Webdesign - Sons of Gaia (update 1)

Started by Peder 🚀, Mon 14/01/2008 00:55:17

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Peder 🚀

Hi all,

I redesigned www.sonsofgaia.net not long ago and Id like to know what you all think!

Is the layout/design ok?
Is there anything that could/should be changed? (Layout/design wise etc)

(I am not asking for critics on the content)

Thanks,
Peder Johnsen

Dualnames

It's good. I like it though it;s too formal..Try and add some hover buttons to make users more happy.
Worked on Strangeland, Primordia, Hob's Barrow, The Cat Lady, Mage's Initiation, Until I Have You, Downfall, Hunie Pop, and every game in the Wadjet Eye Games catalogue (porting)

Renal Shutdown

Layout-wise, I like it.  Simple, functional, understandable.  Most of the "text" bit are Arial, which I like.

As for the design? It's rather dull.  The text is all white.  The buttons don't do anything with rollovers.  The logo is somewhat bland.  The "Home"  "Games" etc is displayed too often.  The "Print this page" bit seems rather pointless for the most part.

Also the mars/venus symbol for the Team section looks like it belongs on a dating site.

But, like I said at the start, I like the layout.  Tweaks are easier than rewrites.
"Don't get defensive, since you have nothing with which to defend yourself." - DaveGilbert

zabnat

If you intented to hide the menu you have succeeded :)
Black text on dark blue background is not a very good idea...

tube

Quote from: zabnat on Mon 14/01/2008 08:17:12
If you intented to hide the menu you have succeeded :)
Black text on dark blue background is not a very good idea...

I can see it fine, but this is a valid point. Contrast is important.

Renal, where do you see Arial? The main text seems to be Tahoma (thankfully, Arial is an awful choice for web design work). The only problem is, non-windows users won't have either of those fonts if they don't install the MS core fonts package themselves. You can and should provide a fallback font in case your first choice doesn't exist on the system by specifying multiple fonts separated by commas in the css rule. Usually a general font style/name like serif or sans-serif is a good fallback to have as the last choice.

Also a couple of comments on the code after checking with validator.w3.org: You shouldn't use short or self-closing tags (tags ending with />) with HTML 4.01 transitional. Only 4.01 strict and newer standards allow them, and even with 4.01 strict some browsers will fail to intepret them right. You've also got a few missing =-characters in your alt attributes (alt"..." instead of alt="..."). Validates fine after fixing those.

Darth Mandarb

I agree with not using Arial for the web ... Verdana is the most popular (considered easiest to read) font to use on a website.

The over-all design is very functional.  It's just not very appealing.  It's not off-putting or anything, just lacks any kind of punch to make it more appealing.

I did a quick paint-over with a few ideas:


- punched up the logo font to something more memorable (added some shading to it)
- altered the nav system
- altered the header location and font
- removed the icons
- moved the content around (adjusted margins, padding, etc)
- added a slight background gradient
- outlined the content area
- moved the print option up to the top

Here is the Development File (psd ~2mb) I used (with layers) if you want to see/use what I did!

Hope this was helpful!

Peder 🚀

#6
Thanks for the replies and special thanks to you Darth for the edit!

I will definitly take your edit into consideration and Ill try and have a new edit up by the end of next week!


Thanks,
Peder Johnsen

Renal Shutdown

Quote from: tube on Mon 14/01/2008 10:56:59
Renal, where do you see Arial? The main text seems to be Tahoma..

Arial or Tahoma, same thing in my rather limited book.  Basically, I hate things like Times New Roman.  For sites, that is, not for everything.  Most of the time, web-wise, I find TNR difficult to read, and often give up quickly.
"Don't get defensive, since you have nothing with which to defend yourself." - DaveGilbert

Stupot

#8
I use Arial quite a lot.
I like it.

Peder 🚀

Ive done a new update following some of Darths suggestions..
I am gonna add a hover action for the buttons aswell which should be visible in a couple of days!

Is it starting to look better?

Changes:
I removed the print function (not really important)
I removed the second menu (middle one)
And I done a similar headline design as Darth made.
I also reorganized the menu and made the font white.

I dont wants to change the "logo" at the moment as I like it as it is..


Thanks,
Peder Johnsen.

cat

I think there are too many different fonts:
"Sons of Gaia" different from "Adventure Game Developers" different from menu, different from body text.

Ali

I like it, but I think it would benefit from more carefully themed graphical elements. They little icons next each page title are very clear in some cases (home) and quite unclear in others (team). Considering this is an adventure developers site, couldn't they have an adventurous style, like mayan gyphs or map keys, to make them a little bit more fun?

On a technical note, on my browser (I.E.7 1024x768) the scroll bar allows me to move the pages up and down a little when there is no extra content to reveal. I think it would be better if I was only able to scroll on pages designed to be scrolled through.

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