SITE REVIEW: www.futuremovies.co.uk

I updated my baby this week. Be as critical as you can:

http://www.futuremovies.co.uk

Possible discussion topics:
More/less Graphics?
More/less metal effects?
More/less 2d?
Less banner adverts?
Forum section?
Fonts, mouse overs, link visited collour needed in pages?
More Accessability needed?
Content Ideas!

I don’t want to talk about converting tables into DIVs because it is outside my skill level. Ignore HTML valuator programmes because I prefer browser compatibility bellow IE5 to work.

Thanks all

you need to update it more, I robot came out a while ago...
yes, update it frequently

apparently according to his site it will not come out till august 6th in the uk. I like that site looks real informative, You got a lot of good content there. I like the fact that you included trailers to the movies as well. Are you getting advertising money from any filmakers? Damn good job on it, I like it. Really informative

The fonts look good, the banners are just right, and they match the site content. It is simple, yet effective

Its a UK site and it updates on its own via SQL. You yanks have it so good and the british film industry wonder why piracy is on the up. You could get Shrek 2 on pirate DVD (fully interactive and surround sound) before it hit the cinema in the UK. Also becuase reviews are later we also miss out on hits.




Not directly no. Google adsense provides us with a little money and I think we are the first amature website to pay our editors a profit share at the end of the year.

Your site is easy on the eyes because of the colors you chose. I actually sat around and read review after review. So you kept me clicking which was good. There were only two issues I noticed that could use a little work. I viewed your site with IE 6 at 800x600. Your site search that is on the tool bar is off my screen and the only way I knew it was there was because I scrolled right. Not everyone will scroll right. It looks like the tool bar is too long. If you want to incorporate it I would put it either above or below your buttons. Below might be a better choice. Like off to the bottom right of the same tool bar just to keep it neat looking and on the same size as the rest of your page. I hope you understand what I am trying to say.

*shakes head*

Any ways, The other issue is a nit picking one. Its just my observation. Your titles under your tool bar; ie
Out Now in Cinemas, Future Cinema Releases, and Filmmaking: because your text is so big the font you used has a slight hazing around rounded letters. Meaning its not as clear as it could be. You might want to try playing with it to see if you can find a way to make it clearer. It doesn't effect the read just something I noticed. If it seems I am nit picking its because I really think your site looks nice even though I didn't agree with the Van Helsing Review. *winks* Its all good.

I wouldn't continue myself a film buff or anything, but I do love wathing films and try to get to the cinema as often as possible. I've actually been visiting your site every now and then for the last month or so, and have been consistantly impressed with the content, and lets be honest, thats what really matters. And the fact that all the dates and suchlike are aimed at the uk is a nice touch for a .co.uk site

As for tables, you have still managed to keep the text/filesize quite high (30%), although I'm not sure how

In terms of accessibility, you could do with alowing text-zoom in IE, if you check it in mozilla the layout doesn't break, so there's no worries there. Might be worth putting some alt text on the image links for screen readers (although I'm not sure how relevant the content is to the completely blind). Plus a minor niggle, people are used to site logos being a link back to home, I just tried to return the the index using it and it through me a little.

Other than that it's a good site. Content is good, the layout is simple but effective. At first glance I always find that front page looks a little cluttered, but when you actually try to use it, the general layout and wise choice of images makes it very intuitive.

The only other thing I can suggest is to dull the white text a little #fff is just a little too bright, especially when reading a review. But that is a minor thing

It's a great site, I love it and will continue to be visiting.

Thanks for the support. rtm223 your new css site is in my favourites and will be digesting that tonight.

1. Link on logo added

2. Text colour.:
changed #ffffff into #ededed (though very slight as I was not keen on the idea but Ozzu does it and my bro likes it)

3. HTML file size.:
This new design has saved me 20% in bandwith from images! The HTML is much harder and large because it contains a lot of embedded tables. There is no way around this as I cant possibly change table span attributes on the fly everything is dynamic. I also include the odd font tags and non validating body atribues for browsers less than ie5.

4. Search box beyond 800x600.:
This is a major headache. I don’t want to add it below or above the navigation because I consider “the fold” to be more important than having to horizontally navigate to get to just one little feature. You may have noticed the side banner is nicely off the 800 wide screen too. It’s a trade off and I will re-evaluate this but I need time to think

5. Alt images/ Accessability.:
Alt images are there but not on the home pages cos I cant figure out how to yet :. (Designers don’t make good coders!). I may work on it tonight.

You cant see it on the homepage yet but if you go into any other page visually impaired people are given the option to skip to a accessible version first off. I am sure these people still like to read about movies and especially cos our reviews are more detailed! I am working on an Accessible homepage: http://www.futuremovies.co.uk/friendly.asp and rtm223 it dont use tables (but then its not ment for eye candy!). I also have problems with Div's when you try printing it the page break can chop of a line in the middle!

There are also audio visual versions of films (speaking books) that I have to some how integrate.

Future developments will allow the screen reader to use a male voice for male editors and a female one for female editors… the power of a database driven sites is incredible.

Sweet, didn't see that (but then I have never been looking for it lol)


Interesting, this just fired up a little panic attack for me but I just tried printing a whole bunch of pages from my site and all seems ok on FF and IE, Any info on this (examples etc) would be great, if you have any

may I suggest adding a "go" button beside the search, having to hit enter sometimes isnt so great (some people dont know to do it )

rtm223 you will find this interesting. Go to http://www.futuremovies.co.uk/friendly_ ... ?movie=216 and do a print preview and you will see the text line has been chopped off. The reason for this I think is that I have the navigation at the bottom of HTML but showing at the top of the screen (also notice the cool Loading effect if you have a slow connection). The navigation is at the bottom to also help Search Engines.


Its on the cards when I find how to do cool styles with form buttons using css. Wonder if rtm223 has a guide on his css site, brb.

content ideas:
final fantasy 7 is being turned into a movie - i seen the jap trailer too... maybe you could put the trailer and put it in 'future releases'.

also a while back i heard that red dwarf (tv show) is being turned into a movie.

oh yeah and alien versus predator!!

... i cant wait to see them!! and i would love a preview or something on them!!!

Alien versus Predator is on there!

Red Dwarf movie is something I would love to cover and will look into it.

No idea why that is. If you try it on my site all works well, although I wonder if that could be because I have a dedicated print style that is unbelievably simple. If I find out what the reason is, I'll let you know.



Um try something along the lines of:



I haven't tested it but in theory it shoud work, Just adjust the width and height for your image.

Red dwarf movie has been on the cards for years, but aparently they finally have studio, writers and actors all on board and it is genuinely coming this time I love red dwarf!

it is a very informative site. how abt a "More on this Category" at bottom of each category?
on the index page i mean..
it will be more convenient for users....

login link is for yrself or members of site ??
and login link in a more obvious spot? on the top right?

Done! cheers.



Erm the log in is for my editors but they log in on a secret location. That log in is to record if anyone bothers to hack into the site and records the IP. If no one does then I may consider the admin log in there.