Opinions, please: Websites with sound

Xiney

Personally, I hate sound on websites. However, I'm currently designing a website that could really use some sound for ambiance (it's a harbour themed website, I was thinking sea birds + waves kind of thing in the background)


So I'm just confirming that everyone hates sound on websites and that I shouldn't do it, for a user point of view, even though from a design point of view it might be the right thing to do?

dangerman

Yep, don't do it.

There's nothing more intrusive. Unless you are doing a music/band site (and even then, I don't think the music should auto-play, it should just have a big play button) ...there's no excuse.

ianhobo

Yep, I hate it too. I'm always listening to music when I'm at the computer, my biggest hate is when a website decides for me that I'd rather be hearing ocean sounds and birds rather than what I actually selected.

By all means build/design the website with what ever features you deem necessary, but the likes of audio should be offered as an option to the user
(and maybe their preference stored as a cookie for next time too)

Xiney

*sigh* just wanted confirmation.

At least now I won't curse the designers to high heaven every time I visit a soundy website, I understand their dilema.

Tails142

Dont do it.

I had to make a website where the customer demanded that their crappy opera style music played on the main page. I cringe every time I see/hear it.

Xiney

Oh, yeah... I used to work for a really nice 60 year old woman. She'd recently discovered clip art!! (I managed to keep most of it off the site..)

NotMe

Another "don't do it!" here.

I'm usually listening to music at my computer and don't want websites to be playing sounds.
And also I'm going to have a number of tabs open and if something I've opened in a background tab starts playing music it's annoying. If 2 or more sites have background music playing well.. .

Xiney

Ok, since I've decided there will be no music, anyone want to take a look at what I've got so far (only been working on it for a day) and let me know how to make it more "nautical"?

I'm not trained in website development or anything, this is just a hobby... so be kind.

http://www.harbourhousehostel.com/new.html

- I just made the new logo, so I can make changes to it more easily at this point in time (ie, we're not using it yet)
- I also made the little navigatey icons and the map so they can be changed as well, I'm probably going to make the text on the map bigger as it's a bit hard to read
- I'm pretty set on the colour scheme because I like it, though maybe the two dark blues are too close together.
- All links will point you back to the old site, which is fun to look at in a car crash type of way...

p

Sound is fine for certain websites, especially those that are entertainment related or are more of an experience. The site you're doing doesn't fall into that category so it wouldn't be a good idea.

Regarding the site. It's not bad. While it's not going to win any awards, it's cheap & cheerful and looks like it will be easy to navigate and understand.

One small thing that's kind of annoying is you're rounded corners. The navbar is fine, but with the other corners, you've stretched them, so rather than having nice round corners, you kind of have oval squashed corners. It's something small, but would be better if you redrew the corners and fixed it. I've attached a screenshot.

Also, on a similar line. You should try make the spacing between the two columns, the same as the spacing between them and the navbar, so it all looks balanced.

All the best with it.

Xiney

those corners were giving me so much trouble it's amazing they're up there at all...

I'll definitely update them and the spacing as well though, as I see what you mean. A bit detail oriented, I'm pretty sure most of the customers won't notice, but now that you've pointed it out it'll bug me :P

EKRIUQ

Just a little tip when laying out a page instead of using TEXT TEXT TEXT you could use Lorem ipsum

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English.

Sample:
Pellentesque tincidunt tincidunt purus. Sed interdum, mi a elementum semper, nisl lorem pulvinar lectus, molestie commodo sem orci ac urna. Nam faucibus, risus sit amet consectetuer luctus, tellus justo sollicitudin nisi, et vulputate mi urna eu est. Maecenas


http://www.lipsum.com/

DJB

I agree... stay away from music/sound on a website if at all possible.

I must visit lipsum.com 4/5 times a day. I wonder to they make any money out of the advertising on it.

Xiney

BingoBongo wrote: »

http://www.lipsum.com/

cool, I've seen that around but never knew what it was. thanks!

kjt

I see that you've decided not to go for the sound option, good stuff! 99.6817265% of times I hear music on a website I will start looking for the mute button, if their isn't one I'll just leave the site.

Regarding the site so far (just had a really quick look), you might want to try validate your code a bit better here also try put all the js code you have on the site into an external .js file as it shall speed the load time a bit and it's just neater to read. + better for SEO.

Best of luck

Bard

Actually I'm not going to say "don't do it"... I'll say DO IT. If it's going to enhance the site, go for it...

Just make sure it's muted by default though, and that the user has to click an icon to hear the sound.

Xiney

oh god.

don't even talk to me about that bloody js calendar, was up until 4 in the morning trying to figure out why it has randomly decided to choose june 10 as its default date. argh. I'm no programmer

I will certainly look into the external file thing, I also have to take the css out of the main site and put it into my css file. It's split up at the moment... not the best way of doing things.


To be perfectly honest this is the first website I've done since 2003. Things have changed a bit...




So no ideas on how to make it more "harbour" themed without making it tacky? Is the website too cluttered or are the current icons ok?

kjt

Maybe pop an anchor or something like that down the bottom. A nice clean image. Just wondering about your calendar now that you mention it, when I click book now, should all the info not be passed over to the bookhostels website. It sort of defeats the purpose of having a calendar on the original site....

Xiney

the book hostels site isn't really running at the moment - I haven't started to work on it. hence it's still in the old format, etc.

mewso

Is that a dreamweaver image swap thingy? Shudder. I think the site looks very good but try and try again to make the menu text. That goes for the image + text icons on the top too. The text should be text. When images are used to create a text menu it is just pointless. Some of the script is very bad. I don't know if it's dreamweaver or from somewhere else but there are some good calendars out there. For example the datechooser. When you want scripts look for 'unobtrusive' scripts/widgets. Just a personal recommendation.

tricky D

Yup, sound bad.
Square corners work better for the eye, rounded corners just don't perform so well. Coding square corners is much simpler.
I'd also expect to see photos on the homepage - seascape and the hotel. Perhaps a seascape background, but careful there as it isn't easy to make it look good. Some sort of banner with seascape is prolly a better option.
Not sure if using a logo is worthwhile.
+1 Text should be text - I want to able to copy it if I like.
The Harbour House Hotel top graphic could have some sort of drop-shadow or the like kind of effect on the text - seems a bit plain to me.

\my 2c, hth