e-Smartz site review please

First off, like most people I dont' really love flash sites. The only time I think they really make sense is if you're going to go all out and really make the most of the medium. That means high levels of interactivity, good animation, and a creative layout. And that kind of a design doesn't make sense for most types of sites. It's great for band or movie sites, or maybe some niche products, but not general interest sites, and not IT business sites.

This site is not making the most of the medium. It's really a text based site with some sliding boxes here and there. Your target audience is going to want to get here and find information quickly. Sliding boxes would probably just be annoying.

I also think the writing here could be improved a lot. There is a lot of vague business-speak on here that isn't directly saying what the site is offering. There are also a lot of gramatically errors and sentence fragments. "From simple websites to advanced, integrated eBusiness colutions" is not a complete sentence. The second bit is an actual sentence, but it doesn't say what the company actually does. "interactive technologies" is way too vague. I also find the header format with the lower case and period at the end to be rather strange, and it's not applied consistently. Some headers are upper case or mixed case.

Actually, all of the text on the front page is not in the form of actual sentences. It's either fragments or incomplete (...). The project "Hermes" one has actual sentences but they're very brief and unfriendly. I've also noticed mistakes like extra spaces and spelling errors (rang instead of range on the "expertise" page for example).

The "solutions" page is much better. It's clear on what you're offering and the sentences are properly structured (although I have no idea what FTSE 100 is...). Again, though, it's hard to tell what's click-able without actually mousing over everything. Oh, wait, the mouse changed to a hand over those headers but they don't actually link anywhere. The page is still a little bit vague about what exactly you're offering.

This sort of vague writing with short phrases and lots of business speak used to be popular a few years ago but I think people have realized that it doesn't work very well. A more straightforward and specific style is becoming more popular now.

Another problem I'm noticing is that it's hard to tell what is click-able. The orange text is actually just used for emphasis, but since no other text is formatted differently you'd think those were links. The actual links are the same as plain text so they don't stand out. You're expecting people to actually read everything (which they don't) and not skim around looking for where to click.

Design-wise, it's generally okay. I find the glow to be a little distracting, especially when it's behind text.

Hello there,

Just some quick observations:

1. The layout is good
2. I love the nav on the left - the bright orange adds something
3. The white text on that glowing background - and text that has a glow around it is really hard on my eyes and hard to read.

That is all for now!