Website for a zoo

ncross · 1st November 2006, 10:37 AM

I have developed the home page for the local Wildlife Park and Zoo. The owner wanted the pages to load reasonably quickly but also liked the idea of having sound and moving images on the screen.

Let me know what you think.

Halls Gap Wildlife Park and Zoo

NB The internal links don't work yet

Nigel

clyde · 1st November 2006, 11:55 AM

I'm no web designer, but I like this site.
Easy to look at, was not slow at loading, good colours, the graphics make you want to see more.
And besides, very refreshing to find people who are positive about zoos, enjoying and learning about animals.
Good luck with the site.

Adam · 1st November 2006, 11:57 AM

I like it. Can't believe how quickly it loads.

Definately want to see more

Ad

TygerTyger · 1st November 2006, 12:07 PM

Stunningly quick! In Firefox I'm seeing scrollbars in both directions though. The narration is an excellent touch, not something you see often and very suiting the material.

You're gonna do a non-Flash version though, right?

ChrisEvans · 1st November 2006, 12:09 PM

Really nice site.

Shame it's missing a logo though.

And I absolutely hate the narration without a play/stop button.

(you should make it so they click play to begin the narration if they want to hear it).

percepts · 1st November 2006, 07:38 PM

I like it but have a couple things that I think could be improved on a little.
The top left corner of the container might be better delineated by using another colour rather than black as background.
How about having some animal noises as background sound when the intro dialogue finshes. Maybe some birds squawking.

A note on the centering. In FF and IE6 on W2K the container is not centered horizontally. Looks like you have shifted it left about the width of a scroll bar. Which browser and operating system are you using? Its not really noticeable unless I resize my screen so it just fits.

ncross · 2nd November 2006, 01:51 PM

Thanks for the very helpful comments guys!

Percepts
- I've changed the background to dark green now. In some ways the black looked a bit more classy but this one does deliniate better.
- The addition of the bird sound at the tail end of the narration is a good idea.
- I'm using FF and IE 6. I have changed the margin to include one decimal place (added .5). I think this has made a difference (?) I don't know how else to move the container.

Chris
- To keep people on dial-up amused I am thinking of putting in an animation of a kangaroo, deer and emu moving in their characteristic way with mountains set in the background (bit of bird song again). Then animate the three charaters to move into the logo. Not sure if it is a good idea. The zoo don't currently have a logo but have thought of devising one including these three animals and the mountains in the background.
- I would like to play the sound by default as I think it grabs peoples attention and some people don't like or know to click everything. So, perhaps a button to switch the sound off and on again can be launched once the sound has begun to play.

Tyger
- I wasn't going to provide an alternative to the Flash website. I know that some people disable Flash but I think that most do have it these days. How many people need something else?
- What screen size are you viewing the site in - what else do you have on your screen eg number of toolbars? The zoo owner was viewing in 800x600 and some of it was offscreen for him. He had a big enough monitor so we increased his screen resolution and obviously that fixed that problem. How many people view in 800x600?

Obviously it hard to develop a site which suits everybodies needs but all these problems are very useful to point out so that I can at least remove those problems which are easily removed or improve the site significantly.

Please keep the comments coming as I develop the site over the coming weeks and I will try to take them on board to make a better site!

Cheers Nigel

percepts · 2nd November 2006, 02:34 PM

centering works fine now.

TygerTyger · 2nd November 2006, 06:44 PM

All-Flash virtually eliminates yor impact on search engines, that's all. I think Flash usage is above 80% now but I've never found any reliable numbers.

I'm in 1024x768 with no extra toolbars but the container div is fixed dimensions so even though I have room to spare it's still showing the scrollbars in each direction. I assume it's something to do with padding or margins or something if it's fine in other browsers.

percepts · 2nd November 2006, 07:33 PM

If I set my graphics card to 1024x768 it just fits without any scroll bars but for some people with extra toolbars it would be too big at that resolution not have at least the vertical scrollbar showing. But then most web pages have scroll bars showing. If you dont want them then I'd limit the height to 500px but anyone on 800x600 is still going to see scroll bars. Its the usual problem of trying fit a square peg into an unknown size hole.

TygerTyger · 2nd November 2006, 07:45 PM

Yeah, could just be that my theme is slightly oversized

I'm sure it's fine. As long as it's ok for most that's the main thing.

UH-Matt · 2nd November 2006, 11:47 PM

Wow - I was in Halls Gap last weekend exploring the Grampians!

Vger · 2nd November 2006, 11:47 PM

A really nice looking site, but with the one area scrolling from right to left, the left image animated and the lower images changing at regular intervals it started to give me eye strain.

It loads really quickly, but of course I did have to 'Click to activate controls' which happens now with all Flash sites if you use IE as your main browser.

The point about search engines was well made, and a non-flash version would also meet usability standards - whcih an all-flash version doesn't.

Vger

sabian1982 · 19th April 2007, 01:13 PM

As others have mentioned getting away from flash would be a good option.

If you still want the rollover effect on your buttons that can be done with css mouseover gifs or even some javascript. Also because the buttons are flash and presumably the link is within the flash this will prove near on impossible for se's to index your site.

Below you've also used images (.gif) for the text - this is an absolute no no! Replace this image with proper <h1> and <p> tags and use the same principle throughout the site using proper html text instead of images and flash. This will do wonders for your indexing and will help your SERPs.

Best of luck.

RoryB · 20th April 2007, 03:18 PM

I like the design and layout and it loaded very quickly. My only gripe would be the lack of an option to turn the sound off, which is usually my beef with flash-based sites.. If I had had my headphones on I probably would have jumped out of my seat!