kevinseals.com

Owner kevin seals

Editor used: Flash

Comments from developer: This is a personal site I built exclusively in flash 8. I was wanting some feed back on the design aspect as well as any other feedback I can get.With crossbrowser issues in HTML plus the fact that the majority of people at least have DSL I don't understand why all sites aren't done in flash? But I really just would like to know how I could improve my site overall, Thnk you for your time.

Comments from Jennifer Kyrnin: Kevin clearly worked hard on this site. He's made good use of branding and the images are attractive and easy on the eyes. I normally don't like the reflection technique, but with the other faded and background images it works well.

Some issues: There are a number of things about the makeup of this site that Kevin should think carefully about, as no matter how pretty his designs are, these issues can drive a customer away before they even arrive.

• Flash - the bottom line is that many people don't like all-Flash sites. Sure, they're pretty, and they may give the illusion of loading quickly, but if your reader leaves as soon as they recognize the Flash, it doesn't matter, does it?
• Sound - when I went to the page it started automatically. People hate that. Yes, Kevin did the right thing and made it easy to turn it off, but again, if the reader leaves before noticing the controls, it doesn't matter.
• Size - According to Web Site Optimization this site will take 41 seconds to load on a 56K modem. That's a long time to wait.
• Fonts - They are hard to read, and if they are too small for some people, there is no way to make them larger - even with the browser (because the page is in Flash).
• Background image - don't get me wrong, this is a great branding image, but it's hard to read the text on interior pages that scrolls over it.

The only other thing that's really jarring is the "Flash required" text link in bright blue that shows up in the upper left corner. I think that was intended to be covered by the Flash animation, but it shows in my browser window.

URL: http://kevinseals.com/