New Homepage Layout

[DanQ]

Apolyton's homepage has been given <A HREF="http://apolyton.net" TARGET="_new">a significant makeover</A> to primarily reflect the site's coverage evolution. Check it out!

To comment on this new look, simply respond to this thread. To exercise the option of giving the re-design a letter grade, see the polling area above.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[Asher]

I think it should also list the hottest threads on Apolyton.

But it's much, much better than the old layout!

[ixnay]

Nice. I like it.

It looks a lot better than the old one.

[Dis]

I didn't even notice a change

Is that a good thing?

[Dis]

whoops I thought you mean the forums page for some reason

I still enter poly through the smac section (despite not having played since 1999 ). old habits die hard.

undecided = banana

[korn469]

i gave it an A- i like it
it is better than the old page

but you guys spelled center wrong
(hehe you could just call it the news desk since that would be a continent neutral spelling)

and i agree with asher, it would be nice to have like a few of the most active threads for the past 24 hours on the site (one in each section perhaps)

[Zoid]

A+ for sure! Great work guys!

[Lancer]

Great look...

How about a 'register here' in the space next to the intro bit?

[Zoid]

A thought

It would be real neat to have a "active threads"-list, on the forum page; to keep track of the various threads you post in. If you post in several threads in a couple of forums it´s a veritable ***** to keep track of your posts.

[Eli]

Looks too... simple.

[Zoid]

Simplicity is hard to achieve, Eli. It´s what behind the simplicity thats´s interesting...

[Immortal Wombat]

Much, much better! Though it looks a little inconvenient on larger text sizes (IE6), with a low resolution.

One question, why are SMAC and Civ2 classics, whereas CtP is still a current title?

[Buck Birdseed]

As a staff member I'm not allowed to insult admins (not that I would, not that I would! ), so I'll offer some constructive criticism instead.

What are you trying to achieve with this layout? Why were the design choices made the way they were?

What appears on the first screenful to lure in the prospecting Apolytoner? The main focus of attention seems to be the UNHCR ad in the middle of the page. That's what your eyes are drawn towards. Why is there so much white space? Should the "News headlines" bit be either outside the first screenful or fully inside it? Is there enough on the first screenful to tell people what this site is and does? Sure, there's the filler text, but how many people read that first thing?

Why such a variety of styles? Why the low-kerning (undoubtedly CSS, which many browsers aren't compatible with) titles on the "Current Titles" (etc.) sections? Why use underlined text at all? (I keep trying to click it!)

Why do links to most sections appear twice on the page? Why do the section links on the left take up so much space? Why is Call to Power a "Current Game" while the newer Alpha Centauri is a "Classic"? Why isn't the white space below the section links filled, or unevenly filled?

Why the chosen design for the "News Centre"? What relevance is today's date? Why is it blue, seemingly in contrast with the Red/light blue Apolyton colours? Why use such a strange border on the news table?

Why isn't the horizontal line, banner ad, filler text and News Centre aligned on either the left or right side, nor in fact the centre?

Why the horizontal line at the bottom?

Why is the "Top Downloads" section much shorter than the "Top Headlines" one?

Is there any sort of thought behind the relative left/right alignments on the page?

Why the aversion to using images? Doesn't a pure-text page look paltry these days?

I give it a C+; it's not exceptionally clearer than the last page and it's pretty Uugly compared to most sites.

[-Jrabbit]

Overall, not bad. I haven't had time to check compatibility across browsers, which is usually the most critical single factor. But the use of much text (vs using graphics to convey textual info) will result in much better load times and that can't be bad.

Is this page designed for newbies or the community? If it's for the existing community, it doesn't prvide enough drilldown navigation (like Javascript dropdown menus could provide). If it's for newbies, it should be a little more specific about what the site is (like maybe using the word "game" somewhere...).

News from October?? If you have a section referencing "today's headlines" it seems pretty silly to have so many old headlines. There's no requirement that there be 3 "current" headlines in every news category!

"Current Titles" sounds like items for sale.

Seems odd when the #2 listed "Feature Section" is Miscellaneous. Again, rollover menus of some sort would help make it clear.

"Logon and stay informed." -- This should be a link to the logon function.

Need to actively encourage new registrants on this page as well. Didn't notice an easy way to join the community.

While that seems like a lot of criticism, I still give it a B for layout and loadtime improvements. (FYI -- I manage my company's Web presence, currently consisting of 4 sites.)

[Zealot]

I'll vote when I see it at home, in my 14" monitor, at a 800x600 resolution. I'm at work, with a 17" 1200x1024 resolution.

But Snapcase has pretty good points! While the change was for better, there's nothing we can say "wow!". The only flash is still the banner ad...

So far, a B. Won't give anything better than this. But I'm sure I won't give any D, there is a clear improvement!