First dreamweaver site for a band,I need your feedback!

[sasufi]

Hi everyone,
After reading you all for weeks in search of answers I finally decided to sign up and share the website I have been working on. It's the first time I use dreamweaver and only the second site I made.
I would love to get your feedback and critics, the things that I could make look or work better.
This is the site of an australian pop/rock band called Blackchords. I hope you enjoy their music too.

www.blackchords.com

Cheers
Sasufi from Paris

[CANEHDN]

The only thing I can see without looking too much into it is the main page. When that intro video is starting, I would center the video and set your background color to all black. The bottom half was white and didn't look right.

[Scottsdale]

Hey, I think you have done a great job. It is very artistic and not like a template or any corporate type site which is what most "first or second" developed sites normally look like.

The only page that didn't flow right for me was the bio page. All of the other pages sorta fit a design, and that one just doesn't work right for me visually. It by itself is fine, but as a whole it distracts too much from the site's flow.

The blog page would be nicer if you could incorporate it as a wrapper or do something rather than popping up a new window.

Nice job. Best wishes.

[DesignerOnMac]

Thought your site was very creative, but I do not like sites that move images to the left or right. I would prefer the images in the center. If to the left on your pages, leaves too much black.

[sasufi]

The only thing I can see without looking too much into it is the main page. When that intro video is starting, I would center the video and set your background color to all black. The bottom half was white and didn't look right.

Thanks Canehdn, The intro video is a flash one, set with a black background. But somehow it appears with a white background at the start of the loading...I couldn't sort out why...


Hey, I think you have done a great job. It is very artistic and not like a template or any corporate type site which is what most "first or second" developed sites normally look like.

The only page that didn't flow right for me was the bio page. All of the other pages sorta fit a design, and that one just doesn't work right for me visually. It by itself is fine, but as a whole it distracts too much from the site's flow.

The blog page would be nicer if you could incorporate it as a wrapper or do something rather than popping up a new window.

Nice job. Best wishes.

Thank you very much Scottsdale for your feedback.I can sort of see what you mean with the bio page,maybe it's due to the scroll bar that seats really badly in the middle?

I have pt the blog page in a pop up window so that people don't leave the site too quickly. As you could see it is hosted outside the site. Could you tell me more about making it a wrapper? How would that work? I need the band to update this page by themselves, outside dreamweaver...

Thought your site was very creative, but I do not like sites that move images to the left or right. I would prefer the images in the center. If to the left on your pages, leaves too much black.

Thanks for your feedback DesignerOnMac, I am not sure how to center my whole site, it is made out of Apdivs...could you help me out on that?

Thanks a lot everyone!

[opeter]

Thanks for your feedback DesignerOnMac, I am not sure how to center my whole site, it is made out of Apdivs...could you help me out on that?

Thanks a lot everyone!

Set the main divs margin-left and margin-right to auto.

[sasufi]

Set the main divs margin-left and margin-right to auto.

I'm guessing "main divs" are the ones with the background in it. But how will all the other divs react to that? Will they be related to the main one, or are they gonna float on the page...?
Thank you

[DoFoT9]

very impressive site!!!

some issues::
1. you have very large files, which will be annoying for users on dialup or slow broadband. your hosting server is fast which is good,i hardly had to wait to load the images in the gallery! i hope it can handle the stress of many more people comming online to it.

2. on some pages, especially the 'sounds' page i found it very hard to concentrate on one thing. there were about 5 main things trying to grab my attention! i think that is too many things, try make it one or two things at the most.

3. please speed up/delete/reconsider the introduction page. most users only look at websites for 15-20seconds and will close the webpage. yes i know there is the skip button, but that doesn't ensure that every possible single person will see it or want to click it. you want as many people to hear your music.

overall a wonderful website! very organised with the right colours used, creates a very subtle interface for users ;) (i didnt even have to think where i was clicking which is a good thing!)

as an aussie i am proud to say i love your band and your website :)

[sasufi]

very impressive site!!!

some issues::
1. you have very large files, which will be annoying for users on dialup or slow broadband. your hosting server is fast which is good,i hardly had to wait to load the images in the gallery! i hope it can handle the stress of many more people comming online to it.

