EyeCandeStudio

I like it, yet I don't like it. I'm on 56k and I was getting the impression that it might be a flash site because of how long it took to load ... when I found out it wasn't ... I was - needlesstosay - a little dissapointed. The style you used however, made up for the disapointment. I like the colors. I've never been fond of them, but you did a good job in making them look good. I agree with everything rodder said, so there really isn't much more I can say.

i love the blending on this one.. allthough i think the menu is .. not-as-well done as all the other elements.. the white text is way to hard to read, especially in the top ..

otherwise i think this site is one h*ll of a job well done.. rodder has some good points too though, and i pretty much agree with them too..

a few things i dont like, if you hit the home button it goes through the loading of the 100+ images all over again. The other is that im not sure how the links are going to work, but the one active one, "about me" is a pop up. I really dont see a reason for popup on this site. You have that blank area right smack in the middle where all the content could go. The color scheme is very nice, and everything seems to flow together nicely, there just a few technical things you should consider changing, atleast i think so.

And the gallery link say's:

http://www.eyecandestudio.com/www.eyecandestudio.com

Wich leads to a 404

Other than whats already been said I have really nothing to say, except I really like the site in all...

Some of the areas are dead or lead into dead links, I did say on the leading post that I`m still working on the site and wanted comments, which may I say I`m very grateful of, it`s nice to get honest comments both good and bad, I`m copying the comments that need addressing now and will look at them to see where I agree or not, once again ty so much for your time.

Rodder
Sorry it took awhile to get back to you in more detail, I`ve added comments below yours below:


Graphically.....its sexy. Im a sucker for the blending...and those wavy shapes of color, but for execution....its kinda poor.

Yes it is as I wanted to keep the picture quality.

The Preloader:
1)Get rid of AOL (that looks bad...your target audience i guarantee wont be using aol)

There are many AOL users out there I`m one of them

2) "Your first visit....seconds to load" is not needed. Also up above you alread have "loading" so why have it twice??

I took that out, I`m going to create a new animated loader soon.

3) the preload animation is ok.....but it doesnt help me in any way (like a preload bar...or % loaded......or even the total kb).

I`ve looked all round to try and find a reloader that I can tie into the html so I can give a % and still haven`t found one, the reason I created the animated one is to give the visitor an idea something is going on and they arent stuck of frozen.

The interface:

1) navigation is hard to read. The nav bg is screened back too much also the text shadows arent dark enough.

Yes I`ve been tole this, I`m working on it.

2) the bevel lines defining the content are hard to focus on. They would look nicer if they had a little more contrast (darker) so they poped out more

Again I`m working on this.

3)500k is fairly large for the interface alone.

Again quality.

4) the right side where you have announcements and tuts really falls apart. The structure doesnt fit in with the rest...it looks messy/rushed. Also it conflicts with the boxes along the bottom...cause there is no space (breathing room) between the elements.

Yes I agree and today I`ve spent hours re-designing.

5) the upper drop shadow looks very strage. It makes your interface appear on a like 20 degree tilt backwards. Id remove that. Also the right shadow (though barely visible) is odd too.

Maybe check again and see if its changed.

6) the announcements......need to be white. There is no reason to screen back text on a dark background (especially with variation in color)

Changed.

7) "Hi and welcome" text is terrible. You need a diff font...or atleast make this smaller and adjust the tracking and kerning!!

Defo changed.

8) whats with the word dreams?? when your eyecande?

E dreams - E for eye cande

9) the copyright is large. it would look better about half that size and screened back (yes you would be screening on a dark background....but its ok as its not a visual/important element)

Not sure yet, I will think about this.

10) id remove the subnav. You already have "home" on the nav itself...and you can out sitemap on the nav too. Print and email seem to be space fillers more than something functional. If you do need them...id make them smaller and move them as they are not important as everything else (kinda like the copyright)

They were site fillers and have now gone, making room for future use.

11) the rectangle on the left is not needed. It serves no other purpose than to distract from the navigation

Gone.


TY so much for the time you took and it was worth the time, it helped a great deal.


TY super, Krane, .02, casual, patteman, redeye "changed what you mentioned",

You are missing the point about a lot of things rodder said.

Graphically.....its sexy. Im a sucker for the blending...and those wavy shapes of color, but for execution....its kinda poor.

Yes it is as I wanted to keep the picture quality.

How does keeping picture quality have anything to do with poor execution?

The Preloader:
1)Get rid of AOL (that looks bad...your target audience i guarantee wont be using aol)

There are many AOL users out there I`m one of them

This is considered very amateurish. when doing something professional like this, please don't ever ever ever ever EVER mention AOL (aka Gay-O-L, A-Ho-L, A-O-Hell, need I go on?) And also don't mention that you use AOL on a site like this. In fact don't bother mentioning what browser you use at all. People could care less and in fact people will think less of you if you parade around saying you use AOL.

3) the preload animation is ok.....but it doesnt help me in any way (like a preload bar...or % loaded......or even the total kb).

I`ve looked all round to try and find a reloader that I can tie into the html so I can give a % and still haven`t found one, the reason I created the animated one is to give the visitor an idea something is going on and they arent stuck of frozen.

You don't need a tutorial to find out the total amount of KB your site is. you can put that on your load screen. and btw i dont really like the load screen that much.

