Hello Guest, please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
Login with username, password and session length.

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Feedback on Layout for my New Website  (Read 4024 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

PoeFacedKilla

Prussian Killer Bee
Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« on: September 01, 2012, 06:39:15 am »
  • *
  • Reputation: +0/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 269
After nearly 10 years, last year I closed my website Zelda Shrine.  This was a hard decision because i love the Zelda community and I put 10 years of coding into the site (and ten years of screenshots, walkthroughs, and just game guides in general.)

I've recently began to write a zelda book, and my drive to become a part of the community has led me to build a new site specifically for my Zelda writing (and my future zelda game which is coming along quite nice :))

Any way (sort of went on a rant there), before I begin to build my CMS and start posting my writings, i wanted to get constructive criticism on my new layout.
http://thedarkfaces.byethost18.com/

Please view my website and tear it to pieces for me, so i can improve it.
(sorry its on a free server, once i regain my fan base i will be moving to a paid or dedicated server.)
Logged
the Indyboard - User Generated Social Forum | Now With Even More Discussion!
Poe, The Independent Programmer
  • Zelda Shrine
Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2012, 08:39:08 am »
  • Just call me Brad
  • *
  • Reputation: +9/-2
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 1333
Hey Linkthemaster, just came here to say welcome to the forum.
I looked at your website, how to put this...
...It has:
News/Home Page
Login/Register
Image Gallery
Dark Faces: Volume I
Articles
Community Forum

thats good, but when I clic on them it takes me nowhere.
Logged

PoeFacedKilla

Prussian Killer Bee
Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2012, 09:17:43 am »
  • *
  • Reputation: +0/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 269
Hey Linkthemaster, just came here to say welcome to the forum.
I looked at your website, how to put this...
...It has:
News/Home Page
Login/Register
Image Gallery
Dark Faces: Volume I
Articles
Community Forum

thats good, but when I clic on them it takes me nowhere.

hey, well i used to come here when i was younger but after failing to complete a zelda game i sort of went into exile.

But anyway, I haven't started the PHP programming yet so thats why no links work;
 was merely asking for feedback on the layout.
Logged
the Indyboard - User Generated Social Forum | Now With Even More Discussion!
Poe, The Independent Programmer
  • Zelda Shrine

Starforsaken101

Wake the Beast
Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2012, 12:58:44 pm »
  • www.mouffers.com
  • *
  • Reputation: +69/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 2577
Alright, you're probably not going to like this due to the fact that it will be full of negative feedback, but just know I like your initiative!

The UI is terrible. If I'm a first-time user and not very good at anything technology-related, I'm going to look at this website and say "Well !@#$%, where do I go now?" Quite honestly, I didn't even see the side menu at first. You need to make the UI obvious for the user. This could be due to the fact that the font is so small on the left sidebar that I didn't notice it at all.

Why are there two menus? This is dumb and confusing, especially since both of the menus seem to correlate and point to the same things.

The top banner is too huge.

The content in the middle is not aligned properly and looks out of place. Why not center that box? It would already make your website look ten times better!

Your side bar is too tall. It should ideally span to the height of the content you have in the middle. Since your middle content is small, your sidebar should span to the same height (unless you have more options/links).

However, the colors at least match somewhat and I don't see multiple pools of rainbow vomit, so that's a huge plus from me.
Logged
  • Starforsaken101's DeviantART

Antidote

>.>
Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2012, 05:21:36 pm »
  • In all seriousness who's serious?
  • *
  • Reputation: +0/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 1485
That header is fracking massive D:
Logged
  • Axiomatic Data Laboratories

thestig

Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2012, 06:01:10 pm »
Wow. Pretty much Star said is what I would be saying too. This design kind of feels like a throwback to the late 90s(but then again, so does ZFGC's default theme) because of its shortcomings. Web themes to day have more simple designs and color schemes.. I think you have the color schemes down, but you misuse it for tables and the catbars. Dunno, the grads don't seem to fit there.

Also I would honestly look at what Wordpress is doing for their distribution of news. It's clean, simple, and up to date. ;p Where as yours kind of wouldn't be if there were content.
Logged

Starforsaken101

Wake the Beast
Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2012, 06:25:40 pm »
  • www.mouffers.com
  • *
  • Reputation: +69/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 2577
Hey Linkthemaster, just came here to say welcome to the forum.
I looked at your website, how to put this...
...It has:
News/Home Page
Login/Register
Image Gallery
Dark Faces: Volume I
Articles
Community Forum

thats good, but when I clic on them it takes me nowhere.

I noticed this comment just now. This is due to the fact that the website is still under development. However, I think it would be best if those links were not clickable to make the user less confused.
Logged
  • Starforsaken101's DeviantART
Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2012, 08:03:38 pm »
  • *
  • Reputation: +1/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 76
First off, I like the idea you're going with it. Simple, not too flashy. The layout depends more on boxes with solid lines than on bright, colorful images. It's very minimal and it's a good choice of colors. It all looks good.

