design help

AHarvey · 9 Apr 2012 at 03:06

Hey,

I've a design that I would like to implement and to try and avoid using flash as it's just not as compatible as I would like.

Anyway, the idea is that when the page loads initially, an abstract floral pattern grows inwards from the outside, starting half way up the page and grows horizontally towards the middle where the company logo will be. Something like the pattern below.

I'd also like it to then auto load the link icons and image viewer.

How do I go about doing this not using Flash?

analog · 9 Apr 2012 at 05:26

Your best bet is going to be jQuery.

GravyMonster · 9 Apr 2012 at 13:43

To be honest if I was a user of your site and had to wait for all of that to finish before being able to actually navigate your site, I would find it really frustrating and annoying. In fact it would probably make me leave immediately.

As some famous guy once said, 'Just because you can, doesn't mean you should'.

Tyron · 9 Apr 2012 at 14:15

Agreed, keeping it simple is key.

AHarvey · 9 Apr 2012 at 14:20

hence the reason there will be a skip button on there to bypass it, also, standing out from the thousands of other photography sites is essential

Also, mobile site won't have it.

I figured it'd by HTML5 to get it done, looks like i'll be researching it for a while

Tyron · 9 Apr 2012 at 14:34

Why not use it for your navigation bar/header instead?

Would load a lot quicker and look nice.

Tripnologist · 9 Apr 2012 at 16:21

AHarvey said:
hence the reason there will be a skip button on there to bypass it, also, standing out from the thousands of other photography sites is essential

Standing out by reminding people of late 90's/early 00's internet trends (intro with skip button) is not a good thing IMO. There is a reason nobody does that anymore.
Would the best thing to make your photography site stand out from others not be your photography?

AHarvey · 9 Apr 2012 at 16:44

Tripnologist said:
Standing out by reminding people of late 90's/early 00's internet trends (intro with skip button) is not a good thing IMO. There is a reason nobody does that anymore.
Would the best thing to make your photography site stand out from others not be your photography?

Photography aside, it comes as a complete package. I've seen nice photos ruined because they are on a boring plain site. I want something that has a slightly different look that a bride might remember seeing over the hundreds of other plain black/white sites out there (or just crappy template jobs).

At the end of the day, if I can build it and it looks **** then it won't get used, but I won't know how it'll work until I can build it. It'll be added to the other templates I've built and i'll see which one works best for the site

If i can get it working I might not use it as an intro but load the main page and have the pattern grow around the site as you are using it.

cats_five · 10 Apr 2012 at 13:01

AHarvey said:
hence the reason there will be a skip button on there to bypass it, also, standing out from the thousands of other photography sites is essential
<snip>

What makes a photography site stand out for me is the quality of the photos, not some annoying animation I have to skip over to get to what I really want to see.

Please, put your energies into your photography, not a gimmick.

gord · 10 Apr 2012 at 13:06

Forgetting for a moment that this will put people off.

I can't help but feel this would be ridiculously tricky to implement with anything other than Flash.