BlueEyedProductions.com

mtheory · #1 (**permalink**) 09-05-2009, 07:10 AM

Just finished a site for Blue Eyed Productions.

Blue Eyed Productions - Susan Adriensen - Actress~Director~Producer

davebarnes · #2 (**permalink**) 09-05-2009, 12:11 PM

I found the dark blue text on the black background very difficult to read.
The menu did not work for me.
I could not figure how to turn the sound OFF. Noise is not appropriate in my office.

Very stylish.

Doc · #3 (**permalink**) 09-05-2009, 12:42 PM

Stylish, and very attractive. I tend to not like music backgrounds. Many of your users will likely be viewing your site from their workplace, and it may not be appreciated. I would suggest you at least make it opt-in, rather than defaulting on.

The photos are a nice touch, but since there are so many of them, have you considered making them pop up with a mouse-over rather than clicking on them? I think you will get more people to look at them that way.

Your keywords meta seems very weak, for typical organic searches. Also, you've got a typo in "Newy York Film Producer".

Overall, very nice job!

amxfan · #4 (**permalink**) 09-05-2009, 03:23 PM

I viewed the site with Firefox and seen a few things you really should consider, at least in my mind.

The site layout and navigation looks familiar to me.... I know it is the same as the last site you submitted, but to be honest the last site was a lot better done.

I agree with Dave and Doc on the sound, as most people do not like sites that make noise. I would recommend a pop-up or something of the sort that simply states sound yes or no and let the viewer pick before the site loads. This does have its pros and cons to it though. Although I agree with Dave and Doc about the sound, I am personally left wondering if sound on a website is inappropriate for your offices, why does your computer have speakers and why are they turned on. I personally keep mine turned off for this reason.

I also agree with the comments about the blue navigation on the black background, but would like to add that I would make the menu have a background color, even if it is black, so your longer navigational links like the ones under movies would be a little easier to read as you would not see the images or text behind the link. I'm talking a background color just for these long navigational links, not making the entire background wider. Also if you go under movies and click any of the titles below, you have an issue at the very top as "Blue Eyed Productions" overlaps the name of the movie. I'm not sure if this is spacing issue or if the name of the movie is supposed to replace 'Blue Eyed Productions'. Either way it does not look right.

I'm not sure if you left the physical address and phone number off the contact page due to your clients request, but you may want to talk to them again about adding it.

Under reels, the bottom box "under the raven's wing" does not appear to have a bottom border. Also if I hover over the bottom box, the side scroll bounces.

The blog, although attractive, was kind of a let down for me as for the most part the layout was a standard WordPress layout. I was expecting more from a person of your caliper and design ability.

On your mailing list, I would put their logo alongside the word 'send' to help utilize some of the space.

When I go to 'Links', it appears that the banners are overlapping. Your scroll bar on this page as well, started to be a nuisance of how close the scroll bar is to the noise fly-out menu. The fly-out kept flying out when trying to use the scroll bar to see if the spacing could be adjusted.

Looking at your code very briefly, if you can I would remove the styles to an external css file. I would also consider adding some sort of analytic to the site.

The eye in the top left hand corner overlaps on several pages, such as the about and movies pages.

I hope this info helps.

mtheory · #5 (**permalink**) 09-05-2009, 10:26 PM

Thanls for the comments everyone.

Most of the issues can be addressed by pointing out the target audience. The movie industry.

End users with widescreen high res monitors who expect a multimedia experience with sound.

amxfan · #6 (**permalink**) 09-05-2009, 11:03 PM

Most of the issues I would say that is a far reach comment. Even on a widescreen monitor you still have issues. Under movies your navigation still overhangs. Under reels you still have the bouncing scroll bar. Under links, on page first load, B movie man was half hidden by Kimberly Amato banner. But this also made me see what I call another flaw. In refreshing that one page, it reloaded the intro and took me back to the main page. For me this was a turn off. Can you set the intro to play once? Possibly by a cookie that if I have it, I don't see the intro every time I refresh a page. Yes on a widescreen it did fix the problem with Blue Eye productions overlapping, but until browsers get smart enough to know if one has a wide-screen or not, I'm not sure if designing specifically for wide-screens is a good idea as most desktop pc's in corporate America are not wide-screen, except for maybe executives and management, and that is still a maybe. One last thought, if your entire site is designed for wide-screen only, how come the blog isn't?

