Site redesign.

[begrimed]

Okay, so I've finally got something solid enough to post here for final consideration:

http://www.begrimed.com/mcindex.html

I haven't changed any of the site's other pages over to that yet, but that one link alone should tell the story of what things would be like if everything was carried over. Suggestions of any kind are encouraged, but you'll need a damn good reason to oppose the idea altogether. This is everyone's chance to speak up before I put things in motion.

From the page itself, if anybody got too lazy to read it:

- No images. This'll greatly reduce the bandwidth consumed, and make pages load in a snap on just about any connection speed.

- No more months of back-logged content because of the site being a pain to update. This one's mostly my fault because of poor design choice and messy source code. Sorry, guys.

- Left-side vertical navigation instead of top horizontal navigation. This removes any fear of having too many links stretched along the top, and multiple types of content will no longer need to be compartmentalized under a single name. For example, IPS, ASM, GFX and Videos now have their own sections, instead of all being crammed into a single Archives page and potentially overlooked.

- The lack of images will make it simple to offer alternate stylesheets if the default makes it hard for someone to read. This could range from larger text, to completely different color schemes and font choices.

- Should display just fine on virtually ANY browser or screen resolution.

[Quietus]

It looks like it should work.  I quite like a minimalist look anyway, but my biggest problem was: Apart from the vivid green text, I couldn't read a word without highlighting the text.

[begrimed]

Really? Was the text too dark, or did it show up as black-on-black or something? Flamestar also mentioned something about the text being difficult to read, though it shows quite prominently on my screen. Screenshots won't do much justice since there's a difference in monitor brightness and all that.

That in mind, I'll lighten the font colors a bit.

[Quietus]

The vivid green was fine; the headings, such as 'Top Hacks 2009' was OK, but not great.  The grey in the menu looking like dark grey on black, which was OK to read with a little effort, but the main bulk of the text is almost unreadable unless I move right up next to the monitor.

[begrimed]

I tinkered with the colors some more. Hopefully they'll show up better on darker screen lighting settings now?

[Quietus]

The main text could probably do with a nudge more, but the rest are all fine now.  Thanks.

Oh, and now you've brightened it, I can also see that the poster's name is below, which may tell you how invisible it was before. :heheh:

[Zhs2]

Will this be a default from now on? Will the old site theme still be available to viewers, if only for perusal?

[begrimed]

It'll be the default, and the old one might could remain viewable for nostalgic purposes, but not as a functional alternate to the one I'm working on.

[personitis]

I like it. Simple and easy. Just one Q however: will this new look also affect the forums? Either way, I'm pretty down with it except the fact I would throw an image or two up but I can live w/o them.

[Zhs2]

will this new look also affect the forums?

Not unless Grime wants to create something to that effect, no.

[begrimed]

Maybe a board skin that gives it the same minimal structure as the site?

Anyway, here's this.

[personitis]

Sexy. Looks like everything's also getting organized this time around to.

[Quietus]

I like the organisation, particularly the headered / unheadered thing.  Still not sure on the text colours.  I can read them, but it's an effort.  I'll check on my home 'poota later on, as it may be different, but it still makes sense to make it easy to read for everybody.

[begrimed]

0_o

They're -still- hard to read? I brightened all of the colors up by like, a lot man. Is your monitor in a room that gets a lot of sunlight in it or something?

[Quietus]

Not particularly so.  I have no problems reading anything on MetConst, or any of the other sites I visit, but most of those that use black / dark backgrounds have light colours for the text, rather than dark ones.  It's just the dark grey / dark green colours on the black backdrop.  Is there a reaosn for the colour choices over white / yellow and the like?

[begrimed]

No real reason beyond trying not to make the site too bland. I didn't wanna limit the whole scheme to only like 3 or 4 colors. The main thing was that I over-estimated other peoples' monitor brightness or something. I adjusted the colors again for the hacks link and made them quite a bit brighter. Is everything good now? If they're still too dark, then wtf.

[Silver Skree]

I really like the new look and organized structure. Also, I can read the text just fine on my old CRT monitor with like the shittiest settings ever, so if person still can't read it, I echo your 'wtf.' Get a better monitor. :shocking:

[Quietus]

Everything is fine on the home TV. :^_^:

I'll check at work again on Monday now that you've updated them again.  I'm also not sure what's up with the look on that monitor, as every other site I visit is fine, so it doesn't appear to be the settings. :whoa:

[personitis]

so if person still can't read it, I echo your 'wtf.' Get a better monitor. :shocking:

lol, reread the topic a littl emore carefully skree. ^^; I can read everything just fine. Anyway, when can we expect it to launch? =]

[begrimed]

Not sure when it's gonna launch. I'm not rushing things, and I've been a bit pre-occupied with other lifestuff, but it won't be a long time. A couple weeks, tops?

[begrimed]

Bump.

Well, as you might've seen, the new design is launched, but still, if there's anything that could use tweaking, drop a line in this thread and we'll see what goes down.

[Quietus]

I noticed that there's no mention of how to submit a document on the docs page.  Might be worth including some info.

EDIT: Also, I was looking at the Patches page, and it's often tough to see which download link goes with what.  There's a huge distance between the info and the download, with no lines for guidance.  While a table is probably gonna be a bit ugly, there should be something that can be done.

EDIT 2: I was looking at the hacks page, and was wondering whether you think it's worth having a final column for noting any bugs in the hacks - particularly permastucks?  It wouldn't need descriptions at all (such as locations of permastucks), only the words themselves.  e.g. Permastucks, Crashes.