Very cool website

This is probably one of the most clever websites I have seen in a long long time.

A good use of flash, IMO.

http://www.boone-roosens.be/

WOOOW! yeah blown away. thanks.

I’m appalled from an Interaction/Usability perspective. This is a gimmick that will appeal to some but clearly alienate a majority of potential customers. I wonder how many people even get past the first two screens?

What they should do:

  1. Enable the browser back button. Flash has supported this for a while now.
  2. Ditch the +/- buttons. Instead click anywhere for the + function, and allow theright mouse button and browser back button to nav-out. This is what people expect.
  3. Don’t hide the main menu–put it in the header.
  4. Put the phone number in the footer of every single page.
  5. Ditch the two splash pages, especially any sort of “instructions” page.
  6. Put a .PDF brochure download in the footer, for people who don’t have the patience for the whiz-bang stuff.

On the pro-side, obviously the gimmick works from a viral perspective. Now I know about them and have formulated some opinions: they’re not customer friendly and have expensive offices for a printer which probably means they’re overpriced.

PS, I remember seeing this approach on another website back in 1999. Their implementation was cooler since it traced you along a path like a board game–it had a strong, easy to understand metaphor, but was just as cool looking.

here’s another using the same concept, but executed better i think.

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/design/milano_salone_2007/

as well, i’ve recently done the following site which uses a zoom concept. more straightforward UI, and the zoom was developed to work with the logo, bringing the users “deeper” into the content/brand. there is also a filp function as well was designed to challenge the traditional “screen/page” method of browsing and somewhat break the 4th wall of the site.

comments/criticsm welcome

R

Hey RK…I love the style and feel of the brand and image. The copy and message are fantastic. Was that your responsibility or was it written by the company?

My beef with it is that I hate intro stories. I would appreciate this FAR more if this was a window within a main site. The idea of sitting and watching an animation before I can navigate to the other information is hugely annoying to me.

it works for the first visit, but after that it is nothing but annoying.

Stylistically, the designer in me loves it. As a user it puts me off right away.

CG…you make some great points that for whatever reason I forgave them for. My take on the image that it created was more along the lines of “if they put that much effort into their brand, they would be more likely to put it into me as well”.

thanks for the comments. as a matter of fact i did do the entire branding/identity and marketing position/text for Knowledge Cotton Apparel. Have also done all their corp ID, packaging, and some graphics for their apparel. Nice to hear you noticed it and like!

I somewhat agree with you on the intro animation, and also know its a bit long, but it was a requirement the client really wanted. You can skip the intro through, so no need to wait through it if you dont want to.

R

It is a personal beef I have. The intro can run in the center window of a main site. As of right now you have a 2 click entry to any information on the site:

  1. Click to enter the site (its a peeve of mine…I hate this type of interface)
  2. Wait for animation to end or click again before I can get any significant information about the company.

The above can all be done within the main site while still giving me the ability to navigate to other information with only one click. With this paradigm, I am even willing to forgive loading sequences because there is other information to digest.

All in all, I think you did a great job and I am sure you had client constraints placed on you that drove the decisions.

As a user, all I can do is comment on my experience.

I know what you mean, but part of it is by design. you need to click on the “enter” link so that the site can pop up in a new window that doesnt have scroll bars or nav bars, and the window size is controlled for the best viewing of the site.

the clicking again to enter if skipped is to give the an opportunity to replay the intro if they want or if they skipped it by accident.

I certainly do see your points however and think they are all valid. I do appreciate the comments, and just replying to shed some light on the design decisions.

R

Wow, so they just used someone else’s flash template!

I wonder if they know that, or if their webdesigner charged them the full rate?

heres another similar one-

http://www.metalshutterhouses.com

R

Wow, the first one looks great (although it took a while for me to get i started). Also, it lacks a little bit of an overview in my opinion as there are no menus or anything? [EDIT - just found out about the menu to the right :blush: - all good ]

I saw a video of a microsoft demonstrating CDragon a while ago ( Blaise Agüera y Arcas: How PhotoSynth can connect the world's images | TED Talk ). Does any of you know if it’s that technology that is being used, or is it a more conventional flash script (still talking about the first one and the yamaha site). Could be a combination as I really don’t know much about the CDragon thing, but it looks very very similar…

It is cool, but i felt like i was not in control as user
or maybe it’s because i didn’t master the use of the controls

i didn’t like it