2. on some pages, especially the 'sounds' page i found it very hard to concentrate on one thing. there were about 5 main things trying to grab my attention! i think that is too many things, try make it one or two things at the most.

3. please speed up/delete/reconsider the introduction page. most users only look at websites for 15-20seconds and will close the webpage. yes i know there is the skip button, but that doesn't ensure that every possible single person will see it or want to click it. you want as many people to hear your music.

overall a wonderful website! very organised with the right colours used, creates a very subtle interface for users ;) (i didnt even have to think where i was clicking which is a good thing!)

as an aussie i am proud to say i love your band and your website :)

Thanks DoFoT9! i am so glad you like the site! I will let the band know that you like their music too!

1- For the images, I don't know how I can make them smaller. I have used the 80% quality tip but they still load a bit slowly. Do you think there's anything else I could do? (background images weight around 120 to 180k is that huge?)

3- I know the intro page is a bummer, but the band really likes it. The flash movie is 750k I think, is there anyway to reduce it ? I am looking at the stats and it seems like up to now we didn't lose too many visitors from the intro page, but you're right, I am the kind that doesn't wait more than 5 secs...

2- I'll have another look at the sound page...the hand written note is a temporary thing, for the time the single is free, then it will be removed.

Thanks so much for your time. I was living in Oz for a good while but now I am back to Paris and I miss Australia heaps.

[DoFoT9]

Thanks DoFoT9! i am so glad you like the site! I will let the band know that you like their music too!

1- For the images, I don't know how I can make them smaller. I have used the 80% quality tip but they still load a bit slowly. Do you think there's anything else I could do? (background images weight around 120 to 180k is that huge?)

3- I know the intro page is a bummer, but the band really likes it. The flash movie is 750k I think, is there anyway to reduce it ? I am looking at the stats and it seems like up to now we didn't lose too many visitors from the intro page, but you're right, I am the kind that doesn't wait more than 5 secs...

2- I'll have another look at the sound page...the hand written note is a temporary thing, for the time the single is free, then it will be removed.

Thanks so much for your time. I was living in Oz for a good while but now I am back to Paris and I miss Australia heaps.

1. i had a look at the images, they are roughly 60kb-200kb each. that is not too bad, but for the best of both worlds i would use very small files (40-80kb) initially, then have an option to load the images as a "high quality" picture. that way slower internet users and fast users can both view the website easier. there will be less stress on the servers aswell.

3. the flash movie says 927kb, which is reasonably small!! perhaps, like the images, you could compact it down further (use less colours, lower quality sounds) as the default and add a higher quality intro as an option. that does sound a bit over the top and too much effort for the user, so i think the way it is now is very reasonable.

2. ok well thats good then, maybe you could implement a list view of the songs rather then having two overlaying frames. that would un-clutter it a tiny bit.

no worries mate, australia is awsome! we have a storm rolling in atm... *thunder in the background*. gotta love it haha.

[snickelfritz]

The overall design is attractive, and the navigation makes sense.

I downloaded one the images for the pictures section; it was 80K(!)
JPEG "high" from Photoshop reduced the file to under 20K.
I would definitely do this for ALL of the images/thumbnails etc...

Flash or AJAX for the pictures and video sections(with smooth transitions/rollovers etc...) would be a lot nicer; people tend to expect this type of interactivity in web galleries.

Some type of waveform visualization would be cool for the sound page.

The "back to site" link on the shop page should not replay the site intro.

I love the contact page postcard theme.

I dislike the chromed scrollbars that appear within some of the pages; it breaks your graphical theme.
I would definitely use custom scrollbars that match the overall site theme.

