[zoom in screenshot - 33K]

Feisty Enterprises
http://www.feistyenterprises.com

Category:
Graphics & Web Design > Studios

Created by:
Feisty Enterprises in 2002

Rating:
6.0 (1 vote)

Date added:
Aug 26th, 2002

Last updated:
Aug 27th, 2002

Tools Used:
Macromedia Flash, Macromedia HomeSite, WS_FTP Pro

Designer's words:
Enjoy the trolligation!

Our comments:
Use your skateboard to hit the links placed on the right end of a halfpipe. Aiming is done by moving a slider up and down. A fat pixel font is used for the text, and tildes are used to construct the halfpipe. In fact, the entire thing looks like a Commodore 64 game written in BASIC. Even one of the backgrounds (color bars) looks very much like a snapshot of probably the most popular kind of game loading screens back in the 80's. 100% Flash.

--Aycan

Proust (11) - Aug 30th, 2002 Presentation  7 Graphics  6 Usability  2 Technical  8 Personal Slant  7 Overall 6.0 Great review Wwdmike, you should do more of them here :) wwdmike (6) - Aug 29th, 2002 This is a very innovative, creative, technically impressive site. Problem is, I couldn't use it. I realize that the whole skateboard navigation system is intended to show what skills the designers have. But in my mind, it just backfires. I purposely didn't read the navigation instructions on Wow Web Designs because the average user isn't going to get them either. That being said, when the main page loaded the first thing I tried to do is click on the menu items. No response. Looking back, I realize there are a few instructions when the page first loads up. I didn't read these, and I don't think most users will either. Because users don't typically take in a whole page and read everything before they try to navigate. Usually they scan the layout of the page for general visual cues and start clicking away immediately. They already ASSUME that the site is following some basic conventions (like "menu items are clickable and take you to that section"). Perhaps the cold, honest fact is that casual web users want to expend the least amount of brain power possible when browsing. Granted, it doesn't take an astrophysicist to figure out how to use the skateboard navigation system. But the very fact that users have to think, "hmm, the menu item I want is the 2nd of 4, and so I need to move the slider 1/4 the distance from the top" just to browse your site, is already too much. In the physical world, that would be like asking clients to use a secret decoder ring to decode your mailing address. My opinion is that the portfolio section is the place to really show off your skills and be totally unconventional; not the navigation system, or you risk losing your client/user immediately.