Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Check out our new Flash website. What to you think?

Cesar Villaca
Internet Business Consultant
Empire Solutions LLC
503.914.6405
cesar@empiresolutions.net
http://www.empiresolutions.net

I really do not like flash sites, as a matter of fact I hate them and try to avoid them at all costs. To me content is way more important than glitz. Flash sites are more difficult to navigate and slower to load. When I come across one I typically say next because I can usually find another site without all the hassles of flash. If you are a site development company and do not have a good website yourself that is not a good strategy for growing your business. I would highly recommend revisiting this aspect of your business.

Good Luck,

John


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ok sorry don`t agree. how about a review of the site not a blanket statement about the technology.

Cesar I think you are missing the point. If people do not want to use the technology then they will never review what you have to say. You may personally like flash and that is fine, but I know many others like myself who do not for reasons I stated above who do not. You will be alienating that whole segment of your marketplace. How many of the really great websites that you visit exclusively use flash? Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, CNN, MSNBC??? I think there is a reason for that. Anyway I do not want to start a war here just trying to give you some valuable feedback. I guess we can wait to see if anyone else shares my view.


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I think it too WAY too long for me to find even an inkling of what your company does.

Go buy the book ... "Don`t Make Me Think" ... is the name.

I do not like the Flash either. I found it slightly annoying and took too long. 2 clicks and I was tired of trying to figure anything out, so I gave up.

It`s not that I didn`t understand the site - I can program Flash myself - it`s that you`re using Flash-iness instead of just spelling out what it is that you are going to do for me. And if I have to take the time to think about what it is that you are doing ... I`ve lost interest.

A picture is worth a thousand words. I use Fx with no plug-ins.

To Flash or not to flash?  Flash has brought a lot of creativity to the web and has changed the face of the web.  There are pros and cons to using Flash and especially an all flash site.

You site is good as far as layout and concept.  There are two main points I would make:

1. Your home page only has a menu of items, it says nothing about what empire solutions is... no hint at all.  I suggest at least a small blub about the site... or a tease to induce the viewer to click on a menu item.
2. The text is rather small (for my old eyes).

I viewed the site with IE7 and a broadband connection.

There is a place for flash and even an all flash website. In my article "How about Flash" http://vwebworld.com/blog/?p=7 I suggest some basic decision points when thinking about using flash.

~Roland 

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Yes, this is exactly why ... even if you just make a little flash snippet on your site ... you write a function to detect the plugin and give them something else (but still meaningful) if they have no plugin installed.
Go PHP!

I have a nearly all Flash site myself. I like Flash and it`s not that I don`t
support the great ways Flash can enhance a web experience. But let me
tell you, I agree with others.

From what I hear in web development circles, making people wait for a
site to load with a status bar/circle/whatever is becoming a big no-no
these days. Studies are showing that users don`t want to sit and wait.
There are clever ways around this, like intro videos/animations and such
but that kind of thing has to be inline with what your business and
website are all about. If you are a animation production house, great
match! If you are a marketing company, well...

I found your site confusing. I too didn`t know what your company did
until I clicked around a bit. That`s not good. First you offer, `Who We Are`
at the top. Because of location, that is most likely to be clicked first.
Then you get some paragraph about US Marines, geeks and "internet
business technology". This all means nothing as there are no
explanations of how this relates to the user.

Okay, so I click on `What We Do`. That should explain it. But not really.
"We combine years of experience..." blah blah blah. That doesn`t explain
WHAT you do, rather HOW you do what I still don`t know what you do! By
now I`ve already read two small paragraphs of generic sounding sales
pitches full of useless buzzwords like experience, creative, technology,
etc. I still don`t know anything about your company and I`m wasting time.

I would already close the window but this is a site review after all. Ah,
there`s a bunch of tabs under the `What We Do` section. Website
Development, Internet Marketing, Graphic Design, etc. Now I have an
idea. However, each of these sections are fairly uninteresting. How about
some examples?!!! If I click on `Website Development`, I want to see
websites you`ve developed, not read more hard-to-read small white
lettering that I have to scroll through over-explaining your services.
You`ve got way too much copy on the entire site and it`s not all that
engaging. It`s full of repetition that doesn`t say much about specific
needs and solutions.

It took me a while to realize that the Client List was a way for me to view
some examples of your work. Plus, it is really annoying how the client
names load up. This is especially true since I have to click on it again and
wait for it to decrypt itself every time I want to view another client. Yeah
it looks cool but it`s not helpful. Your client list (which should be called
Example Work or something) is not the title sequence to the next big sci-
fi movie.

As I mentioned, I like Flash. The Flash in your site is done well. All
elements move around smoothly and look pretty cool. But as a web
experience, I didn`t like your site. I found many of the effects to be time-
wasting and frivolous. It shows that your attention went into these skills
rather than developing content that was easy to understand and access.

Visually speaking the layout of the "pages" are so-so. I really don`t like
how it is vertically centered in my browser window. I don`t understand
why sometimes I got bugs as your background image and other times
planets. I couldn`t click on `What We Do` again to return to the main `What
We Do` index. I didn`t like how all the content is squeezed into this small
space in the middle of my big browser window.

When it comes down to it, websites are about getting info to the user.
There are many ways to go about this and I applaud your attempts at
pushing the envelope of design and technology. I can tell that`s what you
were going for. But without realizing it, I think you compromised the
basic principles of easy to access information. The result is a confusing
site that sends the wrong message about your company. If websites and
internet marketing are your core business, then I would re-think how you
represent yourself to your clients.

I don`t want to sound like I am bashing your site as you`ve already taken
some hits here. I am sure a lot of work went into it. But I am telling you,
it`s pretty damn confusing!

Everybody here provided you with excellent advice. The website you built is not about you, it`s 100% about the prospect. And if prospects don`t want to wait for your site to load up, you`ve lost money.

If prospects come to your site and see nothing but a blank page, you`ve lost money.

If prospects can`t figure out the purpose you serve, you`ve lost money.

If the prospect has to click around to figure out what it is you do, then you lost money.

Design  your site for the end user in mind...don`t design your site to please yourself, design your site for the prospects who will be visiting and you`ll do a lot better.

Cartess

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