www.maninthehat.net

[ali//325i]

Well I am developing a site for a friend of mine, he's a professional photojournalist who also does weddings, and everything else to make ends meat haha. the site is actually located right now at: www.strictlyea.com/ali/demo.html . Let me know what ya'll think. I realize there are a few missing pieces here and there, but hey, for someone who's just graduating High School this year, its not so bad

Comments and critiques always welcome!

-Ali

[ali//325i]

hhhmmm quite a few views but no suggestions? Is that a bad thing lol. Hopefully someone has a good suggestion for me.

-Ali

[DeLeon]

I think it flows nicely. I tend to be a thread killer so I wouldn't be surprised.......

[dtscds]

Well, I like it. As you said, there are still some bugs to work out but I am not going to say anything about that.
Be careful with the amount of "bells and whistles" you put in. Remember that there is still a majority of people that are logging in on a dial up connection. If you use tons of flash and other "slick stuff" it is only going to bog them down. How long is someone going to wait for an animation and tons of graphics to load if they are on a line that is less than 21K?
A suggestion I always give people trying to do a new website is to find someone you know that has an average speed dialup connection and go to their house. Just sit back and watch as they navigate through the screens. DO NOT SAY A WORD! You need to see where they are going and how they are getting there. They will find paths that you might not have anticipated and need to plan for. YOu will also get a good sense of how long it takes to load your masterpiece.
Keep up the good work

[ali//325i]

CD, thanks a lot. I do this all the time actually. I use my mother because she HATES the internet, and hates everything I design even more haha. I don't know anyone with dial up lol. I will have to check it out. I use the internet at the highschool, which is t1, but its so bogged down that its ungodly slow, and it works really well. The pictures are all optimized, EVERY picture is optimized, the flash is even optimized, and all the pages you see are actually external .swfs which cuts down on size, they are only loaded once you click the link. Thanks for your suggestion though.

I didn't think of the navigability factor. Learn something new everyday.

-Ali

[Gabby498]

Ali, Dial Up Report,--what you have so far loads exceptionally fast for Flash. I realize that as you add it will probably slow down some but right now for dial up it is working very well. I usually give up on Flash sites and go elsewhere.

[ali//325i]

actually, thats basically the entire site. The reason it is so fast is because of the optomizing and externally loaded .swfs. I will try to clock a few PCs and see if I can't improve the speed a bit more. I am really happy with this. Glad you liked it. I really hate that when flash sites take forever. for example, www.billybussey.com if you have dial up, just give up haha.

I will be updating the site tomorrow night with what SHOULD be, the final stage. Thanks to all those that have viewed, even if you haven't posted.

-Ali