trash panda
---m(O.O)gle---
- AKA
- Howl
That is really gorgeous. :3
Site Design
- Thread starter Pixel
- Start date
Jason Tandro
Banned
- AKA
- Jason Tandro, Doc Brown, Santa Christ, FearAddict, Thibault Stormrunner, RN: Micah Rodney
I like the new banner. Not that I dislike the old by any means, but the new banner has a nice fresh feel. It's reminiscent of the fact that the old game is getting a remaster and as such the banner has been remastered.
Cthulhu
Administrator
- AKA
- Yop
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
When (and why) was this change made?
As far as I can tell, there is no longer a way to reach our front page from within articles. It's also a bit inconsistent, since clicking the banner from within the forum takes you to the front page.
Code:
<a href="http://thelifestream.net/[COLOR="White"]forums[/COLOR]" style="background-color: #051012">
<img src="http://thelifestream.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/lifestreambanner7copy.gif" width="1024" height="181" alt="" />
</a>As far as I can tell, there is no longer a way to reach our front page from within articles. It's also a bit inconsistent, since clicking the banner from within the forum takes you to the front page.
Cthulhu
Administrator
- AKA
- Yop
It's a thing Lex asked me to do a while ago - experimental, at least. I could probably dive into the analytics to see if it had any effect. You're right though, there's no dedicated 'home' button in articles anymore. Should I revert this change, or should we add a glowy house or a 'home' link in the navigation bar?
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
It's a matter of design principles more than anything: if I click a link that says "thelifestream.net", I expect to be taken to thelifestream.net. I would have no objection to putting a separate "forum" button there somewhere, since it is arguably too important a part of our site to keep hidden in the "community" menu.
Then again, a front page redesign with a pre-made WP theme is happening, isn't it?
Then again, a front page redesign with a pre-made WP theme is happening, isn't it?
Lex
Administrator
To answer your last question first: yeah, I'll need to get my finger out on that front
. I feel like I need a scrum day with you in my ear on skype and other people to talk about doing all this going forward, I made some progress with virtual thingy last time then kind of derp'd out and got busy.Re: the first bit - I realise that it's not really the done thing and isn't really proper web design, but I thought it'd be a neat idea to trial. In part it's because I assume the way I use the site is the way everyone uses the site, so I thought it would be a neat feature. I overlooked the fact that people reading articles would want to navigate back to the front page.
Fangu
Great Old One
Interaction Design 101: Don't ever assume people think like you
We want new traffic (right?) and the most obvious way is through our articles. Most new people don't find the site through typing the url, they find us randomly through Google or whatnot. Now chances are they never find the front page because the most obvious thing to do is to click the huge banner, which is how it was designed it in the redesign.
But then again this is higher level web site management stuff and I don't expect you to know all of this. I'm only aware of them from working with an Interaction Designer on a redesign project for almost a year + doing marketing related maintenance tasks on the same site.
Lex
Administrator
Interaction Design 101: Don't ever assume people think like you
We want new traffic (right?) and the most obvious way is through our articles. Most new people don't find the site through typing the url, they find us randomly through Google or whatnot. Now chances are they never find the front page because the most obvious thing to do is to click the huge banner, which is how it was designed it in the redesign.
For sure you're right about all of this, and it's not like this is an obvious way to get to the forum. In the future I'd like to have a simple "forum" button up there - with the buttons for social media we don't need a link in the "Community" menu, and "Chat" and "Map to VII Sites" can be moved elsewhere.
I swear to fuck, the RSS icon was on the front page before. What the hell happened to it? XD
Cthulhu
Administrator
- AKA
- Yop
I probably bollocked something up, that happens a lot, .
edit: fixed. I was also still linking that image to Pixel's photobukkit, fixed that too.
For now I've set the banner to just link to the homepage again. I do think a link to the forums should be more prominent in the navigation though.
.edit: fixed. I was also still linking that image to Pixel's photobukkit, fixed that too.
For now I've set the banner to just link to the homepage again. I do think a link to the forums should be more prominent in the navigation though.
Lex
Administrator
This is also a good place to discuss the general layout - if anyone has an opinion on that please go find a Wordpress theme and bear in mind we have the following caveats:
- Must not require a subscription
- Must not have a creator linksplash
- Must be totally malleable
- Must be compatible with mobile (most modern themes are or have a mobile companion anyway)
Also remember that the colours you see will be changeable to our Lifestream green so don't look at a bright theme and think "this won't do". It's all about the content/ layout when considering a theme.
I quite liked this one but there are a few problems with it (the scroll speed lock, the heavy imagery, the price is fairly expensive considering we'd have to hack it to fuck).
- Must not require a subscription
- Must not have a creator linksplash
- Must be totally malleable
- Must be compatible with mobile (most modern themes are or have a mobile companion anyway)
Also remember that the colours you see will be changeable to our Lifestream green so don't look at a bright theme and think "this won't do". It's all about the content/ layout when considering a theme.
I quite liked this one but there are a few problems with it (the scroll speed lock, the heavy imagery, the price is fairly expensive considering we'd have to hack it to fuck).
Pixel
The Pixie King
I kinda like the way the lower section of this one is laid out, with image, headline and a little bit of the article. Its nice for going back through the archives.
https://romerodemo.wordpress.com/
https://romerodemo.wordpress.com/
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
I agree that we should try to keep site design discussion in this thread, but the problem is that we go through long periods of inactivity, after which we end up making a giant "let's do stuff" thread that encompasses everything. Here's the 2015 version, 2014, 2013. This thread, from a few weeks ago, might be called our 2016 version. I made this thread to coordinate our remake article efforts but it ended up containing some design discussion as well. Going back further, here's the thread we used to come up with our current design.
I'd love it if we were active enough on front page projects to be able to keep things compartmentalised, but I don't think it's going to happen until we've made the big changes we've been discussing recently.
...I maybe don't need to say this, but just in case: I'm not trying to force my ideas through here. The main reason I've been pushing on design, and coming up with my own graphics for things, is because I've felt like nobody else would do it. If that changes, great, I'm all for it.
I'd love it if we were active enough on front page projects to be able to keep things compartmentalised, but I don't think it's going to happen until we've made the big changes we've been discussing recently.
...I maybe don't need to say this, but just in case: I'm not trying to force my ideas through here. The main reason I've been pushing on design, and coming up with my own graphics for things, is because I've felt like nobody else would do it. If that changes, great, I'm all for it.