Website needs to look more inviting!

mrbest

mrbest

mrbest

Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2008
Posts
180
Location
Bristol
Hey guys! I'm new to OcUK so go easy on me! ;)

I have made myself a website using flash, which you can see here I'm quite proud of it as about 3 months ago my knowledge of flash was pretty limited! Anyway it is still in progress and I have loads more content to upload yet but I am worried that it doesn't look inviting enough. It is quite minimal at the moment and I want to draw people into it who don't necessarily know what my website is about. I am a music artist and want people to explore my music. My statistics are showing that about 30% of my viewers are clicking away after an average of 45 seconds or so, I have quite a lot of traffic which comes from 'stumble upon' and it would be cool if these people actually get to hear my music. If you have a couple of minutes please have a look and let me know what you think i could do to draw people in to explore the rest of the site.

cheers guys, ash

www.ashleybest.co.uk

ps my music is also on last.fm here if you would like to hear it :)
 
Hi,

Your website is nice. But just something that may seem like nit picking is spelling and grammar. In your CV you have spelt organising "organizing" which is the American spelling.

Also claimed! :D
 
I think it's a nice site, however (IMO) it's not immediately obvious what you do.

After being on the site 5 seconds - I hadn't realised you created your own music, infact if anything I would have bet you where a graphic designer (as the site is quite sleak).

If I where you, try and "embed" terms like "listen", "look", into the main graphic on the front page. That graphic is really nice, but doesnt really serve a purpose.

If you want be to stay around for a while, make listening to your music just one obvious click away after loading the main page?
 
Cheers Dangerstat, you make a good point, perhaps I could have the music player on the first page? I think I could do with a relevant artist pic of me too....
 
I don't think it's clear enough to begin with what you do. If it's your music you're pimping then Why not make it play at the very start to pull people in. I got distracted by the fluffy balls, and was clicking them to make them do stuff and because of that distraction I didn't even notice at the top left was what you did (ie. Composer, Sound designer, Producer) so when I started clicking on tabs I wasn't sure what the website was for.

I'm not sure about having your CV on there, personally I would just put it as skillset or similar and then list the software you use on a regular basis and what skills you are strong in with a slight disclaimer saying, Skillset includes but is not limited to...

The pulsing buttons are slightly distracting, how about making everything slightly more toned down and make the clickable black blobs react to your music rather than someone clicking thier mouse, then it will grab peoples attention, they'll listen to your music and won't be so distracted.

Hope that makes sense, I had a heavy night last night and everything is fuzzy still. :)
 
I think it's really nice - very impressive for 3 months knowledge! If you want people to listen to your music you should have some kind of inbuilt music player which loads up straight away on the front page.

The opening graphic looks quite cool but it might be better to have the opening pic from the pictures section of you there instead. Might make more of a connection if people see your face straight away. Just use the fancy graphic as background for all the other pages.
 
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thanks mint sauce, i get what you mean. I kind of wanted my CV on here as i intend to send prospective employers to my website, but maybe there is a different way i could display it, or maybe i should have an entirely separate website for that side of things?

and thanks bibalasvegas, I agree with you and I'm going to work on that tonight.

I'll let you all know when I have some kind of revised site for you to look at!

ash
 
swinnie said:
Your website is nice. But just something that may seem like nit picking is spelling and grammar. In your CV you have spelt organising "organizing" which is the American spelling.
Click to expand...

That's not true, you know. The OED and lots of other authorities prefer "-ize" endings in British English, but regardless of preference both "-ize" and "-ise" are always correct. In US English it's always "-ize", but both are fine over here.
 
I think "-ize" is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye anyhow.... haha that might be an excuse not to change it.... Thanks robmiller, ash
 
robmiller said:
That's not true, you know. The OED and lots of other authorities prefer "-ize" endings in British English, but regardless of preference both "-ize" and "-ise" are always correct. In US English it's always "-ize", but both are fine over here.
Click to expand...

They may prefer it, but the "-ise" ending is correct. I suppose it depends if you want to use English English or International butchered English.
 
ok I'm not too concerned about the spelling of organised/organized!....

I'm thinking the front page should have a picture of me, The music player. (should it play straight away or should I give the viewer the option to listen to it?) Is there anything else the front page needs? what you think people?
ash
 
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I think your shadows are too dark and too spread out, they just make the page look grubby. Tightening those up would help imo.
 
You mean the website? I made it all myself, I'm just trying to get feedback so I can make it more appealing to unique users who don't know what the site is about. I've taken on board some points already, which I'm working on. Thanks I'm glad you like my music :)
 
oh right yes, I wrote all the music and lyrics and recorded/produced it myself. I sing on all the tracks and play various instruments including piano dums and guitar, I had some additional musicians play on the album, if you go to the discography page on my site and click down you can see who plays what. It was my final project at uni and I decided to release it on itunes etc.
 
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