ok I know we generally do more 3D stuff on here but I came across this web site for a new snow dome in manchester and it just put me in to shock how bad it is.
http://test.chill-factore.co.uk/index.asp
is it just me?..it is bad ain’t it?
it just angers me.
Makes…me… sick. BBBllllarrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
wahoo…not just me then.
Talk about the need for usability testing before putting it online.
The biggest problem I have with this is that I simply can’t imagine going to an indoor ski hill…but that’s coming from someone who can see the mountains from his office window.
I would love to hear a critique of this site other than:
Makes…me… sick. BBBllllarrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
You lucky lad, we an’t got no snow here so we have to board concreate, carpet or play in fridges.
I shall be heading over to your neck of the woods come the new year for some happy days on a real hill.
Honestly, a tinge of nausea hit me as I looked at it.
The motion in the background coupled with the unorthodox angle at which the text is placed is just disorienting. Let alone the fact that there really is no clear direction to the information.
The design itself wouldn’t be that bad if it wasn’t trying to skew everything into 3D They could’ve done the angled nav/graphics but kept the main elements in 2D and it would’ve been fine.
It’s actually not bad if you look at it from an angle. The graphics themselves are fairly nice, and on the pop up pages that are 2D look fine.
The super pixelated video in the background is a bit distracting and sluggish on my machine, but I suppose it works for the situation its being used in.
It’s always entirely possible the company themselves pushed for something like that. Remember that web designers are like consultancies in the same sense that if your customer wants something, no matter how dumb it is sometimes you just get forced to do it the way they want.
I give them some respect for trying something new…I’m not sure if they’re building the site with a real 3D API or just tricking the eye with some distortions, but if they are using a 3D API (which by the sluggishness I think they might be) then I give them some credit - because theyre incredibly difficult to work with right now and there are going to be a lot of bad pages that use 3D flash before it starts to be used responsibly.
You lucky lad, we an’t got no snow here so we have to board concreate, carpet or play in fridges.
I shall be heading over to your neck of the woods come the new year for some happy days on a real hill.
Yes, very, very lucky. If you’re serious about coming over, let me know when you’re in town and we can try and raise a pint.
I’m serious…booked my flights, accommodation, season lift pass…I’m feeling quite smugly broke at the moment (I’ll drop you a PM nearer the time)
back on the topic, I think the overall graphics arn’t to bad…true its some kind of mac OS and vista love child but it would be fine it it wasn’t on the piss. The massive videos just add to the distress. the page also stretches really badly on a big screen.
I think that a lot of 7th graders would think it looked cool…
I give them credit for at least trying something new, but it does make me dizzy. (that, and I am over caffeinated this morning)
DEAR GOD! they shouldn’t have done that.
I am simply not a fan of Flashy Flash websites in general. 9 times out of 10 they fall flat on their face. Trying to be 'cool" as opposed to simply getting the information across cleanly. Subtle, if not completely invisible, use of Flash is generally what I find far more attention grabbing. If I have to right click to see if it is a flash component, I am impressed.
Agreed. Flash can be an incredibly powerful tool, but more often then not people (especially designers who learn flash before they learn HTML) end up creating mediocre sites that have useless animations that serve as nothing but party tricks. “Hey look, my buttons can bounce up and down!”
On the same topic… I noticed this ironic book title the other day:
I was already feeling nauseas today…there should be a warning in this topic. I almost fell off my chair too. At first I thought I was going crazy, but apparently it was the web designers.
Flash is like the bible. Both should be buried and hidden from view for 80 years and then re-examined by fresh eyes.
Makes me dizzy although I can see a point in the initial design if they would have removed the video. They really need to resize it much smaller with a wide black or white border around.
If you use anything bigger than a 15" screen you wont be able to survive more than a few seconds 
if i tilt my head 30 degrees to the right and squint a little its not too bad LOL.
wolfman - you goin to earls court for the snow show next week?
ill be there saturday…
I got some free weekday tickets so going over on Thursday evening. It looks a huge show…did you go last year?
im heading over on saturday as I have work / training that week.
didnt go last year, but friends are gonna be there this year so I cant not go…
check scuk fir who will be there…