*New* Collins Lake Site (with Map Application!)

[edified]

I just finished a site for Collins Lake, a Northern California Fishing and Wakeboarding Lake.

Check it out here: http://www.collinslake.com/

It's been a while since I've done anything in AS (Flash 5 I think) but I gave it a whirl again for the map page here:

http://www.collinslake.com/index.php?page=maps

Comments are open for the whole site but I'd especially like you to evaluate the flash interface. It had to be simple enough for windows users (*ducks*) and yet display 4 pages of map data.

Suggestions and criticism are welcome!

[Dylan Marvin]

Another neat map.:) The only thing I would say is it might be a bit large for users with average or below-average monitor sizes/resolution. The sight in general is nice graphically, but also has that large effect.

[edified]

Screen resolution is always a tricky one. The site is designed to look nice at 1024x768 but we wanted it to be usable at 800x600. Originally we were going to make the site scale horizontally, but designwise that can be a nightmare, especially since they do lots of copy changes. So I settled for the big look on low resolution monitors- using the *excuse* that those people are probably used to it. The header is especially big at 800x600. At 640x480 the site become much less usable but we decide to take the audience hit since this crowd is small and dwindling (except cells & palms, which comprise less than .001% of hits).

I just finished coding a map browser for employee use. The map includes a site finder that automatically finds, scrolls to and highlights site numbers (I do this with variable variables and dynamic instance targeting). When a site is clicked on the employee version, individual site information is dynamically loaded into flash and displayed in a fly-in box (a la dashboard) rather than a PHP generated page. I'd like to include this in the online version but it relies on pictures and XML loading instantly (between the click and the fly-in, less than .15 seconds).

Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers, Ed.

P.S. I run at 1680x1050 (20" apple), so it always looks different when it fills the whole screen on someone else's compy.

[Dylan Marvin]

I wish I could see what you're talking about with the employee version. I enjoy the smooth operation of the map.:)