Topic: mad alien remix ~ audio/visual toy

thank U all for any feedback on Abduction Therapy ...I'm designing and building the site at 56K so I'm wondering how all u high bandwidth heads will experience it. (The issue is - creating a "cross bandwidth" flash based site). Also let me know how the site navigates and what it "feels" like. Please supply insight to this naked mad alien.
Peace to Ozone and to all beings, known and unknown...

"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."


[This message has been edited by pauly B (edited 02-07-2002).]

[This message has been edited by pauly B (edited 02-08-2002).]

pauly B: Welcome to the Asylum enjoy your stay. I nearly thought we had a useful spalsh page but it didn't quite work out that way (pity) and then you popped up a new page (someone must show me the page in the manual which says that Flash must be popped up into a new window). I'm on a fast connection at the moment and it all loaded fine and it looked great but the sheer amount of movement on the screen made me feel sick so I shut it down. You need to get rid of the BOOMBOX thing on the right as it only distracts from the nice flickering effect in the centre.

I'll have to give your page another crack when I've had some sleep and am feeling less sensitive.

And thanks for the HTML version for the Flashless?

Also you will need keyword and description metatags.

Emps

emperor/
thanks for looking....I presume u were referring to my "splash" page...I took my "spalsh" page off the web some time ago ...get some sleep yes...zzzzzzzzz....... alienZ
and what exactly did you mean by "...I nearly thought we had a useful spalsh page but it didn't quite work out that way (pity)..."


"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

[This message has been edited by pauly B (edited 02-07-2002).]

[This message has been edited by pauly B (edited 02-08-2002).]

Hey everyone,

been here for a little while now, and I'm still looking for a constructive review of my site...
I've done a few careful reviews of some of your sites and I was really hoping for the same ~

peace peace mad alienZ

"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

Personally- i thought it was way to busy- and many of the colors and images clashes.

Busy - You looped the top left navigation and many other animations which could have though maybe still be animated- not just disapear and then reappear through the given animation ( did i say that right? :P )

Clash - This would probally add on to busy, but it was like taking light shrooms colors popping everywhere and images which do not blend with the black background popping up.

Overall you really don't need change much- though i would suggest maybe having an i-map which consists and includes everything that's happending with the theme.

Nice site though.

thanks for the input benev -I just checked your site and I can certainly see why u thought mine busy.
different strokes..........

Any one else? Navigation ... browsers ... hip hop ... life ~
my naked alien earZs await ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
Emperor, did you look further?


peace peace

"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

pauly B: Yes I've given it another couple of goes and it just makes me feel ill. I have been fully tested for epilepsy (ECG) and I'm clear on that front (although I am a little photosensitive from time to time) but there is just too much movement on the page. The word boombox expanding and contracting on the right, the main graphic fading in and out in the center and glowy things on the right (at which point I killed the page). There was a good rule of thumb about not having 2 or 3 different types of animated gif on one screen as the brain can only cope with so much movement at one time and now with Flash you have the technology to put bigger moving things on the screen. So in a way that is my review - I'm glad to see you don't pop the Flash up in to another screen and the page looks OK (although I've not been able to view it for any extended period of time) but you are going to have to take another look at what is going on on your page and when events take place.

I would be interested to hear what other people think though (esp. from those who can have it on screen for more than 5 seconds).

[edit: EEG not ECG!!]

Emps


A good buttock will always find a bench for itself - Estonian proverb

[This message has been edited by Emperor (edited 02-13-2002).]

Emperor,
no offense but do you get ill when you go to the movies or watch television? My site is aboutall that movement ~ and about unusual rollovers and especially about the audio. It's not about calm but it is about Zen. I'm just not subscribing to any trends here. I will note your queasyness as one viewer's reaction to the site - thank you. Anyway I was hoping someone could get beyond the main page (the site has many layers and pages) and respond to my initial request for a review of the navigation, the galleries, the download time for animations etc...That would be really helpful to me...
peace peace

"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

pauly B: I can't think I've had any funny reactions to TV, films, strobe lights, etc. but there is something going on that gives me palputations (you must have hit on my sensitive frequency) - and in case anyone is wondering I am not joking I start to feel odd pretty rapidly. I think both pauly B and I would be interested to see what other people think.

Sorry about that.

