Review my Site www.SouthAmericanMagic.com

[Carilobel]

Just looking for feedback regarding loading time, presentation, items offered, all general feedback is welcomed!!

Thanks,
Carina Löbel

[speedomansam]

wow, ususally flash sites bug me, but this is so well done it's definitely worth the load time. very professional.

[Carilobel]

wow, ususally flash sites bug me, but this is so well done it's definitely worth the load time. very professional.

Thank you so much! I´ll pass on your message to my designer. Would you mind passing on this site to your friends and family? And if someone becomes interested in distributing these products, let me know!

Take Care

Carina

[ScottyDM]

Carilobel;

The home page loaded really fast for me. A plus. Also, I've seen this sort of business idea before and it is a cool idea. There are many different web sites represented here in the StatCounter forums, and most do not interest me, but this one does. I've actually bookmarked it for the day when I have discretionary income again. :?


The bad news: The site seems to be pure Flash. I feel this is a terrible idea. I'll tell you why:


#1. When I was at Compaq, I used my Windows NT workstation for simulations and stuff. I was kinda picky about what went on the machine and I did not install stuff like Quick Time or Flash (it did not have speakers anyway) -- One day I was relaxing and drinking a Dr. Pepper and noticed their URL on the can, so I went to visit their site. At that time Dr. Pepper had a pure Flash site, and it was totally unviewable to me.

Lesson: Pure Flash sites are totally unviewable for anyone without Flash.


#2. A few months ago I was looking up some vendors in Taiwan, some have English sites and some don't. I found an interesting site that looked intriguing, but it was in Chinese. So I can use Babelfish.org, right? Wrong! The site was a Flash-heavy site; I could only translate a piece of the home page. A few weeks later I was back and they changed it so the Flash did not control linking (they still had some Flash). And the hyperlinks were no longer pictures; I could translate them! I was able to translate a dozen or so content pages and have put that vendor on my list for possible future use.

Lesson: When you use Flash for site navigation, you completely shut out people who cannot read the language you've written your Flash in. I also suspect you completely shut out the blind, which at some point will probably become illegal (the movement is afoot).



#3. With Flash controlling the links, and every aspect of site navigation, you make deep linking impossible. What about the almost a customer who tries to put a bookmark on your page of Chilean pottery. Impossible, can't be done. The visitor can only bookmark your home page, then they must try to remember where they found that interesting page, and go looking for it again by clicking links. Also Flash hyperlinks kill right mouse click functionally, so your visitors do not have the option to use tabs, additional windows, etc. they can only visit your site in a linear manner. Your site even kills the back button!

Lesson: Flash links suck. They kill bookmarks and user control of site navigation. Both limitations are Very Bad. Used this way, Flash is just another way to cripple the user's experience.


#4. With a pure Flash site that is poorly designed, you force your visitors to watch transitions, wipes, fade-ins, etc. before you load the content. Slowing their travel through you site to get to the content. Ahh, you remember content -- in your case, it's the stuff that pays the bills. Your site does this, stop doing it!

Lesson: When you force your visitors to watch your Flash animation before you let them proceed, you piss them off. Do NOT piss off potential customers.


#5. Your site is designed around a fixed view window. This ignores the fact that web sites grow and change with time. If you "expand" a page by having a second page, some visitors will miss that link, or choose to ignore it. Additionally, some browsers have a freakin' huge nav-bar at the top (Opera) so any visitors using that browser will be forced to scroll vertically anyway if they happen to have your minimum design screen size.

Lesson: A web page is not art, and a web browser is not the Louvre. Nor are web pages printed brochures, they do not have to look exactly so. Relax; give your site visitors some flexibility.


#6. A pure Flash site generally is invisible to web spiders. Meaning your site does not get indexed. Meaning you'll miss a LOT of traffic. Maybe as much as half, more than that if you do not have a strong promotional program.

Lesson: Be kind to search engines and they will be kind to you.


All this does not mean you cannot have some Flash on your site. You may keep your banners on the top of your pages. Perhaps limit your wipes, transitions, etc. to the banner. If for some reason the banner does not work, you lose nothing and the visitor only loses the ability to look at the eye candy (that is, they don't lose very much).