Center the site within the browser window; the right nav layout looks a little klunky in an upper-left position.
(the presentation of the site intro would be improved as well)

I would just build the entire site in Flash.
You're already requiring Flash for some of the elements anyway, and the overall interactivity and cohesiveness of the site would be significantly improved.
I can imagine some interesting possibilities for this design in a liquid GUI.

[sasufi]

1. i had a look at the images, they are roughly 60kb-200kb each. that is not too bad, but for the best of both worlds i would use very small files (40-80kb) initially, then have an option to load the images as a "high quality" picture. that way slower internet users and fast users can both view the website easier. there will be less stress on the servers aswell.

3. the flash movie says 927kb, which is reasonably small!! perhaps, like the images, you could compact it down further (use less colours, lower quality sounds) as the default and add a higher quality intro as an option. that does sound a bit over the top and too much effort for the user, so i think the way it is now is very reasonable.

2. ok well thats good then, maybe you could implement a list view of the songs rather then having two overlaying frames. that would un-clutter it a tiny bit.

no worries mate, australia is awsome! we have a storm rolling in atm... *thunder in the background*. gotta love it haha.

Cheers mate for taking the time again,
1-I'll definately try to reduce all the images, that's a feedback I get from everyone, so it seam really necessary.
2-good idea, and this will have to happen anyway, when the band starts wanting to upload more songs.

Here winter as started and I am really not getting into it! It's cold!

[sasufi]

The overall design is attractive, and the navigation makes sense.

I downloaded one the images for the pictures section; it was 80K(!)
JPEG "high" from Photoshop reduced the file to under 20K.
I would definitely do this for ALL of the images/thumbnails etc...

Flash or AJAX for the pictures and video sections(with smooth transitions/rollovers etc...) would be a lot nicer; people tend to expect this type of interactivity in web galleries.

Some type of waveform visualization would be cool for the sound page.

The "back to site" link on the shop page should not replay the site intro.

I love the contact page postcard theme.

I dislike the chromed scrollbars that appear within some of the pages; it breaks your graphical theme.
I would definitely use custom scrollbars that match the overall site theme.

Center the site within the browser window; the right nav layout looks a little klunky in an upper-left position.
(the presentation of the site intro would be improved as well)

I would just build the entire site in Flash.
You're already requiring Flash for some of the elements anyway, and the overall interactivity and cohesiveness of the site would be significantly improved.
I can imagine some interesting possibilities for this design in a liquid GUI.


Thanks heaps snickelfritz. The list is long, and that reminds me how much more I have to learn. I'll try to go through all of this soon.
I am too much of a newbie to imagine turning this site into flash, plus I don't understand how the site would run, see the intro is in flash and it's freaking out for being so heavy. So how would I do that on the whole website and keeping it light?
I'll definately reduce the size of the images tho.
Cheers,

[plumbingandtech]

I think you did a very good job!*


*lose the flash intro though....

just hit the band page first.

[snickelfritz]

Think of Flash symbols as nothing more than scriptable containers for display objects.
It is the objects (videos, bitmaps, vector graphics, text, etc...) within the symbols that determine the actual filesize.
Your intro is essentially akin to a quicktime movie compiled as a Flash SWF.
(in this case, it's probably an image sequence created in After Effects.)

[eclipse]

Wow! For a first, not bad, not bad at all! :cool: (I'm a newbie to web design but that site looks cool).

1. How long did it take and what tools did you use? This was your FIRST site? Are you just one of the band members doing a favour for the group, or are you thinking of going into professional web design?

2. Did you have to memorize a book on CSS or did you just trust Dreamweaver?

3. I agree with sentiments about the bio page. I dislike the chromed scrollbars that appear within some of the pages; it breaks your graphical theme. I would definitely use custom scrollbars that match the overall site theme.

The thing is, we love your world so much it kind of jars us back to the "real world" seeing a "normal" internet scroll bar. I'd avoid scroll bars all-together! Break it into 2 pages, use your hand-written scraps of paper, make us click on something and go on a paper-chase/toilet paper roll chase/something grungy chase to get to the rest of the type! But no scroll bars! We love your world too much.