Emps

Emperor,
sounds like you want some validation of your feelings. That's not what I'm looking for. I refer the forum once again to previous post.

peace to all beings

"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

pauly B: I'm not sure about validations of my feelings but I am curious to know if it makes anyone else feel sick!! So come on then people let us know what you think!!

Emps

...(not hostile)

Though i still believe your site is too busy- maybe you should try another forum to see what they have to say- a forum which style differs from here- a second oppinion if anything- maybe we are wrong and it is just us who see your site a bit busy.

This may be because my computer is laggy- but i viewed your site- clicked the navigation- nothing happend untill several seconds where the loading came up- i would have seen this before but i thought the links were dead. ( I tried this again on a different computer- same thing)

I don't think there is any need to go seeking opinions elsewhere we are a broad church with a lot of (very) different people and I'm sure we'll get a range of opinions on this too perhaps benev and I are being over sensitive.

pauly B: you mention:

quote:

---

It's not about calm but it is about Zen.

---

Is there a broader idea or thread running through the site concept? I've got to say I felt less than Zen but I also suspect my physiological reactions to the animations prevented me from getting into things there (my loss).

Emps

peace to the church of Ozone ! !

the theme of the site is revolution, ferocious commitment, the REAL underground, a sober wariors path, and the invisible world of energy that exists beneath the world of hard objects.
Abduction Therapy would be the the experience of being abducted into that world and receiving the gifts of beauty there and returning to the world with the resonance of that beauty.
Can I get a witness....
or a review finally?

peace peace


"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

"I don't think there is any need to go seeking opinions elsewhere we are a broad church with a lot of (very) different people and I'm sure we'll get a range of opinions on this too "

I suppose you're right, but condoning yourself to one place where people for years having been at- people start accepting things which once they never had heard of ( not sure if that's clear enough- since i don;t find it that nessecary to rant on and i do ~~ suppose you're right i'll stop there.

"when you go to the movies or watch television" you're obviously comparing yourself with special effects and such which may resemble your site- on T.V. Well the difference between that and your site is that T.V. is a bit(lot?) more organized and sequencial than your site. When i visited your site what i saw was well- a bunch of repeating and clashed animations ( colors / images) doing what ever. It was like a slim downed verson of seizurebots.com . Though emp maybe right that we are "over reacting " so i dunno=\.

As you've said above, different strokes for different folks.
But you asked for opinions.
So now you'll get mine. It looks like a lot of hard work went into this site.
BUT...It's too much.
It's really spastic. Nothing seems to flow off of anything else ya know?

Yeah. I agree with Jeni. Nothing seems to tie in with anything else.

Navigating the site is a chore. Some of the clickabul areas don't do anything! It takes several clicks to get anywhere and when you do eventually reach any kind of content it opens in a pop-up window. So basicaly the flash area of your site seems like little more then an over bloated and confusing form a navigation. Which IMHO is not a very effective use of the medium.

Your site feels icky to me too. Too many dark and clashing colours. There's too much repetitive motion and audio happening. It may seem kinda cool at first but it wears thin quite quickly.

As for the download times... I hope your not expecting 56kers to view this site. You have way too much audio for that. Furthermore, people on broadband connections and used to low bandwitch sites that load straight away. They don't like waiting. Espically since your site does little to inspire confidence in what their waiting for to actualy be worth their time.

You also said your site was all about motion. Then you said it was about zen? Your also calling it an audio toy?

Sorry to say this but to me it just looks like someone playing around with flash because "they could". Some of your concepts are good but I think much of your work needs refining.

Anyhow, my 2 cents..

[This message has been edited by Dracusis (edited 02-13-2002).]

icky and spastic....
OK
anyone else?
I'm loving this!

peace, peace


"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

Pauly,

Take anything I have to say with a grain of salt...I'm still not ready to have my site reviewed...so I was pretty hesitant to review yours...

Anyhow, here's what I thought.

1 - Too slow. I'm on a 56k modem here (down from 768DSL at my last apt-- modems suck!), and it took over 4 minutes for your site to load...and the links took long enough to load that I thought most of them didn't do anything (and I think maybe some don't? -- once I slowed down a bit I started to find more stuff.) If I knew you and wanted to check your site out, it wouldn't matter...but I don't think the average surfer would stick around. Maybe try to trim down the file sizes some?

