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Author Topic: Site layout  (Read 6227 times)
Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)
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« on: May 07, 2003, 07:41:29 pm »

Heh.  I'm never satisfied.  So many websites seem prettier and more functional then my own.  :P

For Neil's sanity I would definitely abstain from TOTAL site rehashes like I had to some months ago... but I think I shouldn't fear using frames.  I didn't for this supposed compatability issue with browers that I've never seen except on the text browser Lynx (which the supersceder "Links" DOES support them, amazing for a text browser.)  However frames do seem to make for a nice control panel.

Bah, just wondering if any of you have input on this... reorganizing sections, additional functionality up top (the only actual frame used on the page, and an optional one at that)...  I'm not one akin with web design... I'm just a geek.  So I can implement just about anything (except for PHP which I should really learn since I believe my server will support it as-is) which would explain how a YaBB has come to have background table textures.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2003, 07:43:48 pm by rob_jinnai » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2003, 09:04:43 pm »

I think it's fine the way it is. But if you do redesign it, becareful not to Overkill or make it too complex X_X;.

Uhm..Sugestions... lessee... Maybe a key as to what each section is? I got confused first time I vistied about that *shrug*.
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Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)
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« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2003, 11:55:39 pm »

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I think it's fine the way it is. But if you do redesign it, becareful not to Overkill or make it too complex X_X;.


I make it a rule that functionality is above all else.  But I like to make sure I balance the line between eye candy and intuitiveness.  :P


Quote
Uhm..Sugestions... lessee... Maybe a key as to what each section is? I got confused first time I vistied about that *shrug*.


Elaborate a little.  What kind of "key"?
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MrWhat
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« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2003, 08:13:31 pm »

An idea for a minor enhancement.

After you enter your name and password and click the button, you get a page that says

Login Successful!

Click here to go to the main page.


Could you add links to the body of this page, besides the one for the main page?  I could use a link to the forum, a link to the latest picture in the caption contest, and a link to logout.

I know you can get to those other things using the drop-down list at the top of the page.  But what I'm thinking is, if there were links on the login-successful page itself, I can right-click those links in Mozilla, and open tabs for the forum and the caption contest.  Then I can close those tabs, and logout from that same page.  It'd save me some time, and some bouncing around the site, and it might save you a tiny bit of bandwidth.
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Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)
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« Reply #4 on: June 16, 2003, 09:08:40 pm »

*shrug* Well, I'll do you a favor anyway.  It's done.
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Makoto Mizuhara
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« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2003, 10:49:35 am »

I can only really give my input when it refers to frames.  I've descovered that frames can either be your friends or your foes, depending on the webmaster.

Some people go nuts with frames and it ultimately makes the whole page unbrowsable.

I live by this simple rule:

"Frames: two's company, three's a crowd, more than four is inviting a savage beating from your visitors. "

I tend to either limit my pages to no frames, or only 2 (A menu bar on top or side and the main window with a no greater than a 33/77 ratio for the two)

Also, If I do use frames, I try to make make the page also accessable to non-frame users (do not neglect the <noframes> tag) by adding my menu options to the main page, if only for that small percentage of web-browers unable to view frames.

Ultimately, the decision of how you design your page is up to you.  You can't appease everyone and if you start trying, you'll drive yourself nuts (this is spoken from personal experience.)

Overall, I like the redesign you did.  It's much more web-friendly, IMO.  I must admit that it's giving me some ideas on my own redesign when I start on version 2 of my own little heaven on the web.

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Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)
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« Reply #6 on: June 17, 2003, 04:22:14 pm »

Ultimately, I have again escaped the frames concept save for the "quick link" bar up top.  (Which also provides a special set of tool buttons for Administrative use.)

But even that, of course, is quite optional.  Most internal page links don't bother with the top bar.  (Note that if you hit a section from the main page the top bar remains uneffected.)  This was a deliberate design so that the only thing that need be "frames aware" is that bar.

The main reason I didn't use frames before was because of this hint of browsers that can't use them.  The latest redesign, however, suffered terribly from resizing artifacts due to resolution or even a reduced browser window.  (Tables with preset widths cannot and will not change, but very little can be done to verify frames remain unchangable.)
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Makoto Mizuhara
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« Reply #7 on: June 17, 2003, 05:49:46 pm »

You'll get no arguments from me.  I'm a "journeyman" web-designer at best (and that's only because I've dabbled in it for the last 5 or so years).  
::)

You've got a much bigger and broader grasp on the actual code than I do.  As for me, I subscribe to the K.I.S.S. school of web-design. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Though, if I ever get more spare time, i woudl love to learn some new languages, espepcially for when i decide to do verison 3.0 *g*


Ultimately, a pretty page don't mean anything if you have no content.   ;D Luckily, you've got enough of both so you're sitting pretty.
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MrWhat
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« Reply #8 on: June 17, 2003, 06:05:14 pm »

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*shrug* Well, I'll do you a favor anyway.  It's done.

Works great.  doumo  ;D
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« Reply #9 on: June 18, 2003, 12:15:37 am »

I can't remember if I mentioned it before Rob. But the new front page design is 5W33+! ^_^
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Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)
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« Reply #10 on: June 18, 2003, 12:49:58 am »

Well, let's not forget to thank Executor.  He is the main genius behind it, after all.  I'm just the tech who had to make it practical.  :P
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« Reply #11 on: June 19, 2003, 10:40:16 pm »

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Well, let's not forget to thank Executor.  He is the main genius behind it, after all.  I'm just the tech who had to make it practical.  :P

Sankyuu, Executor-kun!!!!!
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« Reply #12 on: June 20, 2003, 11:33:54 am »

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Sankyuu, Executor-kun!!!!!


Thanx for the credit!  ;D

The site looks good so far, but I'm still not satisfied yet.
There is still some work to do on the mainpage and especially the forum.

Also I realized that the page is now taking pretty long to get loaded.  :P (or maybe it's my connection? But 115,2 kbit/s should be enough, shouldn't it?)
Maybe it wouldn't take that long if we really would use some additional frames? (I could work on it if necessary ;) but I'm thankful for any support I can get.)

I know that Rob has less time now, so we should give him a hand and help in any way we can to finish the design and layout of EHOL.

So if I do some more design work, I could use someone with knowlege about Dreamweaver or HTML in general. It may happen that we get into trouble with the solution again ? I would try to solve it with 2 frames (menue and main), let's see how it works out.

When it's all finished, the rest belongs to Rob.

How about it?
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Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)
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« Reply #13 on: June 20, 2003, 11:43:45 am »

The only ever-continuing problem with frames, while they ARE nice for menus, you CAN NOT rely on their widths to be constant.  There-in lies the problem.  They resize with the browser window.

Your only hope would be a different design that didn't absolutely require things to remain where you put them.  :p
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« Reply #14 on: June 20, 2003, 08:30:37 pm »

Tables are the best way to go, IMHO. Frames are just a can of worms that shouldn't be opened at all. Why www.animex.com suddenly decided to go to frames, I will never understand. Their site was just fine, all this time, without them. -.-
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