Finally...!

[ShammahBenJudah]

After a couple weeks of searching for a good content manager and then learning how to use it and then working with it, I FINALLY rebuilt my website.

It'll never be really finished, but all the content is restructured and its a whole new look.

I needed a better content manager because there were just too many limitations with the one I was using. It was just too hard to try to implement some of the things I wanted to add on later. It was easier to rebuild it now while its still small than later when I might have gigs of data to organize. So its up again

I'd appreciate any feedback about how it looks or works, you can check it out at Breath Of Life Online Ministries.

 

[cyberlizard]

personally, and this is just me, i would kill the sunny logo thing at the top of the screen and consider extending the animated text but removing the bit were the text about screensavers and wallpapers flies around... i say this as most of the text transitions are faded and the jar from fades to fly-ins fly-outs provides an inconsistent appearance.

but that's just me.


Steve

 

[brinny]

After a couple weeks of searching for a good content manager and then learning how to use it and then working with it, I FINALLY rebuilt my website.

It'll never be really finished, but all the content is restructured and its a whole new look.

I needed a better content manager because there were just too many limitations with the one I was using. It was just too hard to try to implement some of the things I wanted to add on later. It was easier to rebuild it now while its still small than later when I might have gigs of data to organize. So its up again

I'd appreciate any feedback about how it looks or works, you can check it out at Breath Of Life Online Ministries.

i love it....

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

i'd appreciate any feedback about how it looks or works, you can check it out at Breath Of Life Online Ministries.

Well for a freeserver CMS it doesn't look too bad. One caveat, you might want to consider not launching the music automatically ... most people clicking over to something for the first time don't want to suddenly deal with a soundtrack. Offer the music but make it optional, let the visitor hit the play button if they want to hear it. This probably runs counterintuitive to your sense of how you want the presentation to unfold when someone arrives, but believe Moriah who has 10 years in this industry, the visitor does not want to have to come to a site only to have their first action there be a frantic search for the playbar so they can shut off an unwanted soundtrack.

Not that the music bes not pretty -- it bes very nice -- but that statistically speaking, people don't like to have soundtracks open up spontaneously, in general, when visiting websites. Oftentimes they may be at work or somewhere else where it would not be convenient.

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

personally, and this is just me, i would kill the sunny logo thing at the top of the screen and consider extending the animated text but removing the bit were the text about screensavers and wallpapers flies around... i say this as most of the text transitions are faded and the jar from fades to fly-ins fly-outs provides an inconsistent appearance.

but that's just me.


Steve

you might want to run cross-browser compatibility checks too. whatever Steve referred to here, it did not show up for Moriah in Firefox. (the fly-ins and fly-outs and moving around text). Another pet peeve -- pointless use of Flash on a site where regular animation would serve just fine and lessen the load times... The left menu runs counterintuitively also by opening sub-pages without any kind of visual cue as to the drill-down level. For example, when one clicks "Downloads" and then "Hot Topics" and selects a subject, e.g. "Fear Not!" the menu displays the drilldown but does not do so in a manner making it clear what would be a subset of what -- it just does it in a straight line. This changes the overall definition of "top level" on this menu and aside from being confusing to the average user, breaks the conventions of how these menus get used and not in a way that improves it. It also breaks the aesthetic expectation for menu display created by having the proper display convention happen when the user first mouses-over the menu -- e.g. subselections appear to the right as they should but when one gets chosen, everything drops into a straight line. Huh???

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

IF the screensavers and animated .gifs and other artwork happens to be the central focus of the web site, don't SAY THAT on the downloads page ... SHOW IT instead by first, how you arrange the site navigation -- instead of adding multiple nav hubs for everything else diminishing the Downloads section, make it more prominent by clustering the less prioritized parts of the site rather than spreading them. And instead of issuing disclaimers as to why one of your pieces would not be as attractive as the others, consider redoing that piece to make it more attractive. If people come there to download your artworks to use on their computers as screensavers and/or wallpapers, they don't want to be "told off" for doing so. I.e., telling someone who has come there because they appreciate your art that spiffy graphics don't matter constitutes marketing suicide. It comes across like why bother even coming here, you could just toss a few Bible verses on a photograph yourself and anyway since all that matters would be the verses, we're not going to bother making this particular piece any nicer looking, because what we do here (make pretty graphics to enjoy your Bible verse of the day with) ultimately doesn't matter anyway. Even though your downloads come for free and you do not seek to make a profit, that kind of attitude expressed toward your visitors comes off like biting the hand that feeds you, so to speak.

