Websites which don't look like websites but are websites

Flash Websites Research

I'm looking to make my website in flash for the current project and here are some examples of flash built into websites.


http://www.dieantwoord.com/index.html

Dieantwoord is a website for the band Dieantwoord, the band is from South Africa and i don't know if i like their music yet? It was quite by chance i found this website after watching a video from one of their songs then doing a search on google i came across their website.

The website is all done in flash with a slideshow background which changes every couple of seconds and replaces the background with a new image of the band which is quite a nice feature, rather than featuring a gallery. The site also plays music on start up, and on the right hand side there is a tab which opens a menu and allows the user to change the song being played, with about 20 songs to choose from.

The Left hand menu is very simple and each item in the menu brings up a feature about the band. The video tab shows a list of band videos, once the user clicks the video the website then takes the user to a page where a video from youtube is embeded.

The website is very well laid out and very simple for the user to understand with the big menu on the left hand side. Overall i like this website as it breaks away from more traditional websites. Some of the background images are abit subject to question but it is in the style of the band.

One more thing



There website also includes another flash element the 'secert chamber' an extra bit of promtoional work, the secert chamber is a full screen flash version of a room which is take from a photograph and certain parts of the room have been animated. When the user moves the mouse over a certain part of the room a voice clip plays, probably some of the bands opionions i'm unsure. The user knows which part of the screen to move the mouse over to hear the sounds because the parts of the room which are animated play the sound.

I like the flash design of this part of the website and it is very different to the actual main website. Also nearly forgot every 10 seconds a member of the band will appear in the center of the room, they fade in then fade back out again.




http://www.yearcourse.org/landing/index.html

Year Course is a website for anyone wishing to take a gap year or something in Isreal. Enough about what the websites about i'll focus on the flash. This has to be one of the most interactive websites ive come across. From the screenshot the website is basically a landscape of an area i presume in Isreal (or the best bits all in one image). At either side there is a arrow which allows the user to pan across the landscape. I really like this feature as it gives the user the ability to explore the website. Once the website has loaded a person comes and greets you, this is a nice video embeded into the website.

The best thing about the website is you get to colour it in! its a real simple feature when you think about it, abit harder in flash to code. There is a selection of colours at the top and the user can click on them and then click the area on screen to colour that are like the paint bucket tool on MSpaint. While doing this there are lots of little sutil animations going on all the time on screen and if the user hovers the mouse over them then they play a sound bite varying from sounds of the sea to music and even the sounds of camels.

Overall this website is very interactive and kept my attention for quite sometime, one of the reasons i think this was because the landscape is quite big therefore i wanted to colour most of it in. The website is what i would like to design mine like for this present project.

Statement taken from YAal Herman's portfolio website, (the man behind the yearcourse website)

yaal herman is a freelance multimedia artist that focuses on the development of creative solutions for businesses, organizations and individuals who require professional class web applications without the media buying, commissions and overhead of a full service agency. With extensive experience in various media, a unique perspective on the marketing-web-art world and a wide professional network, our aim is to provide a creative service that refines and delivers your message in the most efficient, yet artistic way.

I feel this is relevent to our course.




http://www.mauriciostudio.com/

Mauricio portfolio is a good example of creativity. Instead of the ordinary menu, he uses a kind of parallax movieclip, where the user must interact with the stage to explore the site. The user explores the website by moving the mosue to the desired area in realtime and then their are certain buildings/areas the user can click to find out more information. Failing that there is a menu at the bottom which takes the user to that area on screen.

One of the first things which came to mind while browsing this website was how familar to me it looks like a landscape from the Worms games series. The website to me just has the same feel as from the Worms game the navigation and the way the screen moves are very similar, but thats just what i picked up on.

The only bad thing about the website i can think of is the lack of interactive content, it doesn't keep my attention like the Isreal website once you've explored everything thats it nothing new to see and it just becomes looking at the same thing over and over again.

Overall the website looks great and some of his work is very nice but the only downside is it doesn't keep the user fixed to the website, i spent maybe about 5minutes looking at it but i won't look back at it again because there is a lack of interactive content and information relevent to me. But it uses flash very nicely and is quite an original design again breaking away from alot of traditional web design.


Related Information
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/07/50-beautiful-flash-websites/