2 - Pop-ups aren't my thing. One's ok...if you want your site in a new window, that's fine...but I didn't like having the galleries pop up in new windows.

3 - I liked the "boombox" animation...but maybe you could have it spin from the center? From the center it might flow (zen) a little better...I think that top rotation is what's bugging everyone. The face is a little flashy too...maybe darken it some.

Nice graphics, cool layout, and great audio. I was diggen the sound clips.

Keep up the good work,

clv



[This message has been edited by clevergeek (edited 02-13-2002).]

clevergeek,
thanks so much for taking the time to slow down a little and dig deeper. That's what it's all about on the web and in life ~ patience! As I mentioned in my first post, I'm building and previewing the site on a 56K (unfortunately all I can get where I am, but great for addressing the "lowest common denominator" of end users). My issue was - would the site function well at all bandwidths? 4 minutes is way too long though ~ I just loaded the main page and popup (293k and 45k) in 1 minute and 5 seconds at 56k...you might want to check your modem there B. Clearly I'm not after the "average" surfer, so that's cool...Anyhow,
thanks again for the constructive post - as far as I'm concerned you're the 1st in 17.
(figures U would B a 1st time poster)
And feel free to email me privately with your URL, I'd be happy to take a look.......

Who's next?

~peace to all beings, known and unknown~


"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

quote:

---

Anyhow, thanks again for the constructive post - as far as I'm concerned you're the 1st in 17.

---

<bastard mode>
If you only want reviews from people who like your site. Do me a favour and stop wasting my time.

You wanted to know if people liked you site yes? Well, you got an answer. About 5.8% of the poeple who reviewed you site actualy liked it. It also sounds like your going to completly ignore the comments and or suggestions put forth by the other 94.2%.

Man, you should write a book on how to get the most out of a critical review with this logic of yours. I'm sure you'd make a fortune.
</bastard mode>



Edit: Didn't want to sound that nasty....

[This message has been edited by Dracusis (edited 02-13-2002).]

Hey if that's what you call a critical review, I hope you get well soon.
Anybody for real here, or is it just a couple of hostile little babies...?

**oh yeah, and do the math - 1 out of 4 is 25%

"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."


[This message has been edited by pauly B (edited 02-13-2002).]

"hostile little babies"

That's like being a teacher, then making fun of a teacher for being a teacher.

(A bit oddly phrased;P)

Wow, more inanity. I'm still looking for constructive reviews, hopefully from someone who actually bulds web sites.

Anybody want to stand up here?



"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

pauly B: You already have had valid comments from such people - Jeni and Dracusis' skills and knowledge are respected amongst the inmates (and I'm sure our new friends benev and clevergeek [welcome by the way] bring a lot to the table too). You are perfectly in your rights to ignore everyone's input but being dismissive of valid responses (even if they don't come up to your standards as constructive criticism) isn't going to make people fall over themselves to review your site: 'hostile little babies'?

However, I would be interested to hear what other people think of this site.

Emps

Hello Chaps,

I'll step into the fireing lane with my opinion. Personally as an Interactive Multimedia student this site appeals to me. I think it all really depends of what school of thought you are from, and by that I mean somebody like Jakob Neilsen (who is interested in usuability) would hate it, but maybe someone like Josha Davis (who is very experimental) would.

Professionally I always judge a site on how it balances form and function. Pauly B's site learns more to the form rather than the function. It does have alot happening on the screen at once as somebody has already stated but personally I didn't find it too over-powering. I am a dial-up user and it did take a couple of minutes to load which is not strictly good design but I was presented with a loading screen telling me what was happening, it didn't just pause and make me think it had crashed my broswer.

Some one also said it navigates badly which is true BUT as Pauly B said "the theme of the site is revolution, ferocious commitment, the REAL underground, a sober wariors path, and the invisible world of energy" which suggests to me that it is not going to be a liner site with nice context sensitive navigation etc.

Have you ever visited a site by hi-res such as soulbath.com ? There work is very much theme based and they design the site's navigation to co-incide with the set theme. Sometimes a site can contradict what they are saying if the way there site is designed opposes that. How strange would a Maralyn Manson site be if it looked very professional and obayed all the rules of design ?

It does do the usual things that I expect such as provide the ability to diable the sound, tells you at the start you will need flash, works in low resolutions and is reasonably pleasing to the eye.

