[volcano]

The spring semester has just begun, and I just finished my first [full] day back to school since mid-December. I'm taking a plethora of multimedia-related classes, including an Advanced Web Design II course. Anyway, so we're sitting at our PowerMac G5's discussing the syllabus, etc - and we eventually start talking about design. He wanted to show us examples from both ends of the spectrum - from the boring to the exciting.

Instructor: Okay, first off: let me begin by explaining the difference between conventional, boring, lackluster design and eye-catching, mind-blowing, inspired web design. First, let's look at the boring, conventional design. Okay class, everyone please open Safari and type this in - http://www.dell.com. Disgusting, isn't it?

I knew at that moment that I was in the right class. For the inspired website, we ended up looking at http://www.pixelpeach.com Granted, even the inspired site isn't the greatest, but it definitely has a good concept and a cohesive theme throughout.

[Leia's Left Bun]

The funny thing is the dell one doesn't annoy me half as much.

[alphamatrix]

gah!!!! my ears!

[Chuckit]

Dell is boring. PixelPeach is Flash. Both are inspired — by Satan.

[Railroader]

Definately both ends of the spectrum. Dell, boring and sleep inducing. Pixel Peach, exciting and quite overstimulating.

Somewhere in the middle ground lies the well designed website.

[Chuckit]

Om mani padme hum.

[Cubeoid]

uhhhhhh...both sites were kinda lame.

[JoshuaZ]

My head.... it feels like I'm in a really bad senior student film!

[- - e r i k - -]

He said that last site was inspired? I'd drop out of that class in a second. Any site with a loading screen should be taken to the curb and shot.

[Mediaman_12]

How can anyone even compare the two sites? Ones an esentially Business to Business catalouge site (that yes 'could' be more interesting) the other is a Portfolio for a design agency.
It's like comparing the Sears cataloge to a monthy surf mag. An better example would have possibly been the Apple site for example.

[Dakar]

I wouldn't consider a flash portal 'design.'

[James L]

While I am an xhtml/css kinda guy myself, Flash has its place in the web design world, for artistic sites and such.

Having said that, NO site should pop up audio like that. If the user wants audio, there should be a button for them to click.

No unprompted audio.

Nada.

Nil.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

He said that last site was inspired? I'd drop out of that class in a second. Any site with a loading screen should be taken to the curb and shot.

Splash screens are annoying enough.

When that splash screen took me to a loading screen that blared music at me AND took forever, I closed the window.

End of my visit.

[TETENAL]

Annoying flash sites are not "inspired design". They are just one thing: annoying.

A good web site quickly, easily, and elegantly presents the user with the information he is seeking.

[Millennium]

Flash has its place in the Web, but not for making entire sites. It's good for animations, small apps, and multimedia presentations. But to build the entire site from it is nothing more than the abuse of a good technology for something it wasn't designed for. There's a reason they're annoying: they're not the right tool for the job.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by analogika

Splash screens are annoying enough.

Yep.

[ort888]

The pixel peach site looks good, but is also riddled with design cliches. That "look" is very done. Down-designed, worn and handmade looking trendy stuff. It's been done a million times. I'm really not all that impressed.

By the same token, the Dell site is fine for what it is. I could have bought myself a computer in the same amount of time it would have taken me to figure out what I was even doing on the peach page.

[Leia's Left Bun]

Originally Posted by Millennium

But to build the entire site from it is nothing more than the abuse of a good technology for something it wasn't designed for.

Actually Macromedia has been trying to get people to do their entire site in Flash for many years. They even tried it themselves and got quite a backlash.

[andi*pandi]

the pixelpeach was interesting, but most companies don't need that much interesting.

so, current thinking is: no loaders, no music, and only use flash for movies or animation?

[f1000]

Some eye-catching websites that I've bookmarked,

http://www.2advanced.com/flashindex.htm
http://www.zeldman.com/
http://www.digitalrgb.com/
http://www.haphazardstudios.com/ <-Seems to have vanished.

[Leia's Left Bun]

Originally Posted by f1000

Some eye-catching websites that I've bookmarked,

http://www.2advanced.com/flashindex.htm

That website just gave me A.D.D and a seizure.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Leia's Left Bun

That website just gave me A.D.D and a seizure.

I didn't say they were all aesthetically pleasing.

[Leia's Left Bun]

Originally Posted by f1000

I didn't say they were all aesthetically pleasing.

Honestly websites like that piss me off. It is all about transitions and loading screens with lots of blinking and beeps to make you forget you are waiting to see animations load. People visit websites for information and content not to witness some flash animator show off.

That site is the equivalent of Fast and the Furious.

[ort888]

Some people love that crap though. Like my ex-boss.

I agree though, just give me my damn content.

[Kr0nos]

Inspired [web]design

[ort888]

http://www.skipintro.nl/skipintro/skipintro98.htm

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Leia's Left Bun

Honestly websites like that piss me off. It is all about transitions and loading screens with lots of blinking and beeps to make you forget you are waiting to see animations load. People visit websites for information and content not to witness some flash animator show off.

I hate Flash just as much as you do. Web pages should enhance the paper-format, not encumber it with useless animations. First and foremost, pages should load instantaneously to facilitate rapid browsing.

