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haplo
L90 Legend
Administrator
608 Posts
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 Posted - 01/06/2012 : 14:07:42
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As you can see the look has changed a lot, this is what I've been working on the past few days. Some highlights:
* A new logo
* Some fonts have been changed, like the headers on the Top Players page
* Stretchable playerbar is back. The header is stretchable as well.
* We are now moving towards a more flexible design, instead of a fixed-width as we had before. The goal is to make PIOTW look good no matter whether you're looking at it on a 24" widescreen monitor or a 4" smartphone.
* Speaking of which, I've been testing and getting PIOTW to be more user-friendly on Android. This is a long-term project in the works. Sadly, there's no point to testing iphones because as far as I know iphones won't run flash, so you couldn't play any of the games anyway. But android phones and other devices will be a focus of our design in the coming days.
* The menu tabs are no longer links themselves. You have to find what you want in the submenus. All the pages that existed before are still accessible, you just can't click on "Compete" directly you have to go to "Compete" -> "Overview". I know this isn't as user-friendly as it was before and it may be temporary. Right now that was the best compromise I could think of to make the menu work well on a touchscreen device like a smartphone. (So you can click/tap the menus to open them and then select a subpage)
* I know the new layout doesn't show up properly within the forum yet. I'm working on that.
* The playerbar now shows up whether you are logged in or not, but shows "guest" stats if you are not logged in. This is to encourage people to sign up by showing them how they can make progress. For example by playing a couple games on the site they will earn a couple of gold/xp and see that along with a message to signup to save the stats they are earning.
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haplo
L90 Legend
Administrator
608 Posts
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Posted - 01/06/2012 : 14:30:36
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| Okay, the layout now works properly while within the forum. |
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toast
L99 Legend
Forum Regular
537 Posts
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Posted - 01/06/2012 : 17:52:08
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*tippy-toe's across the forum*
Hai, Ummm, my player bar is reading "Nooblet" instead of level 8. Its showing as level 8 on my profile page, but the player bar hasnt registered im level 8.
And and and, as magnificently vast the changes are, im going to be alone when i say...I dont like the new logo =| i think it looks tacky/down-market, in comparison to the original logo.
I feel slightly awful saying that, given the time and effort it must have taken, but there you go. Im just a fussy plucker =]
Great to have the player-bar back to full, looks alot more -tidy- and neat and consistent...other than the bug causing malfunction with the "Level" situation hehe.
Oh and i got a call from walmart, saying, someone is drunk, wearing only a pair wooly socks, dancing with an inflaitable banana, i'll come and pick you up -this- time, but this stuffs has got to stop! =P
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haplo
L90 Legend
Administrator
608 Posts
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Posted - 01/06/2012 : 18:28:34
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| Fixed the level not showing on the playerbar. Yeah, I'm not thrilled with the new logo either. Will be experimenting with this. |
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toast
L99 Legend
Forum Regular
537 Posts
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Posted - 01/06/2012 : 19:41:45
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| Thankyou muchly for fixing the player bar =] its now lovely again |
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rockcastlecoky
L99 Legend
Forum Regular
586 Posts
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Posted - 01/07/2012 : 03:38:23
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You know thia had to happen. Put something in front of my face and you know that I just have to comment. But please take this as just that. Just my own opinions, not a critique. I've been a member here for a year and a half so you should know by now that I'll have a comment (good or bad) about everything.
Where should I begin?
OK...first, it's that "dark gray bar" at the top. You never see the color gray used much in site design. Well, maybe a little when used as a background color for a button or menu bar. So I'll just say that it's a unique choice. But you also have the black text "Get the latest games by email" inside that dark gray color. The black text inside the datk gray makes the text difficult to read.
Secondly. Once again, it's just my opinion, Those new menu buttons. To me it looks cluttered. It takes up too much room at the top. It forces everything else on the page downward. Just my own opinion, but I much prefer the previous menu style. It was nioe and compact at the very top. Why waste all this valuable "real estate" on these menu buttons?
Thirdly. At the top (center) you have the text "11,707 games and counting..." which (when "counting" is clicked) brings up the site statistics page. This is not aligned properly. On my monitor this text overlaps the games search box. So if I search for a game (which I do daily) it accidently opens up the site statistics page because I accidently opened that page by searching and accidently clicking the clickable "counting" text that now overlaps my games search box.