Your splash page: I'm not terribly fond of splash pages -- one of my sites has one, but I have a technical reason for it. I think as long as they load fairly quickly and don't hamper your visitors or the search spiders, they are okay. Your splash page is pretty good. What I'd change is to get the three links off the Flash and into normal html hyperlinks. Also, your text intro -- if it is important enough to create and display, it is important enough to let the search engines index it -- get that out of Flash and into ordinary html too.

The Intro Flash animation: It's cool as is. Some people will watch it; at least they have the option to skip if they want.

On your pages you have blocks of text (scrolling is necessary in some cases). Again, get this out of Flash and into ordinary html -- for the search engines, the blind people, and non-English speaking visitors. Of course get the links out of Flash too. Limit your Flash on these pages to the banners (or dump it completely, but I suspect you don't want to). I noticed that I could not easily get from the Handcrafts home page to the Photography home page -- until I noticed the "back" arrow, "hidden" away from the other links on the page.

Your popups: The selection between metric or English is very clever -- and a complete waste of time for the page designer and for the site visitor. Just put both sizes on the page. It is so much simpler for everyone involved. The mouse-over on the picture is nice. Additionally, your liqueur popups: I might want to know if it is "smoky", or "fruity", or "robust", or however you'd describe liqueur. I also might want to know the alcohol content. I do not care about the physical dimensions of the bottle. Be relevant to the product.


REMEMBER: Ask yourself, "What is the mission of this web site?" Then use technology (html, xml, css, Flash, Java Script, server-side scripting, etc.) to support that mission. NOT the other way around.


A Workable Approach:

Step One: Create your content. Your blocks of text (quotes, mission statement, "about us", product descriptions, local history, etc.). Product and "atmosphere" pictures (thumbnails, full sized photos, etc.). Your music (nice touch). Try to identify what is critical content and what is fun content (critical content sells products).

Step Two: Using basic structural html, create simple pages that work in all browsers. By structural, I mean the proper use of <h> tags,

tags, etc. If you do not support some browser or platform, at least know who and why you choose not to support (WAP? set-top boxes? text-only browsers? limited screen size or color depth? six year old software?). At this point do NOT use font tags, or colors, or spacer gifs. Just the simplest, pure, structural html you can get by with and still have a reasonable page layout. You should make your ordering system functional. And of course product pictures should be visible (critical content). Try to create an "out" for people who do not have Java Script enabled (use <noscript>). If you have to, you may use tables very sparingly at this point. The ideal is if you can functionally support all browsers with one html page.

The mantra, "Basic functionality with all the critical content visible."

Step Three: Use CSS to make your pages look pretty. Try like crazy to make your CSS work in as many browsers as you want to fully support (that may mean you give up triple borders, or some other fancy geegaw). For partly supported or nonsupported browsers -- you still have the fully functional (if ugly) pages from step two. In other words, do NOT change your pages from step two at this point -- simply add CSS to make them pretty. This is also the place to add in your Flash animations, your music, and other eye candy. You may use different CSS "sets" to support different platforms -- that is one of it's functions.

Remember: It is your step one content and your step two functionality that pay the bills. Step three is only the eye candy, nice for desert, but you cannot survive on a steady diet of desert.


What the site visitor wants is far more important that what the marketing department or the company president wants. What the marketing department and company president wants is far more important than what the web site designer wants.

If the site visitor gets the content and the site functions for them, they will be pretty pleased. So concentrate on steps one and two.


Best of luck in your business.

Scotty

[speedomansam]

whoa, that was an awesome reply.

[motorwatchercounter]

I didn't read all of the reply about flash but I have found that spiders don't like it very much. I have taken a lot off my site as it didn't pick up links. As with everything in life, a balance is good.

Just one comment, you can bookmark in flash using a javascript cheat(?) I have it on my site.

Where you have the bookmark text use the character box & tab and on the URL enter: javascript:makeLink()

Enter in the html body something like this:

<script language="JAVASCRIPT" type="TEXT/JAVASCRIPT">
var url = "http://www.yoururl.co.uk";
var title = "Your Url Title";

function makeLink(){
if(document.all)
window.external.AddFavorite(url,title)
}

// -->
</script>

OK it's not flash but javascript but it does work in flash.

Print page javascript also works by entering javascript:print() in the character url box. No other script in the page is required.

If you use these remember to highlight all the letters in the word you use for your action before you put the script in the url box.