4. Aussie Aussie Aussie!

5. To the master-hackers here: could this site be converted into Joomla and only a "blog" page be opened up for "writers"? The rest of the site could be limited to just a few elite super-admins. Is importing a site created in other software into Joomla one way coders come up with new Joomla themes? Joomla's own design tools look kind of limited, and so I "think" I might be able to get my head around DW4 over the next few months and whip something up, and then bring it into Joomla for sharing the love around.

[sasufi]

Wow! For a first, not bad, not bad at all! :cool: (I'm a newbie to web design but that site looks cool).

1. How long did it take and what tools did you use? This was your FIRST site? Are you just one of the band members doing a favour for the group, or are you thinking of going into professional web design?

2. Did you have to memorize a book on CSS or did you just trust Dreamweaver?

3. I agree with sentiments about the bio page.

The thing is, we love your world so much it kind of jars us back to the "real world" seeing a "normal" internet scroll bar. I'd avoid scroll bars all-together! Break it into 2 pages, use your hand-written scraps of paper, make us click on something and go on a paper-chase/toilet paper roll chase/something grungy chase to get to the rest of the type! But no scroll bars! We love your world too much.

4. Aussie Aussie Aussie!

5. To the master-hackers here: could this site be converted into Joomla and only a "blog" page be opened up for "writers"? The rest of the site could be limited to just a few elite super-admins. Is importing a site created in other software into Joomla one way coders come up with new Joomla themes? Joomla's own design tools look kind of limited, and so I "think" I might be able to get my head around DW4 over the next few months and whip something up, and then bring it into Joomla for sharing the love around.

I'm sorry I missed your kind reply.

1- it took me way too long, because that was the first time I've ever used dreamweaver. Just imagine spending spending 3 days looking for the simpliest things. In total I probably spend 3 weeks full time. This is in fact my second site, but the other one was for myself, I made it with a simplified program that worked differently than dreamweaver. I am a friend of the band, I do love their music and I believe they will be big pretty soon, so indeed it was them giving me a favor in letting me do their website;)
I intend to go into professional webdesign. I am working on other bands pages at the moment and crossing my fingers so I can keep doing this.

2-not sure to get this second question, but yeah I trusted dreamweaver. Since I don't now anything about CSS. Which is really a bummer.

3-I fully agree, I was looking at putting a transparent scrollbar, but I think you're right, I should just make it fit somehow. I do HATE this hugly thing sitting in the middle of the page like a witch's nose.

4- GO go gOoooooo!

5- I wish I could speak the same language. :0

6- thank you so much for such a nice feedback, it feels me up with so much energy to push things further in that direction, and maybe one day start living of it. Thanks heaps Eclipse.

[Cromulent]

Very nice looking site. I would say that you need to optimise the images a bit. Even with 8Mbit ADSL there was a pause while the site loaded. You should cut down the size a little.

[eclipse]

I'm sorry I missed your kind reply.

I intend to go into professional webdesign. I am working on other bands pages at the moment and crossing my fingers so I can keep doing this.
2-not sure to get this second question, but yeah I trusted dreamweaver. Since I don't now anything about CSS. Which is really a bummer.

CSS
Then definitely download the free book on learning CSS from here (http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/11/18/the-art-science-of-css-is-free-to-download/). I'm a beginner in all of this as well, and am slowly working through this book. ;) Reading this book seems intimidating as well, and there's a few paragraphs I had to go over a few times (when tired), but if you just try to read a bit each night you'll get there. Then you'll understand what Dreamweaver is doing in the background, why it's doing it, but more importantly, how you can further use the CSS to customise stuff even more than DW will for you.

