New Design

[catacon]

I have been working on a new design for my site, and here it is.

http://rogues-guild.com/

The IE site doesn't work yet, I have been too lazy to change it for IE. Trust me, it looks really bad in IE, that's why I will have two seperate sites.

I am especially proud of the theme switcher (located in the top left hand corner).

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

[blue60007]

I like the navigation, but the background images are extremely distracting. It's hard to read the text.

[rspassey]

Agreed, I don't particularily like the backgrounds.

And to have the themes work (you might know this) but I have to click on them, then click back and then it appears.

[catacon]

Do you think less transparency in the menus would help that? I had sort of noticed that, but I didn't find it too bad.

[rspassey]

Just a question, but who is the targer audience, and what is rogues guild?
If it is geared toward a game or something chances are non of the frequent members would care ( I have a friend with a forum which I find impossible to stand with black colors and dark red fonts dedicated to a specific topic, and the members don't care becuase it fits the mood and gothicness of the game)... so that is something to consider too.

[weremonkey]

Originally Posted by catacon Do you think less transparency in the menus would help that? I had sort of noticed that, but I didn't find it too bad.

It might, but in my opinion, its the backrounds themselves that are too distracting... you should choose something less vibrant (i think thats the word i want to use)

[catacon]

I plan to make it a technology/music/blog site, so it could encompass anyone. See, I started to become tired of solid color or basic pattern backgrounds, so I wanted something more interesting. What bothers you the most, the colors, the picture itself, or both?

Thanks!

[weremonkey]

Originally Posted by catacon I plan to make it a technology/music/blog site, so it could encompass anyone. See, I started to become tired of solid color or basic pattern backgrounds, so I wanted something more interesting. What bothers you the most, the colors, the picture itself, or both? Thanks!

In my opinion, its that theres so much in the picture, lots of colors, and the trees make it seem less unified

[catacon]

You realize you can change the theme, right? The trees isn't the only one.

[blue60007]

Yes, but images are VERY distracting. It doesn't look very professional - large background images like that are a big time no-no in web design. Besides, folks on slow connections wouldn't appreciate having to wait for those to download, and it's more bandwidth on your end. If you get a lot of visitors going, your bandwidth will rack up quickly.

[weremonkey]

Originally Posted by catacon You realize you can change the theme, right? The trees isn't the only one.

stupid me, cant believe i missed that.

After looking at the other themes, i hold the same opinion, the images really distract from the site's substance, and as blue said, images as backgrounds look rather amateur-ish and are hard work on slow connections. look at the most popular websites, or even this one, and you'll see that most of them have a 'plain'-ish layout

[rspassey]

Perhaps you could make a defualt plain theme and leave the other options open... if you really like them then leave them... it is your site.
And then add member preferences for their favourite theme.

[catacon]

Yeah, you will be able to set the theme permanetly, once you register. I guess I could make a few boring themes for people. I will work with and see what I can come up with.

I know the images are big, but I was accomodating people who like their browsers big, with small images it looks bad.

[mairving]

Several big nono's in web design. For starters, entry pages are quite annoying. Why does someone have to enter your site? Next is why do you plan to have 2 different pages for IE and FF/Moz? That will be too much work, too confusing, and not needed. Do a design for both. It is not difficult to do. As far as the background. It is a lovely background for a desktop on your computer maybe. On a website it is a detriment. You don't want to draw peoples eyeballs to the background. You want to draw them to the content and the navs. Content on any site is king. There is no good place for content on your site. Why have a background changer also? Again it adds nothing and takes eye space away.

[catacon]

I had the two sites because IE doesn't support transparency in CSS and so I was going to make a different design so it would look good.

[blue60007]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that...people don't want to click twice to enter your site.

[catacon]

Okay, I have a new design. The last one wasn't a hit and I, too, began to hate it. Anyway, I got rid of the large images, enterance page, the obnoxious backgrounds, and other crap. None of the links work and it still might change a bit. It might evolve into a desktop environment looking thing. What do you think?

http://www.rogues-guild.com/layout.php

[rspassey]

Looks a lot nicer. I however have trouble reading over the R and the G... just because they are black and so is the font. It is readable, but if you maybe make the white back behind the text less transparent - that would help.

[catacon]

OK, I made it a bit less transparent. Is that enough?

The other thing I noticed was the navigatation, can you read it OK? Not the drop-down menu, but the orginal menu (the ones that say Navigatation, Contact, and Members).

[rspassey]

Originally Posted by catacon The other thing I noticed was the navigatation, can you read it OK? Not the drop-down menu, but the orginal menu (the ones that say Navigatation, Contact, and Members).

Oh, I hadn't even noticed those... yeah - I would try putting them with white text and see how that works. It is your site, so you should design it following how you want to - as long as you are pleased with it, then what does it matter if others aren't fully happy with it.

[catacon]

Yeah, I was afraid of that. Funny thing, though: on my localhost, the links are white, you rollover, they stay white (what I want). When I upload them to the server, they are white, you rollover them, they turn black and stay that way. What's up?

[rspassey]

Oh, silly me. I had javascript disabled in opera - switched to Firefox and I see what you mean. I am really not sure what is going on, sorry, but I will try to do a little googling and see if I can't any solid answers.

[catacon]

Well, I got it to reverse between systems. Oh well, there are four color controls for those menus, I will just have to chose the right one.