Hey all,

As you know, Im planning a new album soon & Ive just done some major work on the site. Ive installed a html version for all those that dont like flash.

I need your feedback on the site & ease of use as I want the site to be shit hot when the album is released.

Feelo free to be as harsh as you like, I need your honest critisism

Thanx

Lewis

What do you think about a non-frames site.
I'm asking this because I'm thinking of that as well for the NFO.

It's nice to have everything look like it is in its own little "box" sometimes, but I wonder if really practical from a maintence standpoint.

You know the usual printer issues with a frame site if someone wanted to print the content out as well as navigation issues (sometimes) and browser problems that come up too.

I say this cause after looking at your site, I can see that you know how much work is put in to keeping everything in that "little box".

From a design stand point I'm starting to agree with other back-end developers on those issues. (they always seem to REALLY HATE frames)

I use a cold fusion server and I know I can use "cf-includes" to give an appearence of frames but I still don't seem to use Cold Fusion to it's full potential except for a few businesses I do work for. It takes a while of coding to get it going, but the rewards seems worth it.

I'm starting second guess using frames, I wondered what you thought.

Take this layout for example.
http://www.dynamicsolutio...ndex2.html
Using tables and percentage, you can stretch to full screen.

or in a little box: http://www.dynamicsolutio...ndex3.html

or in box that goes all the way accross the screen: http://www.dynamicsolutio...ndex5.html

then using cfm includes:
http://www.dynamicsolutio...net/judiq/

the header, footer, side nav, etc (common items) are but one file that can be included into other pages.

I know you are not new to site design, but what other options are there to get out of using frames. I know why we like them, but sometimes, I find them more trouble than they are worth.

Thoughts?

NFO said:

Theres no framesets on cloud9 mission, just tables & an iframe its recognised by all browser types after 3.0

Talking with a lot of developers (back-end coders), they seem to really not mind flash components but HATE flash dependant sites. This is more from a developer view, not a user.

I think just about everyone has flash installed in their browser, especially those who would be looking for sites like your own anyway and two sites just means twice the work right?

I think your site visually looks fantastic! I find the text hard to read, then again I have a 23 inch monitor set to 1600 X 1024, and when I looked at your site on a PC set to 800 X 600 it's way better.

From a marketing stand point I think it's great to showcase an album with a full page ad like thingy when your ready. Maybe a pop-up ad, whe you are at the home page? Having all information, short-bio, track list, preview links, the whole 9 yards all on one page. Make it easy for both you and the potential customer/listener.

I've been really impressed with all your self promotional web activity. You work really hard at it and your craft and it shows. I've never seen anyone do so much and be only one guy. YouDaMan!
[This message was edited Thu Dec 11 9:55:37 PST 2003 by NFO]

cloud9mission said:

You'll have to school me in iframes then!

I like both versions of the site - you've got a ton of information and you're doing a great job on designing a good solid user interface.

Both you guys are doing great design.

NFO - I think your issue with frames is based on a super-wide page design... the page with James Brown comes to mind - I'd suggest always limiting the content width to 680 - just a suggestion, hey, what do I know.

Frames are great for design if you don't plan to change the mainframe, OR, if you're going to use something like javascript to manage the selected links. Sometimes I design with frames, sometimes I don't. I really like using frames because it makes page design that much easier - if you decide to change the navigational design, you don't have to go through all your pages to modify it - just modify that frame.

And using an i-frame is a great idea Lewis - except for the idiots that use Netscape. There's still some holdouts. Your best option is to just ignore them. They will eventually go away, or discover that while Netscape is closer to the W3C standards, there's VERY FEW sites that stick to the standards - they stick to the I.E. standards, since I.E. owns over 90% of the users out there.

( http://www.thecounter.com...rowser.php )

Right, I want to use the whole screen. But do want to look for other ways to have the same functions that using frames allow. Like the Navigation issue. I figured I would just make it out of flash. that way there is only one file to maintain.

I do, however, like to have the content scroll but not the graphics.

I think this stuff is always work in progress.

Does Go Live, Dreamweaver, ColdFusion let you make an iframe?

Hook me up on the know how!

Seriously (sorry, didn't mean to go off topic)

My only concern is that you have a nice full page feature when you release your next CD instead of having it in your current layout only.

Just so it really pops out and says HEY! LOOK AT ME!

the forum is busting my code examples - so, email me and I'll tell you about iframes... you got my work email, right? bhall@ you know the rest.

NFO said:

feel free to steal the code from my html site

also, you may want to check out my frameset designs at http://www.avant-gardemus.../main.html You'll see that the visable frame stays the same size no matter how big the window or screen width is

Thanx NFO & Otan, anyone else?? C'mon be harsh, I need it!