feedback on website concept

[jister]

heya, just scripted the concept for my band's website.

since there is myspace and all that jazz, i though i make the website utterly conceptual

ah, click the title in top to reset.
http://www.live5.be/TheRottChilds.swf

lets see if this works, be warned it asks for a bit of effort.

the pages you get redirected to are just tests, but will be replaced with vids, songs, pics, info,... of the band.

[jister]

hmm nada comments? is it to difficult? or just not lopers' strongest interest, web design?

[RefaelBA]

I would say give it some time. I know how hard it is to wait for feedback on something you've created, but I think this specific forum is not as active as the others.

About the design - and please don't take this the wrong way - I think this can only be used as an intro and nothing more, however you should probably not use it for the website of your band. I mean, as cool as the puzzle may be (and it's pretty sweet) I don't think it should be on your band's site because:

A. People who come to your website and don't know what do WILL abandon within seconds.
B. It has no noticeable connection to the concept of the band.
C. It's a cool gimmick, but it looks kind of minimal (in an unprofessional way).

Personally my preference is creating atmospheric intros \ placeholders [the subtitle reads "Prepare Yourself"]. At any rate I think that the technical side was must better than the actual "design" part. For instance, I didn't realize if the flash was finished loading or was just waiting for me to do something. If I'm wrong because I can't see the big picture yet, then please post your design again when it's closer to completion.

At any rate, I think that if you're REALLY serious about your band you should have a professional website that matches the band's vision, message and feel. You can probably get some help on that for not-as-pricey-as-you-think rates (I would also advise you to ask Blink, remember he's building websites for a living, maybe you can even cut a deal).
Good job on the triangle though. Nice idea, but consider placing it in a different position on the site, or maybe adding some indication for the user as for telling them "this is a puzzle". But still if I were you, then having a badass website would mean more to me than adding me own gimmicks into it.

Hope I helped!

[jister]

sure did. thx.
dunno if you try other possible shapes? like -^ or <_ stuff like that. it gives 24 different combinations and so 24 different "pages/happenings/vids/songs" i can put behind every solution.

i know it's not what you'd expect from a band site, but hey our music also isn't what you'd expect .
with that lame excuse out of the way, i ask myself IF i should give more of a hint in what to do...?

my reasoning is this; we aren't aiming at commercial success, but at a more "artistic" indie scene (ref; hella, neon blonde, marnie stern, jaguar love,...) so the audience that our music appeals to (i hope) are the kind that aren't searching for a quick, rather empty satisfaction...
so in a kinda "fascistic" way, we as a band say; if you're not up for inputting a little effort, our music isn't for you... you don't belief us? put in the effort and find out.

the design is flat out rubbish now, it's just about the concept up till now.
but i do understand what you say... like; if i wanna do it this way better make sure it's worth the effort asked for the user. so the design has to be impeccable and the solutions given to ever "puzzle" outcome has to be da bomb.

as for a normal band page, we will refer the visitor to our myspace (still in the making).

will try to update the design asap.

[Major Banter]

I spent 60 entire seconds wondering why the fuck "The Rott Childs" link was broken.

Then i read Refael's post and did some pythagoras.

To be brutally honest i'd have left that site very rapidly because i didnt know the lines could be manipulated. It's all well and good being indie and interesting and all of that shit, but if people cant even get into your site it raises a huge question as to how much you give a damn about your fans.

HOWEVER

There is a simple solution, just place some faint grey lines where you'd expect the visitor in question to put your lines. It may seem like panhandling but they still make an effort, they just know what to do know. Then all the theogorim pops up and they'd be all "wow! look! numb3rs!" Simple fixes like that will engage your audience instead of alienate them.

[jister]

so a hint is definitely needed to keep like lets say 65% of the visitors from leaving instantly? (10% will anyways, that leaves 25% that find it on their own...?wild guesses)

to give them as much as the shapes in a faint grey seems like a bit to much... what about if you didn't find what to do after 20 sec orso you get a pop up or one of the lines slowly start moving towards the other one?

about the relation between the concept and the band is that our band is based on the activities of this family: the Rothschildmore links:
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/Ro ... _Grail.htm
http://www.iamthewitness.com/DarylBradf ... schild.htm
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/ha ... odline.htm

so the whole idea of not getting in (not being an insider) or not knowing the "code" fits with the secrecy surrounding this family and the secret societies they run.

[Dr. Delta]

so a hint is definitely needed to keep like lets say 65% of the visitors from leaving instantly? (10% will anyways, that leaves 25% that find it on their own...?wild guesses)

to give them as much as the shapes in a faint grey seems like a bit to much... what about if you didn't find what to do after 20 sec orso you get a pop up or one of the lines slowly start moving towards the other one?

about the relation between the concept and the band is that our band is based on the activities of this family: the Rothschildmore links:
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/Ro ... _Grail.htm
http://www.iamthewitness.com/DarylBradf ... schild.htm
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/ha ... odline.htm

so the whole idea of not getting in (not being an insider) or not knowing the "code" fits with the secrecy surrounding this family and the secret societies they run.

