Topic: New Website Design

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Shevonar Topic Opener Joined: 2011-09-05, 21:28 Posts: 136 At home in WL-forums	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 00:39 Hello Widelanders, in the last days I felt the need to refresh and improve my HTML and CSS knowledge. I decided to channel this energy in something useful: a new design for the Widelands website. Until now it is only a first quick (several hours of work) draft, but I think it's better and more modern than the current design: http://alpha.widelands.org (was http://shevonar.ddns.info:88 before) There is plenty of room for improvements and it might not yet be compatible with old browsers, but every current browser should be capable to display the site correctly (IE doesn't have text-shadow but we can live without that I think). Again, that is only a basic draft: nothing works and many more sites need to be created before it can be converted to a template for the website system. I just want to here YOUR opinion before I invest more time and work. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Every idea and argument is welcome! Greetings Matthias / Shevonar EDIT: The new version is here: http://shevonar.ddns.info:88/v2/ EDIT 2: And the most recent version which is already the working website (just mainsite though) can be found here: http://shevonar.ddns.info:8000 EDIT 3: All the above links are outdated! The new website is now on http://alpha.widelands.org! Edited: 2012-11-09, 12:56 Top Quote

Astuur Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08 Posts: 733 One Elder of Players Location: Frankfurt / Germany	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 11:19 Nice I like the new PM design a lot. The "wideland" text logo seems to be bit too streched vertically for my taste. Question for you Shevonar: SirVer once said it would be okay in principle if someone included an option to upload files as attachements to forum postings. Only there was no one capapable or willing to do so. You don't happen to feel an itch, huh :D? Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills. I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino). Top Quote

Shevonar Topic Opener Joined: 2011-09-05, 21:28 Posts: 136 At home in WL-forums	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 11:36 Astuur wrote: Nice I like the new PM design a lot. Thanks The "wideland" text logo seems to be bit too streched vertically for my taste. Do you mean the one on top (that is the same image as currently used) or the once in the posts which are just there because there is nothing else? The later ones are just placeholders. The whole content area is not final. Maybe I will do some more tonight. Question for you Shevonar: SirVer once said it would be okay in principle if someone included an option to upload files as attachements to forum postings. Only there was no one capapable or willing to do so. You don't happen to feel an itch, huh ? I suggest you write a bug-report for the website (https://bugs.launchpad.net/widelands-website). Primarily I will finish the design and maybe fix some bugs (like the screenshot window) that are in the template code. Adding new features to the website is a second step, but a new design is a good reason to also add more features IMHO. Top Quote

Astuur Joined: 2009-02-28, 10:08 Posts: 733 One Elder of Players Location: Frankfurt / Germany	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 12:00 Yep, I meant your placeholders, but thought this element should be a permanent icon. I'll file a suggestion for webpage feature, thanks. Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills. I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino). Top Quote

Shevonar Topic Opener Joined: 2011-09-05, 21:28 Posts: 136 At home in WL-forums	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 17:55 I just did some small changes: made placeholder graphic more obvious (Some of the graphics people could create nice pictures for the news categories like "Development", "Website", "Playing", etc. I thought we could use our little people to somehow represent this, e.g. a builder for "Development") added comments link and "posted by" to news posts added link to News Archive added a footer because the site ended kind of "unexpected" some resizing In my opinion this could be the new "News" site for the Widelands website. Do you think the image (a new one) and short description should be kept on the landing page? What else can be improved? During the next week I will try to setup a copy of the Widelands homepage on my computer and start to create the template for the "News" page. Top Quote

