New Web Design Proposals.

[Mark_Everson]

Thanks UR, that's good to know!

[Frozzy]

Here's a suggestion for the page as it is... how about the image of the Parthenon randomly change when you access the page?

[Mercator]

Dunno how I ended up on this forum, or this here thread, but I'll just add my comments.

I also like the first design best, the 2nd hurts my eyes, as Richard so eloquently put it earlier. Yellowdaddy's descriptions were spot on.

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I am not sure if it matters anymore, che, but here are some of my suggestions wrt design #1:

1. Too much space is taken up by dead (inactive) bits that are just decorations (e.g. the image of the stone statue), therefore:

2. Replace the stone statue thing with the "Key Milestones" section, you don't want 1/4 of the screen to be dead space.

How about a compromise? Combine the statue and the "Key Milestones". That is, give the entire left column a black background, and use the statue pic (with contrast vastly reduced) as a fixed background image. Then put the "Key Milestones" in white font on top of that.

The "Newest Demo" would be floated right and end up where the "Key Milestones" are located now.

3. Make the "Clash of Civilizations" block of letters smaller and shift the menu up.

Sounds good. The text needn't be much smaller, so long as the menu appears right of the logo.

And get rid of the horrid white box around the menu. You might keep some of those white lines to accentuate the menu, but not all of 'em.

4. I can't tell if you are using frames, but you better not

Frames. The title+menu should probably just be part of the page, or it could be made a fixed div if you really insist.

And I sure hope he didn't mean to "skin" the scrollbar either. Maximum effort for minimum gain. I prefer my own standard OS scrollbars thank you (or I'll skin my browser if I'm really desperate).

5. Add a secondary menu at the bottom, some pages will be longer than one screen.

Absolutely! But that should be text-only. A bit like Apolyton, except less cluttered.

6. You don't need a "main" or "home" botton (or menu selection). It is now customary that clicking on the logo or the letter block sends you home.

Please keep it, if only for accessibility reasons.

9. How come it is taking so long?

10. I like white background. I really do.

I like black background better... But I agree, the dark grey areas don't really fit well anyway, so the main window background could probably be white rather than silver.

[Stormbeard]

I don't really understand what's wrong with the current design: I find it aesthetically pleasing (hey, blue and minimalist on graphics ). The only part of the site that needs fixing is some of the issues with frames; but that can be fixed by a) decreasing the left "menu" frame's size (creating a more heirarchial system, like a single link for Downloads) and b) making links from the "big frame" to outside the site *open a new window* (or kill the left frame).

The other designs are excessively picture-intense. As someone said, what is the purpose of that big stone statue?

[Uryxt]

Is this project finished?

[LDiCesare]

Finished in the sense complete, definitely no. Finished as in dead or dormant, somewhat. alms66 seemed to have some interest in rekindling it, so something might still happen.