Please let me know if there are any ideas, suggestions, gripes, and/or concerns with my new site.
It's a little slow going, but I'm trying to add little by little to make it a cool place to be. I also have been pushing AGS and Multimedia Fusion for people that don't know anything about them, (CJ hope you don't mind?)
Game design will be the main push on the site, thus the strict rules. Hopefully people will be able to use my site as a big kick-in-the-pants to post their finished games there and here. :)
The url (http://2dgamers.zapto.org/) is below in my signature. Hope to see you there!
The characters sometimes get in the way of the text, I would suggest either removing them or moving them.Ã, 8)
The graphics are beautiful. A few things though.
Frames are bad. You have done very good things with the frames, but in the end, it is still a big ugly frame. When I see frame I think Frontpage 1997.
If you are going to stick with the frame you need to optimize the site for at least 1024x768. Currently I still need to scroll down to see the scrolling frame.
The google map thing just doesn't work. It doesn't seem to fit with the other pages. I would either find a different service to use, different way to use that service, or just create a static image of a map. I'm honestly not sure about the point of the map really. Oh, and when I clicked on it I really expected to see a sitemap.
later,
-junc
Jimmybob: I'm currently running a rotation test with php. The code runs through all the images that I have, (in this case animated gifs.) I may edit the title image so that I can place the animations up there, not sure yet.
juncmodule: I'm not using the traditional frames but a newthing called iFrames. It's pretty much the same thing but less work for me. I really do need to fix this scrolling issue. I can't see it because my screen res is much higher than most. The map feature was an inspiration from this very site... where you can see where various users are in the world...visually. Thought it would work with my site.
Thanks for your suggestions, I'll see what I can improve.
You've got a good thing going there, man. Nice idea for a website, and it isn't doing some annoying things sites like that usually do. So, are you going to put stuff like tutorials on there? I could really use a good tutorial on how to use AGS and programs like that.
Quote from: TheCheese33You've got a good thing going there, man. Nice idea for a website, and it isn't doing some annoying things sites like that usually do. So, are you going to put stuff like tutorials on there? I could really use a good tutorial on how to use AGS and programs like that.
Thanks! Tutorials are one of my main "secret" projects I'd like to get up on the site, as soon as its functioning. I know it's not really a secret now... but no one knows how I'm going to do it... (Wait, I don't even know how I'm going to do it!) :o
Just out of curiosity, what do the other sites have that you find annoying?
Some websites have odd little things that cause my IE to crash. I'm not sure what they actually are, but it's annoying to find a website, only for it to make your browser crash.
I have to say that the animated characters disturb me when I try to read the text. The characters are cool no doubt about it, but I'm not so sure it is such a good idea to have them there, moving all the time...
QuoteSome websites have odd little things that cause my IE to crash.
Well, I can tell you the problem from that sentence right there. :P
Quote from: mätzyboyI have to say that the animated characters disturb me when I try to read the text. The characters are cool no doubt about it, but I'm not so sure it is such a good idea to have them there, moving all the time...
Good catch! I'm testing it to see how many people like/dislike it. So far you are the first to dislike it, but I'm sure there will be many more... Thanks for sharing.
Quote from: TheCheese33Some websites have odd little things that cause my IE to crash.
Are you using IE7? (probably not.) I use the latest version of Firefox, so memory is the only issue I have. So from what I've seen, most sites are pretty stable... (I don't surf much, so I guess that makes a difference.)
Quote from: RedwallWell, I can tell you the problem from that sentence right there
;D
What browsers are all of you using? This could help me better understand my demographic. :)
I'm using Firefox 1.5something and i suggest you download it to, cause then you'll have access to this great toolbar for webdevelopers:
http://chrispederick.com/work/webdeveloper/
You can use it to resize the firefox window to represent other screen resolutions. And it has a LOT of other great features.
Some general suggestions:
- The page is too wide and horizontal scrollbars appear. This is almost a deadly sin in website design, unless it is an integral part of the layout. The scrollbars are caused by 2DGamersTitle.gif, which is absolutely placed at 194px from the left border. With its width of 846px the right edge of the picture is at 1040px. This is about 30 pixels too wide for the current standard resolution 1024x768 (i'm counting in the vert. scrollbars here).
