review me

[jlanxxi]

http://www.jlanxxi.com

[Connie]

Hi jlanxxi. Your site is or at least the home page is in Flash so I can't see it. What is more important is that Search Engines won't see it either. If the entire site is flash you need to provide a text alternative. You could then provide a text link at the bottom of the page to the alternate site or this can be done automatically by detecting if a browser has flash installed and if not redirect. This would also redirect SE spiders.

[jlanxxi]

what I have to put there ???

jlanxxi.com

or what else can I do ??

[Spathiphyllum]

jlanxxi,

I have two diametrically opposed opinions. First, I think the site is very pleasing and creative, i.e. nice eye candy with good color that draws eye movement. Second, I dislike Flash animation. Don't get me wrong... what you did looks great and seems to function pretty well; some of it is still in development so a link or two not working is expected. However, the novelty of flash gets tiresome in a hurry and moving objects are terribly distracting. I guess we need to know your target audience a bit more. If you are selling Flash presentations, then your site serves its purpose well. If you are presenting information to visitors, or businesses, to promote development less dependent on Flash, then your site may not draw or retain the desired market.

As I've said in other reviews (I think), flashing, spinning, and rotating anything distracts this browser and is a big turn-off. For some reason it makes the experience unsettling to me... but I may be an exception. Also, if I'm a business investor or proprietor looking for information, the redundancy of Flash presentations is too annoying. I dislike reviewing the same "video" over and over again when all I really want to do is obtain pertinent data. Time is money and I feel like I'm wasting it when I repeat the same designer-delayed interface.

Having said all that, I reiterate my first point... your design is quite nice. Good luck in your endeavor.

[Connie]

what I have to put there ???

jlanxxi.com

or what else can I do ??

You would need to add a link to the bottom of the page so I could see a html version of the page or get to the next page of your site. Right now for me It is just a blank page and I have no way to enter the site. The same thing will be true of Search Engines.

To Pick up on what Spath said. Flash is eye candy. Regardless of how good the page looks it will turn a lot of visitors off as well as the Search Engines. Especially visitors like me who are on a dial up connection. When I hit flash sites I hit the back button.

There are some sites that flash is appropriate for and yours might be one but I don't know because I have no way to get past your home page.

Regardless of how pretty the site is and how appropriate it is to your visitor base makes no difference if people can't find the site when doing a search that relates to the site. You have locked the Search Engines out of your site.

This is something a lot of new people do, but even experienced web designers do it.

If your only concerned about how the site looks I think Spath probably gave you your answer.

I worry about the usability of a site for people, and whether a site is friendly to Search Engines. I don't mean to be rude but right now yours is neither IMHO.

If you would like to learn more about making your site friendly to users and Search Engines you might want to do some reading in this forum. Search Engine Optimization Feel free to ask questions.

[Vin DSL]

Nice start! Give it some time.

I don't see any major problems - just a few dead links...

[Connie]

Vin the point you are missing is regardless of how good you think the site is doesn't make any difference if SEs can't spider the site. I just run a spider to index the site and this is the results.

Review 'jlanxxi.com'

There are no web pages to display.

That is exactly what the SEs are going to see. No web pages. So what good is a Nice looking site if the SEs can't crawl it?

If jlanxxi wants a pretty site that no one will find that's OK. It is his/her site. Most people put a site on-line in hopes that the SEs will index the site and bring visitors.

The choice is his/hers. Pretty or usable and crawlable by a SE spider. If SEs are not an option and usability is not a concern then Pretty is a good option.

The purpose of the site needs to be defined before anyone can really give a good evaluation.

[Vin DSL]

True!

Proof of concept: http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools...ww.jlanxxi.com

[Connie]

What Google shows

Both set of results are similar. Google does know about the site, but will never show anything more unless some changes are made. Google is working on being able to crawl Flash sites but I think it will be sometime before that becomes reality.

My spider is not quite as sophisticated as Googles but the results are the same. Google can't crawl the site.

SEs love text. Sites rank based on text, to some extent back links from other sites, and at least 100 other factors. You can't ignore the obvious.

[Spathiphyllum]

jlanxxi,

clssam and Vin provided some nice SE references that need serious consideration. Also, clssam's dial-up connection issue is one that I had forgotten about... I've been on fat pipes for so long and my target market has access to them at all times, so slower access never enters my consciousness anymore even though I try to write relatively lean XHTML. Compliant and SE-friendly web presence is imperative in the web jungle lest your site get buried in the weeds with no markers or compass. (Please excuse the prose... it's those blogs that stimulate such verbiage. )

[Jaded]

I had a prior site that was full screen flash w/forum / downloads/ contact / and various pages incorporated. cclasm is dead on about the bots and you just need to add a test for flash with a redirect to a static page (if you haven't already).

Because of the compression in flash, your site should be nice and quick for dialup users as you don't seem to be using to much in the way of graphics. What's the average file size of your pages?

Recommendations:

1. After the initial view -- shrink and move the left into the upper left-hand corner when the first link is clicked.

2. Move the center menu under your portrait.

3. Bring the view window left to center it and enlarge it so your font is bigger than 8pt... It is almost impossible to see without zooming internally in flash.

4. Get rid of the repeating transistion (after the first one) and bring the window up quickly.

(Are you using a pre-loader?) How big is the complete site?


Remember, these are just suggestions...examples of what I would do...nothing more.

[Jaded]

clssam, you should give flash a chance. It's a small download and a lot of flash is in small files. IMO you are missing out on some good content without flash.

[Vin DSL]

clssam, you should give flash a chance. It's a small download and a lot of flash is in small files. IMO you are missing out on some good content without flash.

Speaking for myself, I really don't care much for 'flash', and I'm pretty much a 'razor edge' kinda guy. I have a broadband connection, and a fast computer, so those aren't a problem, but most 'flash' is encrypted, and I hate that sh!t...

If I can't take a program apart and see what makes it 'tick', I got NO use for it. Sorry, but I think that's a rude way to program! It's like you're rubbing our noses in it - and you can't customize 'flash' code to fit your site, blah, blah, blah...

[Jaded]

not to jack the thread but...

There is a ton of free flash apps out on the web. ie. buttons / sliders/ templates.

And unless it is password protected you can open it up. But when you spend a TON of time putting something together, you don't want it popping up everywhere. (we're talking graphics, sound, script, design not to mention the pricetag on the editor) this ain't wordpad baby! lol.

[Connie]

Jaded, I have Flash on IE. I just don't use IE anymore except to visit my own web site. I know flash can be pretty, it's just not practicle for a business site.

There are sites where flash is totally appropriate. You have to know your user base. As I mentioned before, and you mentioned there are work arounds.

I view most things from the stand point of Search Engine optimization, and Usability for the user. A site done totally in flash with no options for a text version does not meet either criteria.

In order of importance the user should be considered first. Users have the Credit Cards an will ultimately buy. If you want to get users to the site apart from PPC advertising, then you need to make the site friendly to SEs as well. So in the end it is a combination.

The other thing that has to be taken into consideration from a usability point of view is most Internet users are still on dial up. Flash pages are extremely slow in downloading. The other thing I hate about them is you have to click another link to enter the content your looking for.