Review: www.foundation-flash.com

[Jarry]

Hi there,
Foundation Flash has just moved into basic web design itself, so our website must be impeccable. That's why it would be great to hear about every little thing that might make it look a little better. It's a new design, and changes can still be made so all comments are welcome particularly about:
- Fonts
- Font sizes for different headers
- Colours

Thanks! All comments welcome!

Harry Burt,
Website Manager, http://www.Foundation-Flash.com

[Brazzell Marketing]

There is clearly a lot of talent in the design. Color, design, logo, fonts, all seem good to me. Here are some ways you might improve it.

Something is wrong with the logo on the home page. It appears on my screen, but it is surounded by a white rectangular line. An X in a box (can't load the image) symbol appears in the upper left hand of the box and the words Foundation Flash 2. It appears correctly on all the other pages. I'm using IE7. I did not get one of those IE7 bars telling me that it was blocking something a site is trying to do.

When I click the animation, it opens a page in a new window. In this case, the new window did not seem useful, and I would have preferred to not have a new window opened on my computer just to browse a website.

On the Portfolio page, the navigation bar runs under the header and is not visible.

In my case, the animation did not grab my attention. I've learned to ignore them because they rarely fill the need that caused me to go to a website in the first place. I was reading the navigation bar, the text to the right of the animation, the text below the animation. By the time I looked at the animation still trying to find information on your new web design services, the animation was long since finished. To better promote your web design services, give the services a spot on your navigation bar, and mention them in the static text of your homepage. Also, make it easier to get to your home page from the forum.

The text on your site gave me the impression that you only make sites that look good for people who have the latest browser. I'm sure that's not the case, but make sure to avoid giving that impression. 40% of the hits on one of my sites just came from IE6 and Firefox 1.0.4. You don't want to give the impression that you will only put your best foot forward for 60% of the public.

The slogan "Your site. Our Style" will turn off a lot of savvy MBAs. Every company needs to have its own branding and therefore its own style. Try a different slogan that more directly addresses your strengths. Perhaps something like "Animated Sites that Put Your Customers in Motion!"

After clicking about five times to see your example work only to realize that you only have one sample, I was a little frustrated that the presentation was not more direct. The map feature is very cool, but I would shelve it until it stops showing that you don't have any design customers. I could not view the one example work because the link was bad.

Stop critizing yourself on your own website. We're only just starting. Our portfolio is tiny. We're just a couple of guys. The website is supposed to promote you. Only list your services and your strengths. Do not list your negatives unless it is highly relevant to the customer like the warning labels on a bottle of medicine (e.g. Like Viagra, our websites might make you color blind. We thought you should know).

Do two free websites for local charities that you like or for the businesses of friends to build your portfolio in the short term.

Hope that wasn't harsh. I think a lot of business owners I know would like to have websites that look like yours.

[Jarry]

Thanks Gary,
I will take a great deal of your advice on-board. In answer to your first point, it should be resolved quickly - it concerned a bug that we are trying to fix to enable IE6 users to better see the logo although I am concerned that you saw anything wrong in IE7 so I shall attempt to fix that right away.
It is definitely an ongoing concern now to focus more on the web design side of the business, so that will be swung into action soon as well.
As for everything else, it is gold dust to us so thanks a million.

Harry