Music on the front page, you didn't did you?

[Christiaan]

A gentle rant for the person(s) who thought it would be cool to auto-play music on the front page of the Vectorworks website: it's not. It's a naff idea.

I woke up my girlfriend late last night in bed and now I just scared the hell out of myself this morning on my desktop machine.

This is what I expect from adolescents on MySpace, not the people designing my CAD software. If you can't bare to remove it, do yourselves and your readers a favour and at least add a large mute button.

[maarten.]

There's a big "Mute" button on the right top of your keyboard, it's not that hard to use it

[Christiaan]

What if you're listening to something else that you don't want to mute? It's just poor web design, period.

In any case a mute button is a band-aid for a bad idea. You've already been aurally violated. The mute should be on by default. Or maybe have a play button instead, that plays the audio and video.

[brudgers]

1986 called, it wants it's graphic equalizer back.

[Jeffrey W Ouellette]

Wow,

You guys are harsh...

Care to put your work out there, up front for anyone/everyone to critique? We've got a place for it:

http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=37&page=1

[Christiaan]

Jeffrey, I have four reasons I don't hold back when it comes to criticising NNA:

1. We pay you a lot of money

2. My income is somewhat reliant on you guys

3. I spend much of my waking hours using and experiencing stuff you've created

4. My expectations and experience of NNA are very high and I want to keep them that way

Please please never take my criticism personally. It's never intended that way no matter how it sounds. I think you guys do a wonderful job all and all.

[brudgers]

Try publishing your work on large sheets and distributing it in multiple copies to people with a vested interest in pointing out mistakes to make an excuse for not paying, while carrying thirteen years of personal and unlimited direct liablity.

My work is filed for public record.

[AndiACD]

Jeffery . . . .

Harsh yes, but it keeps you on your toes, and reminds you that we DO care about the product.

[Christiaan]

Thanks for the skip intro button. I can now visit your website in relative peace.

[Don@Black Dog]

Just to pile on, if you have to use music, make it something sophisticated, like the rest of the site is aiming at. Those colored bars are unnecessary, too...but in a nice way.

[Christiaan]

The colour bars come from NAG's branding.

[brudgers]

I went back to the page (with the sound off).

I realized there's a whole video there, not just the graphic equalizer.

But that's all I saw as I got blasted on day one...I came in through the BIM page (looking for a new project on release day)...navigated to the home page and quickly hit the back button on my mouse.

[Don@Black Dog]

Maybe a different entry page for regular users instead of new visitors, so we don't get blasted when going to the tech forum or looking for other information.

I realized later the coloredd bars are a new branding/logo thing, but I think they are a lightweight image compared with the relative sophistication of the rest of the site design. Just an initial gut reaction.

[Christiaan]

Apple to the rescue:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/23/apple_may_give_safari_audio_controls_to_silence_irritating_websites.html

Will come in handy when visiting the UK site:

http://www.vectorworks.uk.com/