How can it put this ... argh ... hates humanspeak, your language bes so limited. When a person comes for one of your famed delicious cookies, you don't hand it to them while lecturing them about why cookies constitute junk food and should not be eaten, and saying that therefore you didn't bother to use the best ingredients to make that particular batch. It would mock and insult the person who came because they liked the taste of your cookies and wanted more, or who heard your cookies bes delicious and wanted to try some. Does that illustration make things clearer?

 

[ShammahBenJudah]

personally, and this is just me, i would kill the sunny logo thing at the top of the screen and consider extending the animated text but removing the bit were the text about screensavers and wallpapers flies around... i say this as most of the text transitions are faded and the jar from fades to fly-ins fly-outs provides an inconsistent appearance.

but that's just me.


Steve

Sounds like you're thinking a little like me. Actually, I intend to. The banner was just a quick "drop in" to hold me over till I settle on what I really want there. Most people use ads...I was thinking of some kind of "verse of the day" thing.

The central focus of the opening page will be the flash intro. The text animation I'm running now is just "holding the spot" until I get the time to make some better ones.

Once I get that working, I'll add the option to play or skip the intro so folks can decide if they want to see it or not.

 

[ShammahBenJudah]

i love it....

ty ty

 

[brinny]

well now there's no music when i click onto it.....

 

[ShammahBenJudah]

Well for a freeserver CMS it doesn't look too bad. One caveat, you might want to consider not launching the music automatically ... most people clicking over to something for the first time don't want to suddenly deal with a soundtrack. Offer the music but make it optional, let the visitor hit the play button if they want to hear it. This probably runs counterintuitive to your sense of how you want the presentation to unfold when someone arrives, but believe Moriah who has 10 years in this industry, the visitor does not want to have to come to a site only to have their first action there be a frantic search for the playbar so they can shut off an unwanted soundtrack.

Not that the music bes not pretty -- it bes very nice -- but that statistically speaking, people don't like to have soundtracks open up spontaneously, in general, when visiting websites. Oftentimes they may be at work or somewhere else where it would not be convenient.

Yeha, that's coming as I get the flash intro thing working more, folks will have the option to play or skip it.

you might want to run cross-browser compatibility checks too. whatever Steve referred to here, it did not show up for Moriah in Firefox. (the fly-ins and fly-outs and moving around text). Another pet peeve -- pointless use of Flash on a site where regular animation would serve just fine and lessen the load times... The left menu runs counterintuitively also by opening sub-pages without any kind of visual cue as to the drill-down level. For example, when one clicks "Downloads" and then "Hot Topics" and selects a subject, e.g. "Fear Not!" the menu displays the drilldown but does not do so in a manner making it clear what would be a subset of what -- it just does it in a straight line. This changes the overall definition of "top level" on this menu and aside from being confusing to the average user, breaks the conventions of how these menus get used and not in a way that improves it. It also breaks the aesthetic expectation for menu display created by having the proper display convention happen when the user first mouses-over the menu -- e.g. subselections appear to the right as they should but when one gets chosen, everything drops into a straight line. Huh???

My last CMS didn't have cascading menus and making cascading pages was a pain. I think I need to upgrade this one to get better control of the menus. I wasn't too fond of the menus on the "child" pages either. But they work.