You really need to changes some things. First I was like; "Huh?" I clicked on the name; nothing happens. If you didn't ask me personally I would just close the site. >:]

People want to view your site, view info about the band; listen to some music etc. They probably don't want solving puzzles, otherwise they would be playing Tomb Raider for example. >:]

If you make it however, visitor friendly, give info/hints; hover information for which page you are going to visit, then your "secret" website could/should work a whole lot better.

[source-maps]

I allready clicked on it before any of the other comments and it was pretty eazy to solve on my own.
but I guess you could do the 'faint grey lines' like janitor suggested, but that would also take away the puzzle solving thing... unless you are braindead or something

[Dr. Delta]

I allready clicked on it before any of the other comments and it was pretty eazy to solve on my own.
but I guess you could do the 'faint grey lines' like janitor suggested, but that would also take away the puzzle solving thing... unless you are braindead or something

Or unless you don't know what is the goal? The puzzle could be different..

first I tried putting the "O"-part of one of the lines in the O, from "rot" and use it as some kind of lever. but that didn't work;
doesn't make me braindead for not knowing directly, out of the blue, what i must do

[TicTac]

Great drawing in Flash (i <3 flash). Suggestions, make some rollover anims for the buttons (I'm assuming you're familiar with Flash,) and make the "The Rott Childs" button in the center a square, not just the brush-text (make a square as part of the button with alpha set to 0%)

[ad_hominem]

I think it's a cool idea, but ultimately it's going to annoy anyone who visits the site for a specific reason - if someone comes on and wants to find out gig dates, are they going to have to go through loads of different variations until they remember which formation if the right one?

[KILLA-COW]

Snore. To be honest 1/20 people who visit your bands website will give a shit.

[jister]

true killa, but i would love that one that gives a shit beyond normality

anyways thx for the feedback guys, i like the leveler idea source maps.

as for the missing info in a site like this... thats why i can up with this. whats the use of having a myspace ( where all necessary info is available and a duplicate on an other site?
my resoning is give people a myspace for the info and something to play around with and make statements and stuff...

btw will do the 0 alpha square behind the text.

[Jasard]

Accessability is key to all web designs. There are a lot of sites about that take a similar approach to what you are aiming, but they tend to target a specific audiance - one that will fully appreciate or even expect to have to 'work their way through' the site to get to the content they want. You cant really generalise the audience of a bands website (apart from perhaps the music they listen to ) which is why, the chances are you are going to get a wide variety of people visiting the site.

By that I mean people with: different attention spans (can you expect everyone to really feel happy enough with tackling puzzles etc to get to the content they want? They may just be visiting to check a tour date and then be off)

People with different dissabilities: this can be anything as minor as impaired sight. The issue I have with Flash based sites is they tend to not meet the largest audience possible, they are usually tailored in such a way, that the way the site is displayed cant by changed by the user. Then on top of that people who develop Flash sites often dont optimize it for search engines properly. Dont forget by making it Flash only your alienating everyone who doesnt use Flash in their browser. Theres sadly a lot of people out there who use old browsers and with handheld devices becoming more and more popular your alienating most of them too (the majority dont support Flash).

Keep your users comfortable and not lost by ensuring:

- They know where they are.
- They have a way of navigating backwards.
- It doesnt take too long to navigate to main sections of your site.
- The users know what their options are at this stage.
- Theres help available for those who are lost or stuck.

Its all well and good forwarding everyone else to the Myspace page but making the Flash site almost exclusive to a certain % of your audience can be a kick in the teeth for some.

I'd reccomend proving a HTML alternative to the Flash site, maybe throw in some JQuery if you want to keep some elements interactive. At least that way your not just redirecting visitors off to MySpace so it remains a more individual site.

Also, be careful not to make the Flash site in a way that people will only ever want to navigate once. People typically wont want to complete puzzles etc the second time round even if they know what to do this time as it'll most likely become a chore.

Keep at it, interactive sites are always that extra bit more interesting just remember to include as bigger audience as you can and make sure you have got a solid plan before you dive too far in to it, dont make it up as you go along!

Sorry if that doesnt read well, I'm shattered!

[jister]

that went in very good rewke, i'll be sure to keep that list of checkpoints in mind.

i will embed it in html, but converting the interactive idea into html (or java i guess) is beyond my skills.

I'm developing the idea as i go, which i know isn't preferable, but i kinda got it in my head now that i wanna take it as an online magazine. making sure people know that the site changes monthly or every 2 months.

but i know myself and i know i don't always have the time to executed this things.