My business / website

[ysu]

Correct me if im wrong but if a site is completly built in flash dont you run into issues with it being able to be googled?

That's what I meant; SEO = search engine optimisation

Flash cannot be indexed by engines

[KNAPPO]

Ahhh, durka durka.

I read you initial post and wondered if thats what i was thinking but i had never heard of the term SEO till this afternoon
PIx raises some very good points and its the sole reason one of the designers at work had to dump her beautiful flash site and re build it just so it could be googled. We would have lost waaaay too much traffic.

[durbster]

Hm. I wasn't going to open this can of worms but...

First of all it's certainly not true that Flash sites are slower to load but I'll concede there are a lot of bad Flash programmers because it was a pretty lightweight scripting language. The current version of Actionscript is a bit more serious and therefore filters out many of the more casual coders. That is introducing a quality control that wasn't there before but it'll take a while.

It's also not true that Flash sites are inherently useless for SEO as they can be built in a way that's no worse than a HTML site, and Google can also index SWFs to an extent now. It's true that Dex's site currently will be pretty much invisible to Google but it doesn't mean it requires a complete overhaul.

I'm a full-time Flash developer but I'm the first to say that it should be used when necessary and not for the sake of it. A full Flash site should only really be justified if there's a lot of movement, animation, video or some twist on the interface that can't be done any other way. I'm rebuilding my own website at the moment and even that won't be a full Flash site. There isn't actually anything on your site that couldn't be done by a skilled CSS and javascript coder.

I know you said it's a mate that's built it so I hope all this doesn't put you in too awkward a position but it's your career so you should at least take a step back and have a think about this. What you need at the very least is a HTML version (NOT a page giving the user a choice but built into the same page as the Flash), and a load of SEO indexable tags.

Don't let this panic you too much as most of what's been said about SEO is irrelevant since there is very little text in your site, so even if it were all done in HTML there's still not a lot for Google to find in there.

...But most of all; black on the monitor is hard on the eyes. (not as bad a RED background but bad enough)
(to test this; try to work on some doco with the color scheme on your site; black/white. Your eyes will be sore pretty soon. )
But we can't have all sites light gray, eh? (that's one of the most pleasing ones as bgcolor)

I have to disagree with you there mate. As a general rule you're right (ARSE would be bloody hard work if the colours were inverted) but if you're in a room with low light then light text on a dark background is actually better for your eyes (that's why controls in plane cockpits are designed like that for example )

Anyway, it's irrelevant in this case because you're talking about a text driven site whereas almost all visitors to Dex's site will be looking at the pictures. Therefore, for the purpose of this site I think a dark, simple design is perfect.

Oh, one more thing Dex, the mousewheel is supported in Flash so you need to have a word

[ysu]

...But most of all; black on the monitor is hard on the eyes. (not as bad a RED background but bad enough)
(to test this; try to work on some doco with the color scheme on your site; black/white. Your eyes will be sore pretty soon. )
But we can't have all sites light gray, eh? (that's one of the most pleasing ones as bgcolor)

I have to disagree with you there mate. As a general rule you're right (ARSE would be bloody hard work if the colours were inverted) but if you're in a room with low light then light text on a dark background is actually better for your eyes (that's why controls in plane cockpits are designed like that for example )

Cool, I didn't know about that!
Altho I'd suggest the "low light" treshold here is rather low, maybe night-time browsing?
I know I'm working in a fairly dim room, all day - that seems best for long term monitor watching - and I go nuts with a black, or even some dark bg.

[durbster]

...But most of all; black on the monitor is hard on the eyes. (not as bad a RED background but bad enough)
(to test this; try to work on some doco with the color scheme on your site; black/white. Your eyes will be sore pretty soon. )
But we can't have all sites light gray, eh? (that's one of the most pleasing ones as bgcolor)

I have to disagree with you there mate. As a general rule you're right (ARSE would be bloody hard work if the colours were inverted) but if you're in a room with low light then light text on a dark background is actually better for your eyes (that's why controls in plane cockpits are designed like that for example )

Cool, I didn't know about that!
Altho I'd suggest the "low light" treshold here is rather low, maybe night-time browsing?
I know I'm working in a fairly dim room, all day - that seems best for long term monitor watching - and I go nuts with a black, or even some dark bg.

Yeah in terms of eye strain from reading then basically the tone of the majority colour should match the physical environment, so under normal light conditions (which is when most browsing takes place) you're absolutely right, light colours are better. It's only an issue when you're reading though because you concentrate harder than just casually browsing.

It was ten years ago I did this research though so it's getting a bit dusty

[DexterPunk]

Ive had most people ive talked to say they liked the black....

Its actually not black by the way, its a dark gray, and there is a subtle difference between the header and footer and background. Thanks for your post Durbs

I think ill be sticking with it in flash for now, and perhaps as you said some HTML built in somehow. Ill just have to make do with it as an extension of my business card.. ill be advertising in local papers and can put my site address in it. So i guess googling is not the only way ill be hoping to advertise, it would be nice as well.. but ill stick with this (and the improvements suggested).. for at least a year or two.. and maybe then have it done again. Otherwise id have to pay for two sites to be done.

[Exar Kun]

Re: the black background thing. People have worked in AutoCAD and other CAD programs on a black background for over 25 years now. When working with a bunch of coloured lines on a background, the greater contrast from the black background makes things way less of a strain than a white background. Maybe it's really an images vs text thing?

And on the flash thing - indexing issues aside, I really like a flash based site for something that's pretty much all images. Wouldn't hurt having a javascripted setup either but the flash looks good.

[Speed]

I'm certainly no expert on website design but other than the small text & lack of logo I reckon it looks really professional. Well done Dex & good luck with business.

