New V2.0 Design

#1

Kates first creation.

Comments?

[link removed]

Make sure you check out the other colors by clicking on the link in the footer.

(link to the other sweet ass design for my eventual web hosting thing that I want to do but may never get around to. just to see what styles she is capable of)

New V2.0 Design

#2

Well, what should I say... I like them all!

But, let's turn critic=ON. (Testing with Firefox and IE.)

Blues
Background: OK
Text area: not sure about dark blue being very readable (there is a lot to read in the Citadel)
Main image: nice, maybe a bit distracting (but it's only a small page so it shouldn't be on a real one with lots of content)

sunset
Background: OK
Text area: could be a bit lighter for better reading
Main image: the gold on the towers looks weird; how about a partially visible citadel (as the sun is setting)?

storm
Background: OK
Text area: readable
Main image: fine, the gold really doesn't fit; I SO like storm clouds, if there is a way to make them seem more defined, I will love this one. The image could be a tiny bit lighter (boy, am I a nitpicker!).

midnight
Background: not bad, just somehow not fitting the Citadel (to me)
Text area: could be a bit lighter for better reading
Main image: too dark (maybe try some lights?)

In the end, I like storm and sunset best. Midnight would be the last choice for me.

The layout seems all fine, it could be interesting to see it on a "real" page where there will be dozens of links in the menus, several notices, etc. I also had to agree the table borders look better in IE, but that is a minor detail.

All in all, it will make a great array of choices. Along with Classic Citadel(tm) and Plain White, I can have a new Citadel anytime I want! Woohoo!

One for Kate, the master of designs.

New V2.0 Design

#3

I have to agree with Manfred on pretty much everything here: my favourite is probably the sunset scheme (with the proviso that the main text area gets a slightly lighter background), second favourite the storm scheme (except the image needs to be a little lighter).

I love the curliform corners on the RPG Citadel site! Gorgeous stuff.

ephe

New V2.0 Design

#4

I like the storm cloud image -the spires.

The rpgcitadel thing was good, but the goth colours could give people the impression this site was vampire/goth only...

That was my thoughts anyway.

Edit: When I opened the browser and had one tab with each of the alternatives open, I discovered that the daylight /normal design was easier to read and generally more appealing than the cooler looking storm cloud design... Only problem is that the yellow textarea should probably be used in stead of the blue one.

New V2.0 Design

#5

I like the new header. It is so much nicer than the old image. Though I am fond of the history behind it, *cue sound of something heavy hitting the garbage can*, it is gone.

I like the varied images. It would be cool if the banner changed with the time of day or year. We could have snow, dawn, sunset, halloween (night with more lights), etc. Sorry Kate, you opened the genie's bottle... now we want it to escape. *cue evil laugh*

*ahem*

I like the readability of the first few colors. Literally I like them in descending order. I still like Sepia best. Will we have a new banner image for the Sepia page?

The white format should have no header, just Strolens in a large font. It should be the painfully stripped down page.

Anything else you would like before we close with ""?

New V2.0 Design

#6

I think the Citadel rebuild looks awesome. Nice to be in a forest instead of a desert and the changing background is awesome. I like the idea of holiday changes to the default.

Header a little too big for my taste. Would want it shrank by about 33%, where the bottom seperator line is would be my limit for size of the header.

The font is way cool! I would still put then password in the actual header just to save space on top. Basically, shrink the picture and title to fit above that line and lose the small section where the password is now.

The links will probably need to change, not sure how that color will translate into the text on some of the pages but that is tweak stuff. The graphic and font rock and everything else is centered around it and it is great!

I think I especially like the fact that it is easy to change all the main page colors. The purity of it is going to force me to rewrite the default theme to match this setup, with some tweeks and simplified CSS, which is good, and it will make the other themes easier to incorporate.

New V2.0 Design

#7

I woulda cleaned the wee thing up a little more if I knew it was getting so many views hehe

A lot of the colours there do need some tweaking, I just wanted to pitch over the idea of the swaps before getting them all polished up. Seems the idea went over well, so I'll get back to work. A lot of what Manfred said is right on, there's definitely some adjustments needed ;) The spires got a bit munged in the resize, they need a new material.

>>Only problem is that the yellow text area should probably be used in stead of the blue one.

One thing... I'd avoid any big areas of yellow for reading. It's an eye irritant and more so than any other colour. Accents only. A lighter blue or even peach in that area would be easier on the eyes. I'll definitely adjust that, just not to yellow.

>>I still like Sepia best. Will we have a new banner image for the Sepia page?