Yes the site does look a lot better on a wide-screen, and yes it does correct some of the issues, but to satisfy both wide-screen and standard viewers, a clickable box may be in your best interest for people to choose what type of monitor they are using to view the site. Personally I think this would be your best option.

mtheory · #7 (**permalink**) 09-06-2009, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amxfan

Most of the issues I would say that is a far reach comment. Even on a widescreen monitor you still have issues. Under movies your navigation still overhangs. Under reels you still have the bouncing scroll bar. Under links, on page first load, B movie man was half hidden by Kimberly Amato banner. But this also made me see what I call another flaw. In refreshing that one page, it reloaded the intro and took me back to the main page. For me this was a turn off. Can you set the intro to play once? Possibly by a cookie that if I have it, I don't see the intro every time I refresh a page. Yes on a widescreen it did fix the problem with Blue Eye productions overlapping, but until browsers get smart enough to know if one has a wide-screen or not, I'm not sure if designing specifically for wide-screens is a good idea as most desktop pc's in corporate America are not wide-screen, except for maybe executives and management, and that is still a maybe. One last thought, if your entire site is designed for wide-screen only, how come the blog isn't?

Yes the site does look a lot better on a wide-screen, and yes it does correct some of the issues, but to satisfy both wide-screen and standard viewers, a clickable box may be in your best interest for people to choose what type of monitor they are using to view the site. Personally I think this would be your best option.

The cookie idea for the intro is agood idea. Not sure why you need to refresh the page, anyway.

I think you're missing the target audience point. I don't believe in compromising the experience of the target user to accomodate every other screen size/resolution. The site is made for a minimum 1024X768 screen resolution.

The blog is what it is. A blog, also designed for 1024x768.

Thanks again for the insight.

amxfan · #8 (**permalink**) 09-06-2009, 11:45 AM

Quote:

I think you're missing the target audience point. I don't believe in compromising the experience of the target user to accomodate every other screen size/resolution. The site is made for a minimum 1024X768 screen resolution.

All I was trying to point out is that when I first posted my comments I did the review while viewing your site on a fullscreen monitor set to 1024x768. After reading your reply I looked at your site again on a widescreen monitor.

What I'm not grasping to be honest is even in your targeted area I would say over half of them would be viewing the site on a full screen and not a wide screen as full screens are still standard on most lease systems and network workstations.

I will lay no claims on ever knowing your target audience better than you. Nor am I trying to belittle you or your talents in anyway. I just believe that ruling out a pleasant viewing experience for visitors viewing your site with a full screen may be a mistake.

With that I will leave this line of comments alone so people can post comments on the site without all my chatter

a53mp · #9 (**permalink**) 09-08-2009, 03:43 PM

blue on black... horrible.

where is the damn skip intro link?

why not do a new design? you cant learn anything by using old stuff all the time.

3dmagicaldesigns · #10 (**permalink**) 09-08-2009, 11:39 PM

I understand this has to be concept website since you want to show a dark and artistic way at the same time, I love the concept. The only thing I will disagree is the actresses performance, they really suck, your work is fantastic but they really need to improve

thefandango · #11 (**permalink**) 09-09-2009, 07:43 AM

Argghh! Just let me in, I dont care that you can do flash intro's! I also think its too gothic, to the point it could alienate anyone who isn't into EMO or likes Twilight. Broaden the appeal.

ronchalice · #12 (**permalink**) 09-09-2009, 06:12 PM

Unless your target audience is the small two-man independents in the industry, your site is going to be reviewed by a bunch of researchers and grunts on 17" CRTs long before it gets to anyone who can make money/casting decisions.

Flex your main design to a 90% width org give the page some borders on left and right sides. This gets the "Navigation" and "Noise" flyovers out from under the heavy frame reflection present in most wide-screen LCD monitors.

Blue on black can be a challenge for many people - perhaps put a one pixel boarder in off-white (#fcfcfc) around the blue lettering.

I also strongly agree with the opt-in or skip functions for the sound. Most of the people I've met in the film industry are on a speakerphone while browsing the net.

getmea · #13 (**permalink**) 09-10-2009, 12:19 AM

The concept intrigued me. I liked the black back ground, but not the blue letters. I hated the menu disappearing...The flash played a little choppy--even though I am on 10MB cablemodem.

**cw1865** · #14 (**permalink**) 09-10-2009, 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by weblover50

Introduction is really good.. I liked the colour combination and the music is also good. Nice work. I think you can make menu standy by than flash.

Actually I have mixed feelings on the introduction. On the one hand it really is well done, on the other its long. I timed it from beginning until the 'Navigation' appeared on the left, a full 16 seconds. On the internet that is an eternity. I didn't see a skip option.

cocoon · #15 (**permalink**) 09-10-2009, 04:36 PM

Liked the site alot, thought the look/style was consistent throughout, and the end result hangs together really well. The blog has the default word press stuff left as the 1st comment/post which is a bit of a spoiler. While I like the way you find and use the navigation, it annoyed me that one I'd found itit disappeared when I moved the mouse off, and because of my screen res it overlapped the main text for me. Other than that the text was a bit small for me, rest I really liked.

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