Hello to everyone. I'm new to the forum after only discovering it this morning. I have a site that I'd be curious to discover peoples thoughts on. It is located at http://ironrod.dingojunction.com/omega.
White stars scattered around next to white text looks very ugly. I recommend you remove the stars entirely, or at least try that and see what it looks like. Removing the stars will also make the jpeg compression look much cleaner.
*Definitely* remove the stars on the sidebar on the left. it looks very unclean. Once you've done that, work on the .gif transparency so that it fades evenly into the background (with antialiasing) before becoming transparent.
You're using some sort of photoshop bevel filter on many of the images. Honestly, that filter is ugly. Flat shapes would be better. If you like the 3D look, try creating it yourself, or at least use a *different* filter, like lighting effects or something ( www.handson.nu has some good lighting effects tutorials).
Finally, you're using the default font, I believe. Use some CSS and specify a different font. A simple font. Arial will do, maybe Verdana, perhaps Georgia, I'm not sure. Just not Times =)
And make your hyperlinks the same font size as the text around them.
"Page Best Viewed at 800x640 with IE5.0+" -> "800 x 600" you mean? This comment should probably be removed; it makes you look bad. If the page looks bad on someone's browser, they'll be able to see that themselves - with that comment there, *everyone* knows it, even IE users =)
Well, since Slime touched on some of the graphical issues (and graphics aren't my forte anyway), I'll leave them alone. Instead, I'd like to mention something about your "Creators" page.
First of all, I suppose I should say that mouseovers are somewhat of a pet peeve for me. I don't mind them when used for menu rollovers, etc., but I don't like it when they are used to manipulate major portions of content. On your "Creators" page, though, the problem is much more serious than simply a matter of taste. If the page is scrolled all the way to the top (which it is by default) there are two authors whose text I cannot read without scrolling--and thus triggering a mouseout and making the text disappear. The text for Matthew Rossi does fit on the screen if I scroll down and then mouseover. However, the text for Jeff McCoskey is too long, and doesn't fit on the screen even after scrolling down.
At any rate, I think using mouseovers for this is a bad idea. Why not just let the users click and have the text stay until they click elsewhere? As it is it's a bit frustrating to use (and impossible in that one case).
Other than that, I don't have too much to comment on. I would agree with Slime about the font, though--anything but Times.
[Edit: I just noticed that none of the letters on the "Characters" page are clickable. Have you not implemented that yet?]
Will help you keep some good continuity, I bought the book, well worth every penny.
A lot of these things seem to be issues of the technical as opposed to stylistic. I think you have something to work with here, but it just needs some more work to flesh it out. The page looks like you designed it in photoshop, and I really reccomend designing your sites with pen and paper. It keeps you more limited, you can fool around with the stuff later.
The major thing is just fixing up your graphics. Making your graphics fit the page better. It seems like you need to work on all of them a bit. Keeping the jaggies to a minimum, and just making it flow. Also you might want to make the link to the home page more apparent.
Also (sorry to pop up again...), you might want to look over the copy, since it is a writers' site. Here are a few of the things that jumped out at me:
[From the main page]
"It was the first independent universe to come out of the wake of the vote to form rec.arts.comics.creative..."
The phrase "come out of the wake of the vote" seems a bit odd to me, but it may just be a difference in stylistic preferences. Personally, I think "the first independent universe to be created after the vote..." would be a lot smoother.
"Some wear masks and call themselves by code-names, others find the concept ridiculous."
First of all, no need for the dash in "code names." Secondly, the sentence should either be "...code names; others..." or "...code names, (while/but/etc.) others...."
[From the Series page]
"Find out how the government responds to the presence of those dubbed "Omegas"."
Periods (and other punctuation marks) go to the left of quotes (...dubbed "Omegas.").
"The answers to these, plus many other questions can be found in the pages of the series set in the Omega Universe."
There should be a comma after "questions."
There are also a few errors in the timeline, and I haven't had time to read through all the FAQs. Sorry to be so picky--I probably wouldn't have brought these things up if the site didn't claim to be a writers' site. Anyway, I would have someone look over all the copy on the site. Individual authors should be responsible for checking their own work, of course.
hehehe, I just read all the posts. You guys just ripped the page apart.
give him some credit, at least he made a webpage. Lots of people don't know the first thing about making webpages.
