How do you like the new design!?

[*DAMN Mauti]

Hi guys,

probably many of you have already seen the finished subparts I uploaded few days ago. However the redesign is done, "only" the BL and Mod Archive have to be updated.

I would like to hear your opinions about it. What you like and dislike what I should make better next time?

This website should be the first version where you can hardly see a difference between Netscape 6+, Mozilla and IE. I didn't tested Opera but instead I tried a non graphical browser and it works, somehow? lol

Bye,

Mauti

[Ace]

I had to go with "Nice but..." solely because it wont expand to be as wide as my browser is. I have a ton of empty, wasted black space on the sides of my screen. Getting rid of most or all of this black space is the only request I would have.

Other than that, it looks good. The forums don't look that different, but I like the new design of the main page. It's far less cluttered than the old one. Also, big props to you for being standards-compliant. I just tried this with lynx and it works as advertised. That's quite a feat Mauti.

[†FiRE Infection]

Everything looks pretty crisp and clear but like everything new you have to get used to it and where the buttons are.  All in all it looks very nice just a little scruncthed together on the sides with about an inch of black on the sides and on the top.

All in all it looks nice.

[Brain]

i have the same problem as ace. the site doesn't expand to fill my window. other than that, awesome work mauti.

[*DAMN Mauti]

Thanks for the replys so far. Ace I decided to make a static resolution for 800*600 screens because one thing I hated was to view the old site on my friends 19' screen. Most news were only one big line and I think that more short lines are easier to read than one large line.

However next time I'll add a feature where you can chose between different settings like 800*600, 1024*768, 1600*1200 or full screen. All in all this is only a temporary solution because I want to rewrite the whole page in php with one main admin terminal and a user modul  so you only need one account for the forum and BL.

Bye,

Mauti
Infection: The in of black are dark blue stripes may you should adjust your screen or look at the main news it is the same it only seems to be darker because the forum uses a grey color instead of the blue from the main page.

[Brain]

oh yes, something else that i have noticed. i don't know if this is my end only or what, but the sire seems to take a lot longer to load pages now

[*DAMN Mauti]

That's probably because you haven't load all graphics in your cache yet. I hardly feel a difference. I only noticed that IE needs a little bit longer than mozilla with the current design but at all the site isn't much larger. The graphics I use for the tables are only 50bytes each and the   2 main pics are together  10kbyte larger than the old one.

[*NADS Capt. Anarchy]

Call me a stickler, but i liked the way the old one filled up the entire screen. Even when i put my screen down to 800*600, there's that little white border around everything, which really messes things up, I think. Also, the rounded corners make it seem softer,perhaps weaker in a way.

More to come later, i'm off to school.

[Typhy]

I simply fail to see any improvments, just changes. - I liked the old one much bettere.

[*DAMN Mauti]

I made a test page for all of you who would like to see the page fullscreen:

Redesign Fullscreen

However I don't like it this way simply because the overview is worse which was the main reason to redo the site.

Typhy the improvements are that you find the most important information faster: reduced to the maximum. Also I think you have a better overview compared to the old one which was  nevertheless a great site but more confusing for new visitors because of the many sections we offered. You will see the biggest difference in the upcoming  download section which shows clear the advantage of the new design.

The redesign shouldn't be a revolution from the old one it is more an evolution in my opinion.

Last but not least tastes are different.

Mauti

[Ace]

That fullscreen test page is much better in my opinion. Making that an option for throughout the site would be much appreciated.

[|MP|Cringe]

i think the new design is teh leetness, it just needs to expand to be as wide as my browser window, otherwise, its Great!

[kos.viper]

Well, I like the front page.  It has that same look as it was before Rogue Spear.  But for the forum I think I'd rather have it across the screen, less scrolling for my 16x12 res

[Mattster]

Very nice Mauti i think it looks cooler than the old site but there is something missing....

[tasty]

i agree with those that thought it looked better, however two functional things are lacking: the forum window has two huge 75-pixel black spaces on the sides that cause the forum window to shrink and for less text to fit on the page. at many of the forum pages, there is a great deal of space with nothing on it. otherwise, nice work mauti  

[jn.loudnotes]

Hmm....I guess any change is tough.

First of all, I like the re-organization a lot.  But I'm not wild about the new layouts.  Echoing Ace and others, the standards compliancy is really great, but for me it's not an issue.  

For some reason, even after I have the images cached, this layout still loads slower. . .which I guess is just a reflection on the way IE chooses to parse the code.  I can live with it I guess.  For me it's a toss-up as to whether full-screen or narrow is better, but I did really like the old design.  

I think it would be really cool if you could figure out a way for us to each customize the design to our liking.  Use cookies or something to let us pick from three different layouts perhaps?

Well. . .that would be ?bercool but also an ?berwasteoftime. . .if you ever have a spare unpaid workweek you could maybe do that.

Anyway, as long as you're going with this design, I have one small suggestion.  Please add a "recent articles" section to the main page.  Hopefully we can write some for you so there'd be something to put there.

Also, you can change the "inactive" status for me in the staff.  I'm still around, for better or for worse.  And my website address is now Capitol District Law Offices.

Do I still have access to the main news page?

Nice work though. . .

[Typhy]

Thank you Mauti. While I personaly dislike the new look of things, I guess that overall it's an improvment because of the things that you mentioned; nice job.

[Flame]

The layout is nice, and so are the graphics. However, so many complain because they are used to the look of the old one, in a few days (or months) you will all become accustomed with it, like with GameRanger.

[*NADS Capt. Anarchy]

That's what was bothering me! It's got the solid blue backgrounds instead of black. It lightens it up a bit, but it's a bit too much color for my taste, esp. that shade of blue.

[GreY HounD]

Going for that OSX look eh? great, but bit to much hype for not to many modifications to it? maybe but then again who am i to say i contributed 0. better than old though defenatly