Topic: New site look review please

I've had a lot of free time lately, and that's let me fall back into my habit of redesigning my website. This time I wanted it to not just look like a blog, but would like to feature the other artwork I've done and also the writing/articles/stories I've posted. It's not very fancy per se, but I tend to go for simpler designs. Right now, the only pages that I think aren't complete are the actual portfolio pages. I would like to change from the slideshow software I'm currently using (PHPSlideshow) and look into something like Coppermine or Gallery, but I'm not sure how customizable either of those are. My main goal would be to have the image gallery at least match the colors of the rest of the site, if not be integrated into the layout.

I've tried to keep my code as clean as possible, but who knows. It's a mix of PHP (via the blog software) and HTML since that is what I'm familiar with. Right now only the index and the links pages are pure HTML, the rest are PHP generated using the blog software and smarty templates. The index page is a bit plain, but I'm looking into somehow inserting/pulling the latest blog site news post there and I need to expand the random image selection as well.

So, any suggestions on the layout/design? Critiques, props, etc? The site should work fine in both IE and FF (one of the reasons I tend to K.I.S.S.

Site link --> http://coeurdefeu.com/

_____________________

coeur de feu :: GamerGod.com
Qui sème le vent récolte la tempête!

OK, some quick comments, in order as I explore the site...

The site looks a bit odd stuck in the upper left corner of the viewport. Have you considered centering it, at least horizontally?

What is the point of those icons on the portfolio page? If they were thumbnails, I could understand that, but essentially they are just bullets--and they seem way too large for just bullets. Also, it would make more sense to me to click on the actual text rather than the bullets. If it were me, I would just get rid of the bullets entirely. At the very least, you should make the portfolio page titles clickable (links).

There seems to be some overlap between the writings page and the blog page, in particular the post entitled "Grimwell Online is back!" That would strike me as something that belonged on the blog page rather than the writings page. Same goes for the next post ("Typical Spring"). You might want to pick a word limit for posts--anything under the limit goes into the blog, anything over the limit goes into writings.

Having some more information in the archives would be helpful--namely, where each of the posts comes from (blog, writings, etc.).

After taking a look through the whole site (with the exception of the portfolio pages), two thoughts come to mind:

1) The home page isn't really the best start page, I don't think. In fact, I don't really think it's necessary at all. It's filler and nothing more. Why not just make the blog the main page? I know you said above that you don't want it to "just look like a blog," but I don't really see how adding a pointless start page helps. I would scrap the home page or make it more useful.

2) I'm wondering about the distinction between the writings page and the blog--is it really needed? Why not just have a single page called "writings" and keep both your long and short writings there? I got this impression when I first looked at the writings and blog pages, and it was reinforced when I finally got to the sections on the right hand side. Having this section menu makes the distinction between writings and blog fairly meaningless, because people can get directly to the type of posts they want to see anyway.

Although I'm not familiar with what your site was like before the redesign, I'm guessing that these two things are the result of your attempt to move away from a "just a blog" site. But I can tell you that, while these changes may make sense to you, they don't make much sense to someone coming to your site for the first time (or at least to me). Being "just a blog" is about content, not presentation and structure. If you have more than blog content on your site, your site will be more than a blog. If you only have blog content on your site, no amount of finagling is ever going to make it more than a blog. In short: don't try to impose artificial divisions on the site to make it seem less blog-like, just let the content speak for itself.

Needless to say, these are just my opinions.


___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

Thanks for the review, Suho.

Re: Writings v. Blog.
I need to go back through and re-catagorize some of my posts, but there is a difference between the blog entries and what I have catagorized as writings, even though they are both viewed through the blog system. Writings are my stories and any gaming related articles that I've had published on other websites (most commonly Grimwell Online and GamerGod at this point. Blog entries are just that - daily (or not so daily) ramblings that I post up. A few of the blog entries shouldn't be listed as writings, and I need to find and redo them.

Re: the portfolio "buttons"
You're completely right, and I've had it pointed out to me elsewhere as well. My only excuse in delaying isn't even a good one really - I'm trying to decide between using Gallery or Coppermine to organize my images. As well, I need to edit down the amount of images I'm displaying in a few cases and instead show only the "good" ones. I don't really need to have every bit of web graphics I created for GamerGod displayed, since some really aren't that noteworthy. Instead of continuing to finetune the site as it is in that area, I've left it sit until I can decide.

Re: centering
I've thought about centering the page, and for whatever reason, it just doesn't appeal to me. I think it's because of the way the gradient fade in the background would look if it were just floating there. Previous layouts have been centered and full-page both, but this design just didn't seem to lend itself to either look. If I were to center it, I suppose I could change the gradient look to one that fades away on both sides, but I'm not sure how that would look and I don't just want a plain block of color against the background either.

Re: Home page usefulness.
This one is difficult. As I said, I'd prefer the page to not just goto the blog, but I'm not sure what else to do. If I could figure out the correct code to use, I'd have a "Latest News Post" there as well, providing another link to those entries. Similar to the "Random Image" that I have there already. I have a lot of art that I want to have viewable as well as the photos that I'm getting back into taking more. Which means I don't want that part to seem an afterthought to the rest of the site if the blog is the main page. I honestly don't know of any other way to organize things, so I'm at a loss here.

I'll keep thinking some more, and take your suggestions into account. That's the reason I posted looking for opinions, but I'm too close to this and of course can't see how things look to others. Thanks again.

_____________________

coeur de feu :: GamerGod.com
Qui sème le vent récolte la tempête!