Strolen's Frustrated Musing

1. Strolen's Frustrated Musing

   #1

   I am stalled because I am psychologically blocked by my dissatisfaction on the overall look and feel of the site. I have been spending a lot of time looking and reading to figure out a way to fix that. Full of ideas, but have done nothing but a few sketches that are slowing getting...somewhere. :(
   
   Most recent inspiration/thoughts.
   
   http://songpull.com/ So very similiar to what we do but for musicians and their music.
   
   Many things I see over there I like. I have been doing a lot of sketches of the frontpage and trying to decide on how to do the rest of the pages too. Just not satisified and they always have a amateurish feeling to me. I very much like a bunch about how that site is setup and how they display some things. Their "charts" page is similiar to what I want to do with recents.
   
   One thing I know for sure, we NEED graphics to spice up stuff. Need a style though and for that we need a single artist that has stuff we like, is affordable (read free), and will help us out. We can't settle for something mediocre either. Thinking about pulling in the avatars for the comments and posts because we are familiar with many of each other's graphics and it can give the pages something to breakup the text.
   
   http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/13/social-network-design-examples-and-best-practices/
   
   I Really like the clean and crisp look of this http://www.experienceproject.com/index.php . The footer is also very interesting as I envision Read Post Play down there with quick links and such similiar to that.
   
   I am simply not happy with the design and am struggling with what to do with it. The code (except for a few bugs that I haven't gotten to) is pretty solid and sitting there doing what I want, but the presentation sucks and I know it. (regions, and the "sponsored" type subs are needed of course and there are others but I am mentally stuck right now)
   
   Just wanted to vent a little and share some musings.
   
   I will hopefully have a little time this weekend and will do some stuff to the frontpage. The frontpage WILL be redesigned almost entirely, count on it. Once I get that down will push that style through the rest of the site a bit and then do some different themes. Once I am happy with the look, it will be much easier to dive into more code and get the rest going. 80% psychological barrier.
   
   Part of the reason I have resisted doing more themes is because I need to have the main site format pretty solid otherwise modifying multiple themes is a nightmare. Be patient with me, I am on the prowl.
   
   And, yes, the Llama has been eating a bit of time from me too...I will readily admit. I am using to vent some creative thoughts that won't work for us. I divide my time pulling my hair out debating the current look of strolen.com and tweaking llamanews.com.
   
   Enough!
   
   Thanks for making it all the way to the end! Just had to get some of it out.
   
   Maybe you will see some of the things I see in the site of come up with your own examples of things that you like in other sites that we can possibly use.

2. Re: Strolen's Frustrated Musing

   #2

   Dude, you should've told the design makes you this unhappy.
   
   To me, a complete redesign this soon feels a bit rushed. I don't mind the palette, there might be some quirks I'd like to see gone, but overall it's not that bad...
   
   ...yeah, except for the graphics maybe. I'm not talking about the bigger obvious pictures, which do suck appropriately. I'm talking about those unnoticed lines, background pieces, shades and color gradients, that give a page form and turn it from "might be nice if I get used to it" to "this is my home".
   
   We don't need as much a complete reconstruction (well, not on the surface), as forging out of that lump of iron a sharp, murderous piece of steel - the metaphor should be clear here. :)
   
   If we need a designer, then so it shall be. We might be able to attract someone with free hosting. Hell, if it costs a few bucks, we might chip in, as long as we get a design that will last for years. (And with a good design, making templates will be easy.)
   
   I would be against those icons on every comment though, we are not Facebook yet. :)
   
   ---
   
   Functionality is quite okay, there is one thing that still has priority to me: anything, that gives a greater perception of user activity. The Recent pages, the chat, user lists - the site should show that we are around, and that we leave traces behind. Activity MUST be seen.
   
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   Speaking of needing a designer... where is Kate? I googled around, since we've raised this question several times already. Last login on Elfwood was sometime in 2007. There are still products being sold with her pictures on them. I even found a family of her mentioned in here (p.7), not sure how to contact such people and don't look like a creep. :)
   
   If I may judge anything out of the lack of activity, but continued mentions of her existence, either she has given up art completely, or she was hit by some terrible affliction, like children. Not sure if she'd take up another offer.
   
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   Okay, somebody else talk now.

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