Website Review and Suggestions

**Sydpix** · 03-13-2007, 10:21 PM

This project is in it's very early stages. It's just a template for the overall site.

This is my first site with video... What a pain, editing hours of video just to get a small video on the web.

My question is. Does this site load slow? If so I am considering Sorenson Squeeze. Or shorten the video?

http://davelefebre.com.c1.previewmysite.com/index.php

Fire away with any other suggestions.

Thanks

**netricksdotcom** · 03-13-2007, 11:00 PM

Site loads a bit slow, yes.
But cool looking overall.

**pincushionboy** · 03-13-2007, 11:55 PM

Loads a bit slow on a cable internet connection. Flash video pauses as well. Good looking though for the subject.

**LadynRed** · 03-13-2007, 11:56 PM

Yes, it loads a bit slow (cable connection). It took that rusted metal background a while to load. I noticed on the video that at about 1:28 the screen goes black.. maybe you're not done ?

Very cool design, nice work !!

**travelagent** · 03-13-2007, 11:59 PM

Dave -- on my high speed, it loaded in less than 10 seconds, which is pretty good considering the video you have on there ... Rock on!

**ADAM Web Design** · 03-14-2007, 12:16 AM

Loaded in about 7-8 seconds on my connection (which is also a cable connection), so from my standpoint personally the load time seems okay.

Pretty nice looking site. Video does have some black at the end (probably could use some more footage), "Championship" is misspelled in the menu and the Kellogg's logo points to www2.kelloggs.com (not sure if that's by accident or design). Other than that, and the fact that the site is about fishing (sorry dude...I can't stand any sport that requires me to sit still for longer than 10 minutes), it's a cool site.

Coding is reasonably clean (although you do have a weird thing going on with that table in the left middle and excessive non-breaking spaces. That actually IS something that could be displayed in a tabular format, since it is a grid.)

Layout looks nice and purdy, although it may be confusing to some people. I thought it was a car site with the checkered flag and the metal background dealy. Maybe work in more fishy-type stuff somewhere?

**Lori45** · 03-14-2007, 07:35 AM

It loads slow but it looks good,

I would try to make the top section a bit smaller so a larger part of the video will be visible without scrolling

**willcode4beer** · 03-14-2007, 10:16 AM

loaded faster than youtube for me.
I think the site is pretty clear

**Angelosanto** · 03-14-2007, 03:36 PM

Love the design and it loaded real quick for me

**Sydpix** · 03-14-2007, 03:45 PM

Thanks for all the input.

I have shrunk the video quite a bit through compressing it. I removed a bunch of the large images from the bottom and made them small mouse overs in the header.

The tabular data thing I definitely need to incorporate. The   stuff annoys me too!

Dreamweaver is an ok editor but It's easy sometimes to tell it to do something for you when I should just hand code it myself for sure.

But... It's still a work in progress ... hopefully it evolves into something pleasing to the eye that loads fast too

**travelagent** · 03-14-2007, 04:15 PM

Just a question - is it imperative to have all of those images in your footer?

**Sydpix** · 03-14-2007, 05:02 PM

Actually, thats my next move. I'm going to do the same thing with those images as I did at the top.

By contract, he has to have these links and images on his page. It's just how to fit them all on without bogging down how fast the page loads.

**travelagent** · 03-14-2007, 07:47 PM

I'd strongly suggest you have a "Sponsor's" page with the images, and links to the images ... maybe I think differently compared to the sponsors.

**Sydpix** · 08:00 PM

There is a link in the header that will eventually lead to a full page of all of his sponsors, why he uses them, and links to the sponsors site on that page.

He requested the images across the top directly link to his sponsors so there are no questions concerning his contracts with them.

He basically told me to put as many sponsor images as possible on the front page. These sponsors of his buy him boats, trucks, trailers, fishing gear, pay his entry fees and so on... These links are VERY important to him. $$$ hundreds and thousands of $$$...

An organization he belongs to sent 5 or 6 cd's full of footage they shot of him during events for so I could edit the video... They are very giving to him and he wants to show his appreciation.

I guess that explains all of the logos and links.

**travelagent** · 03-14-2007, 08:21 PM

I understand all of that, but it's a waste of space to have all of those sponsor images at the bottom, if they're not linked to their direct sites -- did you explain that to him?

**ADAM Web Design** · 03-14-2007, 09:20 PM

travelagent: "not if we get our brand exposed to our target demographic and ensure that our core competencies allow for a scalable, robust advertising solution to encounter the ever-changing paradigms of a global marketplace."

In other words, someone could come up with a BS justification for it.

sydpix: do they all have to be on the home page at the same time? If not, throw them into a Flash and show them 3-4 at a time.

**Sydpix** · 10:43 PM

My plan is to shrink all of those images, sort of like the top bar and link them to the sponsor sites.

If you click on the page a couple of times, I do have a random php script that displays a different sponsor every time the page is clicked. My plan was to have none of the images that you see all over the page and just keep them in a random fashion at the top.

I thought that would be plenty but ... he said "I'm worried that one of my main sponsors would show up to the site, not see their logo on the page and flip out".

I know I know ... I hadn't planned to have that many images on the page.

But the customer is always right ... sometimes

**travelagent** · 03-14-2007, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sydpix

My plan is to shrink all of those images, sort of like the top bar and link them to the sponsor sites.

Okay Boss -- I was just curious.

**ADAM Web Design** · 03-15-2007, 12:35 AM

Sydpix, just do like I did here:

http://www.greenbuildingfest.com/

Chances are, your sponsors are at various levels. This will allow you to separate them into their various levels nicely and neatly.

Note: the length of time the logo appears and size of the logo both correspond to the sponsor level.

Easy, eh?

**Sydpix** · 03-15-2007, 01:25 AM

ADAM,

Thats a great idea. However... when I started the page I was going to do something similar. The problem I ran into right off the bat was, adding another flash element to the page on top of the video REALLY slowed down the page.

With the video on the front page it's definitely a hit miss kind of thing. I really need to be careful how much flash I put on the page. That was why I posted a link in the first place, to see how slow or fast the page was loading to other people.

I think if I'm going to continue to work with video, I need to cough up the 299.00 or whatever... for Sorenson Squeeze.