The biggest problems are with the layout. It's way too big. Here's how it looked like when I first clicked on it on a non-maximized browser window taking up around 70% of my screen: http://d.pr/i/qLN1

The top image is too huge. It forces anyone without a huge screen to scroll down to start looking at any content. Also, there's a leg coming out of nowhere. Even after maximizing the window, my screen is not wide enough to make the leg connect to anything. (My screen is 1280 pixels wide.)

There is way too much spacing between all the layout elements. The menu on the left could go more to the left. There is way too much spacing between the menu and the content. On the other hand, there's very little spacing in the box where you'd be posting the news. The letters are way too close to the borders. Just a few pixels of spacing could fix that.

I like the overall idea you have for it. Just don't assume that everyone who will look at it has a widescreen monitor.

Edit: I noticed something else - as well as the top banner being too tall, it has other problems. Link's right hand (holding the sword) is covering Romani's face. All the characters on the right side are too close together and it looks cramped. On the left side, Cremia is much larger than (character on the left whose name I can't remember), and yet she's supposed to be behind him.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2012, 08:08:53 pm by Rafa »
Logged

PoeFacedKilla

Prussian Killer Bee
Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2012, 09:28:29 pm »
  • *
  • Reputation: +0/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 269
thank you all, I have taken all your criticism to heart.  I supposed i'm just stuck in the good old days of webdesign, well i'm going to completely redo the layout and then post it here hopefully i can make it better.

And as for using wordpress, i made a promise to myself when I was about 13 that i would never use premade CMS, Forums, or anything regarding webdesign, especially since I can build my own and it be exactly how I want it to be.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2012, 09:38:14 pm by linkthemaster »
Logged
the Indyboard - User Generated Social Forum | Now With Even More Discussion!
Poe, The Independent Programmer
  • Zelda Shrine

Starforsaken101

Wake the Beast
Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2012, 12:14:57 am »
  • www.mouffers.com
  • *
  • Reputation: +69/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 2577
thank you all, I have taken all your criticism to heart.  I supposed i'm just stuck in the good old days of webdesign, well i'm going to completely redo the layout and then post it here hopefully i can make it better.

And as for using wordpress, i made a promise to myself when I was about 13 that i would never use premade CMS, Forums, or anything regarding webdesign, especially since I can build my own and it be exactly how I want it to be.

I gotta say, I agree with you on that premade stuff. I find there's more glory to be found if you make it yourself ^_^. Good luck, and I can't wait to see the new design.
Logged
  • Starforsaken101's DeviantART

thestig

Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2012, 12:35:26 am »
thank you all, I have taken all your criticism to heart.  I supposed i'm just stuck in the good old days of webdesign, well i'm going to completely redo the layout and then post it here hopefully i can make it better.

And as for using wordpress, i made a promise to myself when I was about 13 that i would never use premade CMS, Forums, or anything regarding webdesign, especially since I can build my own and it be exactly how I want it to be.

I gotta say, I agree with you on that premade stuff. I find there's more glory to be found if you make it yourself ^_^. Good luck, and I can't wait to see the new design.
There is glory, but some times premade is better than custom-made. i.e. Security for example could be better, or how certain features can be implemented in a superior way than what <x> person could do. XD I guess it matters per person and per-case.

Anyways when I mentioned WordPress, I was referring to their overall design, not to switch over to them.
Logged

PoeFacedKilla

Prussian Killer Bee
Re: Feedback on Layout for my New Website
« Reply #11 on: September 03, 2012, 12:56:53 am »
  • *
  • Reputation: +0/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 269
thank you all, I have taken all your criticism to heart.  I supposed i'm just stuck in the good old days of webdesign, well i'm going to completely redo the layout and then post it here hopefully i can make it better.

And as for using wordpress, i made a promise to myself when I was about 13 that i would never use premade CMS, Forums, or anything regarding webdesign, especially since I can build my own and it be exactly how I want it to be.

I gotta say, I agree with you on that premade stuff. I find there's more glory to be found if you make it yourself ^_^. Good luck, and I can't wait to see the new design.
There is glory, but some times premade is better than custom-made. i.e. Security for example could be better, or how certain features can be implemented in a superior way than what <x> person could do. XD I guess it matters per person and per-case.

Anyways when I mentioned WordPress, I was referring to their overall design, not to switch over to them.

well i am sort of using a wordpress like design, at least for news and posting my writing.
but i have around 6000+ zelda screenshots that i also have to make a system to display them.

As for layout, i'm currently working on my zelda game atm.  I'm going 2 days on one and 2 days on the other. But I have already drawn up ideas for the new layout and i' going with a red style this time (and at least a little DICKBUTT programmed in.)
Logged
the Indyboard - User Generated Social Forum | Now With Even More Discussion!
Poe, The Independent Programmer
  • Zelda Shrine
Pages: [1]   Go Up

 


Contact Us | Legal | Advertise Here
2013 © ZFGC, All Rights Reserved



Page created in 0.062 seconds with 62 queries.

anything