Nows the time to say what you like and what you hate about the current version of the website AND give me your wish list for what you would like to see in the next version. We're shooting for January to roll out the next version although it'll probably slip a bit.
Xerexes: if you use Mozilla, there's no need to bookmark the page. If you click on my comic you'll see a green and blue heart which is my comic's favicon.
I made a thread on the Keenspace forums about how you do it.
Little thing -- The nice little navigation bar you've added to the top of every web page should be repeated at the bottom.
And I believe this was mentioned elsewhere, but it'd be nice to see how many comments were left on a blog post without having to open the post.
I spent some time thinking about this today (because I should be studying analytical chemistry) and did some quick test layouts of the index page. Before I whip them out lets consider some issues.
When you visit Comixpedia, what is the first thing you see and what is the first thing you should see?
The first answer is the ad, the cover image and the description of this weeks content. At least that is what you see if you have 1024x768 resolution on your screen. Lower than that and the cover image and content description will be cut off after two thirds. Obviously what I'm getting at here is that the ad shouldn't be at the top of the page, it shouldn't be the first thing a visitor sees, that should be the cover image. Besides people would tend to scroll past it quite quickly to get to the actuall content. Hence the first layout I made I moved the horizontal ad below the cover image.
Not everything is included specifically in this image, but you'll get the idea.
Below the ad I went for a Sequential tartish layout, everything divided into sections. Because of this everything should also be kept pretty short, probably no more than headlines (pretty much the same way the blog is displayed now, but showing the number of comments as well). The blog and news are combined into one (or at the very least there should only be one rss feed) and the actuall issue content is kept apart from the blog/news).
The second layout I fiddled with follows the same idea at the top of the page, but also a philosophy I myself subscribe to, namely that you shouldn't have to scroll past ads to reach the content. The ads should be displayed next to the content. The opposite of this philosophy is quite common on internet sites, and it is not a big pain in the ass, but a pain non the less.
This layout is quite similar to todays, but instead of a horizontal ad there is a skyscraper ad, and both it and the google ads are positioned on the right side. IMO skyscraper ads are usually more efficient than horzontal ones to begin with since you don't scroll past them as quickly.
Once again the blog and news have been combined into one, but this time each entry will be displayed like the news of the current layout. The number of entries displayed should be no more than four or five to avoid having to scroll too much and making it easier to get an overview, which is achieved by adding a previous news section below them.
Pew, this got a bit long, but to recap the things I think are important:
1. No ads above the cover image
2. Only one RSS feed
And things I myself fancy:
1. Separate the ads from the content
2. Don't make the index page too long by having too many items in a column or by displaying too much of each item.
Erik - thanks for the thoughtful posts. I'll definitely keep it in mind. The site as it is right now should be 800 pixels wide except when something on a page streches out a cell in the table. If we went wider than 800 it would actually be a lot easier to design the front page.
Alexander - I just dropped the menu bar in the bottom of the site as well - is that about what you were thinking of?
X -- Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Makes navigating from long pages (like this one) a lot easier.
I tend to agree with Erik that skyscraper ads are both prettier, design-wise, and more effective. But I would definitely vote against putting a horizontal ad below the cover -- it would make the ad look like your lead story.
I like Erik's second design. I say you leap into that bold new world.
You know I actually paid attention to this thread while working on this new theme.
I'd like to see!!
- Apply the blue color scheme to the rest of the site.
- Make the boxes on the front look more uniform, cohesive. I gave the example of using a single background color spanning all of them, so they appear as part of a whole, instead of split up by the page's default, darker background color.
- Clean up the font sizes... I'm seeing Verdana 14 point in some places (like, left of the Quick Reply box, for one), next to Verdana 8. It's too big and looks random.
Part of the font size problem is the clunky, poorly documented theme systems for POSTNUKE. I'm working on it. I do like the blue color scheme. It's already on the non-magazine parts of the site (er, at least most of them). I'm still reserving judgement on abandoning monthly color schemes based on the cover art - at least for the pages of the site that are part of the magazine.
Also just to make it easier on me - put comments/suggestions on the other thread I started today, not this one. THanks.
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Revamping for Comixpedia Version 3.0
Nows the time to say what you like and what you hate about the current version of the website AND give me your wish list for what you would like to see in the next version. We're shooting for January to roll out the next version although it'll probably slip a bit.
RE: Revamping for Comixpedia Version 3.0
Sweet! :D
It even kept my avatar pic..
RE: Revamping for Comixpedia Version 3.0
I dislike how crowded the website is. I can't say why but I always feel like there's never enough room. Sorry for being vague, perhaps people will see this and go "oh yeah, I agree. I think it's crowded because of X"
I also find it difficult to navigate, again I can't suggest any improvements.
Having said that, I love the new forum :) The quotes are a LOT better, it's also divisioned better and the colors are nice :) A blue-theme to the website would be nice. Or having a skinned website and forum with multiple skins would also be nice.
RE: Revamping for Comixpedia Version 3.0
My biggest problem with the site is the red text on black backgrounds... I'm not sure if it's my monitor settings or if I've gone totally colorblind, but sometimes it's a real pain to try and read.
I think the new blue colors work great for the forum, and I think it's a color scheme that you should apply to the rest of the site.
The blue colours work very well indeed.
By the way was the menu above the horizontal ad there before, or am I just not very observant?
Remember to put up a favicon on the list. It's really simple and all the cool kids have it already.
RPIN - a favicon? What's that?
Ever bookmark a page and a little icon shows up? That's a favicon.