3. Is it dynamic effects?

Why not listen to one of the experts on web design? Study as much as you can and learn from Jakob Nielsen's Website.

Start by reading the short article, "Why this site has almost no graphics". Then look up the articles on the most common errors in web design.

If I do not remember wrong, there is also an article that explains that a study showed that visual effects generally are negative for SE's and human visitors. So what is the goal with the site?

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Yes, Jakob Nielsen's website is a quick loading website because it is sans images.

However, it is also very, VERY droll! *yawn!*

I happen to like the visuals in your website, however I do agree with the others that some optimization is needed because it DOES load pretty slowly. Perhaps a shorter animation on the top or have it as a random animation - where you get a different house appearing each time you visit the site (or hit "refresh" - would require some extra coding). Maybe you could NOT loop the animation - let it play through once, then stop and become a "static image".

It's one of those balancing visuals with efficiency. The more visuals, the more incredible the site looks, but it's slower to load. Then again, you can't go the opposite way like Jakob Nielsen's (*yawn!*) snoozer of a bland site - unless you just like reading! However, the type of site you're building makes a text-only site a bad idea(IMHO)!

And I don't know where that article is that states statistics that people don't like visuals. Most large corporate public websites have beautiful flash animation and boku visuals, along with properly implemented text. With so much visual technology out there, I would be darned suprised if a text-only, basic colors website like Nielsen's (*yawn!*) will be more popular with web surfers than one that looks like an interactive DVD menu!

But, that's just MY opinion! ;-)

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~Mark G.
Graphic Designer - Endoscopy Support Services, Inc.

I think it is this article that you site below Growing a Business Website: Fix the Basics First with links and sublinks. There were no strict statistical analysis.

Summary:
Clear content, simple navigation, and answers to customer questions have the biggest impact on business value. Advanced technology matters much less.


That does not prove anything. Would these websites done better without flash animation?

There is a golden middleway (some say that is the way of the devil). If you have time study some of Jacob Nielsen's alertbox articles. That may be much more valuable for your business than designing fancy graphics. That is my opionion and this is

My conclusion: If you use visual technology, you must know the goal. If you have an ecommerce site, will it increase free cashflow? Do not confuse your customers, since confused customers do not buy. Look at the citation in my signature. If you absolutely want animation

1. Is it possible to make a professional video?
2. How should it be balanced with text?
3. Is the use of animation consitent and last but not least stable across the site?

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The feedback has been very helpful. We're going to implement some of the suggestions.

Most people I think failed to notice the textual elements that we did add to the site. If you mouse over the flash image pan at the bottom you will be able to see what we've done to aid with the search engine recognition.

In my opinion the multimedia presentations will become the mainstream demand for websites, so even though we're pushing the envelope I don't think it will be long before this type of site will be what business is looking for.

If there is any more input it is more then welcome.

Thanks again.

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www.flatplanetinc.com

Then, is it an argument to improve that function?

Read elite experience versus user experience in the above link,

"One of usability's most hard-earned lessons is that "you are not the user." If you work on a development project, you're atypical by definition. Design to optimize the user experience for outsiders, not insiders."

Interesting site in your signature. Good design!

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Good point. Fortunately I'm targeting the search engines with that particular element. Hopefully they will see it.

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www.flatplanetinc.com

bmw0679,

Your obviously being client lead

[quote]I'm targeting the search engines with that particular element.

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Keimos - Always learning something new each day
www.keimos.co.uk , www.keimos.net , www.selfpacedit.co.uk