Yupper :) It's there, just not uploaded until I knew whether or not to get a lot of these together. The gold bits need colour shifting on some, like on the storm it should probably go silver, and would go darkish bronze for Sepia.

Seasonal schemes were planned. Winter, autumn and so on. No genies I didn't intend to release here *laugh* I'm on it. I have everything set up for easy graphic changes so even if you think of something monthes down the road, it'll be easy to add on.

Will cut down the header size. I'd carried over the login to fit it in 800 x 600 but I can just as easily make the image/title text a touch smaller so it can go top-right instead.

I'll work on it some more and send over a shout when I've uploaded some adjustments and filled out on the rest of the schemes a bit.

-K

New V2.0 Design

#8

Well, I like the Sunset scheme the best, and the midnight scheme the least.

Blue would be my second choice.

New V2.0 Design

#9

Three weeks is really plenty of time for the design. I was hoping to have it done much sooner anyways ;) The icon graphics should be easy enough to add in, that's no trouble.

>>We have the Hall of Honor. Not sure what that would look like, perhaps a shield with crossed swords or something.

Shield and crossed swords would definitely work, at least that would stay identifiable at very small size. My first thought was a doorway with a fading back hall, but that probably wouldn't take well to being teeny. I like the swords and shield idea better heh

>>Golden Submissions. Have no idea. Gold scroll, gold something?

Crown, maybe or perhaps a quill? A golden coloured scroll may look more like a wee bundle of hay at small size s'what I'm thinking... but I may just be wierd hehehe

>>Some kind of symbolic icon that I can put next to the main headers, not the column listings, but the main headers and title parts.

Purely decorative symbol? Something like a bullet or deco club of some kind or something more illustrative?

>>I like having the backgrounds textured as well, small file size that gives more depth to the site.

Can do :) A little bit of background texture does break up the solid text areas just that much more too.

>>From a designers perspective, is there a better way or more pleasing way to organize the listings? The index page is similar to the rest for the most part, but viewing long lists of summaries and viewing the posts are what people spend the most time doing. I want to try and make those two centers of attention, well, nice for lack of a better term. There are a few different sections of the main posts and I don't think my separation is the greatest.
>>http://www.rpgcitadel.com/content.php?node=1103

Best way to explain what I'd figure for it....

tr - Large heading type, kick up the fontsize +2 and keep it bold. 'Books'
tr - Main text area, explaination for the submissions (why does that bit there have a stat box btw?)
Line break, nothing but background colour
tr - Smaller heading type, like what you have now for each individual submission with the darker background.
tr - The lighter area, make the summary box background even lighter and/or add a thicker border. Try moving the stat box to the left hand side to visually balance the right side navigation column. As now the page is leaning to the right if that makes sense ;)
tr - Author row... could use an ever-so-slightly darker shade like how you have the bg in the stat box. That would mildly seperate it from the main summary area without making it look tooo detached.
Line break, nothin' but background
Next submission, as above. Best way to seperate them is to literally seperate them ;)
Line break, nothin' but background
tr - Bring back the large heading for 'Idea List Replies'
tr - Author and date, use the ever-so-slightly darker colour as in the author row
tr - Text in the lighter colour
Line break, nothin' but background
tr - Large heading for 'Comments'
tr - Author row colour for name/date
tr - comment in the light text colour
tr - 'Reply to Main Submissions' in the smaller heading style
tr - Comment text area etc in the lighter, main colour

Also the new design themes will afford a bit more colour variation. You could put the comments, for example, in a totally different colour to break things up even more.

>>I am slowly leaning more and more towards a more graphically intertwined page.

Could do a footer graphic... figure you have a blank area about 200 pixels wide at the bottom-right of the page. It's navigation at the top, but blank space at the bottom. Good spot to put something ;) It would be assymetric on pages with both right and left navigation columns, but so long as it's made that way intentionally it should still look alright with the top of the page graphically weighted left and the bottom weighted to the right... should be fine.

>>There is the opportunity to be creative as you want in your own theme you feel the urge.

*rofl* Well, I have a few ideas for some extra graphic goodness, but nothing that would overload the page. If you're turning me loose (ish) I'd set it up with image based table borders rather than letting each browser render them differently, it's a pet peeve hehe and a 2 or 3 px border graphic is pretty negligable as far as load time would go. Another 5-10k or so and I could put in some beveled edges for title and text areas just to make 'em a bit more interesting. And something little to spice up the navigation columns could be good too. A few small graphics could go a long way in polishing it up. I'll play around some, but don't be afraid to yell at me if it's too much ;)

I'll stop ramblin' and get something for you to actually look at sharpish *laugh*
...thinks *he* rambles does he? *giggles*

-Kate