Also, as a TOTAL newbie to CSS, I found it helpful to go into iTunes and see people using CSS. Try these 2 vodcasts that show people actually tinkering with it. Start at the beginning. Like me, you'll probably feel some despair at first! But read the book a bit, watch the video's a bit, and as you go back and forth between book and vodcasts and experimenting in DW, you'll get it.

iTunes vodcasts on CSS
Mustardseed media video podcast (introduction to CSS)
CSS tips and tricks
(any others anyone?)

iTunes podcasts on web-design generally
Design tools weekly
The Joomla podcast

Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal, CMS and all that
If you're going into web design, it seems that you'll one day need to know a bit about websites that customers can contribute to. It's like knowing how to set up your own "blogger". You'll be the "boss" of the website, doing all the major technical stuff (as the so called "super administrator"), and set up the "blog" or whatever. Joomla is just one of a few "Content Management Systems" that you can download for free, there's wordpress (cool blogging software) and Drupal as well. For more google these terms or read this thread... and if you do, you'll notice that I was a bit freaked out as well! (But these guys are here to help, so you'll get there in the end. I hope... then there might be hope for me as well. :o).
Read CMS thread one day when you're brave. (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=581307)

[Wenn]

Very nice looking site :)

[eclipse]

Sasufi,
forget everything I said about the free podcasts. If you're getting into design as a business, just bite the bullet and pay the $250 USA for a year's subscription to

http://lynda.com/

Watch the stuff on HTML, XHTML, CSS, Adobe CS4, everything! Watch a few hours a day! Re-watch as you need to as you work on something. Too easy. Once I convert the US dollar into Aussie, it's about a dollar a day for a "helping hand" I can't do without at this newbie stage in my web "career". (If my kids ever let me do any training — the Christmas holidays are about to begin! :eek:)

[chiefroastbeef]

Wow, that is an awesome website! You are really really creative.

I am using dreamweaver as well, making my first website for the non-prof I am working for.

What program did you use for the photo album?

Did you do all the graphics stuff yourself?

[sasufi]

Sasufi,
forget everything I said about the free podcasts. If you're getting into design as a business, just bite the bullet and pay the $250 USA for a year's subscription to

http://lynda.com/

Watch the stuff on HTML, XHTML, CSS, Adobe CS4, everything! Watch a few hours a day! Re-watch as you need to as you work on something. Too easy. Once I convert the US dollar into Aussie, it's about a dollar a day for a "helping hand" I can't do without at this newbie stage in my web "career". (If my kids ever let me do any training — the Christmas holidays are about to begin! :eek:)

Thanks so much for your help!
I'm getting into understanding Joomla at th moment, thanks to you!
cheers

[sasufi]

Wow, that is an awesome website! You are really really creative.

I am using dreamweaver as well, making my first website for the non-prof I am working for.

What program did you use for the photo album?

Did you do all the graphics stuff yourself?

Hey,
thanks for your comments, I didn't use any "program" for the photo album, it's just a show/hide thingy
And yep, did it all myself, from graphics to photos and web.
cheers

[chiefroastbeef]

Awesome! Just wondering, how did you line up the videos within the TV graphic? Or the photos within the Poloroid graphic? Just did it on Design View in DW?

Thanks! Once again awesome job.

[eleven2brett]

Eh, I'm not a big fan of the intro. Not so much the content of your specifically. I'm just sort of against them in general.

[samwich]

In regards to the white background on the flash movie before it finishes loading on start up:

In dreamweaver click on your swf movie, in the attributes panel there should be a bgcolor that you can change, you can set that to black. I don't have dreamweaver currently with me, so sorry about the vague instructions, but I know there is an option.

I had the same problem on one of my sites.

-Sam

[QueenZ]

It looks awesome, it's just a little bit too big for my 14'' ibook screen. but design part looks really great! Keep up with the good work! :) I don't know if i would be able to make something like that in DW.. :)

[Harpua585]

Eh, I'm not a big fan of the intro. Not so much the content of your specifically. I'm just sort of against them in general.

I agree. People are visiting the website to check tour dates, look at pictures, listen to the band, etc. Any time spent dealing with an intro (even clicking through one) is a deterrent. I loath intros ;). But other than that your site is great. I love the design.