web-site building

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 4:00 pm

I'm trying to make a new site and put it on line again,
sometimes its better if you don't want to do it all your self.

I'm not good with words so the tekst is the most dificult part.

and then strange things happen when i have a preview in the brouser it looks ok but when I put it on line it doesn't work like it suposed to.

maybe anyone can give me advice?
you can fnd it here: Http://www.terranova2000.nl

thanks anyway

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 6:16 pm

this is probably not what you had in mind, but you can reduce the data volume of the images on your entry page by 90% without visible quality loss.
Just save them at 50% jpg-quality setting (I just tried in M$ Photo Editor).
Your photo in the center shrinks from 240k to 28k

nice idea with the mouse-over, btw

cheers, Tom

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 6:35 pm

actually I would split the site into 2 divisions, possibly not even directly interconnected.
We're talking business, don't we ?

There's the pink flower-power section, with smoking and so on

... and the technical precise one with the devices pics.

You're adressing 2 or more different audiences on the same page, which is impossible imho.

quote from the site:
Recording, mixing , mastering all
in the Scope environment, with powerful mixers without latency, and extremely high quality tools like the exceptional Masterverb, the amazing Vinco, and other great plug-ins.
/quote

Noone (except your competition) will give a sh*t on this - how about:

...our system works with dedicated chips which are more precise than usual computer processors. Highly specialized programs enable us to almost instantaneously change complete mixes, while retaining a stunning realism of room simulation or applying models of world class analog gear.
We do it digitally, so we're fast - we can recall any stage of processing
Yet we keep the famous analog warmth of sound... bla, bla

you probably get the idea

cheers, Tom

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2004-04-13 19:58 ]</font>

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 8:20 pm

As Tom says you desperately need to optimise those pictures. That is urgent job #1

The organisation on the interior pages is a little messy, the left-side text perhaps too big. Ideally the space between items would be less, but there would be more left-to-right space - you don;t want to have one dimension cramped and the other floating in space.

And I'd think about having your main site navigation being exactly the same on every page of the site.

Perhaps there is a way of keeping your initial rollover idea on the interior pages so this is like a site theme ?

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 8:31 pm

Well I'll tell you what a lot of other people will tell you (sorry if you don't want to hear this) but the colours are really ugly and garish... I strongly urge you to rethink the colour scheme.

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 5:20 am

first thanks for your input
@astroman and spirit i'll get to optimizing the pictures soon, and both your ideas on the contence I will try to consider them when I start rebuilding.
question: do I keep the dpi the same when I resize? or do I resize by changing the dpi??

@dArKr3zIn you are probably right but colour is a matter of taste and I'm a purple freak,the studio, my house a few guitars, band colors all with purple, but still appriciate your opinion.

again thanks very much for advice
Terranova-Amsterdam

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 5:42 am

You don't need to change the DPI, just re-save the pictures as .jpg with more compression (50% quality or less).

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 6:09 am

I think that this is a site strictly for purple lovers, so Judges and Royalty will love it!

I managed to last about two seconds before I had to close the page. I suppose it depends whether you're writing the site for yourself to visit, or for other people to visit...

My 2p.

Royston

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 6:25 am

he Royston don't forget the pope

me I hate that yellow-green in the new CW site.

I'll reduce the colors a bit anyway

thanks again for your opinions

Post by **hubird** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 7:01 am

ahhh...is it really that bad?
not to me at least

another thing is: I would concentrate on how you want to present your audio files.
That's what your visitors wnat to check in the first place.
The easier they get the files the better it is, that's what I'd say.

Post by **hubird** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 7:05 am

On 2004-04-13 21:31, dArKr3zIn wrote:
Well I'll tell you what a lot of other people will tell you (sorry if you don't want to hear this) but the colours are really ugly and garish... I strongly urge you to rethink the colour scheme.

I strongly urge you to rethink the dog icon, it's really ugly, garish and not funny

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 7:37 am

It's a cat...

Me think...

Still ugly

Stubbe · Post by **Stubbe** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 7:51 am

methinks it's a cat, but it is still ugly

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 8:15 am

virtualstudio wrote:

he Royston don't forget the pope

True. He's probably barking as well

me I hate that yellow-green in the new CW site.

It's a bit insipid, but doesn't make me go "Argh!" when I load the page.

I'll reduce the colors a bit anyway

thanks again for your opinions

This time I braved the front page and went inside...

First thing was that the front page seems to suggest that there are five separate links, each leading to an (different) area of the website - I was expecting some indication as to where I was being taken...as a 'comical example':

(left to right)
1. My mum / girlfriend
2. SFP Stuff
3. Live gigs
4. My (physical) studio
5. Drum workshop

BUT - they all lead to the same place!

Once inside, I liked the black-on-grey text - very relaxing for the eyeballs.

The overall layout is a bit blocky and cheap feeling:

Why are the links down the left hand side of different (box) sizes? They're also duplicated along the top. Either keep the main links framed at the top (as at present) and lose the left hand side links (giving you more page space), or lose the top links and frame the left hand side ones. Perhaps use the gained space to have contextual sub-links?

Are the empty boxes along the top to be filled with additional links?

I don't agree with the centered-formatting of the text - either fully justify or left-justify it. As you suspected, the text does need a little work (what you're putting across is fine, but the spelling and grammar needs some correction).

Perhaps give a little more information as to what a studio based on SFP 4.0 is all about - link to cwaudio (within the body text) and also link to an 'info page' on your site.

The pages do take some time to load, so (as already mentioned), reduce the jpeg quality to help with this.

The design of a site hits the brain before the content - I would suggest refining that (just one page) before going ahead with adding more content (I haven't mentioned anything about the content much as I'm sure that there's loads more information to come).

Regards,

Royston

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 8:18 am

What 'dog' or 'cat' by the way? I don't see one

Royston

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 8:54 am

Noooo its a beautiful pussy

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 11:06 am

dArKr3zIn wrote:

Noooo its a beautiful pussy

Pero, dónde está el gato bonito?

Better stick to English...

Royston

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 7:06 pm

I just had another look at the site Virtualstudio... and it's not really just the purple that makes things so hurtful to the eyes.. it's the combination of purple, bright pink, bright blue and other strange colours..

I definitely think you can keep the purple vibe and not make it look like a screenshot from a Sinclair Spectrum game..

).