New Crossing Website, finally.

Well, here it is, barebones at this point, still needs much work, but it sure beats the old one. I have to learn flash and html so I can completely take over mainainance of it.... seems a big job.

Please check it out, and give me feed back. I'd specifically like to know:

1. Did it load fairly fast, esp on dial up?
2. Was it easy to navigate, or completely confusing?
3. If you can envision the final product, with all the pages completed, would you come back to check it out every so often? (Some things I plan on putting on the site are various candid shots taken of the band while on tour, or at various shows, also some of the sites we see while we're out, as well as our families, since they play such a big part of our lives. Tony wants to put downloadable tableture and lyrics. I want to make it interactive and fun. Maybe a small guestbook or something, a journal, whatever.There will be a discography, complete with ordering info, online payment if possible, etc.

Here's the link. Be encouraging while you are brutally honest. I want good critique!

http://www.grrrrecords.com/thecrossing/index.html

 

i think its brill, and very proffesional. aloha

 

FINALLY!!!!

If you would want to take a suggestion, maybe you guys could compile all of your tabs using the Power-Tab editor. It's handy dandy, and all I use for tabbing out songs.


Now, the site...There's really not much to say other than it looks fabulous. The color scheme, the navigation, the content that is already there (built-in media player?!?! awesome!), and the content that WILL be there are more than enough to make this website worthy of representing the band that it does.

One question, though. With the media player, I noticed that when I select a song (Endurance, for example), it lists an albumn that the song isn't on (it says Dochas next to it). Tossed and Driven is the only one that actually coincides with the albumn name next to it.

 

THanks for the kind words, and the suggestion for the Power Tab editor. I'll pass that info along to Tony.

And I also noticed the songs didn't coincide with the proper album. I have my work cut out for me to learn flash and html so I can tweak things like that at a moments notice. I'd have added all sorts of things to the site, such as pics, info, corrections, etc by now, if I'd only had the skills. Anyway, hopefully it will be fixed soon.

 

LOL. "Finally" is a nice touch.

Work puters have no flash or ActiveX enabled, so I can't even enter the site. I'll check it out at home tonight.

 

Gary,
Do you think that will be a common problem, I mean, will there be very many people who don't have ActiveX and Flash enabled? I'd hate for that to be a problem. If the site looks great, but a good number of people can't access it, the site is pointless.

 

Nah. Most folks that use the internet from home already have it, or likely get a prompt directing them to Macromedia to download Flash if they need it. Our work puters are old NT4 & IE 5, with Flash, Real, and sundry other things intentionally crippled to discourage gaming, movies, and other bandwidth & time wasters while at work. Should work just fine for most folks, although you might want to see if your site directs people to the Flash download site if they need it; most flash sites do.

 

I wish I could give some constructive criticism or something, but I don't think i'm qualified in the slightest.

Looks very nice though, easy on the eye, colour wise, listening to the Crossing radio now, nice touch.

*noses some more* ooh, pretty- funky bits, I assume that's flash?

Navigation couldn't be clearer, apart from the dust in the air, lol.
Well, i'm impressed, especially as you're just learning, but it looks great, learner or not.
You'll get the hang of it Eric, looks like you've got a good grasp now.
Well done!

 

Anyone who surfs the net is qualified to give constructive criticism! So, yes, you are qualified!

That's what I'm talking about! You found the player, found navigation to be easy, that's all good to hear, because just everyday normal folks will go to this site, and we want them to browse with ease, so they can get whatever info they need, whether it's tour dates, show times, directions, ordering info for albums, etc. Thanks for the input.

Well, I wish I could say thanks, but I didn't build the site. I'm going to learn flash and take over this site, but it was built by Tony's son, Noah. He doesn't have time to maintain it, and anyway, I have the burden to add to it, so, like I said, I got my work cut out for me.

Thanks for taking the time to browse.

 

Site looks awesome Eric. the flavor very much suits you guys, and looks very professional.

Don't have dial up to test with, but load times with DSL are very quick. Other than possibly the music, it should be no problem on dial-up, and dial-up users won't expect instant high-quality music downloads to be instant. You still have some content to fill, but it's looking GREAT! Huge improvement over what you had.

