Eyecandy Website...Critiques/Reviews Appriciated

[Eyecandy]

Aye everybody,
We are new here to the design cafe and was looking to see if anyone was interested in checking out our website.

Let me know what you think...
http://www.dnaimagery.com

Thanks in advance...

[Raphaela]

A few things. One, right off I don't care for pure flash sites. You can't copy/paste text, sometimes its hard to save links, it loads very slow, and the way you have it designed you have to open a new page with every click. With all that flash, couldn't you make the pages open in the same swf instead of loading a completely new one?.

When it does open, the very small serif font along with the bad contrast makes it very difficult to read. Id use a sans font, bring it up a few pixels (really small fonts are kind of a few years ago cutting edge ) and use a better contrast. Black is so pedestrian and predictable.

Also, in my humble op the images are too big for simple navigation. I know its an 'eye candy' site, but I'd make the eye candy in my art pieces, not in the navigation. If you ever do add more content, you want people to be able to get around quickly and smoothly. Its not that now.

Sorry to be so negative. I did not care for the design, in my eyes it needs some tightening up. Hope I'm at least being constructive.

[Eyecandy]

Thanks alot...

Actually I agree with you on pretty much everything and had already begun re-doing the site.

I'll post the revised version up in a few days, but about the text. I made the text 12 point. The site is less than 500kb, so unless you have a really slow connection I'm not sure why it wouldn't load up in less than 5 seconds...

I made the site smaller, flipped it to white, dropped the cartoon act...what do you think of the galleries? pictures too big/good size?

What size font do you recommend? + what is your screens resolution?

[stickyeye]

Eye Candy, Im inclined to agree with Raphaela, pure flash sites hog bandwidth, I think the content is fine but I see on the web, lots of webdesigners that are to "try hard", often you can convey a message with simple visual cues, add some contrasting colour and style and do more research, what age group are you aiming at? What enthic group would most likely indentify with your "product" Colours also mean different things to different groups, so research is always good. Good luck and I hope you're be impassionate with your critque of my website redesign when that happens real soon. ;~) Stickeyeye

[Eyecandy]

I'll critique anything just send a PM my way...

On another note...

I redesigned the website...Let me know what you guys think now...and as far as bandwidth...

The index page is 200 kb...and each gallery is less than 500kb...I don't think that they should hog as much bandwidth as each of you are suggesting...Even on a 56k modem it would only take 4-6 seconds to load...

[fred]

Is this supposed to be a serious site?

Seems a little trite for such subject matter.
Sometimes it's difficult to mix entertainment
with business content.

I guess the 200K index page puts this one into the
"Over 20K" category ... or
"You know your web site sucks if... "

:-)

[Eyecandy]

Why would it not be a serious site? What indicates that it isn't? The logo?

I don't want to be bland/coperate. I want to be able to show personality. This is a digital art/graphic/web design website.

What would you recommend?

[fred]

I think more appropriate than asking for recommendations -- we back up and ask "WHO" is the intended target market for this web site.

The dancing, reversed type, the cartoonish drawing, and other aspects are whimsical and fun -- yes, eye candy. However (to me) the subject matter doesn't seem to match the presentation.

It would be interesting to see the comments you might obtain from a test sampling of 1,000 people leaving the local mall.

What words might they use to describe the VISUAL impact of the site... without reading the content.

I think therein lies the visual anomoly I'm experiencing with this site.

[Eyecandy]

...Hmmm...Maybe there are too many slants to the website. I'll streamline the text a little more. Maybe combine web/graphic design together...

I've shown several people and it seems to be well received.

My demographic would be people that want a piece of art that is unique to their personality. I'm not shooting for one group here. I realize I may turn some groups off and others on, but that would happen anyway if I shaped the website to tune into one market.

I think most people would say that the website is cool.

Can it be better? Yes...Will it be better? Yes...

Thanks for the input...

[Eyecandy]

Okay, I re-worded a few things and moved a few things around, I plan on changing the inverted text in a week, is there anything else that ppL see as a major flaw to the site?

BTW thx for all the feedback, you guys have been amazing...