The website you referenced is an advertisement for a web design firm, so one shouldn't be surprised that they've gone overboard to show off their Flash skills. It's less a webpage than it is an animated kiddie fantasy. In general, I've rarely found animation helpful on a webpage. I'd rather see good color coordination, quality photography, and LEGIBLE text, all arranged in a logical fashion.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by ort888

http://www.skipintro.nl/skipintro/skipintro98.htm

[Leia's Left Bun]

Originally Posted by f1000

I hate Flash just as much as you do. Web pages should enhance the paper-format, not encumber it with useless animations. First and foremost, pages should load instantaneously to facilitate rapid browsing.

The website you referenced is an advertisement for a web design firm, so one shouldn't be surprised that they've gone overboard to show off their Flash skills. It's less a webpage than it is an animated kiddie fantasy. In general, I've rarely found animation helpful on a webpage. I'd rather see good color coordination, quality photography, and LEGIBLE text, all arranged in a logical fashion.

With their **** site it seems all their clients are just for video game sites. No surprise.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by ort888

http://www.skipintro.nl/skipintro/skipintro98.htm

Weird. There is nothing besides the intro

[awaspaas]

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

My head.... it feels like I'm in a really bad senior student film!

"Don't cry for me, I'm already dead."

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by f1000

http://www.2advanced.com/flashindex.htm

Ack! I think I just got SWF’s ADD and seizure, and an extra migraine just for kicks.

http://www.zeldman.com/

Zeldman’s site is—of course—excellently coded and implemented. But it’s dull and boring, and the colours make me think of ‘soothing’ institution walls and grandma’s sleep-inducing photo albums. I don’t like his choice of fonts for many headings, either, but that’s more of a personal matter of font likes and dislikes.

http://www.digitalrgb.com/

Far too busy, messy, inconsistent, and illogical. Nice colour schemes, though.

[Leia's Left Bun]

Originally Posted by Oisín

Zeldman’s site is—of course—excellently coded and implemented. But it’s dull and boring, and the colours make me think of ‘soothing’ institution walls and grandma’s sleep-inducing photo albums. I don’t like his choice of fonts for many headings, either, but that’s more of a personal matter of font likes and dislikes.

Zeldman is the most boring bland thing on the face of the earth. Guess it doesn't matter though as the only people that would go there hit "View Source" right away anyway.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by Leia's Left Bun

Zeldman is the most boring bland thing on the face of the earth.

Oh, I don’t think it’s quite that bad—but it’s a far cry from being ‘inspired’.

On the other hand, I’ll take bland and dreary but efficient, consistent, and unobtrusive over the loud, aneurism-inducing Flash madness of sites such as that 2advanced (“too advanced” indeed!) spectacle any day of the week.

[ort888]

http://www.recruiter4u.net/

Here's the worst website EVAR!

[Leia's Left Bun]

Originally Posted by ort888

http://www.recruiter4u.net/

Here's the worst website EVAR!

Funny stuff

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by ort888

http://www.recruiter4u.net/

Here's the worst website EVAR!

Hm, that looks oddly familiar. Oh yes, I think I saw that on SWF’s site, no?

It’s no masterpiece in design, but compared to quite a few of the sites listed in this thread so far, I’d say it holds its candle rather well.

[ort888]

Well, I picked the worst looking one. If someone picked the worst looking design out of my portfolio, it would definitely be a lot worse then that.

[Leia's Left Bun]

Originally Posted by ort888

Well, I picked the worst looking one. If someone picked the worst looking design out of my portfolio, it would definitely be a lot worse then that.

So what did I do to deserve you wanting to pick on my websites?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Leia's Left Bun

So what did I do to deserve you wanting to pick on my websites?

"You made that thing? You're braver than I thought!"

[shunt]

Originally Posted by Mediaman_12

How can anyone even compare the two sites? Ones an esentially Business to Business catalouge site (that yes 'could' be more interesting) the other is a Portfolio for a design agency.
It's like comparing the Sears cataloge to a monthy surf mag. An better example would have possibly been the Apple site for example.

BING!

Why not compare the yellow pages to a designer's self promotional portfolio?

[Miniryu]

Originally Posted by James L

While I am an xhtml/css kinda guy myself, Flash has its place in the web design world, for artistic sites and such.

Having said that, NO site should pop up audio like that. If the user wants audio, there should be a button for them to click.

No unprompted audio.

Nada.

Nil.

Have you checked out some of the MySpace profiles people create these days?

[volcano]

Originally Posted by Miniryu

Have you checked out some of the MySpace profiles people create these days?

Yikes. Good point. The "I want to make my page look cool" crowd who jump on any MySpace editor they find and end up adding a bunch of fat code to their site. And you can't forget about all those horrendous Windows Media Player videos they embed! Lord almighty. I'm actually glad they don't work most of the time for me - although this can be just as cumbersome, because my browser will often freeze when it attempts to load them. It's just one headache after the other.

Don't worry, my professor realizes that both sites have their place with two distinctively different audiences. Yes, I thought the latter site had too much flash implemented - and yes, I thought the loading time was ridiculous. But it still shows creativity.

I only started this thread because I thought it was funny how he mentioned Dell with such disdain. He's a Mac fan (most of the class was, too), so we all had a nice chuckle when he directed his attention at that particular website with such a condescending attitude. That's all.

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by ort888

I agree though, just give me my damn content.

Agreed as well. It's nice to have some style, but when it overwhelms the content, it's too much.

One site I've always thought is cool, colorful but not overdone is http://www.panic.com/
Where else can you download an app by dragging an icon to an arrow?

Hope the class goes well for you, volcano.

[mania]

[FONT="Arial Black"]I HATE ALL FLASH SITES[/FONT]