XE-UK Flash WebsiteXtreme Entertainment UK are a funky, friendly North East party supplies company based in Peterlee. They hired me a little while ago to illustrate some of their cartoon characters and create a Flash animated advertisement to be played at supermarket checkouts throughout the North East, and wanted to complete the set by commissioning a fantastic Flash website that kids would simply love!
Brand Design & Public Image
Branding is extremely important to any growing business, and knowing that you're the best isn't going to get you anywhere unless your customers know it too. And so XE-UK commissioned me to design and develop this delightful Flash website to showcase their range of fun and frolics and to make their competitors shuffle nervously in their seats.
Target Audience & Usability
The website was designed with two key audiences in mind - parents of young children and the children themselves. The site had to be fun, with games and activities, and a user-interface that encouraged young fingers to click around. It had to be simple - very simple - but bouncy and friendly enough not to be intimidating.
Bright, colourful shapes and plump, animated icons create an inviting and engrossing website for youngsters to explore, whilst the bold typography and big chunky menu buttons make navigation a breeze for those who want to get straight to the point.
Sound Design
With such a bouncy, zingy, twisty, zappy website, the temptation to go overboard with the sound effects was almost irresistible! But I'm a big believer in 'less is more' - too many perfectly good Flash websites are ruined by over-the-top sound design. And so I kept it simple, with subtle noises to compliment the animation and accentuate the feeling of life and zest with each page opening. With just enough there to amuse the kids, but not enough to irritate mum and dad!
Flash Games
Building a lasting relationship with the younger audience was of paramount importance to XE-UK, and so a Flash Games page was included in the website to keep them amused. A simple children's colouring book and jigsaw puzzle game were developed in Flash, incorporating the company's well established characters, Reggie, Jack and Denzil. More Flash games are on the way over the coming months.
Content Management System
The Flash website runs off a MySQL database back-end with a bespoke Content Management System (CMS) that allows XEUK to update almost every page on their website through a beautifully designed password protected administration website.
The CMS allows XE-UK to add, modify and delete Bouncy Castles, Inflatables, Events and Testimonials in only a few simple clicks without any experience of website design and without ever having to open a Flash file.
In addition to controlling and updating the content of the website, the CMS also gives XE-UK access to their mailing list with the option to export a complete list of subscribers in CSV format ready to use in their favourite bulk-mailing software.
Aswell as the central Flash website, a separate xhtml text-only alternative site was included to provide Google with all the information it needs and give disabled users and those without the Flash player and alternative source of content. Feeding off the same database back-end, this website is automatically updated when XE-UK make changes to the Flash website. |