- There are no alt attributes in your navigation buttons. These are important for a lot of things. ie: search engines, visually handicapped, textual info when image load fails (or is disable). So i suggest you put these in anyway.
- Learn CSS. Cascading stylesheets aren't difficult, in fact you use some of it already in yuor pages. But try to seperate the HTML from CSS by placing the CSS in a seperate file. As a rule of thumb, you should strive to have your HTML tags as pure as possible (without height, width and align tags in every table cell ;) ).
- Pick a font and stick by it. Using CSS will help you manage this much more easily aswell AND as an added bonus, cut down on your page loading times and bandwidth. (just noticed you're using frontpage as editor. Not sure how they handle CSS, but it's absolutely worth checking.)
- Please lose the iframes. They're not new, they're not stylish and they're just plain ugly. You can get the same functionality by using PHP's include command. Things will still be seperated between header/footer and content but it will be much better in terms of visual effect and search engine scores.
And if that wasn't bad enough, here's a page by page breakdown of crits and suggestions ;D:
home page: Screaming news. There is a big problem with the font sizes here. The news title fonts are smaller in size than the news itself. Attention of anyone scanning the headlines for thing of their interest will be drawn towards the news content rather than the news title. Please change this around. Also, the idea of making one bullet bold and the other normal doesn't really work. If you want the reader to be able to seperate them more easily, try fiddling with padding and margin settings of the <LI> element in CSS to create some space between bullets.
Another one you may like to look at is line-height.
2DG Font-o-rama! I can see at least 3 different fonts on this page, not counting the ones in graphics or in the textarea. One font would be enough. Again, CSS is your friend here. Set your font of choice in the body tag and all other child elements will automatically inherit them so you don't have to set them again.
Try using a same width content area for all pages. The content area of this page is wider than the home page, and the 'pix' page is even wider! Having evenly wide content areas all over will help in a much calmer surfing experience, without layout elements 'jumping' to their new sizes when a different page loads.
Email What does this button do? While i like the fact that you tried to have an original way of offering visitors a way of contacting you, i absolutely abhor javascript prompt messages. Even though you ask for confirmation before a last step, it just isn't as fancy looking as a simple form. And, since you have PHP on your server, you might want to check up on the mail() function. Chances are high you can use PHP to send your mail instead of having to start up the users email client.
Pix Mouseover gallery. I like! Although the images take some time to load, it's worth the wait. However, the images seem to be there placed at random. Maybe some form of categorisation would be nice. ie: characters, backgrounds, from sketch to sprite, misc ...
files / links Breaking styles. This seems to be an obvious remnant of a previous website version, copied and pasted in a new website. If you use the same colors as in the home and 2dg pages, it will all look a lot more uniform.
notes A guestbook with a puzzling name. When i clicked notes, i didn't expect to get a guestbook page. The comment for the files page applies here too. Keep things in style. And to top it off, why have a guestbook if you've got a forum that people can use?
forum Nice! Forums are great for creating a community. Without the iframe, it wouldn't look so cramped. And while i know the next crit is a HUGE pain and prolly already planned: Try to match the styles of the forum to that of the website. It will do a whole lot for you if you want to create a cummunity. A recognisable and identifyable colorscheme is one of the most underrated methods of communicating your websites identity.
Well then.. Seems like you've got work till xmass! please don't get bummed by my long reply. The effort i took to review your site is only proof of how much i like its concept and current design. And i'm only trying to help in making it better.
Good luck!
Quote from: OnewayWell then.. Seems like you've got work till xmass! please don't get bummed by my long reply. The effort i took to review your site is only proof of how much i like its concept and current design. And i'm only trying to help in making it better.
Good luck!
I'm also using Firefox 1.5.0.4...
Not bummed at all. Thanks for the critiques. It probably will take until Christmas with all the other projects I have going on, but that's ok. ;)
Did the left-corner animated GIFs bother you at all?
Thanks for taking the time to analyze my site and leave me feedback. I appreciate it.
