A salty room web-site

[Zhet]

Just finished another project - a web site for a salty room. The client wasn't really the best of a kind, so I had to cut on some designs, so I wonder now - is it still good?

The site is placed on www.salsistaba.lv (http://www.salsistaba.lv)

The only thing i'm proud about is that the code looks at your Sys language and if your PC is english - the english version appear and so on. If you switch the language or the music, it will remember and next time you go to that site - it will start with that language or with music turned off;)

Well, anyway - check it out;)

[pixelSnobbery]

Well for starters I don't quite see why this site needed to be done in Flash? I would've thought it would function much better using simple css and xhtml.

I don't like all the text with the blue shadow effect - doesn't look particularly professional.

Having said that, I love the look/colours etc - gives it a nice fresh feel.

[Zhet]

Thanks!
About the text - I don't really know how to change that to be better, any other combination looks very cheesy:p I have to keep that blue and white.

[mikken]

I'm not a big fan of the gradient on the header and footer, and the left bar should have a border or something to make it stand out from the background.
The menu is a little choppy - if you move the mouse pointer quickly over all the elements it will just cause chaos. You should also speed it up a little.

The fonts on the logo and the header on the main page are pixelated. You should probably also use sans-serif font on the content

Ah, and the sound again. Great that it remembers it if you don't want it. There should be a script out there to detect if you're listening to music on your computer. Ambient music doesn't blend in well with Back to the Front.

I think the logo should have another color, with a smoother dropshadow

Overall easy to use, but some minor tweaks will make it much better

[pixelSnobbery]

Maybe a different font could be better - In my opinion Times New Roman doesn't quite fit in with the whole website. Maybe a sans-serif font would be better?

[mikken]

@ pxlsnob: IMO without the menueffects this page would have been a little too straightforward, so in that sense it justifies the use of flash. the users of this page will probably enjoy the moving bits. People love that. But maybe some edgier transitions wold have justified it more.

[haam]

what the heck is a Salty Room?

the jagged edges on the logo are tearing this thing apart. you could def. speed up the total frame rate of the site, esp. on the navigation, it's just pointless looking so slow.

over all the look and feel are coming off childish, the logo is in the most over used Graffiti font ever made, and what does graffiti have to do with this business? the service they offer is one of relaxation and soothing, i Do Not get that from your design.

also, go back thru your sections of Copy and make sure your line spacing is correct. you've got broken lines in the About section...

everything that i see is all the designer's issues, i doubt the client chose those fonts or decided to export the images so badly.

oh yea, how come the name of the company isn't the same as the URL? that's confusing!

sorry, my 2 cents...

[Qued]

Does not load.

[Digitalosophy]

- The logo and the site do not match - a graffiti font on what should be an elegant site?
- I'd rather see a darker color background
- Menu effects are extremely amateurish, on top of which there is no indication of what section I am in
- The About Us scroller doesn't work, if it's not supposed to then why do I see it?
- The other pages that do scroll, there isn't any smoothness to the scroll
- Poor choice of fonts
- Over all the site looks very amateurish and I would take this site as a learning experience because it is not very good.

[Zhet]

Digitalosophy, i was expecting some feedback from you:p you broke my heart

[Digitalosophy]

Digitalosophy, i was expecting some feedback from you:p you broke my heart

My critique's lately have been very harsh, and if I come off as being an arse then I apologize.

My crits are very similar to what my boss would give you, the reason being he's given them to me in the past and it made me a much better developer/designer. When I came here I couldn't design for squat, and now after a few years I'm actually not all that bad.

Anyhow, the harder you are on yourself will make that next project better and if you continue to move forward you'll be shocked where you could be a few years from now.

:kommie:

[Zhet]

PS: the grafitti logo... thats a long story, but I'll try to make it short: the company logo was there long ago before the site was going to be made, and I clouldn't do anything about it (how can you change a logo just like that?) But the client insisted to put smooth, relaxing design like I've made.
PS2: the menu buttons gets where they need to be in 1/3 of a second - thats good for me.

[pixelSnobbery]

@mikken,

I think half the trouble with web design these days is that people use Flash "because they can".

Creating a whole flash site just to give it a cool menu seems a bit ridiculous to me.

[haam]

@mikken,

I think half the trouble with web design these days is that people use Flash "because they can".

Creating a whole flash site just to give it a cool menu seems a bit ridiculous to me.

AMEN!

[mikken]

^ ^^ I totally agree, but i also think some of the problem is that people make flash sites because the don't know how to make a good one with xhtml/css.
But sometimes a 'live' menu is enough to spruce up an otherwise plain site - but maybe people then should focus on not making it so plain...

@ zhet: this was just a general comment, sorry for hijacking your thread

[bobbyanderson]

Is it 1999 again? ;)

Sorry mate, Im in agreement with the others, I just dont see the need for this to be in Flash. XHTML/CSS really is the way forward in my opinion and it will take a lot of persuasion otherwise - some sites are suited to Flash if they have an abundance of ActionScript tests or a great portfolio to show off but for a site wanting to brand itself and offer services I'd advise otherwise.

Just my opinion afterall but thought I'd throw it in there anyway.

[JoshuaJonah]

can you at least color the logo the same, i really hurts to look at

[Yakuza]

Well...I'm quite sure most of the people agree that this site shouldn't be done in Flash, but what is done is done, so I don't think we should bombardment with this comment again. I don't think we should expect him to shift the whole thing into HTML/CSS since it is a near or it is finish product by now.

However, I do think that the fonts needs a bit of changes and even the colour scheme of the background. I'm quite sure you can do better than that. The rest is acceptable.