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Updated my website again
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 Re: Updated my website again
Posted by Captain P on Fri Sep 30th at 11:53am 2005

It's a while ago I last updated my portfolio, so I thought reworking it to go with php would be a nice idea. It makes things easier to update for me as well as allowing me to keep some stats about the site myself.

So, here it is, redesigned a bit so hopefully it's easy to navigate and looking well:
Captain-P.com

Feedback is welcome. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

// Oh, and yes, I'm working on a HL2DM map and found out how to model for HL2 using Milkshape. If anyone cares for a tutorial...



Create-ivity - a game development blog



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 Re: Updated my website again
Posted by Dark_Kilauea on Fri Sep 30th at 5:57pm 2005

Sweet.


Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/



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 Re: Updated my website again
Posted by satchmo on Fri Sep 30th at 6:23pm 2005

Nice site you've got there. It's easy and intuitive to navigate, but I do have some suggestions.

The blue color scheme looks good, but I do believe a more contrast between the different shades of blue would bestow mroe impact on the structure of the page.

The navigation menu on the left side looks a bit odd. The spacing between each menu item seems to be uneven. I am using FireFox, so perhaps that has something to do with the appearance.

But I really like the picture nagivation system, and I like those screenshots from your new HL2 map.



"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge



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 Re: Updated my website again
Posted by Nickelplate on Fri Sep 30th at 7:29pm 2005

Nice!


I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com



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 Re: Updated my website again
Posted by Crono on Fri Sep 30th at 7:55pm 2005

It looks like the menu is spaced out by category.

The one gripe I have is the font of the header of each page. Hideous times roman. I suggest make it the same font as the other "titles".

Try adding a contrasting color somewhere, everything is blue and white. While that looks fine, it make the entire page bleed together and your eye isn't really drawn to anything specific. Most of the time on pages like that a lot of people will have difficulty navigating for things like download links until they memorize the site layout (which happens automatically after using it for a few minuets). But, only the main navigation menu is intuitive, for the most part.

As for the expansion you're obviously planning (with the tutorials and articles area) the current design wouldn't work. It'd be very tedious to open an article then have to scroll down the way you have it set up. Maybe, for that implement some pop-ups or something like that.

Actually, if you wanted to make things less cluttered looking, You could have three or so options for each whatever (map, program, art piece), like Download, View, and Info, Download, obviously, downloads whatever it is, View would allow whoever to look at screen-shots, then info would open a pop-up with all the information you currently have in those boxes. That would make the page more simple and would use less space.

But, that's just an observation, there'd need to be some tweaking for that to work and probably isn't worth the effort just yet.

Other then that stuff. You need to put a title tag in the frame page you've got there (pretty clever idea to hide the paths). Like wise, get some Meta tags in there so the page can be searched for and all that jazz.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Updated my website again
Posted by Captain P on Fri Sep 30th at 9:40pm 2005

Thanks for the comments so far.


The menu is indeed categorized, perhaps some category titles would clear that up? I'm afraid it makes the menu less easy to use by cluttering it with non-links...

The header in Times Roman? I've used Arial... what browser are you using, and could you post a screenshot if you've got the time for that?

As for the color scheme, I agree some more contrast would help. Using a different color for sections would have it's benefits but I'm not sure what color would work well with this color scheme...

The articles take some scrolling indeed. I'm using a table of content system so getting where you want to be shouldn't be hard from the start and at the end there's a go-back link, but it's still scrolling somewhat. Breaking up long articles into several pages should suffice though, I think. I'll throw it up here again once I've written some.

As for long pages, since there's still not a lot of content (only 2 or so items average per page) I haven't found a need for an index for each page. Once I've got more stuff, I'll implement that though, where each item gets an image-like link or such so the user gets a little preview of what that item is about, accompanied by some text. It's a good idea though to give a download option there straight away for those that already know the site. I see screenshots and info as something that go together: both give you an impression of what that item is, so I'll keep that as one category.

And thanks for that meta-tag and title comment. I knew I had forgotten something...
The frame and path hiding isn't really what I want, actually. It's a problem with my domain-name. I haven't taken time to solve it yet but thanks for reminding me. I'm lazy with that sort of things sometimes...



Create-ivity - a game development blog



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 Re: Updated my website again
Posted by Crono on Fri Sep 30th at 9:55pm 2005

[edit] Damn thing interpreted the HTML ... sorry.

The word "News" was of font class "page_title"
[/edit]

Is an example and under "page_title" you've got: Arial narrow ... which isn't on everyone's computer. Obviously not mine. So it goes to Times as default. (Narrow doesn't come with XP, just to let you know)

Here's another suggestion, go through and put in suitable alternatives (imagine looking at this thing from a Mac or Linux machine?)

Like, put two windows fonts, then comma separate a list of alternatives.

(Since you shouldn't assume people have extra fonts on their computer past the basic fonts)

You can also put font types. Like, list a couple preferred fonts then put the type of font, so on a system without that font it'll use the most common of the same type, you'd use "sans-serif", for example.

Uh ... this page has some good examples: http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/wpd0704news.htm

I had a site once where it literally listed and showed all default installed fonts on common systems, even palm. Wish I book-marked it image


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: Updated my website again
Posted by Captain P on Fri Sep 30th at 10:10pm 2005

Mhh, forgot to check if Arial Narrow was a default font. I've added Arial as an alternative now and added some meta tags.

I'll take a look at that domain name problem as soon as possible now. That is what's preventing my titles from showing up...



Create-ivity - a game development blog



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 Re: Updated my website again
Posted by Crono on Sat Oct 1st at 12:43am 2005

That's not a problem. It's clever. It's a good way to hide php arguments in a superficial way. All you need to do is put a title tag in the main page (the one with the framesets)... unless you didn't design it that way and it's something your provider did.

Ah, there we go. Looks much better <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

I suppose ... if you want, with that javascript loading the rollover images, you could load some of the other images that are on the site. Like, store the names in a file somewhere, which get added whenever you add an image, right? and then just make a for loop going through and caching the images.

Just a thought, obviously, if they're big or something, it'll be slow. But, if it's done right, it'd load the images while you're not looking at the page they're on. Like background caching.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.




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