Website idea thread!

Zephyr · Post by **Zephyr** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:21 pm

I need your help! Actually, it would be ideal if EVERYONE, regardless of their rank, posted in this thread.

As a school project, I'm working on a web design document with three other people. To help with this, I have a few questions. I will post a questionaire later, but for now, please share your ideas about the website. How to make it better? Don't worry if your ideas are unrealistic - if you've had something you'd like to change, remove or add to the site, please post it here.

edit: Please include ideas about the forums as well! I think you might have a lot of ideas about them since that's what you use mostly, anyway.

Thanks!

lb003g0676 · Post by **lb003g0676** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:31 pm

Unrealistic:

A lovely new Flash site, where there is a lovely animated gallery for all the artwork, that all registered modders could submit pictures realted to TR, for visists to look at.

And a nice section where screenshots of new developemnt, of Hammerfell can be posted. Whether it be exteriors or nice new models.

And an easy way to download the maps done by TR. All in a nice place on the main page.

And a shiny new intro with lovely music or a revamp of the current music.

And just generally somehow improving practicallity of the site.

But we would be needing to be getting paid seriosu money to be able to do that, and what we have now is more than acceptable..... way more.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 4:35 pm

what i realy want is a very obvious and easy to navigate FAQ. the very first FAQ page should answer the basic qustions about what were modding for what enjine and what you have to do to join, etc. then simple categories about other stuff (like various lore stances and rules on the forums)

a galery for CA and screenshots that uses THUMBNAILS. the galery should house just about everything that we can display, but be organised simply. perhaps a galery where all users can upload images can be made, so people from both inside and outside the mod can post their best pictures.

it would be neat to have a picture to acompany each page. nothing overly big, but just enough to break up the reading. the Team page could have pictures of the team, and the maps page could have a screenshot of the land or something.

over all, the page needs to be upped in the sexyness factor. maybe distinguish the MW and OB specific pages by chaning the graphics ever so slightly.

lb003g0676 · Post by **lb003g0676** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 5:43 pm

Lady Nerevar wrote:what i realy want is a very obvious and easy to navigate FAQ. the very first FAQ page should answer the basic qustions about what were modding for what enjine and what you have to do to join, etc. then simple categories about other stuff (like various lore stances and rules on the forums)

a galery for CA and screenshots that uses THUMBNAILS. the galery should house just about everything that we can display, but be organised simply. perhaps a galery where all users can upload images can be made, so people from both inside and outside the mod can post their best pictures.

it would be neat to have a picture to acompany each page. nothing overly big, but just enough to break up the reading. the Team page could have pictures of the team, and the maps page could have a screenshot of the land or something.

over all, the page needs to be upped in the sexyness factor. maybe distinguish the MW and OB specific pages by chaning the graphics ever so slightly.

Me likes

But I woudl insist on only modders being able to post artwork, otehrwise poeple might use it just as a hosting utility, or post innapropriate stuff. And that it is work that is narrowed down to TR related only. So i would post soem of the stuff I usually do, unless it is Hammerfell/ Yokuda lore development or Hammerfell related concepts.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 6:15 pm

ofcourse TR related only. i was thinking stuff like screenshots posted by other people

Morgoth Bauglir · Post by **Morgoth Bauglir** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 7:19 pm

First you should make your choice if you want to go to the oblivion or the morrowind site, then you get an nice intro, and at least the site. Don't got anymore ideas, i like the site.

Oh, perhaps compatibelity with internet explorer (I hate opera, firefox and all the other stuff!

).

lb003g0676 · Post by **lb003g0676** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 7:45 pm

I ahve Internet explorer.... how much ebtter is it on firefox!?

Post by **Haplo** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 8:48 pm

Way better. Many sites these days code their webpages to specifically not work with IE. I would suggest Firefox, Opera, or Safari above Internet Explorer.

Radnurag · Post by **Radnurag** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:59 pm

Sound like a *my browser better then yours!!!!*

however...

I like the idea of a Flash build and a more obvious FAQ, and perhaps a splitted morrowind <-> oblivion stie IS a good idea, I'd like it a lot anyway

(p.s. FIREFOX FTW!!!,

)

Post by **Haplo** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 10:58 pm

Aye, for now I'll say that I would like a flash (optional switch to and from HTML for slower connections?) page that tamriel-rebuilt.org directs to. I picture this page being completely black with a purely textual link to the forums somewhere below the two main links.

These two main links would be large pictures/screenshots with a title for their engine above them. They'd be side by side.