:shock:

[Arne]

Flash only sites are very bad for text only browsers like Lynx, and Search Engines is basically like text on browsers. Paste your URL here and see what they can see on your pages: http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html

My check for www.southamericanmagic.com gives this result:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMBED]

[Sedna2]

Flash only sites are very bad for text only browsers like Lynx, and Search Engines is basically like text on browsers. Paste your URL here and see what they can see on your pages: http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html

My check for www.southamericanmagic.com gives this result:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMBED]

thanks for supplying the 'delorie' site...this is really useful. As for flash or no flash, it really depends who it is aimed for.... Eg if you are looking for mp3 music downloads, the odds are that you will be on Broadband and have flash installed...the problem, I see with flash is when people buy the ready made flash interface...(which i think may be the case with 'crilobel' site) i think those are entirely Flash, but i can't see why even then, the intro text can not be added on index page and link made to ask people to download flash ...it is free... Caribel site is a nice site and it would be a shame to tinker with it to to point that it's unrecognisable

[Carilobel]

Flash only sites are very bad for text only browsers like Lynx, and Search Engines is basically like text on browsers. Paste your URL here and see what they can see on your pages: http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html

My check for www.southamericanmagic.com gives this result:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMBED]

Hello!

I greatly appreciate your feedback and thanks for alerting me about text browsers. However, my site isn´t for clients with text browsers because my business sells according to what is seen and detail is extremely important. Therefore, Flash allows the details to be appreciated and if that means that less people will see it, let it be.. because the few that do, really appreciate detail and the artists´ talent.

Regards,

[Carilobel]

Flash only sites are very bad for text only browsers like Lynx, and Search Engines is basically like text on browsers. Paste your URL here and see what they can see on your pages: http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html

My check for www.southamericanmagic.com gives this result:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMBED]

thanks for supplying the 'delorie' site...this is really useful. As for flash or no flash, it really depends who it is aimed for.... Eg if you are looking for mp3 music downloads, the odds are that you will be on Broadband and have flash installed...the problem, I see with flash is when people buy the ready made flash interface...(which i think may be the case with 'crilobel' site) i think those are entirely Flash, but i can't see why even then, the intro text can not be added on index page and link made to ask people to download flash ...it is free... Caribel site is a nice site and it would be a shame to tinker with it to to point that it's unrecognisable

Hi Sedna2,

That´s exactly what I think.. Our products are sold based on the manual detail given to each item handmade... And Flash best shows that on the screen. I´m interested in adding what you mention to my index page which is to give a link to people to download the Flash in order to see..

Can you help me with that?

Regards,

[elliottback]

One thing about this flash is that it only takes up about 1/4 of my 1400x1050 screen, which feels a little small to me. Can you make it a fluid layout?

[Carilobel]

One thing about this flash is that it only takes up about 1/4 of my 1400x1050 screen, which feels a little small to me. Can you make it a fluid layout?

I´ll ask the designer if he can do something..

Thanks!

[ScottyDM]

That´s exactly what I think.. Our products are sold based on the manual detail given to each item handmade... And Flash best shows that on the screen. I´m interested in adding what you mention to my index page which is to give a link to people to download the Flash in order to see..

Carilobel;

In a private message you said that you do not currently have the resources to redesign your web site at this time. Okay, I completely understand that. Now it seems as if you are trying to justify your initial choices rather than plan for the necessary changes? Dangerous attitude.


Your statement that "Flash best shows that on the screen" is completely false. On your web site, your product popup pages -- the pages that show the products -- contain zero Flash. Plenty of Java Script, but zero Flash.

You've made several false assumptions about "text-only browsers":

#1. "Because people who use a text-only browser cannot see any product pictures, they are not in my potential customer base." Actually, other viewing programs can be used in conjunction with a text-only browser to view pictures, and in the browser, the pictures show up as the alt="description" parameter in the <img> tag. For whatever reason, some people use the text-only browser even though they can see pictures.

#2. "A non-Flash enabled browser is the same thing as a text-only browser." Completely false assumption.

#3. "It does not matter if my web site can not be viewed by a text-only browser." You seem to overlook the role of the search engines. Arne tried to tell you, this is what a search engine sees when it looks at your web site:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMBED]
That’s it, your whole web site. Your money making machine. My friend, StatCounter has showed me that close to 90% of the new visitors to my commercial web site (a hobby really) come in via the search engines. What will be your percentage? If you insist on a Flash only site, then to the search engines your site simply does not exist.


