MaTT cv/portfolio site

[pinkaboo]

Hiya all,

OK, I've finally got my arse in gear and [practically] finished this site I've been working on for a friend, which is cool because I should get my fee tonight, hoorah.
(payment = one bottle of vodka).

Anyhow, I'd appreciate it you could bug test this for me and let me know if you spot any glitches or what not.

I've just noticed a couple of things I'll need to sort out this evening [pre hitting that nice ice cold voddy ;( ] and if you have any other comments, that would be great.

a) flashing "!loading!" while swonking
b) bg on swonking section to match butted jpegs
c) centre swf vertically as well as horizontally

Would be interested to hear how long it takes to load in on other peeps systems too please.

Matt's Portfolio

Thanks.

pinK

pixelwit - never did sort out the swonking for the external swfs/jpgs, still a source of befuzzlement but I just got rid in the end. Matt had specified that he wanted swonking but I persuaded him that actually a preloader there would actually cause more of a delay than if the pics just loaded straight in. Thanks for your help anyway mate. (btw I haven't tested but I suspect that maybe Int might be the culprit that was messing it all up, being a defunct term now an'all *shrug*)

[Abelius]

Your bottle of vodka should be well deserved.

Loading time: less than 2 seconds. Local network here, DSL speed, 128 MB, decent machine...

One critic, if I may: Perhaps the "contact" button should have not prompt outlook to pop up... It's annoying for some people...

[farafiro]

First of all, I should say it's a very fast loading site
LAN/Win2k/IE6
then here it comes:
* I don't think that the color is balanced at all, it caughts the eyes
* Why should be a link (that gry shape) from the tabs columns to that discription rectangle
* I know it's not totaly finished yet, but too many spaces for a very little show-room
* some music/ sound/ interactivity needed there
* that scrolling thing in the CV is cool, but I think it needs some arrows to figure out that I should press on it


Sorry, but I expected to see more than that from u, Pink
but anyway, enjoy the VODYyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[Billy T]

I thought it was cool - colour scheme and the shapes and everything were nice. My only criticisms would be

a - I don't like anti-aliased text
b - I thought the main buttons on the left and the section buttons up the top were a bit big and clunky. I liked the smaller buttons to load the different images much more.

good job

[snapple]

pinkaboo,

Loading times were nice, had a look on dial up and broadband it was super duper fast.

I have spent a while looking at the site throughout today. I was running in & out of different buildings trying to do many flash related things today, so i have been on and off the forum all day.

I read the other comments and looked at the site, then went back and treated my eyes again.

BOLD / PLAYFUL /CHUNKY / FUNCTIONAL

Four words that i think best fit the site. I really, really liked it.
But i had better substantiate my comments otherwise you might think i am trying to ask you out on a date, so here goes :

The colors, i think, are balanced, its just that there not hidden ina distorted background. I think people/web designers/developers get caught up in what is the norm, and what the satus quo for 'good design' is.

It is really nicely layed out, the bold areas of bright color, the playful shapes and simple design make it a really ncie and pleasing to use. Everything happens quickly and efficiantly.

I understand what farafiro said :

some music/ sound/ interactivity needed there

And i appreciate the point that farafiro makes about expecting something on the sides of the site (especially the left grey area, and space generally), but then i think, "well thats the design, thats how it is meant to be, it looks neat."

The whole feel of the site fits in nicely with the graphics that are in there, e.g. Thomas the Tank engine, Toy Story - i just thought it all worked really well, the site is totally 'together' and presents a unified, fun style.

Just because someone is able to write complicated scripts and mind bending maths with actionscript, does not mean they have to, the client may want a particular style, in which case you give it to them.

Thanks for taking the time to read my comments

Regards, Snapple

[Billy T]

farafiro - do you have a portfolio web site or anything? I'd like to chek out your stuff

cheers

[farafiro]

Originally posted by Billy T
farafiro - do you have a portfolio web site or anything? I'd like to chek out your stuff
cheers

Unfortunatly, 90% of my stuff are offline... I hope I can get them over the web soon.

