SL New Look

[techumseh]

Here's my first try at SL's "New Look". Please let me know what you think, plus any suggestions are welcome.

http://www.tecumseh.150m.com/SL_New_Look.html

[Harry Tuttle]

Re: SL New Look

Originally posted by techumseh
Here's my first try at SL's "New Look". Please let me know what you think, plus any suggestions are welcome.

http://www.tecumseh.150m.com/SL_New_Look.html

I like the theme. It has an "adventure" quality to it that I think is fun.

I would include on the front page a section for news blips that would cover anything big happening in the various sections.

Also, and this is a neat way to form a network with the various communities, I would allow a section for news items from the other big Civ2 communities out there. Contributing editors from the other sites could submit news. They share their knowledge, we share ours, and everyone is all one big happy family.

[Boco]

Gettysburg?

Topics cover the gamut for me. I'd fit it on one screen, though. How will it integrate with the current page? Will 'resources' include some kind of wiki work?

Currently we cover only Civ2. Perhaps that should be clarified on the title bar.

[curtsibling]

Personally, I love it!



I'll be back with more comments in a few hours -

- I have to get some shuteye!

[St Leo]

The graphics are good, but you may want to optimize the logo for a lower resolution.

I've installed MediaWiki on my own server and am playing around with it right now. Will see what I can make the thing do.

[N35t0r]

It's looking good!

I'd move the menu bar more to the left and pu the entries closer together, so that you don't have to scroll as much... It'd also leave space for news and all that stuff to be placed centrered on the screen, which looks better IMHO.

[techumseh]

Does anyone know flash?

[curtsibling]

I know flash, but am more adept with AfterFX!

What do you need doing?

[fairline]

Looks good. Can you elaborate on the 'resources' button?

The 'who we are' text runs into the 'a civilazation scenario community' text at my screen res BTW (1024x768)

I agree with Harry - a 'news' section would be good (maybe the latest snippet to be displayed beneath the title section?)

[curtsibling]

I really like the 1860's look of the whole page - Top marks!

The page could be a teeny bit smaller vertically, in order to suit different screen sizes...

Just my aesthetic feedback!

How do you plan to handle the links, and where will they lead?
To these pages on SL?

[typhoon]

Does anyone know flash?

I have a copy of Flash MX which I occasionally tinker with. What would you need?

[techumseh]

Originally posted by typhoon


I have a copy of Flash MX which I occasionally tinker with. What would you need?

We won't need it until quite a bit later, but I was hoping to add a bit of action to the site. I was impressed by the menus on the site for "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". http://www.foxhome.com/lxg/ (bad movie - nice site) Sahara also caught my eye: http://www.saharamovie.com/

Does it produce a file which is then inserted into a site like a movie? I really don't have a clue about it.

[Mercator]

The design is terrific, though a bit big, static and graphics intensive. But please hold on techumseh (and everybody), before we continue with this... Oh, and for God's sake, no Flash!

If indeed we are going to make the SLeague website a Wiki, we do not need a design. Look at the link St Leo posted, and the various Wiki's he referred to in the "Welcome Back!" thread. The only thing we'd need is a logo.

The breakdown into different sections seems OK, though. But I think that's something we have to look into further.

So let's focus on the information architecture now, that is, how the website will be organized rather than what it will look like... I just followed a course on exactly this sort of stuff, so bow before me you ignorant laymen! ... um, I mean, let's all think of something together. (nevermind that I probably failed the class)

Here's my suggestion:

• News
• About/Who We Are
• Resources... Guides about creating graphics, scenarios, hex-editing, review guidelines and what not. I think we don't really need the SL Magazine anymore, if we get this right. The Magazine can instead become a set of "featured" articles on the front page. We can use the forum to encourage people to submit new stuff.
• Files... Graphics, utilities etc. and obviously scenarios. Rather than having a separate reviews section, it could be a subsection of this. Each file has a description and links to all its reviews.
• Contests
• Forum
• Links

[techumseh]

Harry, I had planned a news section, and will add one just as soon as I figure out how to add pics/links horizontally. (As I said, my skills at HTML are minimal)

I'm going to reduce the size of the list and push it up and to the left, to leave more room for news and other features. I'll tone down the map border and reduce it's width, esp. on top, bottom and left. Dave, Gettysburg because I've always thought the contemporary maps of the battle were very cool.

Resources will lead to 3 pages as currently envisioned: Tips, Graphics, and Sounds. Tips to include the existing SL tips, with links to the Cradle of Civilization guides and Catfish's site. Graphics leads to units, terrain and Cities/icons/people. Units further subdivides into the categories decided on the 'Welcome Back' thread, and will be sorted by artist. My idea (let me know if it's good or bad) is that the better work will be regularly lifted from the topped threads and added to the site. We'd need an editor of graphics to do this.

Downloads will lead to Scenarios and Utilities/patches. How would people like to sort the scenarios? We might do it by author rather than by period. Also, I was thinking that we could divide them into those being playtested and those that are finished. y/n?

The rest is pretty straightforward. Raid a few of the more recent reviews, put the new contest stuff up directly and add links to the old ones, upload the old SL files and hope Curt and his posse produce new issues , link to these forums and add links to all the main resource sites around, including the present SL site.

Leo, I'm unfamiliar with wiki, and would need a tutorial. How would you work it into the site? What other features would people like incorporated into the site?

Finally, I need some help producing this site with someone who has better HTML skills than me. I can help with design, but I'm not the guy to produce the final product. Volunteers?

[our_man]

Sadly, I'm not a webhead and can't really help out with this technical stuff, but I like what you've done so far tech.