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I've unleashed the Beast - Opinions please!!!!

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Old 03 January 2002, 01:07 PM
  #1  
P1Fanatic
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Must say it looks rather nice and I like the colour scheme. The initial load was slow and it actually timed out so I had to refresh. For a company selling Websites this is not good but something I assume you are already looking at rectifying.

The layout is good with all the menus etc in the usual places that are second nature to most peeps.

The page looks a tad small for me running 1280x1024 res but I guess youve got to cater for all users.

I like the page that shows previous customers and what you have done - that allows potential customers to instantly see the quality of your work.

Does your company design websites and host them or just design? Its just from the first sentence its unclear (well to me anyways).

On the whole very impressive and youve got the right idea bu asking as many people as possible to check it out.

Simon

[Edited by P1Fanatic - 3/1/2002 1:09:05 PM]
Old 03 January 2002, 02:02 PM
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DavidRB
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Looks good, like the colours & fonts

<Picky-picky>
  • Suprised it's fixed to 800x600, it would be good if it expanded, or centred itself.
  • The front page has a lot of text to take in, maybe make a simpler mission statement?
  • Most of the links point to http://www.simon-price.co.uk/kre/ and not http://www.kreature.co.uk/
  • Not sure about the navigation, the drop-downs don't seem to fit the site, for example, they are in a different colour & font and embossed.
  • The menu bar isn't consistent in the way it behaves, some buttons give drop-downs and some don't and sometimes when you click on the parent menu heading, you don't go to a parent page, for example click on design and then process.
  • Watch your design metaphors. Too many sites want to show how many different ways they can do navigation & fonts, when it's better to stick to a few standards.
  • Ditto all the previous comments.
</Picky-picky>

These are meant constructively! Good luck with the venture!

[Edited by DavidRB - 3/1/2002 2:04:41 PM]
Old 03 February 2002, 02:05 AM
  #3  
AndiThompson
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OK, hope this is of help, but I've noticed 2 things.

1 - The drop down menus dont drop down in line with the button, which I presume they should

2 - Have you considered centering it vertically as well as horizontally? Might just make it look a bit better, and its not hard to do.

I have to say, I've just loaded it up in Mozilla and it looks good, well done that man, thats quite some feat!

[Edited by AndiThompson - 3/2/2002 2:09:46 AM]
Old 01 March 2002, 12:53 PM
  #4  
Dream Weaver
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Well,I have grafted good and proper over the last three days, and have managed to create my company website finally. Please could everyone visit the site and tell me what they think?

Also, please advise if there are any problems with the site, missing links/images, or anything else that doesnt seem right. I have fully tested it this morning, but there may always be 1 or 2 things. So here it is:

Kreature Design

Cheers in advance

DW
Old 01 March 2002, 12:54 PM
  #5  
Dream Weaver
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Thumbs up

PS - Once the homepage has loaded and cached the images it should be fast enough to browse the site.
Old 01 March 2002, 01:01 PM
  #6  
Scrappy2
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Cool

Very nice...not sure about the logo though... (only joking)
Nice graphics and functional...
Old 01 March 2002, 01:01 PM
  #7  
DJ Dunk
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Well done mate

The site is excellent, very clean and concise, just how they should be.

Wish you every success for the future
Old 01 March 2002, 01:04 PM
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alistair
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Nice
Old 01 March 2002, 01:07 PM
  #9  
carl
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Don't take this as a criticism (because it's meant to be praise), but you have a particular 'style' which means I would recognize one of your sites a mile off. Like the Italian Wheels one I looked at the other day. I think it's a good thing to be easily identifiable by your work.

Good luck
Old 01 March 2002, 01:15 PM
  #10  
Andy Porter
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Looks good m8, didn't notice any ecommerce offerings on there, drop me a line
Andyp-Actinic
Old 01 March 2002, 01:20 PM
  #11  
Dream Weaver
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Superb everyone, keep em coming.

Andy - Good man, I have been looking into Actinic, as more people are wanting e-commerce as we move forward. I can code ASP, but believe it is much easier with Actinic. Please email me some info and prices to design@kreature.co.uk.

Cheers
Simon
Old 01 March 2002, 01:22 PM
  #12  
BugEyed
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DW

Very good!

A couple of piccy points (not criticisms, but I'd have gone a different way);
  • the use of the drop-down menus looks strange when not all of the main headings have drop-downs.
  • the jokey "boring bits" title is inappropriate on such an otherwise professional site.
  • The drop-down under "Contact" appears as the wrong size.
  • The hover text over the web address at the top right has a spelling error - the "a" is missing from lizard

Cheers

Duncan

PS What no link to Scoobynet?
Old 01 March 2002, 01:32 PM
  #13  
carl
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Also, put some real phone numbers on there (i.e. landline numbers). You may need to get yourself a second phone line for this. Having just mobile phone numbers does not add a professional air.
Old 01 March 2002, 01:39 PM
  #14  
Disco
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Cool

Looks fantastic mate, well done.
Old 01 March 2002, 01:52 PM
  #15  
reaton
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Lookin good dreamweaver :-)

As for Actinic, I used the V3 version for a couple of e-commerce sites and did some pretty cool stuff - though really it was a bit of a square peg for a round hole as the company wanted a very specific look and method of working. I know there are newer versions out there now which may address the customisability (is that a word!) issues but I found it all a bit of a kluge. If you just want to create simple "make me an e-commerce site" stuff though I guess it isn't bad.