Lastly...for now. You (meaning Haplo...not Toast) stated the stretchable Player Bar. It stretches? Longer? It also collapses (shorter)? How? It's not fully left to right (width) for my monitor. It's just a smidgeon shy of being full width. But I'll admit it's a lot better than the shorter Player Bar.
OK...a couple more things. But good things. You know that problem I had with a "Facebook" URL showing up on my browser forward and backweard button? That problem is gone now. This new look must have resolved that issue.
I have also noticed that this site now loads extremely quickly. Much, much faster than it loaded in the past. The fastest that I've seen this site load in many months. |
Edited by - rockcastlecoky on 01/07/2012 03:41:24 |
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haplo
L90 Legend
Administrator
608 Posts
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Posted - 01/07/2012 : 13:00:44
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| Don't feel bad about giving me feedback, whether it's good or bad. Feedback is how I know what things people like and don't like -- after all this site is for you the players! I will be making some adjustments soon to address some of these issues. |
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melglora
L92 Legend
Forum Participant
359 Posts
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Posted - 01/10/2012 : 21:30:27
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| Great improvement on the new logo, Haplo! |
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rockcastlecoky
L99 Legend
Forum Regular
586 Posts
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Posted - 01/11/2012 : 10:48:20
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More on the new look again. Perhaps I should now say the "newer" look. It's better. It's improved. I still prefer the original look, but this newer look is fastly growing on me. When I first saw it, I said (to myself) that I hated it. Then after about an hour I kind of liked it. But now I can say that it looks pretty good. I especially like the contrast between the yellow (gold) logo with the black backgtound.
Now the only problem that I have (like I mentioned above) is with the menu buttons. To me, it just seems like a lot of real eastate just for the menu buttons. It's just my own opinion, but I think it would look neater if you (Haplo) spaced out the menu buttons in a "left to right" row along the bottom of the black background. But that's a minor detail and trivial. |
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melglora
L92 Legend
Forum Participant
359 Posts
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Posted - 01/11/2012 : 20:06:29
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| I agree the menu buttons are a bit big and it's not great, but there's an added convenience in it being easier and faster to navigate your way around the site. |
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rockcastlecoky
L99 Legend
Forum Regular
586 Posts
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Posted - 01/11/2012 : 20:06:59
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Oh yeah! A couple more things. If players look in their Gold Shop you will find that has a make-over too. Nice new look, Haplo.
The other thing. The "Top Player's" page. One of the last boxes is "Oldest" players. Contains 20 of the site's oldest players. But since the site make-over, I can now only see 19...not 20. At my "age" on this site, I typically hang somewhere between 18 and 21. So if I fall below 19, I can't see myself. Not that I care...I see myself daily and I'm not that good looking! <vbg> |
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haplo
L90 Legend
Administrator
608 Posts
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Posted - 01/12/2012 : 15:17:30
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Fixed most of the things talked about here. Except for the large menu buttons, which I'm gonna keep for now. Might change them later. I shrunk the vertical size of the header as small as I could under the new layout. It can't really go smaller while still retaining the ability to re-align the different sections of the header as it shrinks in width for smaller screen sizes, unless I removed one of the two boxes (search/subscribe). If you have a widescreen monitor, or use a resolution >= 1440 pixels wide, the header is quite thin as it puts the logo / search / subscribe sections in 3 different columns.
Of course, I'm still gonna be finetuning things as I go. Maybe I'll find a way to shrink it further! |
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rockcastlecoky
L99 Legend
Forum Regular
586 Posts
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Posted - 01/12/2012 : 16:36:13
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Oooohhhh! That explains a little bit. I use a widescreen monitor set at 1440x900 resolution. So everyone doesn't see the 3 different columns? Makes sense now.
I'm not complaning about the size of the menu buttons. They could be text. It doesn't matter. In reality, I'm not complaining at all. Just offering my own opinion. I was just meaning the placement of the "cluster" of buttons. On my monitor at least, this button cluster hangs lower than anything else. Also, I sometimes try to open something in the middle row of buttons and I accidently open something in the top row of buttons instead. So I have to be more precise with my pointer. |
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New Look
