Hello everyone! The time is almost at hand. Soon we can roam the lands of Tyria and explore the depths of its catacombs and dungeons!
In anticipation for this, our Clan, Eternal Reverie created a Flash website for the cause.
We would like some feedback from the community on what you guys think of the design, music, etc. We have a "roleplaying" element to everything, and a pretty in depth ranking system in our forum for anyone who wants to check it out.
We toss out some RP from time to time, in game, but mainly focus on PvP and dungeon crawling. But enough of that!
I like the site, though some of the links don't work for me (news, allies).
Is that lloyd webber requiem?
Ah nvm I see it above. I think it must be from a movie?
Yes, its by Hans Zimmer. You may have heard it on Interview with the Vampire >=)
Thats' probaly it.
Moving on to the site, I wonder if you need those links on the first page. For instance, I wanted to see info on "recruitment". So I immediately pressed "intro". However, I assume intro is that first page. I then worked my way down and went to forums. now, on that page there is a recruitment tab.
I wonder if instead, you have that first page as your intro (no need to say it's an intro) and one link for "enter".
You then get sent to that "forum page" which has all the info one could want.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
1. If I made a site completely in flash at my work, my boss would throw me out the window :] This is a terrible practice, that should be avoided at all costs. It is slow and unreliable. But instead of listening to me, you should just pick up one of many articles on web design blogs and read more detailed information about why this is not done anymore.
2. Many people close a website the moment they hear sound. It can be very annoying when you have headphones, listening to music, you open many tabs in browser and suddenly you hear this very loud music that forces you to take off headphones in panic. I know that in work we avoid this, so it's not only my personal preference, but music should be off by default with option to turn it on, not other way around.
3. You should always make most important information most visible. In your case, there is animated background in the front, while the information is in a small side bar. It rapes the basic principles of web architecture, that were worked on for many years by many developers.
For me this is the case of form over content. You made the site the way you want it to be, and it is perfect for you, and for your scenario, but you must realize that people look for content and information, and not give a damn about lightnings and fading text.
Visually impressive, but it felt sluggish on my machine.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
Have to say that I generally agree with Timtrack. As painful as it might sound, I recommend you scrap the flash site, grab a CMS (for example Wordpress) and set up your base of operations there. If you're planning on adding content - text, images, embedded youtube etc. - you won't be sorry. There's tons of ready themes suitable for an mmorpg community site, can just replace art with your own. I highly recommend asking around if someone has artistic talent and eye to set up the visual look of the site.
For what its worth - Id have severe reservations about joining a guild with a site like that, but then im pretty fussy about these things.
Were I you id think about what potential visitors need from the front end of the site a little more. What will returning visitors and guild members want? Think about that and try and enact it. Id be very very surprised if many people, came back day in day out to bask in the wonder of a flash animation, aside perhaps, from its creator.
Id further echo that building the entire site in flash is a very bad idea for all manner of reasons. If you really must have some sort of flash animation why not put it in a banner?
Looking into a wordpress front end might be an idea, easy to manage for people who dont have coding or design skills and also provides many avenues for presenting different types of content that will be pertinent to members or new recruits.
I could go on but pretty much Everland and Timtrack gave good advice, id start there.
edit - I was coming back to mention something about the forums however I notice the OP account has been deleted and the actual site is now offline.
I really dislike flash on websites and I think at this point in time it is a bad call to make that part of your website due to it becoming less and less important as HTML5 and other standards are becoming more popular.
Also, if anyone needs to read anything other than the name of your group/clan/guild to understand why the website is themed a particular way then you need to have a serious think about that.
If you want more feedback from me, please let me know. Otherwise i will leave it here.
I'm curious to know what other program could be used to add animations to a page. All the feedback is being taken from everyone positively.
However others do like it , and some don't fit well with it.
That's the law of the land we live in.
Alright.
The important question here isn't wether you can do "cool animations" with or without flash. The important question is "how can you create a pleasant user experience". Your website breaks pretty much every best practive ever concieved by mankind regarding web design (post 1995). In your case, the relatively weak effects on that image is causing more harm then good.
Let's look at the flow of the page.
1. The page loads, and it's loading at the speed of snail.
2. Your computer is slowed down by the extremely heavy animation that does almost nothing. Your computer is now slow and unresponsive, and is building up alot of heat, thus increasing fan speeds which will produce alot of noise. If the computer is in the users lap it will heat up so much that they have to either remove the laptop from their lap, or close the site. Many people use laptops to surf the net these days and cooling isn't a laptop's strong side. A mobile device capable of rendering flash has now likely exploded or crashed the browser.
3. At this point you are forced to read a text in an awkward font which makes up the menu. You decide to click on something (most users are now long gone), and it takes around 4 seconds for a tiny piece of text with an average of 2 words per row AND a scrollbar. Thus far it has taken 15-20 seconds if not more to find any sort of interesting information, and it's tucked away in a dark, unpleasant to read, font on a black background in a 150x350 pixels window in the upper right corner of your browser. Meanwhile your computer is trying to commit suicide.
4. You read through the text anyway and now you want something else. You click "News". Another 4 seconds to load 29 words in the same unpleasant manner.
Then there is the overall design
There is no flow whatsoever. Your eyes wont know where to look, or what to look for. Every element have a different "style" and there is no consistent layout. The menu leans to the lower left, but almost in the middle. The "content/text" resides quite far in the upper right.
The menu is useless since there's so little content. You could display all the information on one single page and then have 1 nice looking link or button to the forums.
