iMic
Joined: 26th Jul 2008
Posts: 659
 Re: First Web Design[Review]
Respectable posted: (1st Jan 2011 01:31 pm)
Yes it's Pro Staff = Front Page Worthy
When I said that I was alluding to the fact that the average player doesn't care about staff. As a matter of fact they want the staff to be the last thing they think about when deciding which online game they should play. In a nutshell, it's not a selling point.
As a matter of fact, nothing in the flash content box is.
The Welcome isn't required. 99% of the time people skip straight over any kind of welcome and immediately dive for the content. There's a little rule within the web design business, and that is "if you don't capture the audience's attention within the first few seconds, you've lost them". No
welcome, getting straight down to business is where you want to be if you intend to capture the interest of the potential player. The text below the flash content area would do this well, telling you what the game is, what it's about and how to join in.
The second portion ("where everything is unique and wonderful!") is exactly what the text below the flash content area is purposed to do. As a result it's currently appearing twice on the page.
The third portion. This will sound harsh. Apologies in advance. When it comes to gamers, they want to know how engaging and entertaining the game will be. They don't give a shit about staff, they don't give a shit about support. As far as they're concerned as well, there's nothing unique about
your pet system because there's nothing to compare it to. Players of other Endless Online private servers may find it unique, but any new players you attract won't.
The fourth portion is completely unnecessary for the reasons I stated above. New players, old players, current players... none of them care about who runs the game. The only reason Endless Online centered so much around Vult-r and Arvid is because everyone was a kiss-arse retard hoping to get
administrator status.
However, you do have the right idea. Get some in-game shots as you planned and put those into the flash content area. Add more descriptive text and information in the area below it. Unify the look of the forums with the front page. Make some tweaks to the logo and some of the
graphics. Gradually it'll all fall into place. As a matter of fact, if you put some game screenshots in the flash content area, you will immediately capture the attention of anyone that visits the site as within the first second of the page opening, you're already showing them the game in action.
It would be perfect.
On a sidenote, and this applies to anyone in a similar position, but the very best way to design a game website like this is to pretend Endless Online and EOSERV doesn't exist. Think of your game server as a completely new game, from the ground up. Now tell everyone, and show everyone,
why they should play your game as opposed to everyone elses. You must not fall into the trap of saying things like "new graphics" or "unique X feature", because then you're immediately comparing your game to the other EOSERV based private servers and to any potential new players, they won't have a
god damn clue what you're on about. Remember, you're not competing against the other EO Servers, you're competing against every other MMORPG out there.
You can though have "Powered by EOSERV" or something like it in the page footer, or in a sub-page talking about how the game works perhaps. Don't use it as your selling point though.
So far none of the notable private servers have gotten these basic website design fundamentals right. It would be nice to eventually see someone get it.
newguy posted: (1st Jan 2011 03:37 pm)
You are right, they have giant ads in the center of the page.
Exactly. As soon as you load their websites, there's the product they offer, front and center. There's no eye candy or anything around it. In the case of Apple, no coloured backgrounds, just the product, the navigation and some extra information. That's all. It's one of the reasons many
designers and marketers rank Apple.com as one of the best designed corporate websites despite it having very little overall. Product comes first, everything else is second.
At the time of writing I couldn't even get Sony's page to load up properly so i'll reserve judgement for the time being.
---
EOSERV.net Academy Of Trolls, Satirists & Sarcastics
5.5 Years Former Site Administrator / Moderation Team / Member (Retired)
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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newguy
Joined: 13th Mar 2009
Posts: 665
Re: First Web Design[Review]
Right, everything they do is to support their product(s). Which is good because its clear, concise, and to the point. ---
Love you too.
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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Klutz
Joined: 14th Jul 2009
Posts: 1737
Re: First Web Design[Review]
Take a look at the way I placed the banner in the homepage here. You can see all of the front pages content without having to scroll anywhere, even though the majority of the users will want to get straight down to business and find out how to play, they
are forced to quickly view some vital cosmetics on the way through the door.
Now I'm not advertising or trying to show off my site, game servers offline anyway. I think this may be a semi-decent example of what SB is talking about.
---
Web developer, currently looking for graphic artists / designers.
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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Re: First Web Design[Review]
Alright.
I hate to say it but I am going to just coder a website from the scratch up.
I will be bookmarking this page to refer it while making it.
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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iMic
Joined: 26th Jul 2008
Posts: 659
Re: First Web Design[Review]
If I may share a design that i've been working on with the world...
Please note that this design uses placeholder content. It wasn't designed for Rena or EOSEP, or EOSERV for that matter. It lacks the game description and as such is designed more for games that have a strong community foundation more than anything. The header would be designed as the piece that
grabs the reader's attention, although likewise this hasn't yet been completed. The EOSERV ad is also a placeholder.
(Also take note that the copyright details on that screenshot are actually
valid under the Australian Copyright Act of 1968, highlighted in paragraph one of the linked page, which states "Copyright Protection is granted automatically from the time an original work is created")
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EOSERV.net Academy Of Trolls, Satirists & Sarcastics
5.5 Years Former Site Administrator / Moderation Team / Member (Retired)
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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Klutz
Joined: 14th Jul 2009
Posts: 1737
Re: First Web Design[Review]
sblord posted: (2nd Jan 2011 03:21 am)
If I may share a design that i've been working on with the world...
