Mediagram Studios Beta

[FDD]

Hi guys, its been a long time since I posted here. My new portfolio site is currently in testing / debugging phase.

http://www.mediagramstudios.com

Comments, suggestions, and/or performance review are highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Fernan

**Launched! Thanks for visiting

[tango88]

Hi FDD,

Overall, I like it. I have some points to make:

1 When I first loaded the page everything was skewed to the right.
2 Everything seems to be on a continuous line with no way to scroll horizontally.
3 I like the zoom in/out special effects
4 >I just realised there are more controls at the bottom of the screen. It takes a while to see what's going on.
5 It looks good on my 22" screen, but would it look so good on a smaller screen.
6 Fusion is spelt with one S

[kkbbcute]

Actually, tango already talk about what I most wanted to say, but I would just like too add one more thing, and that is the time taken for the left/right scrolling and the zoom in zoom out effects makes everything seem unintuitive as you cannot click on anything while the animation is being played. Remember, not everyone is on your site to view the cool effects, what they want is content, as right the now, the special flashy effects reaally distract from the content, so that's a flaw right there.

Apart from that, a decent effort. ;)

[-Ev-]

Yah, I'm going to mimic what kkbb is saying. All the stress is placed on the website and not on the content. Users don't need 6 different ways to view thumbnails in a three dimensional space, especially when none of them provide any advantage over the others. And I don't need a tooltip on an "x" button in the upper right...I know what that does. In fact none of the tooltips are particularly useful. "Click here to access" doesn't provide any more information than the mouse cursor turning into a pointer, and the pointer changing is all the info a user needs.

However, the flash work looks solid. I'm not a fan of the techy look and all the sound effects, but that's personal taste. Nice job overall.

[FDD]

Hi guys, thanks for testing the site. It really helped me put up a to do list before I launch.

As for the questions/comments:
Fusion is spelt with one S
Yeah, its a long story, but yes my other portfolio site is spelled digital fussion.

Users don't need 6 different ways to view thumbnails in a three dimensional space, especially when none of them provide any advantage over the others.
Actually these transitions are just added bonus, the user doesn't need to cycle between these transitions everytime.

I guess my main purpose for this site is to demonstrate my proficiency in actionscript 3 and to showcase my work. I could have done a rather straight forward site quite easily, but where's the fun in that? ;)

I kept my old folio site online as well since its much more traditional in a sense. When I market, these two sites will go hand in hand.

Again, I appreciate the time and the comments guys.

[kkbbcute]

I guess my main purpose for this site is to demonstrate my proficiency in actionscript 3 and to showcase my work. I could have done a rather straight forward site quite easily, but where's the fun in that? ;)

But in effect, you give the impression that you are willing to sacrifice functionality for good looks, its like having a paper umbrella with a excellent drawing on it, in the end, the umbrella gets soaked through because paper is not waterproof. Sure, you could argue that the painting on the umbrella looks great, but in the end, you must remember what the umbrella is supposed to be used for; just like what site navigation is supposed to be for.

But of course, in the end, its your choice. ;)

[FDD]

Lol interesting but quite off analogy there my friend. You make it sound like the functionality is broken, which is obviously not. The animation sequence may not be for everyone, but it does not break anything, at most it may somewhat distract attention and make the user focus more on the site itself and not the gallery content.

A few updates has been made in response to the collective comments and suggestions from all who tested. I will be launching the site in the next few hours. Again, thanks to everyone who participated in the beta test.

[kkbbcute]

Fine, I agree that it's not broken, but hey, you have to admit that there are better ways to browse the site rather than all those distracting flashy nav systems you have there. ;)

On a site note, do you mind me using your site as an example in an article that I'm writing for AS.org right now, talking about navigation systems we should avoid (sorry, no insult, it's just an opinion, no hard feelings eh? :) )

[FDD]

Fine, I agree that it's not broken, but hey, you have to admit that there are better ways to browse the site rather than all those distracting flashy nav systems you have there. ;)

On a site note, do you mind me using your site as an example in an article that I'm writing for AS.org right now, talking about navigation systems we should avoid (sorry, no insult, it's just an opinion, no hard feelings eh? :) )

Lol, no thanks, that kind of publicity I have no use for :eek:

[kkbbcute]

Lol, no thanks, that kind of publicity I have no use for :eek:

Darn, sorry, I already placed it in (pending approval), but not to worry, I stressed that the site was not bad, just that the coding job was redundant. It's an example that others can learn from, and I wasn't criticizing your design skills, so not to worry.

Back to the main topic, actually, the second navigation option is kinda broken, as I find it really hard to use, with the random distribution and all that, but the rest are quite okay.

[Cota]

I would like to jump in with a few thoughts of my own. First, I love the different thumbnail layouts. Clever and subtle. Its the kind of attention to "wow" that a lot of sites lack. I dont agree with some of the previous comments about it being useless. Here's the reality of a portfolio, its point is to sell your sell and thats kind of stuff a possible client will be "wowed" with. Knowing those things comes with experience. Here's another thing experience has taught me. Clients really dont look at portfolios for content. They go straight to the portofilio and your contact sections. Everything else is generally ignored. Believe it or not, thats the way it goes down.

Now for some negatives :
1 - The redicrect took too damn long.
2 - Your preloader was dull. Show me some actual progress..

I didnt experience some of the other issues mention in other posts. All in all, I love the portfolio layout. That will be the most viewed part of your site, it got the most attention, I think it was a great job. I really liked it.

[FDD]

I would like to jump in with a few thoughts of my own. First, I love the different thumbnail layouts. Clever and subtle. Its the kind of attention to "wow" that a lot of sites lack. I dont agree with some of the previous comments about it being useless. Here's the reality of a portfolio, its point is to sell your sell and thats kind of stuff a possible client will be "wowed" with. Knowing those things comes with experience. Here's another thing experience has taught me. Clients really dont look at portfolios for content. They go straight to the portofilio and your contact sections. Everything else is generally ignored. Believe it or not, thats the way it goes down.

Now for some negatives :
1 - The redicrect took too damn long.
2 - Your preloader was dull. Show me some actual progress..

I didnt experience some of the other issues mention in other posts. All in all, I love the portfolio layout. That will be the most viewed part of your site, it got the most attention, I think it was a great job. I really liked it.

Thanks for the feedback :)

The redirect was supposed to activate 1 second, will investigate on this. You're right, it would be best to add a loading progress to the preloader. I'm going to work on that next.