Topic: breaking away from standards – wip

Alright, let?s begin with the link:

http://webspace.ringling.edu/~amatveic/

I was just introduced to web design in flash by a friend and here is what I have. This is my first attempt; therefore he made a great deal of contribution by helping me with script.

In general I wanted something different. I have previously done several websites in html/css and they were fine, but I felt limited in standardized navigation and wanted something more ?odd? or ?interesting?. Instead of making just another website, I pushed into a direction to explore a bit of different type of navigation. I didn?t want to it be exactly clear, but not too confusing, also keeping it clean was a priority. I sort of wanted a user to be able to use it like a light switch, sort of as if you were bored you could flip it on/off continuously until you would annoy either yourself or someone else. So far I am only fond of those four cubes at the beginning. It?s hard to progress from there, since I want to be able to have some sort of solid image viewer to display my work, and the enlarged cubes seem to be limited in space.

I would like to have some suggestions/critiques, plenty of ideas are racing through my head and changes could be radical.

Remember, this is only a first attempt, which means my knowledge in action scrip is very limited.

Hmmm... well, I know nothing of developing in Flash, so I'll just give you my impression. And my impression is... well, that's tough to say. The four boxes in the beginning are interesting, I suppose, but the bands moving in and out kind of annoyed me. At least with the boxes the clickable area doesn't change in size (even if it does move slightly), but with the bands the clickable area shrinks considerably. So I guess this is a usability gripe.

Not much else to say at this point. What is the design for? I imagine that would dictate (or at least suggest) the direction you might want to take this.


___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

trying to make it into personal portfolio site.

Ah, I see. Well, I'll be watching developments with interest.

Ok.

To the point.

1) Inspiration:

http://www.levitated.net
http://www.ozones.com
http://www.proce55ing.org

2) I'd set the overall mood based on what I want to show and whom I want to show it to.

Eg, mostly images, and some text, for visual users, who like beautiful images before text.
So, sample constraint to take in account: grey or black bg for pictures, not too flashy, no colours, don't distract from what you want to show.

3) I'd do it with style. My style, as the above example show, there are ways and ways to do things, but what makes them right is...
sincerity. Your style.

You're mostly a paint artist, right? So, download and check this one out: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=7140
And get inspired... (picture transitions to reveal your images like the ones in that prod - it is now feasible using Flash pixel features)

4) If you don't know how to get inspired, open a blank document or take a sheet of paper, start thinking about your site, dreaming, etc...
And write down everything that pops to your mind.

every single thing.

"square, grey, flash, colors, quick, punchy, mysterious, " whatever.

5) this piece of advice is powered by my2cents (tm) and commonsense inc.