 

that site looks awsome eric. congrats on a job well done so far.

eric

 

Eric, VERY awesome Job I think! I like the sample MP3's. Mourning Into Dancing was one of my favorites from the show. And this is your first attempt at a site?? VERY nice job. Congrats!

 

I really wish I could take credit it for it- (and if anyone else gives me compliments on it, I will, from here on out, accept them!) -but I am merely taking over maintainance of the site. I have to learn flash and html to do so, but I sure have a great head start taking over a site like that.

 

I agree.

I was thinking. Have you looked around at the source code, or tinkered with the site yet? One of the best ways to learn is by experimentation, so maybe you could just set one page aside (that doesn't make it on the net...just sits on your hard drive) and just play around with what's already there. Noah seems to have put enough content on the site, that you could probably just do some cutting and pasting of code to see what happens.

Of course you should still read more about the programs...I just thought I'd offer up a tactic I use when starting something new like that.

 

That's exactly what I want to do. I'll have a book handy, but I learn far more by tinkering than just straight reading. All I need to do is get it set up on my computer and access his folders through our network, and start taking it over.

 

Very nice, I mean Very nice. I like the second song that played. The player worked fabulously through the rest of the site navigation.


One minor thing, not neccissarily a problem, but the up down scroll arrows don't keep scrolling if you hold them down, like the scroll on the window side. I had to click click click to scroll the text. But-- the scroll wheel worked perfectly, so it isn't such a thing, actually could be a good thing, That was the only thing I noticed that may be a function thing.

So, that is just unbelievable, very eye apealing, easy to navigate, music to listen to, nice graphics & fonts, great theme and consistency, mouse over buttons, very nice.

Fit to screen well planned and executed web design.

 

Hey, thanks for the feedback. I noticed the scroll thing too. Pain in the finger, if you ask me. I will try to learn how to fix that.

This is just the kind of feedback I'm looking for. Thanks so much all of you!!

Anyone on dialup? How did it load?

 

Very nice Eric Very swish

One thing though... you forgot the mouseout behaviour on the "The Info" link

Oh and the close function on the player needs to check whether the playlist is actually open first (give it a status, so it won't try and close it if its already closed). Similarly on the playlist open button. To recreate this, click the close playlist when it's already closed, or the open when it's already open

And personally, I'd get rid of the text on the player controls. If people don't know what they mean, they shouldn't be using a computer

The transitions are nice and the bandwidth isn't too heavy either, so it won't be a chore for dialup users to download either.

Oh and also, where is the data coming from? If you've got the time, I'd make a text only version of it (no need for pretty pictures, just an output of the info) for search engines to spider. That way if someone searches for "The crossing Southbury" they'll get a link to your dates page. looks like you're importing the data from somewhere anyway, so that shouldn't be too hard

Oh yes, and adding a RSS or Atom feed is a nice way to get google-ranks



... hey, I beta test websites, whaddaya expect

 

Very good looking site Eric the only problem was no tour dates down in Ms.

 

That'a a nifty little web page! Is that a real band? Very creative, I must say. Makes me want to join the vaudville circuit.

 

I copy/pasted all that into my Crossing folder, so at a later date, I can come back to you and ask "what the heck is RSS, and text only, and the mousey thingy you mentioned, etc etc etc??"

Thanks for taking the time to beta test this site, Goldy! it does need help, and I intend to fix it!

 

Very attractive i have to say all the pictures work well, and the whole thing looks very professional

apart from the 'mission statement'... seriously? That's my only gripe, but it does make it seem too.... mid-level managerish, if you know what i mean!

Try just having 'About' as a title... or even just 'Bio'

 

The mission statement isn't complete.

I just noticed that.

All I get at the end is "...enriched by love for the one who created the Celtic peoples a"

It is a good thing though, because it leaves me asking for more.

 

I still have Dial-up. (I know ... I thought it loaded pretty fast for dial up.
Great site. Marty..Hopefully your neighbor again soon.

 

Now that's a site. subtle use of colours, great graphics, music that just appears, oh yes, that'll do

 

great job eric
and I love the music
infact I think I'll bookmark it

and the load time was very quick