And then again there are alot of best practices out there and none of them are followed. Many of them are based on heavy research. I suggest you spend a few hours on google with the keywords "Web design, best practices".
I could go on but i think there's alot of meat here already, so lets start with that. I might sound harsh to you but i'm just being brutally honest. What you do with the information is up to you.
Comments
I like the site, though some of the links don't work for me (news, allies).
Is that lloyd webber requiem?
Ah nvm I see it above. I think it must be from a movie?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Yes, its by Hans Zimmer. You may have heard it on Interview with the Vampire >=)
When a man lies... he murders some part of the World.
Thats' probaly it.
Moving on to the site, I wonder if you need those links on the first page. For instance, I wanted to see info on "recruitment". So I immediately pressed "intro". However, I assume intro is that first page. I then worked my way down and went to forums. now, on that page there is a recruitment tab.
I wonder if instead, you have that first page as your intro (no need to say it's an intro) and one link for "enter".
You then get sent to that "forum page" which has all the info one could want.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
My criticism:
1. If I made a site completely in flash at my work, my boss would throw me out the window :] This is a terrible practice, that should be avoided at all costs. It is slow and unreliable. But instead of listening to me, you should just pick up one of many articles on web design blogs and read more detailed information about why this is not done anymore.
2. Many people close a website the moment they hear sound. It can be very annoying when you have headphones, listening to music, you open many tabs in browser and suddenly you hear this very loud music that forces you to take off headphones in panic. I know that in work we avoid this, so it's not only my personal preference, but music should be off by default with option to turn it on, not other way around.
3. You should always make most important information most visible. In your case, there is animated background in the front, while the information is in a small side bar. It rapes the basic principles of web architecture, that were worked on for many years by many developers.
For me this is the case of form over content. You made the site the way you want it to be, and it is perfect for you, and for your scenario, but you must realize that people look for content and information, and not give a damn about lightnings and fading text.
Have to say that I generally agree with Timtrack. As painful as it might sound, I recommend you scrap the flash site, grab a CMS (for example Wordpress) and set up your base of operations there. If you're planning on adding content - text, images, embedded youtube etc. - you won't be sorry. There's tons of ready themes suitable for an mmorpg community site, can just replace art with your own. I highly recommend asking around if someone has artistic talent and eye to set up the visual look of the site.
Good luck!
For what its worth - Id have severe reservations about joining a guild with a site like that, but then im pretty fussy about these things.
Were I you id think about what potential visitors need from the front end of the site a little more. What will returning visitors and guild members want? Think about that and try and enact it. Id be very very surprised if many people, came back day in day out to bask in the wonder of a flash animation, aside perhaps, from its creator.
Id further echo that building the entire site in flash is a very bad idea for all manner of reasons. If you really must have some sort of flash animation why not put it in a banner?
Looking into a wordpress front end might be an idea, easy to manage for people who dont have coding or design skills and also provides many avenues for presenting different types of content that will be pertinent to members or new recruits.
I could go on but pretty much Everland and Timtrack gave good advice, id start there.
edit - I was coming back to mention something about the forums however I notice the OP account has been deleted and the actual site is now offline.
Now that, is a ragequit.
r.i.p. c!
I quite like this website
http://www.zealotgaming.com/
I really dislike flash on websites and I think at this point in time it is a bad call to make that part of your website due to it becoming less and less important as HTML5 and other standards are becoming more popular.
Also, if anyone needs to read anything other than the name of your group/clan/guild to understand why the website is themed a particular way then you need to have a serious think about that.
Alright.
The important question here isn't wether you can do "cool animations" with or without flash. The important question is "how can you create a pleasant user experience". Your website breaks pretty much every best practive ever concieved by mankind regarding web design (post 1995). In your case, the relatively weak effects on that image is causing more harm then good.
Let's look at the flow of the page.
1. The page loads, and it's loading at the speed of snail.
2. Your computer is slowed down by the extremely heavy animation that does almost nothing. Your computer is now slow and unresponsive, and is building up alot of heat, thus increasing fan speeds which will produce alot of noise. If the computer is in the users lap it will heat up so much that they have to either remove the laptop from their lap, or close the site. Many people use laptops to surf the net these days and cooling isn't a laptop's strong side. A mobile device capable of rendering flash has now likely exploded or crashed the browser.
3. At this point you are forced to read a text in an awkward font which makes up the menu. You decide to click on something (most users are now long gone), and it takes around 4 seconds for a tiny piece of text with an average of 2 words per row AND a scrollbar. Thus far it has taken 15-20 seconds if not more to find any sort of interesting information, and it's tucked away in a dark, unpleasant to read, font on a black background in a 150x350 pixels window in the upper right corner of your browser. Meanwhile your computer is trying to commit suicide.
4. You read through the text anyway and now you want something else. You click "News". Another 4 seconds to load 29 words in the same unpleasant manner.
Then there is the overall design
There is no flow whatsoever. Your eyes wont know where to look, or what to look for. Every element have a different "style" and there is no consistent layout. The menu leans to the lower left, but almost in the middle. The "content/text" resides quite far in the upper right.
The menu is useless since there's so little content. You could display all the information on one single page and then have 1 nice looking link or button to the forums.
And then again there are alot of best practices out there and none of them are followed. Many of them are based on heavy research. I suggest you spend a few hours on google with the keywords "Web design, best practices".
I could go on but i think there's alot of meat here already, so lets start with that. I might sound harsh to you but i'm just being brutally honest. What you do with the information is up to you.