Goods:

Nice sounds
Funky graphics
Theme Based
Acceptable loading time

Bads

The very large backgound image "peace to all beings"
Pop-ups - not good in any circumstances (just personal preference)

So to summate I liked the site because I have taken into the consideration the thought behind it. It would not be suiteable for informational purposes and maybe a simpler site could be made if more content is added. But for entertainment and general "un-serious" broswing it works well.

Just my 2c,

- Paul

Life in the Bus Lane : Weblog

[This message has been edited by PaulSmith (edited 02-13-2002).]

Humm...
I wasn't in a good mood when I posted my pervious reply to this thread. Maybe I over did things a bit. But I was rather about what you said to most of the people who took ~their~ time to look at your site. We didn't have to look at your site and give you our comments in the first place but we did.

The people here are honest and at times I can come accross as being rather harsh. However, most people have commented on the areas of your site that either need more work you specifically asked them to comment about. You asked about bandwidth and loading times and you got it. You asked about the navigation, you got some input there too. You also asked how the site "feels" and you got plenty of info on that front. Spastic and Icky may not be the answers you wanted but their the way some of us obviously saw it. However, if you really don't think people should be seeing your site that way maybe you should be asking more questions as to why rather than just blowing them off.

Oh, and I was using your words for the 5.8%. "1st in 17" is 5.8%. Don't make up numbers if you don't want them thrown back in ya face ok....

Now, stop complaining about people not liking your site as much as you do and start asking them more specific questions as to why. Your site does have potential and I can see you've put a lot of work into it thus far but I personally think it could be a whole lot better.

Paul,
Thank you for the thoughtful review...All very progressive!
I'm building and tearing down constantly and learning all the while..and yes the site is about interactive entertainment, so I'm keen to hear from other folks who are pushing that bubble. I guess my idea with popping up the main window and leaving the other one behind is twofold ~ one is visual / if you're on at least a 17' monitor I'm intending the 2 (or 3 when a gallery is open) windows to be visible simultaneously, though partially obscuring each other. I actually designed the content to work together in this way so there's actually a "depth" of windows,
happening. What do you think? Also that static background window is an exit window allowing me to send my message of "peace to all beings, known and unknown... "
Could you clarify the problems you felt with navigation? That would be really helpful...

peace peace

"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

Dracusis,

please get lost with that nonsense already / I'm tired of my thread being taken up with whining...
not to mention the energy to respond to it. I DON'T CARE if you or anyone else likes my site...get it? I didn't start this wackness and I've continuously tried to stay out of it but I won't ignore ignorant personal attacks - yup that's what they are. Who appointed you spokesperson for this forum?

Honesty is beautiful, and I welcome any constructive critisicm of my work.


"...the magic key that opens the earth's
door is made of internal silence plus
anything that shines..."

Why are you a Naked Alien??

I guess I will give it a review... Honesty is um... nevermind

that Friggin Stupid Full sized popup "peace to all beings" with the "tiled" ish... background SUCKS. I **HATE** anyting that messes with the size of my windows, especially ones that make them full sized.

Thats the fist thing.

That BoomBox text is really distracting. It serves no purpose but to say, and i quote, "boom box"

Your links look like they were just randomly tossed on the page... there is no order there. Order helps one navigate. and just so ya know, People on the web are not just going to be patient. It is not in their, or my, blood.

Those blue links CLASH like nothing else. They in no way go with the rest of the page. I dont like how the music is started when the gallery links are pushed, after I have turned off the music.

It would be really good if one could scroll down the guest book!!!

I guess most the links dont work cuz you are not finished? Ya got a ways to go... you need to slim it down a bit... ooh, It is probably loading much faster for you because you could have the images already catched in your catchy? Just a though. Thats pretty out there... man.....

Though this was pointed to dracusis i thought i would uninvitedly respond to what i think-
"I DON'T CARE if you or anyone else likes my site...get it?"
(You don't care? You're up in arms when someone responds SOMEWHAT negative to your site)
"I didn't start this wackness "
(Your rude and abnoxious comments didn't help either.)
=[
I think someone should just lock this thread and let it be- we could argue on forever and with.......

[This message has been edited by benev (edited 02-14-2002).]

yuppa yuppa... iz done