[Tink]

loaded quick for me. it was there as i click on the link but using works connection t1.

the text did bug me. made the whole site appear a little blurred (i still don't undrestand this anti-analised text stuff).

i think there was something missing from the layout. i don't think it was necessarily the blockyness. i can't put my finger on it. looks kinda basic??? as opposed to minimal.

i think it is very functional but lacks a bit of interactivity for the user.

colours are fine.

agree with farafiro on the scrolling of the cv - it isn't very apparent.

think the area where stuff is displayed is small compared to the size of the site and button etc...

don't think there is nothing wrong with contact popping up outlook but i my presonal oppinion is a site looks more intergrated if u can e-mail from the site.

like the way u can print the CV - any info on how u done that?

to sum up - a bottle of vodka has been well earned but i think there is a lot of possiblities for the site to progress.

well done - BLEEDs

[content_guy]

Hello Pinkaboo. I like it. Original and well executed. Having said that...

1. I like the color scheme, but dark gray/dark orange text vibrates, to my eyes. I don't think antialiasing is the problem, I think its that they are too similar in brightness, not contrasty enough.
2. I dislike the row of nonfunctional squares atop opening page.
3. I regret that the gray zig obstructs photo, effectively cropping it. The photo looks good and harmonizes nicely with other grays; on the other hand, upon reflection after viewing site, I'm not sure what it was for.
4. At first, I thought the credits button too large; upon reconsideration of your payment -- only one bottle? -- I think the credit button isn't nearly large enough, should fill top two-thirds of screen :-)

Residential DSL, loaded in a blink.

I'm reluctant to mention this because I'm using an odd browser, Opera for the Mac, but clicking on Print CV froze the browser.

Lastly, can we talk about the wisdom of publishing a CV for Flash 6 only, when there's so many legacy browsers out there in use?

Cheers,

content guy

[pinkaboo]

Thanks all for taking the time to look at that site for me.
I've purposefully tried to stay away from this thread for a little while before replying as sometimes I think the thread starter can tend to jump in to fend off or embrace comments too quickly and that can divert the site check, and sway any future comments.

Anyhow, good to know that it works and loads in well, as that was my main priority. Matt just got made redundant and he needs a basic site with which to approach agencies regarding his work. He didn't want it to be flashy because it's his work he's trying to sell, not my crappy coding. Hence no music, no gimmicky anims, no sounds to annoy agency folk.

email link - totally agree with you, I much prefer intregrated forms, but my server is cheap and I have no access to scripts. I did get an offer to access someone else's script on his server (you know who you are and I thank you very much and would still like to maybe take you up on that in the future *bounce* ) but I decided against it for this site, mainly for personal reasons which I won't bore you with here.

(this did however draw my attention to the fact that I seem to be missing contact details when you click that link too! - contact phone number and location seems to have gone astray - doh)

design - heh at least no one pointed me to Freeserve and said "hmm, that's a good site, it should look more like that" (oh no, that just happens at work! arrghh)

buttons - again fair point, though Matt wanted them like that, he's been working for a company creating kids educational cd roms and big buttons have been drummed into him by the educational guys there! (Not trying to deflect criticism, just thought I'd explain why they are like that.)

pics - are that size because that is the size of the pics. Would've been nice to click on them to get an enlarged view or something but hard drives got formatted and the artwork no longer exists.

Text - yep, point well made. You know what? I hate text in Flash. Drives me crazy. You'd have thought Macromedia could have sussed some way of making text look half-decent without you having to resort to miniml fonts or imported graphics by now. booo!

Bleeda wrote:
a lot of possibilities for the site to progress.

oh gawd I hope not I'm sick to death of it! It's history and I really hope the chapter is now closed, I need to move on! I just want my voddy to cradle now. *sigh*

heh, anyhow, what do you expect for a bottle of vodka? damn I'm cheap, maybe I should have stuck out for two? *grin*

Hmm, didn't mean to do the defensive routine, have taken all comments seriously and into consideration, honest!

Thanks again all! Keep 'em coming?

yours,
pinK

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Bleeda: from what I can remember offhand (I'm rather forgetful) the cv sections load into the text box on screen, but there is also a mc off stage which contains a textbox for each section arranged to fit onto a sheet of A4 paper. Then !#p is put on the first frame of anything I don't want to print (ie the rest of the movie) and on the frame in the cvtext movie I put #p. (possibly with a bounding box set on the frame after)
The print button then just calls an action to print the appropriate frame from the cvtext movie. I'm sure I've posted how to do it in more detail before if you search under my name