Please be critical! www.Protoflash.com

[stephen2earth]

Hi, all
My site is www.protoflash.com
- I have just started a flash blog, tutorial and components sections will hopefully come later
- My blog is being done in wordpress.
Any suggestions on design, color scheme, and layout?
I am terrrrrible at design , so any suggestions here would be appreciated.
Thanks guys, looking forward to any suggestions!:beam:

[=guinness=]

-gradient background is too stark and a poor color choice
-do NOT use the bevel layer style in photoshop ever unless you are doing GUI (logo makes me wince)
-colors are too "basic" or primary to go with each other, try some tertiary color combinations or better, check some premade color palettes from places such as colourlovers.com [PLUG FOR YA] or books like "Color Index" by Jim Krause. There are some pre-coordinates color schemes that work well.
-navigation is simple but not tight (look at next bullet for info)
-Typography should have a hierarchy so the viewer can find the info they want as efficiently as possible. Most commonly done with scale (size) and color. (ie base information is largest such as title reducing in size for section, chapter headers and finally body copy [smallest])
-information architecture is weak, needs a stronger layout to help with hierarchy (article titles with blue bars dominate the design instead of complimenting it).


you can see some basic techniques used in your wordpress content. the rest come with practice, formal training, and experimentation. but it helps if you have an eye for it.:}

[stephen2earth]

Thanks very much for your comments.
As soon as i get around to it I will try to implement some of the changes you mentioned.
About my logo, you wouldn't have any better suggestions for a logo, would you?
Thanks!


-gradient background is too stark and a poor color choice
-do NOT use the bevel layer style in photoshop ever unless you are doing GUI (logo makes me wince)
-colors are too "basic" or primary to go with each other, try some tertiary color combinations or better, check some premade color palettes from places such as colourlovers.com [PLUG FOR YA] or books like "Color Index" by Jim Krause. There are some pre-coordinates color schemes that work well.
-navigation is simple but not tight (look at next bullet for info)
-Typography should have a hierarchy so the viewer can find the info they want as efficiently as possible. Most commonly done with scale (size) and color. (ie base information is largest such as title reducing in size for section, chapter headers and finally body copy [smallest])
-information architecture is weak, needs a stronger layout to help with hierarchy (article titles with blue bars dominate the design instead of complimenting it).


you can see some basic techniques used in your wordpress content. the rest come with practice, formal training, and experimentation. but it helps if you have an eye for it.:}

[Fl4SH'ER]

^^ Agree with guinness... You definitely need to work on the layout and colors.
Good Luck. ;)

[stephen2earth]

I followed your suggestion guinness, and looked at colourlovers.com
i picked out this colour scheme http://www.colourlovers.com/trend/websitecolors/90/2007/6/18/CSS_Exchange
any thoughts on this colour scheme?

[Fl4SH'ER]

That color palette is quite nice and it's a good start to have your palette ready. The hard part is to learn how to use those colors correctly and how to combine them to get the smoothest and cleanest layout possible. Try looking at some examples that use those colors ( or use more blue ) and try to understand in which situations or for which objects are certain colors being used.

It's a good start, just be careful how you combine the colors. ;)

[stephen2earth]

Thanks m8!
That color palette is quite nice and it's a good start to have your palette ready. The hard part is to learn how to use those colors correctly and how to combine them to get the smoothest and cleanest layout possible. Try looking at some examples that use those colors ( or use more blue ) and try to understand in which situations or for which objects are certain colors being used.

It's a good start, just be careful how you combine the colors. ;)

[lilymc]

The link isn't working for me.

[stephen2earth]

The link to protoflash.com or the colour scheme?

[lilymc]

To protoflash.com

I tried cutting and pasting it too, didn't work.

[stephen2earth]

Just Google Protoflash and it should be the first result
By the way what web browser are you using?

To protoflash.com

I tried cutting and pasting it too, didn't work.

[lilymc]

I'll try that.

I'm using Firefox right now. Why, is anyone else having problems or is it just me?

[Fl4SH'ER]

^ just you. :)

[stephen2earth]

No, I'm using firefox!

[lilymc]

That's weird... It still isn't working for me even going to google.

I can get to a cached page..... but there's not much there, it's just white background, no pics, and Times New Roman font. :D





^ just you

Maybe because i'm special. ;) Either that or my crappy internet connection.

[Fl4SH'ER]

I remember you had the same problem when trying to view my web page.
Btw, did you ever got to see it ? Click on the photo from my footer...

[lilymc]

No, I can get to your page. But it says it's under construction, go to the old version.

I tried clicking on your site a few days ago, though, and I just got a blank hot pink page.

[stephen2earth]

Ok, i'll attach a screenshot for you?
That's weird... It still isn't working for me even going to google.

I can get to a cached page..... but there's not much there, it's just white background, no pics, and Times New Roman font. :D




Maybe because i'm special. ;) Either that or my crappy internet connection.

[Fl4SH'ER]

^^ Well, the pink thingie is just a splash page ( for the new version... I do not have the time to work on that, yet, so it redirects to the old version.. ) :)

[stephen2earth]

Here is a screenshot of the site(compressed)
http://www.kirupa.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=43058&d=1182761872

[DanontheMoon]

Safari doesn't like it for some reason.

[stephen2earth]

Thanks man, i'll look into that. I'm just downloading safari, and will start testing, thanks.
Safari doesn't like it for some reason.

[stephen2earth]

So how doesn't Safari like it?
I just downloaded Safari 3 Public Beta from here (https://swdlp.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/SoftwareDownloadApp.woa/86/wo/FqXfVGh1rjgTTasWH6eip0/2.5)
And it works fine, I cannot see any problems with the website using Safari.
What version are you using.

[Pasquale]

http://colourlovers.com
http://cssbeauty.com
:thumb: