SITE REVIEW: Flashadvocate.com

SITE REVIEW: http://www.flashadvocate.com (See "...come alive here")
SITE REVIEW: Graphic design portfolio

Hey guys, it's been quite some time since I last submitted for your approval, but I think now is as good a time as any. This is the predecessor of my old pet project - solarisdesigns.net. Unfortunately, I lost that domain due to a careless hosting company. But since then I have moved beyond the cliches I used to breed on.

Moving in a new direction with this site, I've done away with the full-flash makeup, and gone for more SEO friendly designs. I've caught up with the rest of the crowd (which took a few days), but I think I'm in a good place. This is a work in progress, I have not yet completed the coding process, but you can see the finished product in its image form by way of the splash page.

Thanks in advance for the replies I get, I am more than open to suggestions. I had an idea in mind for the portfolio section, but now I'm not quite so sure.

Great site.I like the design and layout.Moreover it was very fast in loading eventhough you had worked in flash.Goodluck to complete rest of the part in your site.Thanks..

Thanks. Minimalism helps alot with the inherent loading time, and I'm not sure if I understand your second sentence very well, no flash in the site...yet

Netrider just posts to every review site post. Not certain he really looks at them. And not sure why he even reviews them. On the other hand I did make it to your "come alive here" part. I can see your interest in perfection. In particular I LOVE your comments in your source code. I also respect your XHTML strict doctype. And sweet tarts rock!

If you stay on this path you're going to have a good site.

Now on the flash side, so far I haven't seen what you can do in Flash. I enjoy flash. I may never read this post again, but if you do something cool with your site in the future with flash send me a PM. would be interested to check it out.

Thanks atno, means alot coming from you. I have an older portfolio site that was done completely in flash, you can see that in my splash page. I was a completely convinced flash addict until a friend of mine crashed my party with some well-needed advice on the absence of SEO in flash objects, so I set out to work with hybrid content instead.

I'm working with the SiFR object right now, obtaining some interesting results, hopefully I will be able to introduce some flash elements in keeping with my coined identity.

I like the design and layout

Can you be more specific? I appreciate that you like it, but I'm sure there's something you dislike or might do differently. Opinions are golden.

Can anyone provide some constructive criticism besides atnotw? Lol!

I'm going to be putting up the other 3 pages today, so hopefully then I could spawn some suggestive advice. I know it's not a perfect site, there's bound to be flaws, just need someone who is good at picking them...

Maybe it's just because I'm almost 50, but I didn't get the purpose of the IGZWidget, Clouded, and the clan thing. They are very nicely done, but what are they? Just things you enjoy?

I think I agree that for your portfolio page Flash is a good solution. You don't need to worry as much about SEO on that. And since you mentioned SEO in your initial post, you might find this interesting in reference to Flash and SEO.
website-design-forum/good-news-for-flash-t89398.html

I had trouble conveying the purpose of that subject, people get it confused with the bottom potion "featured image". That's originally my work previews, or images in a couple different areas of my work.

if your a student as written somewhere, i think i understand your site, theme, approach atc. its obvious your walking on a thin line between advertisment minimalism (or the other way round)influences and the nonchalant atitude, mainly reflects the ease of not yet being obligated to a certain agenda, company atc.
the point is, i like it and it works. thats why you cant get anyone pointing your work flaws.

Nice work! Layout is great and the design is simple and clear.. Great work!

Hey Chris I've been meaning to write a few reviews when I have time and since your post has been a recent victim of the pointless posts just to follow the rules I thought I'd start here.

I'm including a screen shot so you know what I'm talking about...

First of all I like the overall look of the site, but the home page lacks any hierarchy. It seems like all 4 sections have roughly the same priority. Personally I would recommend that area #2 takes up the entire top part of the page. Quick links to your work (#3) is nice, but currently it doesn't have any context so users may not even understand they're links, let alone what they really are. I think you have enough pull with a featured project and you can even take the chance to provide some explanation around the featured project.

When I look at #2 its not readily obvious that the image and callout are actually supposed to be attached to the paragraph below it. I like the black background and I would actually extend that black area behind the image and quote as well. This would provide instant focus (see my point above) and would visually combine the content into one block. However, you do need to make sure you give that black background some more padding since the text inside is really crowded.

Next, While your global nav is visible it seems much to plain and unimportant. Most all of your body links are a color with an underline yet your main nav is just white. I would highly recommend giving those some visual weight. Tabs the same color as your body links with white text come to mind as the easy solution, but there are many other possibilities.

Finally your portfolio page really needs some love. I know that section is in process so here are a few things that your missing. 1: You need a description of your projects (at the very least a title) so that people know what they're getting by clicking a button. Also as a person who frequently looks at portfolios before hiring freelancers, I would like to know a lot more about the projects, especially your role and if you were part of a team. 2: your portfolio needs a player object instead of linking to animations. I'm pretty sure you have the ability to build a flash container for your animations so don't let me see your work scaled to fit my browser window.

As a final note I really like the use of sIFR for the text shadows. Best of luck.

Loving the web site! How long did it take you to make?

@ rantized, about a day to make

@ graphixboy. Thanks for the pointers about hierarchy. The work previews on the right side originally had subtitles under them and had lightbox as well, but I'm working on the backend and it's all being effected as a result.

As for the nav, I'm trying to come up with ways to spice it up, but as it stands, I'm shooting for minimalism, as this will merely be a showcase for my work, and not really an attempt to exercise my abilities as a designer, so I'm shying away from over the top styles that would detract from the purpose of the site.

As for the portfolio section, it's under much scrutiny. I'm debating on how I want to present the work, but as it is right now, it will not remain. I'm looking into a couple javascript solutions to overlay the work, but I'm still thinking on how to approach it all. Still a WIP!