Website Crtique Request

[mc_booga]

Hello, I would like some feedback on my on-line portfolio. It is a Pow-Web hosted site.

http://portfolio.boogatech.com

Thanks,
Markham Carroll

[g4mby]

Hello, I would like some feedback on my on-line portfolio. It is a Pow-Web hosted site.

http://portfolio.boogatech.com

Lovely site, great graphics and good colour contrast but not dial-up friendly I'm afraid. I guess that's a problem that I'll have to deal with but perhaps you should make that clear on the home page while it is loading. As a result I didn't stay too long. But don't let me put you off, I wish I could put something together as good as you have.

[Kitchensink108]

The site itself looks nice. I first need to comment, though, that I never like the idea of a site being flash-based. It's also kind of annoying how there's the initial flash page, but everything that links to is on another page. It kind of breaks down the cohesion, plus whenever you go back to the original page, you have to load the flash again. Granted, it's a pretty quick load, which is nice, but loading that 3, 4, or 5+ times would get really annoying.

This is one of those sites it might be best if you keep flash-based, so my suggestion is to display each of the individual pieces (like each illustration and animation) within the initial flash page, but give a link to alternately view it standalone.

[YvetteKuhns]

Flash-only websites will narrow your audience. I normally wouldn't wait for a page like this to load, even with my fast connection. I felt like I was watching and waiting for one of those Flash games my son likes to play. When I clicked a link, I had to click a Back link to go back to the first page for another page choice. I really didn't like that.

There should be a links menu or at least make the Back link go to a Site Map. I was clicking images and didn't wait long enough for some of those pages to load. There was no way to disable the audio, either. Not a website to visit from the office. Just another portfolio website. Seen millions of these.

Okay, with that in mind, please have a HTML page for your index page and you can allow visitors to choose all Flash or an alternative version or simply lose the all Flash version which is not search engine friendly. While some people will want to see the Flash, others may not or cannot.

You must think of your audience and your competition. There are SO MANY portfolio websites like this on the Internet. Schools used to forward them to me every semester. You need to do something to set yourself apart from your competition.

You may want to have your thumbnails show an enlargement on mouseover. Sometimes the thumbnails don't show enough to tempt visitors to click. You are trying to sell your artwork (services), so treat your website like a store. How can you tempt us to buy your stuff/services?

Your contact page needs more than an email address. If you don't want to post your address, at least say from which state/province and/or country you reside. Don't just show your work to me; SELL it to me! Like a used car salesman, you can work it. ;)

[mc_booga]

Thanks for the feedback. I have made a few changes thanks to the information I've gotten.

I compressed the sound and images better, shaving off about 120kb off the total size down to about 470kb. I could probably compress them better.

The links off the page now open in a new window and have a java script "Close Window" button. Would this make returning to the main page less irritating, even though it spawns new windows?

I also added more contact info and finished the "About" tab.

I'm not worried about being search able by search engines too much. Even if it was in HTML form most of the info would come from the meta tags anyway.

[YvetteKuhns]

Ah, I found the little link to disable the audio. It gets repetitive and annoying after a while. The one audio sounds like a wind chime which is very pretty and relaxing, though. Thanks for adding more info on the about page and the contact page. I didn't know you were from California.

I'm not worried about being search able by search engines too much. Even if it was in HTML form most of the info would come from the meta tags anyway.

Only meta searches and directories read meta tags and they don't hold too much weight. Text contents are important. If you don't need to rely on search engine ranking for traffic, then you probably don't care about this, though.

You can have an HTML index page that is search engine friendly and links to your website that is entirely in Flash. That is something to consider if you decide that you would care about search engines or how fast your first page loads. That page could tell visitors what is needed to view the website and even include a link to download Flash player.