I just finished a new site for a client at http://djdouglasmusic.com/

Take a look and give me  your feedback.

Thanks.
Kris

What I like:

1) Site actually validates
2) Everything is on one page - no waiting for new pages to load
3) CSS and javascript files are abstracted out.

What I don't like:

1) Music files are too large.  Why not stream them, rar them, zip them or serve them up in pieces or do whatever you can to make them smaller?  One was 144MB.  Better yet, have them fill a form and mail them a CD.  I would prefer that to downloading 144MB any day.

2) Initially, I thought I had my music player running in the background.  Why? I initially had my speakers off and only turned them on to hear the audio part of the kentro video.  Upon switching on the speakers though, I noticed I was also getting "you can have whatever you like" at the same time.  I minimized all windows to kill my music app, to no avail.  I later discovered that the site has an audio player of its own.  It seems a little confusing if you ask me.  I say kill the music player

3) Horizontal scroll in FF

4) Contact form doesn't validate properly

5) Photos: Too large

6) The following lines of code remind me of image slicing in whatever name you call that photoshop program.  I think you could have done this better:

<div id="bg1"></div>

<div id="bg2"></div>

<div id="bg3"></div>

<div id="bg4"></div>

<div id="bg5"></div>

<div id="bg6"></div>

7) For consistency, I would say make the "featured talent" the same as "photos" and as a matter of fact, make all sections the same way.  For "featured talent" again, it isn't plural so no need having more than one featured.  Then you could use php or whatever you are using to randomly generate the talent in the event that there is actually more than one.

8 ) Facebook link: Since it is opening in a new window, I would perhaps let the user know.  I sorta got used to everything opening in the box but got confused when I got a new window.

I had said I would stop commenting on site reviews.  however, I liked the layout of the site so much (proof to those who feel they must use flash to do an artist's website, that a non-flash version can be done) that I just couldn't help but say something.

I give the site 6/10.  I'd say 5 because of all the issues but I give extra mark for creativity and uniqueness.  If you can fix all of the above, I will come back and give it 12/10  because it is worth at least that much

yawa-ti-de thanks a lot for your feedback.

About things you don't like:

1) The music are long mixes, so the sizes have to be that big, plus they are made available for download, by the way the Dj does the music upload through the CMS I built in.
     Dj Douglas is in the UK and those are his target audience so those files load pretty fast for them. I get no delay at all on my computer.

2) The dj wants the music to auto start. Yes most people probably have their own music playing before getting to the site, but they have the option to stop it from playing.

3) Horizontal scroll? I don't get what you are talking about, please explain.

4) I will work more on the contact form to validate, could you please point me to the problem you spotted?

5) Photos too large - I reduced the quality setting to 90% and most of the photos are now like 25KB

6) Any suggestions?

7) Yes the idea was to have all pages like the photo page but I got lazy plus have lots of work to get done. But I'll be improving the site with time.

Once again thanks for your feedback.

1) No problem. In that case, so that the user isn't thrown off, especially those in a cybercafe in Nigeria (I am sure they aren't the target audience but the website is viewed globally), why not put the file sizes next to them? That will prevent people with low bandwidth from clicking and causing them to go into fits of pain. Just my humble opinion.

2) I don't doubt that but I guess my point is, make it more prominent. I even viewed source thinking it was an onload event. Again, at least to me, the presence of the player where it is now wasn't that apparent.

3) Hor. Scroll means there is something in your code that makes the page scroll from left to right. This isn't good. Pages are allowed to scroll from top to bottom but not left to right.

4) Telephone accepts letters. Email accepts addresses without "@"

6) You could make it one big background image, as long as the image is optimized. Many sites I know do this.

7) This biz doesn't allow for laziness

Thanks for taking the review professionally. As I said before and as I say now, fix those things and the site gets 12/10 from me.

@ Kris

You've done a great job there!! I like it. My suggestion is;

1. Make background that will have all the margin to 0. It will look nice that way.
2. Recommend an MP3 encoder to the DJ, then let him know that no matter how long the songs are he can still encode it to a smaller size for people to download.

That's my review.

