Review Request : www.chaotricsdesign.net

Did you read the forum guidelines?

You must review some other sites before getting your own site reviewed. If you could do that now it would be great.

Anywho..

The loading times are actually quite good for a flashy site. It took about 1 min to load the initial site and about 10 secs to load up the content pages on a 56K modem. The site is very well presented and the colours are pretty cool. Those light grey links on the right hand side are hard to read, maybe you could darken them up a little? I love the music, its good that by default it is off so it doesn't annoy everyone. I checked out your html and it looks fine. Overall you've done some nice work.

Welcome to the forum Sean!

That is a really nice site but...

I am on dialup so it took it a couple of minutes to load.
The navigation is a wee bit confusing. I sort of had to hunt for things.
Text is tiny.
I am not a fan of those smaller windows that pop up instead of a full regular page.

Other than those few things, I was impressed. Very nice work.

Sonia

Allow me to be the spoilsport.

I found that all too confusing. Took me a while t get used to the interface, but it still nagged me because I wasn't used to that interface a all. Which is the nav? Oh, it's that one there... but wait, what's that thing below? Or is it the one near the left corner?? I don't know. I'll look around some more. Damn these lines are confusing. What's that? A scrollbar? Yes, ok, finally found something familiar. But how do I navigate? And what's that there on the left counting? Is this loaded entirely yet?

It probably is just me, but I didn't find your navigation to be set out logically (which is the main nav, and what does it do??). And then there are all these distracting elements like the counter or timer or whatever the heck that is and the XY pos meter, and little lines all about the place.

Worst of all, all of this kept me from paying any attention at all to the content.

Sorry to sound harsh. It really is a great and apt design, but for those few things. The graphical aspect of it is very well done, and it is quite appealing.

I didn't read all the text. I reviewed a few sites from here at home on dial-up, but its terrribly to slow for me. I plan to continue to be a part of this community and will be glad to review sites from my slanted perspective at work in the future...so you'll see more of me.

Thanks for all the thoughts and advise...the navigation thing has been haunting me because I can't make up my mind and at the same time I value graphic structure and balance over function. but its a problem and I need critical feedback to see what direction would be best to take it.

confusing....a little chaotic...but nice composition; has been the story recently for me...

Thanks though, and continue to take shots at me please.

sean

I would love to see the sites of those who critique and help me. So if you would like, leave a link to what your working on and I will take a glance and hopefully be helpful.

sean

Really, the design looks like it was very complicated to do and I commend you on your exceptional talent.
But, since this is a business site, your clients or potential clients may get more out of it if the site was simplified.

What worries me is, when your clients or potential clients visit your site, it will be too confusing for them.

You have to remember, your clients (or most of them anyway) are there because they don't know how to do what you do. And many clients (my experience) really don't have a clue about the web, what navigation is, etc. and I feel that many would just sit there looking because it isn't immediately evident what they are suppossed to click on.

This would be a good showcase site to show off your flash talents but I think it goes a wee bit overboard for a business site.

I agree with what's been said - nice but way too confusing and the text is much too small. IMO you should always offer an html alternative to a flash site, for those who are on slow connections, those who don't have flash installed and those who either get fed up with flash or can't work out your site. Plus the search engines aren't really going to be able to do much at all with your site!

I agree with whats been said but another thing is the pop ups, I clicked a link from the bottom row, thinking it was yoru naviagtion and it opened in a new window and now I have 6 windows open.

one pet peeve of mine is why do flash sites have to open in a new window. Luckly I tried the site in IE (has javascript enabled) the other browsers I block pop ups and have javascript disabled for this very reason - pop ups are annoying. many pop up killers are pushing the message "do not do business with companies that use pop ups"

The code/words down bottom left are being cut off as well. I had to give up on the site as I couldn't get anything but new windows opening up. Sorry
Would love to see an HTML version
It looks good

P.S. we aren't taking shots at you or your design, just offering feedback from all angles, big screens, little screens, cable, modems, new browsers, old browsers ... It's all meant to be helpful friendly advice

Thanks guys,

I like the optional html version idea. I have thought about it in the past but never really concidered the search engine limitations. I will have to do that. As far as the pop up windows...totally agree, and plan to tackle that issue.

This is great and thanks a bunch.

Taking shots at me is a good thing, I didn't mean it as a negative...just a little crit jive my friends use...no offense taken.

On another note...has anybody got to see the work...someone said that once they were in...say the products...under the title there are boxes by the scroll triangle...each one of those are options that bring you to the work...has anyone figured that out and seen the work yet or just stopped at the opening page?

thanks guys,

sean