chuckw Joined: 2010-03-15, 16:23 Posts: 945 One Elder of Players Location: New York - USA	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 18:00 Nice work, Shevonar! Overall, I like the layout and clean lines. I especially like the wood-tone material for the buttons and your choice of font color for the news post titles. Some ideas you might explore: The gray slate background used in the forums (and on the current home page) helps to focus people on the content of the posts, but it somehow seems to make this home page anyway too sterile in my opinion. I would like to see if/how you might incorporate the organic backgrounds found in the game. They would tie the page even more closely to the style found in the game. You might also consider using a font color other than white to "warm up" the page. Also, a while back fraang did some really nice work on logos for which I've been looking for opportunities to introduce. You might consider them in the design. Here they are presented as pngs, but the GIMP files can also be found in the media branch under /graphics/stock_sources/logos: I appreciate that you have presented a non-working mock-up, but the news frames should contain the author and posting date:time like the current ones do. While I like the "burled walnut" separator bars of the current page, your example shows an attractive alternative to their use. I'd love to see more. EDIT: I hadn't seen Shevonar's most recent post before sending this. Edited: 2012-03-25, 18:03 I see little people. Top Quote

chuckw Joined: 2010-03-15, 16:23 Posts: 945 One Elder of Players Location: New York - USA	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 18:16 Shevonar wrote: I just did some small changes: made placeholder graphic more obvious (Some of the graphics people could create nice pictures for the news categories like "Development", "Website", "Playing", etc. I thought we could use our little people to somehow represent this, e.g. a builder for "Development") added comments link and "posted by" to news posts added link to News Archive added a footer because the site ended kind of "unexpected" some resizing Good, good, good. I think you might be able to "persuade" some of the graphics people to assist in this endeavor. In my opinion this could be the new "News" site for the Widelands website. It definitely has potential for that as it stands. My earlier comments were directed for the site's home page specifically. Do you think the image (a new one) and short description should be kept on the landing page? I would like to see how you picture the landing (home) page. What else can be improved? We shall see. During the next week I will try to setup a copy of the Widelands homepage on my computer and start to create the template for the "News" page. I can't wait! (But, of course, I will.) Cheers! Chuck I see little people. Top Quote

Shevonar Topic Opener Joined: 2011-09-05, 21:28 Posts: 136 At home in WL-forums	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 18:30 The gray slate background used in the forums (and on the current home page) helps to focus people on the content of the posts, but it somehow seems to make this home page anyway too sterile in my opinion. I would like to see if/how you might incorporate the organic backgrounds found in the game. They would tie the page even more closely to the style found in the game. I tried that before but it is too turbulent and repeating. However after reducing saturation and luminosity it might be okay. Changed! You might also consider using a font color other than white to "warm up" the page. It's a bit yellow now. Changed! Also, a while back fraang did some really nice work on logos for which I've been looking for opportunities to introduce. You might consider them in the design. They are really nice but for the current design the logo should be a single line. Maybe I will try to changes fraang's logos to fit. I appreciate that you have presented a non-working mock-up, but the news frames should contain the author and posting date:time like the current ones do. Already done before I would like to see how you picture the landing (home) page. IMHO the news site should be the landing page. Maybe we can add an "About" section in the new "The game" menu to give a short description of the game. But maybe a description on the landing page is not that bad. I will see what I can come up with. Top Quote

chuckw Joined: 2010-03-15, 16:23 Posts: 945 One Elder of Players Location: New York - USA	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 18:57 Shevonar wrote: They are really nice but for the current design the logo should be a single line. Maybe I will try to changes fraang's logos to fit. If you haven't already, you might check out the images on the Artworks page. I can make any elements of those readily available if you want them. The Blender files from which they were created are on my computer if they aren't also in the media trunk. IMHO the news site should be the landing page. Maybe we can add an "About" section in the new "The game" menu to give a short description of the game. But maybe a description on the landing page is not that bad. I will see what I can come up with. Good Luck! I see little people. Top Quote

fraang Joined: 2010-02-15, 13:13 Posts: 239 Widelands-Forum-Junkie	Posted at: 2012-03-25, 22:06 I have to say I really like the new website design so far. But I have a little suggestion: Can we bring back the landscape view to the header like in the old design. I think it fits there very well. Concerning the logo: If it is wished I would continue the work on it. Top Quote

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