Front page thoughts?

Post by **|darc|** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:05 pm

http://www.dcemulation.org/

The front page is up, showing off the new design. It's not final, but before we get to work on other stuff, I want your input on what you think needs to be changed.

deemoney · Post by **deemoney** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:06 pm

Don't like it, the logo looks off, the colors are mediocre, and the page shouldn't be centered.

butters · Post by **butters** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:07 pm

1. It's off balance with the giant logo on the left.
2. It is centered with lots of white space on both sides.
3. The tray in the logo looks like an omelet.
4. I personally don't care for orange.
It really looks like you guys tried too hard....

curt_grymala · Post by **curt_grymala** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:09 pm

There does seem to be an awful lot of whitespace on either side on my 1024x768 display. Also, along with all that whitespace, it seems as though there is very little room for any of the actual content (with the "page" area being so small to begin with, and then taking half of that space for forum topics and links).

stagg · Post by **stagg** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:12 pm

Looks a LOT like those site that show up when you type in the wrong address in the address bar, people might mistake it as a broke link.

Juan · Post by **Juan** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:16 pm

What they said (even stagg)

The logo throws the whole site off, maybe getting rid of the omelette and making the "Dreamcast" letters dark blue like the site would help to bring them closer together.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:16 pm

I like it. Sure there is a bit of white space on the sides, but that can be fixed (and to me isn't even that annoying).

Post by **|darc|** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:17 pm

stagg wrote:Looks a LOT like those site that show up when you type in the wrong address in the address bar, people might mistake it as a broke link.

That's probably due to the lack of content at this point.

butters · Post by **butters** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:22 pm

Guys don't get me wrong about my comments up there. The site is like 2,000% better now, but it can still be improved.

FatBat · Post by **FatBat** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:47 pm

It looks a lot cleaner and more organized then the old format, however it still needs work. However I like it.

007Cheater · Post by **007Cheater** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:00 pm

I like it! I would prefer if the body stretched though from left to right instead of centered, other then that I see nothing wrong. I can't wait to start adding content to the new site and getting rid of the old ones.

I was trying to look up the old design on wayback machine when it was stiill

dcemu.cheatlist.com but none of them are working, strange! Back in 2000 when it launched.

Luriden · Post by **Luriden** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:08 pm

Looks nice. WAYYYY better than the original.

Covar · Post by **Covar** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:13 pm

its much better, but i still see no reason to change my bookmark from the forum index to the main page

Nyarlathotep · Post by **Nyarlathotep** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:14 pm

Either center the logo and make it larger for the front page, or move it to top-left for forum consistency.

Make the news 'block' larger and more prominent. Will it scroll within its own block, or will it scroll the entire page with it? I can see it working better scrolling within its own block, but its then less navigatable.

More links, and better categorisation; something like

News | Forums | Live chat | Emulators for DC | Emulators for PC | Tools | Software for DC | DC Homebrew | Tutorials | Covers | Themes | Articles | FAQ | Affiliates | About | Whatever

Top news stories of the month above top forum posts?
Top forum posts probably shouldn't be taking all of its sources from current events and Off topic / gaming forums anyway, stick to homebrew games and apps.

You could always go with Blue and White for the page colours - the DC Swirl was Blue in Europe, and its Segas traditional colours

It would also segue with the forums default subsilver, unless youre planning on doing a matching default theme for the forums to match the new site (you should).

Those big empty spaces at the sides aren't being reserved for google banner ads for 'buy dc games here!' are they?

Post by **Christuserloeser** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:33 pm

I really like it.

...except maybe:

Nyarlathotep wrote:More links, and better categorisation

Post by **|darc|** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:37 pm

Nyarlathotep wrote:Either center the logo and make it larger for the front page, or move it to top-left for forum consistency.

I'm thinking it would be better in the center (like perhaps this version, but a little larger).

I plan on doing a forum theme or at least a subSilver mod that will make the forums look consistent with the front page, so I'm just trying to focus on the front page itself for now.

Nyarlathotep wrote:Make the news 'block' larger and more prominent. Will it scroll within its own block, or will it scroll the entire page with it? I can see it working better scrolling within its own block, but its then less navigatable.

Scroll within its own block, like an iframe? No, the whole site scrolls.

This behavior is better illustrated on souLLy's original version before I made it w3 compliant. This is perhaps the version I should have demonstrated, as it is more filled out with the lorem ipsum text.

Nyarlathotep wrote:More links, and better categorisation; something like

News | Forums | Live chat | Emulators for DC | Emulators for PC | Tools | Software for DC | DC Homebrew | Tutorials | Covers | Themes | Articles | FAQ | Affiliates | About | Whatever

The current categorization is not finished, but the Forums and Chat tabs are going to be brought together as "Community" as I plan on incorporating an IRC chat link or page at the top of the forums (on all themes or at least on the DCEmu theme).

Nyarlathotep wrote:Top news stories of the month above top forum posts?
Top forum posts probably shouldn't be taking all of its sources from current events and Off topic / gaming forums anyway, stick to homebrew games and apps.

Currently I coded it to not display topics from Null or non-public forums; I was split on whether or not to let the OT sections go in as well. Perhaps I could do two of them; I'll see how that turns out looking.

Nyarlathotep wrote:You could always go with Blue and White for the page colours - the DC Swirl was Blue in Europe, and its Segas traditional colours
It would also segue with the forums default subsilver, unless youre planning on doing a matching default theme for the forums to match the new site (you should).

Yes, I do.

Nyarlathotep wrote:Those big empty spaces at the sides aren't being reserved for google banner ads for 'buy dc games here!' are they?

No, I had a disagreement with Cheatah about this already. A few months ago I approached him about moving the site off of ZTNet and offered to foot the bill just to get the damned ads off the site. At first he agreed, but then he instead opted to move it onto the hosting he pays for which hosts pspemulation, cheatlist, etc. I said okay, but after I moved the site last weekend he said "Oh, to help pay the bill I'm going to stick some Google ads on there." I got him to back off of that, but whatever happens I will foot the bill for this site to not have ads--this is extremely important to me. The site does not generate enough traffic for it to be prohibitively expensive for me to pay for.

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:19 pm

|darc| wrote:I got him to back off of that, but whatever happens I will foot the bill for this site to not have ads--this is extremely important to me. The site does not generate enough traffic for it to be prohibitively expensive for me to pay for.

If it should come to that, be sure to let me know - I would be more than willing to contribute.

Post by **|darc|** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:20 pm

I also did a sample DCDev. I don't know who has access to DCDev, but if anyone feels like continuing it, I have a new template for it.

http://dev.dcemulation.org/dcdev.php

Some people in IRC say they like the red color scheme for the main site, I personally prefer the blue, but I figured this was worth posting for feedback.

deemoney · Post by **deemoney** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:28 pm

The blue makes me depressed.. the red is lively.. i love it... i know it wasn't even a color on the dreamcast.. but ehh.. its sexy..

butters · Post by **butters** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:04 pm

I like the red version too. I did notice in that version that there's a "jaggy" in the red part that goes across the top.