ideas/ feedback

[lukeoram]

Here is a test for my latest site:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/laura.powderham/betasite/beta003.html
Any ideas or comments thankfully recieved!

[skiistari]

Very nice. The font for the news is a little hard to read.
I know this is only a beta version, but definitely go with a centered window on some sort of interesting (but muted) background.
It'd be nice if you fully-customized that scroll bar on the news box. The standard one doesn't really match your design.

[lukeoram]

Thanks!
yes I think I'll fully customize the scroller, and the entire site will be presented in a pop-up from a launch page (possibly chromeless?)
The font I find difficult.. it's a standard one for the news.. see what I can do!
Any other ideas, anyone?

[cameron_]

I would work on the preloader...that little robot doing something would be funny. I like the idea of the site. The type is a bit bold for reading. I like the box rotating around, if it were me, I would use the box as the entire interface. Its a great start but I would apply the same great playful feel that your gallery images have to the entire site.

[eurosickwitit]

preloader looks like it's been designed well over a centuries ago, bit too old school, doesnt have to be some big to impress me or others. And yes, as someone else mentioned the text is a bit blurry hard to read. Is it bold? If it is maybe get rid of the bold style if not just change the font to something more pleasant. Good job though

[lukeoram]

Thanks for your comments-

Perhaps I'll change the pre-loader... I wanted it to seem like an old computer game loading screen.... The other idea for the loader was to have the robot and a 'female' counterpart (a la mrs. pacman) do something.
Re; font, I dont' know why it apperas fuzzy on some systems- it's fine on my computer- but that's what beta testing is for!
Is it something to do with flash encoding?
Also- the intial idea was to have the box as the interface, and have the user manipulate it somehow- but I'm new to swift3d etc.. and useability- wise the nav buttons are recognisable and fairly instant. A compromise.

[skiistari]

Font -- embeding... It's so important because people who don't have the font you're using will see a messed-up version. Once I forgot to embed, and the font was appearing tiny tiny tiny (like size 3px) on everyone elses' computer, and HUGE on my computer.

In your .fla file, click on the text box with your black arrow. In the properties pannel, you'll see a button called "character" click that, then select the second option, and shift-click the first 4 categories. Click OK and your font should then be embeded... for that text box. :)

[lukeoram]

Thanks!
I just knew it had to be something obvious that I was missing!
Plus I looking into some real nice pixel fonts to use.. any reccomendations? Think retro games etc..

[MistaEatRite]

Dude, your site is nice!! Did you take pics of that box from every angle for the animation? Really nice. And I like the roll-over/click stuff you put on the robot. Nice!

[lukeoram]

Thanks! I hope this site will be 'playful' and appeal to the kid in us all!
And- No the Box is CG- I designed the 'net' (i.e. all six sides) in photoshop, scanned in the wear and tear from an old Sci-Fi paperback to make it look authentic and put it all together in Swift 3D.
From there I exported the frames to flash and made the rest of the site.

[lukeoram]

Okay folk, I've listened to the esteemed advice and put some inot practise..
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/laura.powderham/betasite/beta003.html
whaddya think?

[skiistari]

While it's better than last time, it can still use some work. That font is also a bit hard to read especially in "justified" mode.
The news section will be greatly improved if you just separate the different updates by one line or something. Right now they're all run together.

[Moo.]

fonts a bit blurry, I like the loader progress though :)

[lukeoram]

Hmmm.. I can't quite seem to sort out this font problem... On my systems it's totally crisp, I have embedded the font, stuck to size 8, and ensured all text boxes are placed exactly on whole x and y values. Frustrating!
Perhaps I should make the news an internal file... At the moment it loads form a .txt file, and it seems to do this differently on different machines (again, on my system it is formatted in nice little chunks per news item, with a break between each)
Thanks for all your help!

[Just Justin]

Here is a test for my latest site:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/laura.powderham/betasite/beta003.html
Any ideas or comments thankfully recieved!

center it

[lukeoram]

If you mean centre it in the browser- it will be launched in a centred window form a front page.

[Zach-E2]

i like the cartoon

[lukeoram]

Hi folks, here is yet another version
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/laura.powderham/betasite/beta003.html

I have concentrated on the news box mostly, and have experimented with a few different fonts- but not quite sorted the font thing out yet!
thanks!

[lukeoram]

also need ideas for launch page!

[lukeoram]

..and yet more!
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/laura.powderham/betasite/beta003.html
loader for gallery etc...

[funkyMonk]

like the way your 3D animation can go ANY direction even if you click on a different Navigation button in the middle of the 3D animation.

excellent attention to detail :pir:

[slinkyart]

I'm sure everyone has said this...but the text in the news box is showing up really fuzzy and kind of hard to read. Might want to turn on 'anti-aliased' in the properties.

[lukeoram]

Thanks for the good feedback- I've only just moved to using mx pro, so thanks for the 'anti-aliasing' tip :)

[lukeoram]

okay- here is a version which i hope will have crisp text- it's from an incomplete launch page http://homepage.ntlworld.com/laura.powderham/betasite/index.html
so ignore the launch page, and preview the site!
thanks

[SyPhEx]

My friend , thats on great site !
very very nice in its own retro-tamaguchi way
good job.

[Zach-E2]

it's rocking, man! keep up the good work!

[lukeoram]

Thanks for the postitve vibe!

[Zach-E2]

positive vibe only means one thing... you are going in the right track and you are doing good work. so yeah.. good job, man!