Re: FLASH: Re: New Macromedia.com site

[Michael Penney]

> Jeez, everybody is such a critic. Personally, I like it when big companies

> frequently change their sites - especially when they choose controversial

> designs -especially when "designers" hate it. It still works for me. I found

> it

> clear, legible, functional, but a little slower to load.

> 

> Ray Broussard

> http://PhotographicVR.com


Really? personally, I hate it when a large company hires designers with

apparently either little interface design experience or little care for

standard useability guidelines. If any of the students working for me at my

day job designed a site like this I would send them back to at least fix the

obvious mistakes, like mixing rollovers image links with non-rollover image

links, using an inconsistent color scheme, and using same color text as

background w/o enough contrast between them.

(one of the sites these students recently designed and built:

http://www.humboldt.edu/~cdc)


On my Windows box, the text is a bit more legible, but Macromedia is a

x-platform developer and the text is nearly unreadable at standard Mac

(brighter) monitor settings. Of course, in design, rules can be broken to

make a point, however, I see no point in the rules Macromedia.com's

designers broke, they look more like the mistakes of ignorance and/or sloth.


Personally, I don't always follow standard design rules, but when I break

them I do it consciously, I have a reason, and if that reason is not

apparent to my target audience, then I have screwed up, and I fix it.


To me, Macromedia.com looks cheap, hasty, and sad, and there is simply no

excuse that fits with the concept of highly skilled and paid individuals

crafting sites that reflect and improve the corporate identity.


We're installing new systems and plug-ins on about 300 machines on campus

now, so most of the geeks here have been to Macromedia.com in the past week.

So far I have yet to hear one positive remark. Several people have asked me

if Macromedia is going out of business. Several others if they are selling

Flash. 


> 

> 


=====>

Michael Penney

Sharpener of the Cutting Edge

BigTimeWeb.Com




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