Having said that, in the end I started using ASP and created EXACTLY what I wanted for all future projects :-)))

Cheers and good luck

Richard
Old 01 March 2002, 02:10 PM
  #16  
Phill
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Dreamweaver,
I have worked as a Sales Dir for a software house, and have been invlolved in projects such as the carphone whorehouse website(to avoid directly advertising them) and have some experiance at high end sites.

V.good stuff, you need little more than a tidy up, as to the comments about proffesionality above they are right, nearly...It does look proffesional which means the whole site should continue a corporate theme, however there is no saying that theme cant be a little off the wall. Stuff we sell, instead of products and such can really change the feel of the site. You should look at what the customer is trying to achieve commercially and see how you might best achieve that !!

Good luck, and get back to me if you would like me to expand on any of the above.

Phill
Old 01 March 2002, 03:28 PM
  #17  
Dream Weaver
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Thanks everyone - some excellent comments, mostly positive (I think ) and really good to get the feedback.

I have implemented some of the changes to the site, others will have to wait. To answer some of your questions:

carl - cheers, I think that is also a plus these days, to have a "style"

P1F - just slimming the images down as we speak. With regards higher res, you have to design 2 sites one for 1024, one for 800. As most people use 800 it is better to cater for these and centre the site (which I have done now) Later on I will do the site for higher res.

Bugeyed - good points, most sorted now.

carl - agree on the phoneline - just looking into getting a second line now.

Dave RB - I have my hosting pointing to my other domain, and cant seem to change it (thought I could) so will buy some new hosting just for Kreature on Monday Drop downs changed

Phill- didnt quite understand your middle paragraph

Thanks all, check the site again in half an hour - amendments should be up then.

DW

Old 01 March 2002, 05:46 PM
  #18  
Phill
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Dreamweaver,
sorry mate should have been clearer......

Basicly the theme should be consistant with the company image, and there target customers. If that's snowboarding then funky snowballs comming at you in flash might be what there are looking for where as an IT comms company want there site to make them look like a very professional, and prefrably a bigger oganisation then they are. Horses for courses et all

So in short mate, if it's formal company keep it formal, if they are not make them stand out by whatever means you can !!

As to speed, i'm on a 2Mbps leased line at work and everything came up instantly.......Keep at it

Phill



Old 01 March 2002, 06:11 PM
  #19  
BugEyed
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DW

Forgot my normal web testing trick - Netscape 6.

Your site doesn't show itself at its' best with Netscape 6 - I suggest you have look. In particular, the drop-downs are all over the place.

Duncan

PS The changes you've made to the site have really improved it for IE - and on "our" (a major investment company) site, 93% of visitors are using IE so I always wonder whether the extra effort in supporting Netscape is worth the cost.
Old 01 March 2002, 06:31 PM
  #20  
mattstant
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Very nice would like some prices for a simple company site as i cant be arsed to do it myself and i like the clean simple graphics and quick down load time
Old 01 March 2002, 07:33 PM
  #21  
john coffey
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Very nice site, have you seen this web site developers home page?
http://www.dreamshocker.com/flash.html

That must be one of the best Flash sites I have ever seen.
Old 01 March 2002, 08:19 PM
  #22  
Chris L
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Talking

Very nice look and feel IMHO. I like the minimal use of colour and the roll overs down the right and the fact that all fits on one screen!! I really hate scrolling down through 1 1/2 pages or something similar.

The initial impression is very good (also like the Flash intro for the Weston Comms site )

Chris
Old 01 March 2002, 08:37 PM
  #23  
Robertio
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Lightbulb

DW, not wanting to be nasty, but...

Have you thought of using multiple frames, that way it only loads the centre section each time, rather than the whole page?

I've never been a fan of drop down menus on web sites, sorry

The loading time on first view is pretty cronic, if it is because of a large image file; have you thought about breaking it down into multiple smaller images? at least that way the user can see it is doing something.

You have not protected your html, ie the use can right click on it and view source, would not have thought this was ideal.

Other than that it looks very professional
Old 02 March 2002, 09:12 AM
  #24  
Lee
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Si - I can give you a whois lookup tool so you don't have easily's branding on it.

Also - the menus don't work for me, the drop downs are way off the root. If you want to do drop downs then there is only one real way - www.dhtmlab.com (hiermenus) - works in all NS/IE browsers.

Nice site, also you never told me you'd finished iwd - nice :-)
Old 02 March 2002, 06:39 PM
  #25  
bumcrack
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What's has this to do with Subaru Imprezas?
Old 04 March 2002, 09:57 AM
  #26  
Dream Weaver
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Bumcrack - if my venture goes well, then I can finally afford to buy one

Lee - yhm

DW
Old 04 March 2002, 10:19 AM
  #27  
tonybooth
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Simon

Looking good M8, but drop downs did not line up on my PC. Still think the Weston Communications site is the best one

Cheers

TONY
Weston Communications
Old 04 March 2002, 11:03 AM
  #28  
lpitt
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Very nice and clean, no problems downloading either at home or work.

Couple of comments though:

1. The dropdowns don't seem to align properly on IE6, they are all one column out. Same on Opera 6.01. I don't have NetScape and so couldn't test.
2. Have you considered using a ripple effect on the water under the heading? Ok so it would increase download but definitely catching.

Nice though.

Laurence
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