[DexterPunk]

Thanks to both you guys...

yeah speed, it will all be fixed, it is just the text used with he template. The site will eventually have video on it as well... taking my HDD around to the designers place soon to work on getting all that on there.

Im glad not everyone thinks its a horrible site! lol

the guy who made it for me, said in regards to flash... its a Holden/Ford, Apple/Microsoft thing... and that flash had a lot of stigma attached to it in early years, that is not really that justified. He said Durbs was spot on with his posts... He also said he wouldnt recommend a flash site to most people, but a lot of the stuff i wanted to show was visual, and in his opinion, and i think, in many ways, mine... it was a better choice. Its highlighted perfectly with a web designer telling me a 'boring' background is bad... where as my knowledge of imaging dictates that its more professional to present your images on a non distracting, neutral background.

[Hz-Lab]

I echo the Flash criticism in regards to search engine capabilities..

Just depends if you look at your site as more of a Portfolio for people who already know of you to come and enjoy your work and have it look pretty, or a selling tool for your business. If you want the latter, ditch the flash.

[DexterPunk]

Too late now Hertzy But cheers anywho. Maybe in a couple of years.

Mainly going to be advertising via local paper. I don't expect i'll have heaps of business out side my local area.

[macca]

Re: the black background thing. People have worked in AutoCAD and other CAD programs on a black background for over 25 years now. When working with a bunch of coloured lines on a background, the greater contrast from the black background makes things way less of a strain than a white background.

Totally agree with that, always a black background in Cad, usually minimum light in the room too.

From a technical point of to flash or not to flash, I wouldnt have a clue

I like the site Dex, some stunning pics there, hope it all goes well. Is it intended to be your main income stream or a side project for now for some extra cash? As you don't seem too worried about attracting customers on a large scale I'm guessing the latter, hence not so concerned about the marketing side, whichever, good luck with it

[DexterPunk]

Yeah pretty much... I'm not sure where exactly I'm going for now, and me and a mate from Uni are actually considering doing weddings to make some cash. So this wouldn't be a bad side business. I can also integrate it a bit as I can do the prints as well now.

[pixelboy]

Weddings are gold mate.. my wife does make-up for weddings sometimes, great sideline..

[norbs]

Weddings are gold mate.. my wife does make-up for weddings sometimes, great sideline..

They are money spinners for sure, but fucking stressful. Especially if the bride is a cow.

[DexterPunk]

Weddings are gold mate.. my wife does make-up for weddings sometimes, great sideline..

They are money spinners for sure, but fucking stressful. Especially if the bride is a cow.

Yeah spot on, and not something I really wanna do as a career. But I need cash.

After my old employer went bankrupt and i lost my job, i had a decision to make, look for another retail job, or go to uni and learn about photography. I chose the later. Before that, I had a cute gf, and money, and was looking at moving out and perhaps more. I don't regret my decision, but that was about 4 years ago, and now im 29 and still at home (parents are great, but thats not the point!) and I don't have the money to get myself out yet. The mate of mine who is interested in doing some weddings has some experience with it, which is good. He's also in a similar position, same age as me, and needs to earn some money... Although, in his case, he has a wife and kids to think about. So even though its not ideal, we have the skills to do it, so why not eh?

[DexterPunk]

As iPads have now dominated the market, I have conceded that flash is not a good way to go, and have changed my webpage. I built a site around a wordpress template. Should be much better for SEO, and also able to run on just about everything.

http://www.mitchellimaging.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think a few didn't like the darker themed page either, and have gone for a fairly minimalistic white. I might make the images bigger, but thats a pretty big job. Comments and criticism???

[durbster]

Erm... first problem - you can't hover over a menu item on a mobile device, so the portfolio menu doesn't really work. You need to add the submenu to the portfolio page.

Otherwise, looks good. It's a bit narrow though, you can have another couple of hundred pixels width if you want it.

[ysu]

It's trendy to do white, minimalistic pages, so it fits in nicely.

I properly hate these narrow designs nowadays. On one hand we have huge, wide monitors, then we also have small handheld crap which can't handle a half-decent res.
Yet nobody is doing dynamic width webpages, rather narrow ones.

Oh well. It's not a problem with your site alone, it's another bad trend, simply

If we had the time & money we could make two page, too, one for mobile stuff one for computers. One can provide a different page based on agent and/or o/s - but it's a lot of work.

I think people rather decide that we allow a bit (the narrow site) for mobile stuff, and that's it. Our site included, LOL.

Edit: one thing bothers me a bit is the "logo" top left, it could be made more professional-looking, and the "imaging and photography" text below seems a bit blurry. (no it definitely is blurry)

[DexterPunk]

Thanks guys.

Durbs, I'll have to check that out on the ipads at work.. on my iPhone the menus work. You can't hover, but you just tap 'portfolio' and the list pops down for me. I think I will widen it a bit... When i first made the site the template only allowed one size, now it has other options. It's just a little annoying that I have to go through and resize every image. Oh well.

I'll see if I can sort a sharper logo res out ysu, cheers. By more professional looking, do you mean in design, or just that its a bit low res at the moment? Knappo designed that one for me, and spent a while getting it how i want it, very happy with the design of it at this stage. I'm actually thinking about getting a sticker printed up for the back windscreen of my car, but would wanna work in the url somehow too.

[ysu]

I mean on one hand it's not sharp - and that's a bit meh.

If you like the logo don't read on...

It's very colorful. It's too colorful imho.
Big brands - if they want to talk to everyone - use the base colours (usually red/blue/yellow, sometimes green added iirc) as they do this, everyone can find one colour they like.
Having the whole spectrum in one logo, though; that's what seems too much to me, especially coupled with the otherwise minimalistic design.
Altho it may have a beneficial effect which I'm unaware of. In that case disregard my ramblings completely, hehe.