Remember my story about the Dr. Pepper web site? Four years ago when that happened, I had a job that paid me just under $1900 (US) per week (after taxes). And I had a credit card with a $17,000 limit and a zero balance. And my wife and I had just bought a cabin we were furnishing. And I would occasionally visit e-commerce web sites while I was at work (remember, I did not have Flash installed on my work machine). Are you telling me that I was not in your customer profile? That you would turn me away because I did not have a certain brand of software installed on my employer's computer? I did not download and install Flash for Dr. Pepper, why would I do it for your web site?


You have a business, man! Why lock your doors?

So, you've made an error in judgment and let some web site designer sell you a package that did not fit your needs. You didn't know. Fix it when you get the chance and move on. But do not lie to yourself and say it was a good choice; it was not.

This is harsh, but it is not personal. I hope the promotion you told me about is successful and is able to overcome your web site limitations. I hope you survive (as a business) long enough to be able to fix the problems. I hope you'll become a success at this, but Flash will not help you become a success -- it will only hurt you.

Scotty

[ScottyDM]

thanks for supplying the 'delorie' site...this is really useful. As for flash or no flash, it really depends who it is aimed for.... Eg if you are looking for mp3 music downloads, the odds are that you will be on Broadband and have flash installed...the problem, I see with flash is when people buy the ready made flash interface...(which i think may be the case with 'crilobel' site) i think those are entirely Flash, but i can't see why even then, the intro text can not be added on index page and link made to ask people to download flash ...it is free... Caribel site is a nice site and it would be a shame to tinker with it to to point that it's unrecognisable

There are excellent uses for Flash:

#1. Flash as content. For example, if your web site is about online animated cartoons, Flash will be a very big part of that. One can hardly enjoy an episode of Radiskull and Devil Doll without it. Kind of the whole point in this case.

#2. Flash as a way to show some aspect of my real product or service. This works too, but it should not be the only method someone has to find and explore your content. A Flash intro to a business would come under this heading.

#3. Flash as eye-candy to make your web site look cool. Okay, but only for things that don't really matter -- like the site banner and similar things. The question to ask yourself is, "If this element of my web site were missing, would it destroy the experience of my site visitors?" The correct answer is "No."

#4. Flash used to exclude a certain class of users. Sedna2, your example of using Flash on an mp3 site is an excellent example. Assuming one is going to make copyrighted mp3s illegally available for download -- one would hardly want their site indexed by the search engines. In this case, pure Flash rocks. And you are correct in your assumption that the majority of your (human) visitors will have broadband in this example (but I hardly see what that has to do with Flash).

It is not just Flash, but all kinds of "non standard" technology should be put the same tests. Things like movies, sounds, "VR" technologies, client-side scripting languages, downloadable file formats, etc.


Ask yourself:

What is the mission of this web site I am creating? What is my primary user base? What about site visitors who are not in my primary user base?

If your mission is to have a personal home page on the Web, and you only really care to please yourself -- then your choices will be completely different from someone who's mission is selling handcrafted folk art to an international clientele.

You know what? When it comes to a Web presence, there are a lot of big companies who simply don't get it.

Scotty

[steve_c]

Sorry to dig up an old thread :grin:

But i didnt want to start a new one.. and this is on a similar theme...

(ScottyDM by the way provided some excellent advice!!!)

What i wanted to ask... was is it possible to have a flash/splash intro to a website that wouldnt hamper the SEO side of things?

I heard somewhere that you can get a search engine to ignore the splash intro so that it would be as if it didnt exist....

I was thinking of have say a five second flash intro that then opened directly into my home page.. but i wouldnt want to harm the optimisation/indexing side of things..

Any one have any ideas? would be much appreciated :grin:

Thanks alot.

[webado]

Sure. You can use swfobject, a script that lets you embed the flash unobtrusively, and allows for providing alternate content to be displayed for visitors with flash and/or javascript disabled.

The original is here: http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/

And a slightly simplified version is here, in one of my tutorials: http://www.webado.net/tutorials-embedding-flash.php#swf-object

[steve_c]

I sometimes wonder what we would do without you Christina!! :-D

Once again.... Many thanking you's !! :grin:

[webado]

I sometimes wonder what we would do without you Christina!! :-D

Once again.... Many thanking you's !! :grin:

You'd google for it ;)

LOL

You're welcome ;)