Please note that this design uses placeholder content. It wasn't designed for Rena or EOSEP, or EOSERV for that matter. It lacks the game description and as such is designed more for games that have a strong community foundation more than anything. The header would be designed as the
piecethatgrabs the reader's attention, although likewise this hasn't yet been completed. The EOSERV ad is also a placeholder.
(Also take note that the copyright details on that screenshot are
actuallyvalid under the Australian Copyright Act of 1968, highlighted in paragraph one of the linked page, which states "Copyright Protection is granted automatically from the time an original work is created")
This is really nice indeed, just get a banner done, and maybe sell it to an eoserv host.
---
Web developer, currently looking for graphic artists / designers.
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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Re: First Web Design[Review]
I'm going to get my friend to help me.
He will use Ajax to load pages..so you never actually go to another link..it's all built in.
That would be cool, I believe.
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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iMic
Joined: 26th Jul 2008
Posts: 659
Re: First Web Design[Review]
Klutz posted: (2nd Jan 2011 07:36 am)
This is really nice indeed, just get a banner done, and maybe sell it to an eoserv host.
I've since started experimenting with the possibility that it may not be resold at all. It's a design that I think I can apply to a project of my own, or a project i'm involved in. '
So far I have yet to find anything that would use such a layout, although there's at least 3 websites i'm currently constructing (and a further 20 in the archive which still have yet to see the light of day) so i'll see what happens.
---
EOSERV.net Academy Of Trolls, Satirists & Sarcastics
5.5 Years Former Site Administrator / Moderation Team / Member (Retired)
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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Re: First Web Design[Review]
You should try using Ajax in 1 of your websites.
That's what I plan on doing for the newly created one.
I will probably have the same type of website but minus the huge (Banner) in the middle. That way..no one has to scroll down, & even better when they click a new tab such as "Download" it doesn't reload the page.
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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DanScott
Joined: 19th Aug 2010
Posts: 1212
Re: First Web Design[Review]
my main problem with this website, is the big flash banner slap bang in the middle, It's un-attractive and pointless. It's not going to brain wash anyone into thinking your server is amazing or anything xD. So there's really no need for it, But I like the easy navigation on your website but the
forums need to be in-keeping with the home page theme so it doesn't look like you've gone to a whole new website entirely when you go to the forums, but otherwise, good effort. ---
If money doesn't grow on trees, then why do banks have branches?
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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Re: First Web Design[Review]
Yeah..that's what I said in the post above.
I admit that cub3r slider(the big banner) is VERY cool. But I don't think it suits for a game website, especially Endless-Online.
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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Bladex
Joined: 24th Jan 2010
Posts: 1048
Re: First Web Design[Review]
This guys is smart this is definitely Advertising no matter how u shake it around hes jus covering it under the topic
FIRST WEBSITE DESIGN
Hes prolly thining to himself right now "Yes advertisd through EOserv forums :)"
---
"With your feet steady and firm on the ground soar high and ignore limitations" -Bladex
EOSERV Class : Pixel Artist, Grammar Nazi, Server Owner, Mapping Artist, Server Coder, Test Player,
The Game Maker
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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Re: First Web Design[Review]
These* guys are smart.
OR
This guy is smart
As said before I was aware of the rule but I in NO way was trying to get traffic.
I am trying to develop my skills and they are helping me.
Say what you want..>_>.
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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Bladex
Joined: 24th Jan 2010
Posts: 1048
Re: First Web Design[Review]
No wat i meantin that post was
this guy's <----
figure it out for yourself
I jus couldnt be bothered putting proper punctuation?
---
"With your feet steady and firm on the ground soar high and ignore limitations" -Bladex
EOSERV Class : Pixel Artist, Grammar Nazi, Server Owner, Mapping Artist, Server Coder, Test Player,
The Game Maker
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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iMic
Joined: 26th Jul 2008
Posts: 659
Re: First Web Design[Review]
Respectable posted: (2nd Jan 2011 12:48 pm)
You should try using Ajax in 1 of your websites.
That's what I plan on doing for the newly created one.
I will probably have the same type of website but minus the huge (Banner) in the middle. That way..no one has to scroll down, & even better when they click a new tab such as "Download" it doesn't reload the page.
The problem with using Ajax to combine all of the elements of an entire website into a single page relates to navigation. For example, I have been working on a website covering a Saturday Night show lineup for an Adelaide based radio station.
For this purpose, I have the individual show pages split up into sub-directories. This will allow any potential visitor to, for example, visit http://www.stationname.com/metalmania if they wish to visit the page for the Metal Mania radio show. If the site was built almost exclusively using
Ajax to dynamically load page elements, it would be virtually impossible or at least impractical to have that kind of setup.
You also need to make sure that the page is still usable for any web browsers that do not have Javascript enabled (or have a limited Javascript engine).
For the purposes of your website, being a relatively straight-forward site, use of Ajax would probably be fine. It doesn't work in every web design scenario though.
Bladex posted: (2nd Jan 2011 03:54 pm)
This guys is smart this is definitely Advertising no matter how u shake it around hes jus covering it under the topic
Hes prolly thining to himself right now "Yes advertisd through EOserv forums :)"
For the most part, advertising isn't defined by what the post says, but how the community perceives it. Everyone so far has treated this thread as a discussion about web design and as a result we've chosen to allow the thread to run its course.
---
EOSERV.net Academy Of Trolls, Satirists & Sarcastics
5.5 Years Former Site Administrator / Moderation Team / Member (Retired)
14 years, 17 weeks ago
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