IF the screensavers and animated .gifs and other artwork happens to be the central focus of the web site, don't SAY THAT on the downloads page ... SHOW IT instead by first, how you arrange the site navigation -- instead of adding multiple nav hubs for everything else diminishing the Downloads section, make it more prominent by clustering the less prioritized parts of the site rather than spreading them. And instead of issuing disclaimers as to why one of your pieces would not be as attractive as the others, consider redoing that piece to make it more attractive. If people come there to download your artworks to use on their computers as screensavers and/or wallpapers, they don't want to be "told off" for doing so. I.e., telling someone who has come there because they appreciate your art that spiffy graphics don't matter constitutes marketing suicide. It comes across like why bother even coming here, you could just toss a few Bible verses on a photograph yourself and anyway since all that matters would be the verses, we're not going to bother making this particular piece any nicer looking, because what we do here (make pretty graphics to enjoy your Bible verse of the day with) ultimately doesn't matter anyway. Even though your downloads come for free and you do not seek to make a profit, that kind of attitude expressed toward your visitors comes off like biting the hand that feeds you, so to speak.

How can it put this ... argh ... hates humanspeak, your language bes so limited. When a person comes for one of your famed delicious cookies, you don't hand it to them while lecturing them about why cookies constitute junk food and should not be eaten, and saying that therefore you didn't bother to use the best ingredients to make that particular batch. It would mock and insult the person who came because they liked the taste of your cookies and wanted more, or who heard your cookies bes delicious and wanted to try some. Does that illustration make things clearer?

The last version had All the pictures and downloads on one page. It was OK for a few things but I needed the ability to break it down into more manageable bites. Its still small and it may seem a little strange to do it this way, but after the content begins to add up, I'm sure I'll appreciate the organization.

I might do something like the newest or most popular few screensavers on the Parent download page.

 

[ShammahBenJudah]

well now there's no music when i click onto it.....

Hmm...does the player show up at the bottom?

 

[brinny]

oops let me check.....

 

[Floatingaxe]

I think the website is great...great-looking and appealing to Christians. I am sending the link to my church office.

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

My last CMS didn't have cascading menus and making cascading pages was a pain. I think I need to upgrade this one to get better control of the menus. I wasn't too fond of the menus on the "child" pages either. But they work.

Beyond the menus though -- Moriah thinks you could benefit from an overhaul on the site architecture (structure) itself.

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

The last version had All the pictures and downloads on one page. It was OK for a few things but I needed the ability to break it down into more manageable bites. Its still small and it may seem a little strange to do it this way, but after the content begins to add up, I'm sure I'll appreciate the organization.

This seems like a non-sequitur ... did you understand that particular part of Moriah's feedback?

 

[pgp_protector]

Also you've got a bug (at least with Firefox) with your navigation menu

When you select any menu, that tab becomes highlighted, but at the same time the Home menu remains Highlighted.

Also I run at 1680 X 1050 Resolution , and almost 1/2 your page is just your Logo / Flash animation, before I even get to the content.

(That and the initial load was slow on DSL)

(Also Black Background / Blue Text = Very Hard to Read)

 

[pgp_protector]

One other thing, you really need to shrink your Logo, 2.5Meg for a Graphic Logo is Huge.

 

[the.Sheepdog]

ran pretty fast for me at work. But then a terabyte of storage and OC pipes makes for pretty nice downloads anyway. My only comment would be the site suffers from Identity crisis. It seems like more than a screen saver site but has no real content.

 

[ShammahBenJudah]

Thanks guys for the feedback. When work lets up a little, I'll get back to it some more.

I had forgotten to cut the banner animation down to a single loop. @ 10 frames/second it was running 4 loops and it only needs to loop once, so its 75% smaller now.

I have a small problem with pages I run external scripts on, it seems to bug the master border some and it extends the bottom of the page while pulling the Fusion logo up into the content area. Its weird...

I kind of agree, some of the "less relevant" stuff needs less relevant billing...a lot of sites make it hard to find their TOS. It'll take a little bit to get the presentation fine tuned.

But you might be surprised to know that the top two downloads were not the graphics screensavers at all. By far the favorites so far have been the Healing and Names of God. That's cool!