@ Yawa

I recommend an Award for you. Nairaland Best Reviewer (NLRB)

Kris, upon my 1st visit to ur site, i stoop mouth aghape (if thats the spelling anyway).

You really have done a great job, nice graphics, but like Yawa has said, the graphics are too big in sizes, if u culd work on optimizing them, fine, then the music files, try and research on ways to make music files smaller, even if you dont use encoder or compressors, google for how to stream music files online, u culd put all in one folder and the player piks em from the dir one after d other,


right now, am using google chrome, i see several, multiple, wasting spaces right below the side you have your Powered Link (Designed By, ).
I will suggest you test this site on all browsers to adjust any wahalas.

Once again, GREAT JOB bro, I hope you win that web dev awards som1 just talked abt. lol

b4 i forget, this ur DJ na fine boy oooo, abi na photoshop u use make am cute?

Thanks for the feedback. I'm improving the site small small based on your feedback.

The Horizontal scroll should be gone by now. I never saw it since I develop on a 24 inch iMac, so you do forget sometimes that not all computers have that screen size.
My laptop was dead for while, but now it's back up and I was able to see what you were saying. I hate horizontal scrolls myself.

Sliced up images load faster, and the current sizes are no problem to the target audience so I will not touch those no more, same with the audio.
I'm sorry say una broadband for naija no broad reach o! lol

Yawa I'll make the audio more prominent in the next version of the site, but not on this one. The contact form validation is just a place holder for now, I'll improve on it soon.

Bug24, No be me make am cute o! Na him mama o!

Once again thanks to you all for checking the site and your comments.

kris,

I like your professionalism. I am however still seeing horizontal scroll in FF and it is probably cos of this CSS attribute in your #wrapper - width:1097px;

Most ppl surf using 1024px so as you can see, you are off by at least 70px. See what you can do about that.

Good design but what in the heck is that music on the youtube video? Sounds like 20 songs playing at the same time. Could'nt make head on tail out of it.

IBEXY, refer to the #2 of my first post above for the reason.

At least you follow notice am. At least for now, I can rest assured that I am not going crazy

Yawa - Can you see the right side content without using the horizontal scroll?

Yeah I see I can shave off a bit from the right hand side to remove the horizontal scroll, I'll do that sometime soon.

IBEXY - the idea is that the music starts to play before people click to play the video so they know there's a player.

I might also work on moving everything slightly higher so the player can show up on most settings. How long does the
audio take to start on your end?

Thanks for the feedback. I'll let you guys know when I make the changes.

kris,

I do see the entire site, with the scroll but you should really take a stab at cleaning it up

At the very least, i feel i should be able to see the complete dimensions of the video, not half.  I use 1024x768 and I browse exclusively with FF.

Screenshot is attached with this post.

Thanks for the snap shot. Like I said I hate all scrolls, so yeah the horizontal one will be gone for sure pretty soon.

But looking at your snap shot I see a lot will have to be removed from the sides to remove the horizontal scrollbar. I see what I can do, if it messes too much with my design, then the scroll might be there for good.

No offense kris but "a lot" will not "have to be removed", if done right.  Even if, there is a proverb in my language which literally translates to, "there is nothing like it takes a long time when you do something that is good".  Take for example the 1st attached screenshot:

Notice all the white space around it? I just shaved off the white space in FW and got back 40px.  All I would need to do next is proportionately size the image to get it to about 1015 or so (it can't be 1024 exactly as you have to take into account the vertical scroll bar).  All you may have to do at that point is shift the DJ's image to the left a little.  See 2nd screenshot for how the resized bg1 might look.

I think the main issue with how you went about the site is how you hv sliced your background images.  I probably would have made the "blue sky" image one big background, positioned it relative, then positined the DJ and his "rainbow wave" effect (as one image) absolutely.  The way you have it now, I can see why you might be reluctant to do anything.

Just my humble opinion.

Thanks for your humble opinion, though it doesn't sound humble. lol just kidding.

I'll work on it, but I want some white on the sides for aesthetic reasons.

I'm changing some of the designs I don't like much, so when that is ready I'll go into the size issue.