Sorry to post yet another site for review. I'm just trying to get my designs really up to scratch as I'm hoping to polish off three or four great sites and then relaunch my portfolio, hence the influx...

 

A bit of background info for this site, as part of a university 3D project I put together a 1 minute animation of a robot that interacted in an environment in some way. The project deliverable was the breakdown of the robot and it's design/creation (wireframing etc) plus a short snip of animation/storyline showing the robot in a suitable environment.

 

The design of my robot and scene is rather peculiar (a lot of people just had guns blazing mega fighting robots!) while I chose to go for something a bit more eccentric and designed myself a Victorian steampunk-esque Wall-E robot style.. thing.

 

As it's quite a fun and graphical project that brings in the vintage/ecclectic style of web design I really enjoy I decided to put together a small microsite for it, detailing it's creation and brief and ultimately the animation itself.

 

The design comp can be found here:

 

 

And the half-broken barely done build can be found here (it's in no way complete, in fact barely even started so please be gentle!)

 

http://www.haselden.co.uk/mech/

 

A few things I'm already aware of:

 

• Trying to get the loading times down for the BG and other graphics.

• Looking into making the script font more readable yet still fun (I guess functionality and user experience aren't right at the top on an eccentric and design heavy site like this, but I'd still like it to be comfortable.)

• Working out how to do the video best. At present I'm not happy with merely a Youtube embed as I feel it's just a bit clunky on a design heavy site. Considering using (though it pains me to even say it) Flash to style up the video player in the middle, with a fallback of some point that leads non-Flash devices to a separate page where the video is displayed. Would really like to utilise HTML5 canvas to create the video playing area with some fun functionality, but that's a bit out of my reach at the mo. Any thoughts on that?

 

Any thoughts on design or ideas for how to put this together best?

Edited August 1, 201214 yr by Fran Haselden

If you designed this, then this is only the second decent non-template website I've seen so far today. I know you said the website is a work in progress, but I just want to comment on the following:

 

1. On my screen, there's a horizontal scrollbar causing the repeated border on the footer and video section to cut off. I would describe this in a better way, but I'm on another computer messing around when I should be working. As a result, I can't inspect with firebug or chromium.
   
2. There's a slight border on the bottom and right side of the youtube video. As you mentioned, you're not happy with the youtube embed so this may be changed later on, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. (I'm also not a fan of the embed as well, though I like the concept on the design image)
   
3. On the contact us section, there's an image on the background that's interfering with the text. It's the same with the about us section on your design on flickr. Perhaps instead of having those images as a background, you could make them actual images (<img>) and float them to the right of each section. Then again, I'm not sure. I'm having trouble properly imagining it.
   

 

Looking forward to the finished version.

 

Edit: I also think the text on the footer could stand out a bit more, but only slightly. Just my opinion though.

Edited August 1, 201214 yr by Pete Prosper

If you designed this, then this is only the second decent non-template website I've seen so far today. I know you said the website is a work in progress, but I just want to comment on the following:

 

1. On my screen, there's a horizontal scrollbar causing the repeated border on the footer and video section to cut off. I would describe this in a better way, but I'm on another computer messing around when I should be working. As a result, I can't inspect with firebug or chromium.
   
2. There's a slight border on the bottom and right side of the youtube video. As you mentioned, you're not happy with the youtube embed so this may be changed later on, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. (I'm also not a fan of the embed as well, though I like the concept on the design image)
   
3. On the contact us section, there's an image on the background that's interfering with the text. It's the same with the about us section on your design on flickr. Perhaps instead of having those images as a background, you could make them actual images (<img>) and float them to the right of each section. Then again, I'm not sure. I'm having trouble properly imagining it.
   

 

Looking forward to the finished version.

 

Edit: I also think the text on the footer could stand out a bit more, but only slightly. Just my opinion though.

 

Ooh I like the idea of the text wrap on the bottom sections, much better than what I have now. Thanks!

 

The whole site has a long way to go. At the moment, I have some worry that there isn't enough definition to the page... too much paper. Considering making the main content section out of the paper background and then my sides being some sort of striped/distressed circus fabric. Something subtle but interesting to make it look a little more defined.

 

I also went very much into the design in the animation and produced full posters, backgrounds and leaflets. (The small brown piece of paper you can see on the screencap on the design is a poster I designed for a 1920s tea party event that we had in March!) so I might try and jazz up the design with some of those as I put so much time into them.

Something subtle but interesting to make it look a little more defined.

 

Perhaps you could add some age to the footage, if it is filmed in victorian time perhaps it should have more signs of deteriation.

 

I love it, I like the amount of details in the background and nothing looks out of place in the scene.

 

Besides perhaps the teapot, as the only silver object it stands out a bit, perhaps pewter, or some embroidered details, would increase the overall continuation of age.

 

I am also curious about the (fictional) creator/inventor of the robot, I have to watch it again to see if there are hints to whom he/she might be...

 

But I really like it.

 

P.H.

Perhaps you could add some age to the footage, if it is filmed in victorian time perhaps it should have more signs of deteriation.

 

I love it, I like the amount of details in the background and nothing looks out of place in the scene.

 

Besides perhaps the teapot, as the only silver object it stands out a bit, perhaps pewter, or some embroidered details, would increase the overall continuation of age.

 

I am also curious about the (fictional) creator/inventor of the robot, I have to watch it again to see if there are hints to whom he/she might be...

 

But I really like it.

 

P.H.

 

Ha the project itself is long gone now, never going back to that 6 months of hell (I love the end result, but sitting in the lab at 3am over Easter Break screaming WHY WHY WHY is something I never want to revisit). I'm just thinking more about the site itself.

Am also rethinking the build as I plan to make this responsive, so working on getting the comp up to scratch so I can start with a pixel perfect comp to create my site. First time building a responsive site!