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Old 13th January 2009, 02:48 PM   #1 (permalink)
kt28
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Flash Site for Restaurant...

Hi, I've just launched this website late last night, it's a website for our Chinese Restaurant, it's a personal project. I have only recently got into Flash during the last year, and just started learning Actionscript 3 in past the few months, done some Actionscript 2 in the past, but the AS3 seems to be far better.

I'm done with HTML websites for now as i have been doing them for a long time in industry, now i want to progress in new media with interactivity and 2D animation. SEO is still limited with Flash sites so no need to mention that , but here is the link, most content driven by XML, also ability to change seasonal themes for different specials via XML, "Chinese New Year" at the moment.

Gars Chinese Restaurant - In Brighton Lanes offering Modern & Authentic Chinese Food
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Old 13th January 2009, 04:37 PM   #2 (permalink)
Neal
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That Sir, is very nice to navigate and fun.

Looks very professional.
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Old 13th January 2009, 06:27 PM   #3 (permalink)
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Nice site indeed, but I would strongly suggest to you, as I suggest to everyone, to make non-flash content for your site which can serve to anyone who intentionally does not utilize Flash.

I personally know that a much larger number of visitors disable Flash than most would expect and any of these users are completely frustrated when they reach sites with no ability to view the content unless they are willing to take the risk of enabling Flash.

I personally only use Flash in a browser in a sandbox environment and just leave sites that require Flash 90% of the time. I have to be very interested in the content to bother switching to my sandbox to check a site just for their Flash content.
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Old 14th January 2009, 01:12 AM   #4 (permalink)
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Cheers Neal!

Tony, I fully understand what you are trying to say. This project was quite a big learning curve for me, especially this is my first time touching Actionscript 3, i don't actually have a non-flash version up, but i have catered a warning for that, though not a full non-flash site, but there are contact details to get in contact with the restaurant.

I'm just loving Flash at the moment, particularly because i feel im comfortable with designing, so i want to put those designs into motion and give a website more depth and interactivity. Now i'm hoping in the next year or so, SEO improves for sites like these, as i feel this is the way we should be heading. But that's just my opinion.

I'm currently developing another Flash site as another personal project. Should be fun.
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Old 14th January 2009, 05:01 PM   #5 (permalink)
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I would add my voice to the make-sure-there's-non-flash-content argument — and let me first say that my full-time job is as a Flash developer.

If and when search engines catch up with Flash, I think it's going to be a nightmare from a programming point of view to make sure our swfs play nicely with them. You don't just want someone to find your site because of a keyword but discover that keyword's nowhere to be found (ie it's only visible after you click the 3rd button from the top, say).

Furthermore, many search results are made more or less relevant according to their context — are they in a table, how close to they appear to the heading, etc. — so to mimic this in a meaningful way in Flash (whenever a SEO api comes out) is likely to add to the headache.

Personally, the majority of my searches involve my hitting Ctrl-F to see exactly where in the page was the term I'd been looking for (or I just visit google's cached page instead to see its default highlights). Even if a search engine did bring me to your site, without a conventional correspondence between my search term and the content, I'd likely feel a bit lost at first.

On a different note, I must say your design has a very attractive layout and does a great job graphically of making me want to visit the restaurant. One suggestion though, that I believe would improve usability: add some kind of scrollbar (it needn't be a full-fledged Flash component; it might be just a vertical line with a grabbable rectangle along its length) to your scrollers. Why? It's not immediately obvious that a scrollbar is there (due to its subtle colour) and users who scroll to the bottom may not initially believe they've reached the end — we often accidentally move our mouse or release the button — and so may click 2 or three more times to confirm there's no further content. The visual feedback provided by a scrollbar would avoid this.

Also, if you want to avoid having to involve a PDF document (and the notice about the user's requiring the Reader), you can use a PrintJob in Flash; that will also make it easier to have the final printout look exactly the way you want it.

Finally, consider leaving the bottom-edge nav buttons clickable throughout the site, closing other windows as appropriate. I was on the "Make a booking" page and couldn't initially understand why clicking "Find us" had no effect, till I realized I had to click the X up near the top first.

But you've already done the most important thing — made a Flash site that doesn't beg to be skipped.

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Old 14th January 2009, 10:09 PM   #6 (permalink)
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thanks canuckster, nice to hear from you especially in your profession, which i'm trying to get into myself a bit more. I have been in the web design industry for a while now - mainly design/html/css, but Flash is something I've looked into only in the past year or so, and must say I'm liking it a lot!

The scrollbar thing was something i wanted to do, it took me a little while to figure out how to do the scrollers itself, working out a mathmatical formula to work with dynamic movieclips (which adjust with height)... this is probably something you could do it a few mins, but i had to draw it out to finally figure out how to get it to work. I know there are plenty of tutorials out there, but i wanted to do it myself, that way i would understand it a bit more, and it worked as you can see from the site.

Now a scrollbar would be nice, but i need to sit down an think that through, as it's a little more complicated for me. I think you have outlined the most obvious issues, i might add a caption on the "X" on the top right to let users know. Will look into the printjob thing too.

Thanks for your comments.... especially your last line! LoL...
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Old 26th February 2009, 01:05 PM   #7 (permalink)
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"Understated elegance" would probably be a term that's widely used but I think it's the best to describe your website. Easy to navigate and very pleasing for the eyes. I'm still finishing my course at web designing and I'd like to thank you for sharing such a wonderful inspiration.

Do you offer tutorials? Pro bono? lol
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Old 26th February 2009, 02:40 PM   #8 (permalink)
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Thanks for the kind comments janicepink, im happy that my designs has inspired some people

I haven't really made any tutorials, but I am currently designing a new website which will be a network of our own sub sites with a blog, including some of the websites listed in my sig. May also include some designer's stuff... like web design, Flash etc.
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Old 11th March 2009, 05:52 PM   #9 (permalink)
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With Firefox, I can enable the flash content if I so wish through the NoScript extension.
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Old 12th March 2009, 03:42 AM   #10 (permalink)
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Site uses SWFObject now... so even when Javascript is disabled, you will still be able to see the site.
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