Websemantic - website critique request

[gingerbitsjock]

Hello folks,
OK, very nervous about the response but I've just finished version 2 of my site and I would really appreciate any feedback. I'm most concerned about performance - it works on my machine but I think it could be a bit CPU hungry. If you wouldn't mind taking a quick look at the accessible site too that would be great.

http://www.websemantic.co.uk/wsWebsiteV2_1/

Cheers,
Patrick

[mastermode]

Hey there!

First off, I really like the title. It's smart, and catchy. Good choice!

The Splash Page loads a bit slow for me, slow not connection-wise, but performance-wise. It gets choppy at 70% to 90%, but not very much. I have an AMD X64 4200+ Dual Core, so that you may compare results.

Also relating to the splash page, it needs to me more interesting. I like the 3d graph, I do, but it's too simple to make me go "woaaa". What I also like is the etymology and the pronunciation, but again, they're a bit too simple. The bad thing about this page is the font of "start". It's just a big standard font, with nothing special to it. I would change it.

When entered the site, I receive this intro, "clarity, design, purpose". Well, I thing that the animations are a bit banal, at least for the first two. Maybe you should've created a more interesting transition (and btw, the transition IS nice) rather than creating a good, but not very spectacular animation of three words.

The navigation is awesome! Again, I'm digging the graph theme, and it's simple, but effective. Well done in this area! Maybe shorter animations when clicking a subject (i.e retracting all nodes, moving remaining nodes to the right side of the site, expanding the page, showing content..it's a lot of things moving, and I think there's too much happening, before I read a text). Maybe some custom easing to the animations, but that's not at all important, they're swell just the way they are.

The shape of the site is okay, quite elegant actually, the only think I dislike are the strokes, they seem somewhat unprofessional.

Other than minor things, like the fonts, or some strokes, or some easing, the site is really well done. I like it!

Well, these were my two cents, I hope you find them useful :)

Cheers


EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot. Is the menu dynamically built? If so, way awesome!
EIDTx2: The logo is really snappy and solid as well ^^

[gingerbitsjock]

Mastermode - what can I say? Thank you very much for such a detailed and constructive review. Your points make a lot of sense and will help me make changes.

I'll maybe rethink the text type effect in the preload as it seems a bit intensive.

I think my non-design background shows with the splash animations - when I get time I think I will try to make them more interesting or remove altogether.

I was concerned the animation between selecting a menu item and displaying text was too long. I may well change this.

I'm not clear which strokes you are talking about and why they seem unprofessional - I think you've put enough thought in already but if you would like to expand on this I would value it.

Pretty much everything is positioned and presented with script using XML to feed text however the 'nodes' of the navigation do not self-space if that is what you meant - I'm nowhere near that smart :-)

Thanks very much again. I will hopefully have more time to put the same sort of effert into reviewing other people's sites now.
Cheers,
Patrick

[mastermode]

I'm not clear which strokes you are talking about and why they seem unprofessional - I think you've put enough thought in already but if you would like to expand on this I would value it.

Pretty much everything is positioned and presented with script using XML to feed text however the 'nodes' of the navigation do not self-space if that is what you meant - I'm nowhere near that smart :-)

1. I think my English (not first language, btw) has generated a confusion. To be more exact, I was referring to the borders of the site. The line that draws the shape of the site, at the beginning of the intro. I hope you now understand which one :)

It's not that it looks *unprofessional*, my mistake on choice of words, but I usually tend to remove all borders from what I'm creating. It might be some personal issue that I wrongfully inflict onto others ^^. When I looked at it again, it didn't look bad at all.

2. Well, yes, this is the "dynamic" construction I had in mind. One using XML. I really respect and admire you for that. (The other way, which I wouldn't've liked, would've have been to motion tween the whole menu, in other words, to've already drawn it by yourself, no code implied.)

I hope this is more clear to you, either way, congratulations again!

Cheers.

[Web-Stylist]

Nice website. I'm not experience at all in Flash so I can't advise much. But I like your simple demonstrations on flight physics being a student pilot myself :D Do you have any special interest in aviation and/or pilot studies?

[gingerbitsjock]

Hi Mastermode & Web-Stylist,
Mastermode: that is perfectly clear - as a Scotsman, my English isn't too good either ;-) I understand now, thanks for getting back to me again.
Web-Stylist: thanks for the kind comments. Yes, I am mainly an eLearning developer for Air Traffic Controllers and the last module I developed was about aircraft performance. Interesting stuff to learn about. Good luck with your license.
Cheers,
Patrick

[nortago]

Hey Dude, Just checked out the site and noticed you're a Scot! and you went to Paisley (as did I - but on the Commercial Music Course). Awesome! Glad to see someone's actually doing something with their Paisley degree...

Anyhow, one bit of advice (I tend to give this a lot, but so many miss it) mess around with fonts! A lot of folk make the mistake of just using what's on their pc already, but Have a look at DAfont (dafont.com) in the sans-serif section, try changing your site font to maybe DIN Regular to see the difference it makes.

Also, there's a little community of us flash geek at scotflash.com.

Liam

[gingerbitsjock]

Hello Liam,
aye, Paisley was where my journey into geekdom began. Glad I went.

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely look at the font site you posted. Shouldn't be too hard to change the font as it's all CSS controlled - man, what a pain to get that working!

scotflash.com sounds like you all meet in the park wearing long raincoats (I presume you meant scotflash.co.uk?). I'll take a look in later. Thanks again.

Cheers,
Patrick

[nortago]

Ha! That's the one... scotflash.co.uk

Good call using css - i've started doing that lately and it comes in handy, especially for pesky clients :)

Liam

[sekasi]

I'm just gonna leave it at this:

9 out of 10 users don't want to see a cheesy intro.

[gingerbitsjock]

Hi sekasi,
cheesy?! glad I didn't put the tiger skin rug and disco ball in ;) . Yep, I think you are right. The intro will probably be cut instead of changed. Thanks for the feedback.
Cheers,
GBJ

[Web-Stylist]

Hi Mastermode & Web-Stylist,
Mastermode: that is perfectly clear - as a Scotsman, my English isn't too good either ;-) I understand now, thanks for getting back to me again.
Web-Stylist: thanks for the kind comments. Yes, I am mainly an eLearning developer for Air Traffic Controllers and the last module I developed was about aircraft performance. Interesting stuff to learn about. Good luck with your license.
Cheers,
Patrick

Awesome, cheers for the good luck :)