[This message has been edited by marf (edited 07-15-2002).]
From: Rochester, New York, USA Insane since: May 2000
posted 07-16-2002 00:57
Marf...
Your right, most people do not know how to do a website. But those who do know how to build a website come here to get the opinions of those who frequent this site. The people here are actually rather talented, and they know what they are talking about.
You also have to consider that if we say "Woo Hoo, you made a website, I think you should be a metal." We would be hurting the designer in question rather than helping. We pride ourselves on not being that kind of forum, we give it to you strait. I remember the first website that I posted up here. The response was not to pleasurable. I think my asshole still hurts from how wide it was ripped, yet I persevered and worked harder, and I eventually created some sites that people could actually say something nice about. If I didn't have my hole ripped, I would still be designing crappy sites using tables hacks and played out image tricks.
This place helps you grow, we are going to be rough and tough, if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen as the saying goes.
You guys are right. I didn't mean ripped apart as in (Shit upon it), I meant you gave him ALOT of editing to do. Yes it is a good thing about this forum that people are 'Down to the Point' and that is a must when it comes to webdesign. What I am saying there was not ONE Compliment on his webpage. I just read all the posts and there were helpful critiques for him, but no compliments.
quote:I think my asshole still hurts from how wide it was ripped
Yet another instance where I'm glad that no one was around me when I read that.
As for there not being any compliments, it may just be that it slipped our minds. Personally (and I'm not trying to be harsh here), there wasn't really anything on this site that jumped out at me in a good way. The parts that I (or someone else) didn't mention were OK, but I don't think there was anything that I could really compliment in terms of design. It's quite plain vanilla. This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course. If everything works, and the site showcases the content, then the job is done--and it's done well. I don't think this site is aiming to be on the cutting edge of web design.
In my first year creative writing seminar in university (the one with no prerequisites, so pretty much anybody who wanted in was in), we would go around the room after someone finished reading a piece and say something about it. The first few times my friend and I pointed out things that we thought could be improved, but pretty soon it became apparent that what the prof really meant to say was, "Say something nice about the piece." Considering the fact that most of the people in the class sucked, we ended up just saying "I'll get back to you on that" most of the time. The prof came to understand that this was code for "I have nothing nice to say about this piece, so please don't force me to humiliate this person." Then again, I was also an arrogant young bastard back then.
Anyway, the point is that I'm glad the Asylum is not like a first year creative writing seminar. We're all (well most of us, anyway) are mature enough to take our medicine and--let's face it--it's really the anus-ripping that helps the most in terms of bettering ourselves. If you want a compliment, though, I will say that I think the idea of the site is very interesting, and it might even be something I would be interested in myself. As for the design, I think it should be as invisible as possible. In other words, it should do it's job and then leave center stage to the writers. That's why there were no compliments in my review.
Eh, sorry for the lengthy ranting.... Don't get discouraged, av2kwriter. We're here to help!
Thanks to everyone for taking a look at the site. Sorry for the delay in responding - I got a little waylaid at work and home. However, I would like to say that I did not take offense to any of the comments that have been made. In fact most of the things pointed out were things I was expecting. There was a thread in another forum regarding the difference between Coders and Designers - I know I well more heavily into the prior camp, although I am working on the design aspect.
As to the site itself, the aim behind it was to get what I considerd very good stories out of an archive and more available to a larger audience. So, I didn't want the design to take away from the stories themselves. Graphic wise I'm very much in the learning phase with Photoshop but getting better slowly. As time permits I will take a look at the graphics and look to improve them.
From: The Land of one Headlight on. Insane since: May 2001
posted 07-16-2002 20:09
Hey there. just a couple of observations: The '2nd' colour (mouse over) a light yellow? on your menu works, that is you can see what's there.... but the same colour does not work well imo on the rest of the page. Not enough contrast... at least for these tired eyes. <g>
And I do have a problem with the logo. It took a bit to figure out 'publishing'... initially all I could see was 'fishing'.... might want to sharpen that up a bit... or not...as again it may just be these old eyes <bg>
av24writer: Yes, I can definitely see some improvements in design.
quote:I didn't want the design to take away from the stories themselves.
That's the key right there, really--the content of the site is the most important thing here, and anything that distracts should be taken out. I think you're on the right track.
posted 07-12-2002 15:39
