Site check in terms of design and usability!

[comicGeek]

Hello all!

If it woudn't be much of a burden I would like all you good people to visit my site KELdesigns V2 (http://www.keldesigned.com) and give me some of your harsh words of inspiration lol!

I need to know if the design is good, bad, or down right ugly! I also would like to know wether is answers to most common usability issues (menu system, bandwidth comsumption, loading times, scroll bars, accessability, ETC). Please do let me know of your own opinion about my site. Thanks!

comicGeek

[JGizmo]

A BIG thumb up for your site, really like it in terms of the whole feel of graphics style, and colors. Clean and nice ;)

Speech-less, no comments man. Nice work.

[/Pyro]

I love the design. The colors look really good together. Now for the "harsh words of inspiration". The first splash page looks good; however, I was at a loss for what to do for a moment. I was unsure if the movieclip was still loading (eg. something else was going to happen) of if I was to click on it. Perhaps a small "Click above image" would fix that. My next point would be the jumpy smilies on the bottom of the main browser screen. They are cute and quite fun to play with, but they tend to be a slight bit distracting. That coming from a guy that is not easily distracted.
As far as bandwith and loading times, I am running on a T1 so it loads very quickly for myself. (as do most other things). So, unfortunately I cannot make to much of a reliable comment on loading times.
Overall, I would give it an A. You did a good job.

[NEONecd999]

Very cool!
It's clean, nice, easy to use, stylish, nice color choices. I like how you lit up "Main Contents" and "Options" with that gradient, giving it some cool lighting. Same with your logo up top. Actually, now I notice that you use it throughout most of the site. Pretty neat.

As for harsh words.....
How do you turn off those bouncing things on the bottom??? aaaahh...

[comicGeek]

Thanks all for the advice and nice words! :D Thanks also for the harsh words :D

I am still planning how to disable the smileys. I have to agree that they become annoying after a while! Anyways I was thinking of having the user click them to make them explode "to oblivion"....wait now that's an idea... what do you think? :D

Thanks again for the comments

[/Pyro]

I would agree that the smileys need some way to be turned off, and I love the 'click to oblivion" idea. I would reload that page time and time again just to do that.

[bluegel]

thought the page looked smooth

Good work

I liked the bouncing things at the bottom, but perhaps thats because I'm bored at work.

But that would be a good idea to click on them. Like pyro said, I also would keep loading the page just to explode them.

No bad comments. I've noticed that it seems to be a guy thing to use those colours though. Very tech. Not that, thats a bad thing mind. just commenting thats all.

Cool drawings though!

:p

[comicGeek]

thanks.

ok guys i'll make them available for you to kill.......and kill again! lol

:D

[Cyan Star]

Greetings,

Overall, I like the concept and layout but I must say that with my monitor (15" CRT @ 1024 x 768 pixels, my prefered setting) I found all the text a strain to read.

I use a 56K dial-up connection (connected @ 48,000 bps) and the pages were a little slow to load. Do you publish in Flash 5 or 6? Have you ever thought of streaming the page elements onto the stage so something happens immediately, rather than the bargraphs?... Just a thought.

Kind regards,

Cyan.

[comicGeek]

"streaming" the content would cause people to think that the animation has fully loaded. they may think that there is a problem with the site when they expect something to happen and it didn't . I experienced this the hard way. so I would always place a loader bar on the start. if you can show me a sample page of your idea please do! I am open to any idea that may be better.

Unfortunately, I optimised the design for 800x600 res on any monitor. On a 15" CRT like the ones I'm using at home, the text was okay for me. i guess it depends on the monitor type and settings! I think I have to find a better way for this! Any suggestions?

Thanks for the comments, Cyan!

comicGeek

PS. Nice name! :D

[comicGeek]

good news for those who liked the smileys: two new smileys are added. but if you don't like them, don't fret. you can get rid of them. you can have them explode just by clicking on them. if you want to re-explode them, you can revive and click on them again. (",) have fun boys and girls! please inform me of your comments about the matter. thanks!

comicGeek
KELdesigns V2.3 (http://www.keldesigned.com)

[bluegel]

that's cool

:D :p :D

[/Pyro]

I absolutley love the smilies now. That is the highlight of my day. Thank you.

[comicGeek]

Aw shucks! *blush* thanks guys!

:)

comicGeek

[subquark]

looks so good that I decided not to post my site yet!

two small typos on "about": canvass (canvas) and integrety (integrity)

very well done!

[comicGeek]

Ai Thanks man! hehehehe lol





comicGeek


:D