PlaneShift website criticism (extensive)

[acraig]

Netty,  can you provide me with some of the actual images? I have a copy of the forum software running on my local machine and want to do some experiments.  You\'ve also eluded to elastic layout several times.  Can you expand on what that is?  My focus lie in software and hardware, most of the pages I look at are white papers .  

I can google around a bit but would be interested in understanding what an elastic layout actually is and the correct way to achieve that.  

[josephoenix]

elastic layout (as I understand it ;]) is using a distance from each side of the page to define width, as opposed to a static width in px, which would accomodate different screen sizes and text size preferences.

Er.

In other words, pretty much what we have now, only with more divs and less tables.

edit: I did a swift googling and came upon an \"A List Apart\" article, which you might be interested in. Apparently my definition was only half right... >.>

A List Apart: Elastic Design

josePhoenix

[AryHann]

I like example1 the most - even though, I think that the website could be adapted on colours and I hope it won\'t remain as it is right now.

@jose, the light brown is better than the blue, but imho, the logo doesn\'t fit in the background and the left menu seems to me a bit too much \"squared\"... of course, it is made by rectangles....

[Uyaem]

Originally posted by Karyuu
*edit* Hm.. you know, looking at this theme further there is one thing that irks me - though the use of the PS icons is beautiful, it doesn\'t let one see when there are new posts or threads in that forum

Hmm just have the coloured versions if there\'s new posts, and greyed/browned out (monochrome-ish) versions of the exact same images when there\'s nothing new.
There, problem solved
No wait -- solution suggested.

I have to agree, that I really like that last draft, with the colours in the first example. I didn\'t really like the blue stuff, every other page on the net has blue colours, perhaps my eyes are just bored of it.

The image at the top looks just great!

About elastic/fixed with etc:
It is absolutely correct that too many words/characters per line make it hard to read the text. Generally, as a rule of thumb for technical documents, about 60 characters per line enable you to read the text the most fluidly, acoording to some research/experiment that I do not have a link to (LaTeX e.g. uses a maximum of 67 characters per line by default if I remember correctly, if there\'s a lot of narrow characters in the text like i and l it will simply increase the space between words a little bit, which is not noticable).
On the current forum settings on 1280x1024, there\'s easily the double or even triple amount of characters per line, which makes it uncomfortable to read.

Bottom line: An elastic design like here is probably the way to go.
Since phpBB bases skins on CSS, this is definately doable.

[josephoenix]

That design looks a bit odd at 1600x1200... well the background is extremely green

anyhow, just a small detail, but we\'re using Woltlab Burning Board and not phpBB


josePhoenix

[Nikodemus]

About elastic design:
Tables is what i know best and use most in html and to make elastic table, I:
1 row, 3 collumns table:

Code: [Select]

left collumn

forum main content

right collumn

A good example, but more for an elastic height you can find  there
I do realize it doesn\'t have much to do with css, but maybe not everything must be done in css. Hope it help.

As about the colors
http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/7751/pstheme17lw.png
I like the dark celadon color (green-blue mix) bars because this are the colors which PS GUI has. The whole Nettys design consists of PS GUI elements.
I don\'t treat it as slight edit of the current brown skin, but somethink what look much more like the PS GUI and not PS website. As for the website, i think it is too brown btw. It\'s another reason why I think the green-blue color looks great.

[Peacer]

i think that the game is more important and that the website should be in second rank as i want a more bugfree game ... maybe when the game get\'s in beta something should be done with the website... although the only thing that really needs to be changed is the dead meat thingy and the flash introduction

[Karyuu]

Different people are/will be working on the game and on the website, so they could be done at once.

[Netty]

Thanks for the compliments and suggestions, guys.

Ok, I\'ve taken everyone\'s criticism under advisement and this is what I came up with to update \"Example 1\":

Update

A more \"earthy\" theme. I\'m not sure if it\'s better or worse. I\'ve been staring at it for so long, I don\'t know anymore.

EDIT2: Oops, now the \"Update\" link has a proper version (finally).

EDIT3: Hmm, nevermind the resources, I removed them for now. I\'ll arrange them differently and post them later. I just had a different idea, so it adjust better for lower resolutions like 800x600, without overlapping too much.

Let me know what you guys think. Is the new color for the bars better? I kind of think the old was a bit better but this one might be a bit more \"earthy\" for josephoenix. Is the grayish better than brown? Does it look more \"earthy\" to you? Or feel free to actually edit the PNG of the main screenshot I posted (especially if it\'s a simple color change) and post your idea.

Well, that\'s all for now.

[Karyuu]

I liked the more vivid brown a -bit- more, so maybe we can find something further in between? Regardless, this grey-ish tone works as well :) I\'m loving it.

I think the logo is too small at the top banner though - I would have moved it to the right and expanded, instead of using the circle graphic. Otherwise, this is gorgeous work.

[minetus]

i like it, its very nice look(both of them =P)

has a side note: would it be possible to make the letters in the \"last post\" collumn in the forums, \"thread name\" to not bold, is just for a easier way to identify new threads

[Karyuu]

Whenever a forum section is updated, we have an icon that shows up at the left of the section name, as well as by that thread when you enter the section:

I would still like to keep something like this, since it\'s the easiest way to check for new content.

[acraig]

My local forums testing results:

Forum Image

[Gripen]

Originally posted by acraig
My local forums testing results:

Forum Image

Good color match for reading, and it has the dark effect so many gamers like, without being gloomy.  The default font may need to have a thicker stroke for easier reading. [Macs screens aren\'t real good for type--tends to get lined or contrasted to the extent that b&w needs high gamma for extended reading periods--but the colors you\'ve used are much better than b&w.]

I haven\'t been around for awhile, perhaps in game graphics have been changed somewhat, but I don\'t know what race the character on the right is.  Also, have the colors of Kran been changed from blue?  (or is this promotional art?  It looks real good.)

[Karyuu]

There were several different \"mineral\" tones available for Kran, as skins, and there will be as well in the future - marble, granite, sandstone, etc. The female on the right is a Dermorian, a model that was available in MB.