New Site - 'The Invention', a Leeds based band on the up!

I don't have time to write a proper review right now but this is really cool, Stylefrog! One of the few good uses of Flash I've seen for a full site design. Very innovative. The mystery meat navigation would normally be a problem but here it's just fun to poke around and see what I can click on. You've created a really cool user experience here.

I'm downloading some of their music - I like British bands a lot (Just listening now - you can tell the band they've got a new fan!!).

I'm having some problems with the navigation now. Once I left the download page the links stopped working Seems like the transition got caught or something.

ETA: The problem seems to happen after I download songs. Then the navigation stops working. I had to go back to get there rest that were there

Ok, I hate flash with a passion and sites that play music tend to put me straight off as being frightened to death is one of my least favourite things.

However, the music fades in so it's not immediately banging in your face which negates the scariness issue and you actually seem to know how to use flash effectively which is a novelty.

In fact, I love it. It's fantastic! It's different, it fits the genre, and it's just generally great.

Never thought I'd say that about a flash site

Probably the best flash site I've seen in a long time. Also, it really fits the personality of a band and is very disorganized and messy-looking, which, in this case, totally works.

One of the things I did notice that I didn't like was the text on the home page. I am having a hard time reading it, and I have always had better than 20/20 vision. I'm not saying I can't read it, but it hurts my eyes a bit to do so.

With the guestbook, it seems that it won't use symbols correctly. My email address has an underscore (_) in it, and it shows that box symbol you commonly see when something is not recognized. That seems to be the case with other email addresses too, so it's not just my computer.

Lastly, I don't understand the "News" link being last in the row. News would be something your guests would want easy access to, and it's very unnoticeable.

Other than those few points, you've got a great site going here. Good luck to you and the band in the future!

Hi there,

Thanks so much for all the positive comments - they're all so appreciated!

I've noted a few of the pointers and will be addressing them shortly.

Thanks again!

Here's a bit of a more thorough review:

When I first looked at it I thought some of the content was missing because there wre a lot of blank areas. But reading other comments I thought something was missing so I checked in another browser - it's an Opera problem. External content isn't loading (if that's what that is). Same with the controls on the casette tape. I was confused about that because nothing was happening when I clicked on that even though the cursor changed to a mouse.

In IE, I like how that pops up over the content when you mouseover it. That's a really neat idea to do the audio controls like that.

On the news page, the bright neon red text is a bit too garish compared to the rest of the layout. Try toning that down a bit.

I also agree with someone above who said that the navigation isn't quite obvious enough. It should stand out just a little more.

I like the little newsletter subscription box tehre. That's really clever.

You certainly are a very talented Flash designer!! Let me know if you're interested in joining our Developer's group.

Hi Megan,

Thanks again for the comments - I'd certainly be interested in joining the developers group!

Matt

Sorry, no DSL or Broadband here, and like most who still suffer through dial-up, I got impatient waiting for the Flash movies to load...sorry.

Just a suggestion...you might try offering a completely HTML and images website for those on a slower connection.

Hi all,

The band are actually being played for the first time on XFM tonight - kind of a talent search thing, they need your votes!

http://www.xfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=105880

It's only a case of checking a box - thanks very much!

I thought this was a site review??? It's seems to have become a band advertisment.

Hi, not a band advertisment at all - the feedback on this forum has been extremely helpful thanks.