3)500k is fairly large for the interface alone.

Again quality.

Let me rephrase this quote for Rodder.
3)500k is GOD DAMN HUGE for the interface alone. Huge as in supahsekzy's penis, that's how big, and damn is that big or what, it'd take a day and a half to download a picture of supahsekzy's penis.

Seriously, 500K is fricking huge. And I agree with pank, no site needs to be that big.
As a general rule, think of it this way. If it doesn't load within 5 seconds of opening the page, the viewer will automatically close the page and not look at it ever again. If you follow that line of thinking i'm sure you can get that down.

Quality is no reason to have 500K pictures. Cut it down. You can have great quality with a picture under, like 20 K lol :D



As for my own opinion, I think it's merely a collage. I never really was suckered for the whole blending thing like Rodder, but I like your title and navigation. I'd like it better if it was easier to read, it's really hard to read right now.

I don't like the Dream and do you E Dream? It has nothing to do with your site and as a motto it's been overcooked to a crisp at this point.
It doesnt make sense, anyway. "Do you have E Dream?" No, buddy.. I have "Real Dreams." Dreams don't quite work electronically.

It also might look better if the site extended all the way to the top and all the way to the bottom.

I'll tell you what I do really like.. the two bottom right boxes. The
Plugins and the Report Error boxes. I like it because the bg is a nice gray, it's simple, i like the vectorish cartoonish drawings :D and also because of plain simplicity. Nothing in the background - no wavy orange or crap like that to adulterate the box ¬_¬

And the X logo inthe Report Error box is a bit rough on the edges

..enjoy :D *whew* (takes breath)

You are missing the point about a lot of things rodder said.

Quote:

Graphically.....its sexy. Im a sucker for the blending...and those wavy shapes of color, but for execution....its kinda poor.

Yes it is as I wanted to keep the picture quality.


How does keeping picture quality have anything to do with poor execution?

Quote:

The Preloader: I have said I`m about to change this
1)Get rid of AOL (that looks bad...your target audience i guarantee wont be using aol)

There are many AOL users out there I`m one of them


This is considered very amateurish. when doing something professional like this, please don't ever ever ever ever EVER mention AOL (aka Gay-O-L, A-Ho-L, A-O-Hell, need I go on?) And also don't mention that you use AOL on a site like this. In fact don't bother mentioning what browser you use at all. People could care less and in fact people will think less of you if you parade around saying you use AOL.

Mentioning that I use AOL has no baring on this at all, I don`t parade this around I mentioned it within my post

Quote:

3) the preload animation is ok.....but it doesnt help me in any way (like a preload bar...or % loaded......or even the total kb).

I`ve looked all round to try and find a reloader that I can tie into the html so I can give a % and still haven`t found one, the reason I created the animated one is to give the visitor an idea something is going on and they arent stuck of frozen.


You don't need a tutorial to find out the total amount of KB your site is. you can put that on your load screen. and btw i dont really like the load screen that much.
You seem to of missread what I`ve said in part of my reply, or I didn`t explain myself clearly, either way I was trying to say I was looking to place a pre loader on site that would pick up a % pointer within the html and print it back as it went but I haven`t found a tutorial to help me create this.

Quote:

3)500k is fairly large for the interface alone.

Again quality.


Let me rephrase this quote for Rodder.
3)500k is GOD DAMN HUGE for the interface alone. Huge as in supahsekzy's penis, that's how big, and damn is that big or what, it'd take a day and a half to download a picture of supahsekzy's penis.

Seriously, 500K is fricking huge. And I agree with pank, no site needs to be that big.
As a general rule, think of it this way. If it doesn't load within 5 seconds of opening the page, the viewer will automatically close the page and not look at it ever again. If you follow that line of thinking i'm sure you can get that down.

Quality is no reason to have 500K pictures. Cut it down. You can have great quality with a picture under, like 20 K lol

Ok I do agree it is big, at the I`m not going to take image sizes down while still working on site, I will look at this when I`m closing up to the end and only need to run updates, also this will mainey be my personal site showing work I do and offering other area on site too, I`m not aiming at a big site.



As for my own opinion, I think it's merely a collage. I never really was suckered for the whole blending thing like Rodder, but I like your title and navigation. I'd like it better if it was easier to read, it's really hard to read right now.

I don't like the Dream and do you E Dream? It has nothing to do with your site and as a motto it's been overcooked to a crisp at this point.
It doesnt make sense, anyway. "Do you have E Dream?" No, buddy.. I have "Real Dreams." Dreams don't quite work electronically.

E Dreams as in EYE CANDE, nice to the eye, create nice graphics to the eye and so on

It also might look better if the site extended all the way to the top and all the way to the bottom.

note sure how you mean here, do you mean bring the height smaller?

I'll tell you what I do really like.. the two bottom right boxes. The
Plugins and the Report Error boxes. I like it because the bg is a nice gray, it's simple, i like the vectorish cartoonish drawings and also because of plain simplicity. Nothing in the background - no wavy orange or crap like that to adulterate the box ¬_¬

And the X logo inthe Report Error box is a bit rough on the edges

I will look at this

..enjoy *whew* (takes breath)

TY

site is nice the preload is crap :D

cheers m8

Haha TY, I`m going to work on that later today, a side note, I`ve applied a dark tone to the layout and IMHO the menu is alot clearer now.