[Helen SD]

i'm redesigning my record label's website (current design can be seen at http://www.sounddevastation.co.uk and just wondering what the averange music fan likes to see in a website design? (complex, simple, contrasting, frames, flash, whatever)

link some of your favouirtes, in terms of design (can be any kind of content)... it would help me immensely.

Thankyouu!

[The Phlegmy One!111]

Uh, not especially amazing, but http://biggercheese.com/

There's like no need for Flash and things, just need some good colour co-ordination and a good layout.

Compared to your design at the moment, I'd say go for more interesting. That's a bit vague, but I'll find better examples later.

[Gabriel Synthesis]

the average music fan likes to see boobies

[Echoes]

well, boobies was the first thing that came to mind

excess flash and frames are big no-nos for me
try this page for good examples, tips: http://www.webdesign...rrent-style.cfm

i also like the www.getfirefox.com page

[Helen SD]

that link is really helpful.. cheers!

[Forgone Conclusion]

What about the boobies suggestions? Were they helpful?

[Helen SD]

indeed... i thought i might get all our bands to take pictures of them all showing their man-boobs. would that make the site more appealing?

[Droogie]

i think you need more pictures on the main page, and get rid of the first page with the logo and the email subscription. put that on the main page.

[Helen SD]

at the moment im working on an html single-page site... with each section in a box, all lined up smartly. Each section will have its own dynamic flash component to display all the data in the small spaces.

thoughts?

[The Phlegmy One!111]

Visual example?

[Helen SD]

i'll upload it when i get my laptop online.

[Helen SD]

http://www.sounddeva.../newSD/news.htm

its a bit messy... some of the flash needs tidying up and stuff. just want opinions from a design point of view.

also.. the time it takes for people on dial-up to see it

[Forgone Conclusion]

Looks pretty cool

[The Phlegmy One!111]

Way to be helfpul :-P
The Flash to the right looks good, obviously will look better as the amount of albums increase. The Flash below, where it says Bands, you can only click where there is writing (I think). So it's hard to click cuz in between 'O's and whatnot, you can't click. And all the white bits, maybe add a fader or an image that has very low opacity. But I prefer this to your old design. Good work. I need to learn some Flash :-(

[Helen SD]

flash is a bitch to learn. took me 5 hours those little bits.

[Echoes]

1-point-something MB is way too big for a webpage, and you def' won't be getting no luvvin from google. and no luvvin from google = less visitors to your site.
It also means higher bandwidth costs

It's a nice idea to have everything on one page though. These days it tends to be done using AJAX, not Flash. AJAX runs more smoothly, is handled better by search engines, and only loads content when a user clicks on it - whereas flash has to load everything from the start

For example, the tabs on the aol.com website http://www.aol.com/
Or the Most read/Most emailed box on BBC news stories (bottom right, e.g. on http://news.bbc.co.u...uk/5112364.stm)

I have no idea how to do AJAX though. THe software running the RFN message board uses a fair bit of it, for example doing a quick edit, without reloading a page, as I'm doing now

[Wengistein]

The Aristocrat, on Jun 25 2006, 11:10 AM, said:

1-point-something MB is way too big for a webpage, and you def' won't be getting no luvvin from google. and no luvvin from google = less visitors to your site.

Yes, make sure you save every graphic as a .gif. I like the site so far, but I don't like that fact that I had to click twice just to get to the homepage. Perhaps put a link to the homepage when people go to your site.

[Helen SD]

hang on... thats a suggestion for the old site rather than the new one?

i know all the flash makes that page rather massive.. but i really dont want to have 20 or so pages like the current site.
also.. there will be an intro page.

[Wengistein]

Helen SD, on Jun 25 2006, 10:42 PM, said:

hang on... thats a suggestion for the old site rather than the new one?

Oh, missed a link.

But yeah. the layout of the new one is good. Maybe you could have flash on that banner there. Like a montage of your bandmates.

[Helen SD]

all the bandmates? that would mean a new banner every time we sign a band!! no way