Astak Parent Company website

[Robertb]

Dear All:

This is not the special surprise I mentioned. That is due to be announced within days.

But, the new website for Team Research Inc (parent company of Astak) is finished and has a lot of great info on the eBook Readers and our other divisions. It is all Consumer Electronics gear... so it should catch your interest.

I think it is the first really professional-looking website we have done. Eventually, all of them will be upgraded.

Go to: www.teamresearchinc.com and have a look around.

And stay tuned for the special announcement. We hope it will be made on Friday or Monday!

[Solicitous]

Nice website Robert. Very similar layout to www.astak.com but far far cleaner and easier to navigate. Good work by the developer.

I await patiently for the announcement (I gather by the number of times you've mentioned an announcement being made sometime in the near future that it is something pretty exciting).

A side note to people interested, through the support link you can follow and get taken to the astak site and download the SDK and source for the EZReader line (both 6" and 5").

[theducks]

Just got power back (after an all day outage) here

The new site is snappy-fast
Way to go.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear All:

This is not the special surprise I mentioned. That is due to be announced within days.

But, the new website for Team Research Inc (parent company of Astak) is finished and has a lot of great info on the eBook Readers and our other divisions. It is all Consumer Electronics gear... so it should catch your interest.

I think it is the first really professional-looking website we have done. Eventually, all of them will be upgraded.

Go to: www.teamresearchinc.com and have a look around.

And stay tuned for the special announcement. We hope it will be made on Friday or Monday!

What a horrible horrible website. No decent website needs flash for menus and all that animation is just nasty. It's unprofessional. No way I would ever buy a product from a company that has such a poorly designed website. If they put in as much effort into the products as they did the website, they products would be trash. I'm sorry, but please fire the webmaster.

Was this site designed by the same person (who should be fired) who designed the Astak website? And speaking of the Astak website, the home page not only has a flash menu with flash animation, it's way way too busy looking.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

Nice website Robert. Very similar layout to www.astak.com but far far cleaner and easier to navigate. Good work by the developer.

I await patiently for the announcement (I gather by the number of times you've mentioned an announcement being made sometime in the near future that it is something pretty exciting).

A side note to people interested, through the support link you can follow and get taken to the astak site and download the SDK and source for the EZReader line (both 6" and 5").

You do realize that the menu and the animation being flash makes the website totally unprofessional.

[tmclough]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What a horrible horrible website. No decent website needs flash for menus and all that animation is just nasty. It's unprofessional. No way I would ever buy a product from a company that has such a poorly designed website. If they put in as much effort into the products as they did the website, they products would be trash. I'm sorry, but please fire the webmaster.

Was this site designed by the same person (who should be fired) who designed the Astak website? And speaking of the Astak website, the home page not only has a flash menu with flash animation, it's way way too busy looking.

Better get rid of your Sony--I just went to www.sony.com, and it's nothing but flash.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tmclough

Better get rid of your Sony--I just went to www.sony.com, and it's nothing but flash.

But we go to http://www.sonystyle.com and yes there is a flash animation there, but if you have flashblock, it won't impede the use of the site.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You do realize that the menu and the animation being flash makes the website totally unprofessional.

Flash doesn't make a website unprofessional, what makes a flash website unprofessional is when the website is built using only flash.

Their website only uses flash for the top menu and banner.

[shadowboxer47]

I think the new site is great!

Then again, I am just a mortal.

[Davimee]

I just checked it out and it works great on my netbook! Some sites (like sonystyle) just make my computer freeze up, but this one works great!

[JimMcLaren]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You do realize that the menu and the animation being flash makes the website totally unprofessional.

Give me a break! The technology used does not define the usability or professional quality of a website. I would never use Flash for a website and that's what I do for a living. Traditional HTML pages can make far better websites. But as far as Flash goes, this one is pretty innocuous. Things are logically arranged and it's well organized. That's what makes a good website. Go read "Don't Make Me Think!" if you want to learn what makes a good website. The book's over 10 years old and is still considered the definitive text on what makes a good website because it doesn't focus on technology.

Originally Posted by Solicitous

Flash doesn't make a website unprofessional, what makes a flash website unprofessional is when the website is built using only flash.

Their website only uses flash for the top menu and banner.

What you say is true. Flash does not make the website unprofessional but the website is pretty much useless without Flash which I normally block. But the flash is minimal. The only problem I have is that you have to use flash to use the website.

JMHO
Jim

[theducks]

Passing http://www.w3.org/WAI/ guidelines would be a starting metric for a professional site.

bobby is no longer free to run against a site, so I have no idea if this one passes or fails.

Ability to navigate with lynx (a text only browser for you Internet newbies) would be a good test.

[JSWolf]

Well, the site cannot be used with an iPad or an iPod Touch or an iPhone. So I'd say it's a problem.

[JimMcLaren]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Well, the site cannot be used with an iPad or an iPod Touch or an iPhone. So I'd say it's a problem.

I wasn't aware that the site didn't work on the ipad et al. That's a target audience the devlopers will miss. I don't know if I'd judge the quality of the website based on the experience on that particular platform.

Originally Posted by theducks

Passing http://www.w3.org/WAI/ guidelines would be a starting metric for a professional site.

bobby is no longer free to run against a site, so I have no idea if this one passes or fails.

Ability to navigate with lynx (a text only browser for you Internet newbies) would be a good test.

I didn't feel like recompiling lynx for my machine since I haven't installed a development environment that would allow me to do so. So I found an old version and that may be my problem but I could not login to www.mobileread.com/forums/. I could browse the forums but could not post. By that standard, this forum is unprofessional.

Professional websites should take advantage of technologies available to the developer. They should also provide alternative sites/content for those that cannot access their rich content so the site is at least usable. In this particular area the Team Research site does not succeed.

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Well, the site cannot be used with an iPad or an iPod Touch or an iPhone. So I'd say it's a problem.

Some would say that's not a failing of the website, but of the hardware.