The anims didn't so much as bother me, but the larger ones that floated over one or two of the navig buttons prevented them from being clickable. I had to refresh the page to make a smaller animation come up to be able to go back to the home page or the 2dg page.
I didn't mention them because someone else already did.
Quote from: OnewayI didn't mention them because someone else already did.
Just wanted to see if you agreed with him. I think I'm going to have to be quite picky regarding the animations I use for this upper-corner area...
Why not make the animation only run once or twice on page load, then if the user mouseovers the pic, it animates again: will require a bit of JS, but that kind of simple stuff is found all over the web in javascript cookbooks.
Rharpe: If you want to be sure that all buttons are clickable at all times, you'll have to select images that are no higher than 115px.
SSH: Maybe it would be better if the delay after the last frame (so before starting the animation again) is set to something like 3000 (3 seconds) or so.
What you are suggesting is possible, but it requires loading 2 images instead of one (one static image and one animation). Not that these static gifs are of conciderable filesize. But adjusting the frame delay seems like a more elegant solution. Javascript is often best used sparingly and without direct control over visual content.
Why does it need 2 images? Animated GIFs have an option to repeat or not...
Indeed. But as far as i know, you can't use javascript to control the start or stopping of an animated gif.
Reloading it usually works
Quote from: Oneway
- The page is too wide and horizontal scrollbars appear.
I can see how this could be a problem if you screen res is to small. Working on this issue.
Quote from: Oneway- Learn CSS.
I agree. Studying CSS.
Quote from: Oneway- Pick a font and stick by it.
I thought I was only using Arial? Working on this issue.
Quote from: Oneway- Please lose the iframes.
iFrames are a vital part to the functioning of the site... may look for an alternative.
Quote from: Onewayhome page: Screaming news.
I agree. Working on this issue.
Quote from: Oneway2DG Font-o-rama!
I'll try to find one font and stick with it. :)
Quote from: OnewayTry using a same width content area for all pages.
Most of the pages now have a similar look and feel to them.
Quote from: OnewayEmail What does this button do? While i like the fact that you tried to have an original way of offering visitors a way of contacting you, i absolutely abhor javascript prompt messages. Even though you ask for confirmation before a last step, it just isn't as fancy looking as a simple form. And, since you have PHP on your server, you might want to check up on the mail() function. Chances are high you can use PHP to send your mail instead of having to start up the users email client.
This is fixed and ready for everyone to use!
Quote from: OnewayPix Mouseover gallery. I like! Although the images take some time to load, it's worth the wait. However, the images seem to be there placed at random. Maybe some form of categorisation would be nice. ie: characters, backgrounds, from sketch to sprite, misc ...
Someone else had an issue with this which prompted me to change it. I'll see what I can do to give this a more clean "gallery-ish" look.
Quote from: Onewaynotes A guestbook with a puzzling name. When i clicked notes, i didn't expect to get a guestbook page. The comment for the files page applies here too. Keep things in style. And to top it off, why have a guestbook if you've got a forum that people can use?
Cleaned it up and labeled the button"GUEST" so there would be no confusion.
Quote from: Onewayforum Nice! Forums are great for creating a community. Without the iframe, it wouldn't look so cramped. And while i know the next crit is a HUGE pain and prolly already planned: Try to match the styles of the forum to that of the website. It will do a whole lot for you if you want to create a cummunity. A recognisable and identifyable colorscheme is one of the most underrated methods of communicating your websites identity.
The forum is hosted by someone else, and I'm limited by what skins I can provide. I've tried to match it with my site, but found the current version was much easier to read. It fits in my iFrame perfectly, what res are you using?
Long time since I posted here :)
Just a quick observation: you might try to resize your font-size and you'll notice that the menu is dropping down the page. Maybe you should get rid of the < p > tag around every one of your buttons.
What you are doing with frames can easily be reproduced with CSS. Just a header (including the menu) and below it a contentcontainer. Inside that you put a horizontally centered div with dimensions in percentages and an overflow:auto and voila! If you resize your logo and stuff to be no wider than 770px your page even fits in an 800x600 resolution... :)