For example, on the left, you could see "TES IV: Oblivion" with some kind of picture or logo for the Oblivion portion of our project. On the right, "TES III: Morrowind" with a picture or logo for the MW portion of our project.

The MW picture would link to the (possibly) revamped flash intro by Prometheus (or a totally new one) which when it ended would redirect automatically to the MW website, and the OB picture would link to an OB intro movie (flash?), which would then do the same thing the MW intro does.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:23 pm

Something simple, efficient, and non-confusing would be best. That has been our greatest problem this whole time. Why continue the trend by adding a bunch of distracting flash goodies?

Avoid long flash intros, annoying re-directs, and dividing this page into two seperate versions.

Post by **Haplo** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:33 pm

Our greatest problem has been zero updates and a shit layout and color scheme, not optional flash intros that are actually quite nice and fun to look at. My suggestion would also clear up confusion, as people would be able to see 'oh, hey, MW.' or 'oh hey, OB' and click on whichever one they want to see. One re-direct isn't annoying, especially if it's TR.

I also think your use of distracting is not appropriate/valid.

Eyeball88 · Post by **Eyeball88** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 12:28 am

Cutting the website into two redirects using a single flash page consisting of screenshot collages from both projects is simple enough and easy enough to navigate through. Bonus points if we can make an Arabian version of dragonfly's TR theme for some soothing music while people admire our screenshots.

Then we don't have to worry about "is Hammerfell for MW?" anymore, we can seperate MW concept art from OB concept art, WSG and FCG updates can go into a special OB Concept Art gallery, etc.

Post by **Haplo** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 1:27 am

Eyeball88 wrote:Bonus points if we can make an Arabian version of dragonfly's TR theme for some soothing music while people admire our screenshots.

I've gotten 4 people agree to try their hand at this, one of which is Gesshoku.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 1:59 am

no one asked me

I think it's quite easily done. If you'd like me to.

Eyeball88 · Post by **Eyeball88** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:17 am

Yeah, that would make too much sense, wouldn't it, Haplo. Asking one of our own musicians.

Please do. I love dragonfly's theme, and if we can give it an arabian make-over, it'll be even better. As Morrowind's theme carries over into Oblivion, so should ours!

Nanu · Post by **Nanu** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:19 am

Something easy to navigate, say a 7 on PageRank would be lovely.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:20 am

I also think your use of distracting is not appropriate/valid.

Care to elaborate?

Post by **Haplo** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:23 am

In my opinion the point of flash 'goodies' or intros - which is the only thing I thought would be flash... did you have something else in mind? - is to enhance, not to distract. I don't think people would think 'oh how distracting' or something along those lines when they see a flash intro, especially one with a Skip button.

But I may have misinterpreted your meaning?

EDIT: Doh! Macar I totally forgot... I think you were still in Saudi Arabia when I was asking folks... feel free to try it out, mang!

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:34 am

I suppose it depends on what you're trying to acheive. If you want to create a presentation when people first arrive to the page, or if you want to make it useful and efficient.

A lot of webpages get bogged down in their own flash content, making the user wait for animations/music to load, and otherwise creating an annoyance for people just trying to get to the info they want. So from a presentation standpoint it's alright, but if you want it to be efficient it's a step in the wrong direction.

I seemed to be under the impression that the first page would be a flash extravaganza everyone would be required to sit through... or atleast be required to hit the skip button. As it is I have trouble clicking on the 'Forum' button everytime I go to the mainpage. The E-life has destroyed my attention span.

Noirgrim · Post by **Noirgrim** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:42 am

Libraries: a place for all textures to go, a place for all concepts to go, organized into an easy to use photo gallery, thumbnail style.. which can be organized or filtered by keywords.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 6:16 pm

http://media.putfile.com/TRHF-WIP

How's this? Too creepy?

Zalzidrax · Post by **Zalzidrax** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:10 pm

I personally would find a flash intro that one is automatically directed to when the site loads to be an inconvience almost every time. But some sort of flash deal that explains the project, what we do and why we do it, maybe with cool pictures moreso than words, would be a nice thing to have a link to. Also, maybe some way of showing what progress we're making in terms of exteriors/interiors/model building.

EDIT: Also, Macar, I like that so far, but right now it seems kind of like an intro to a piece. It would be cool to have it swelling up to a more unadulterated form of the TR theme that comes in over the top in a rockin' flute solo

or something.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:28 pm

an Arabian version of dragonfly's TR theme for some soothing music

I intentional made it subdued- I could have made it much grander, but grand isnt soothing.

Also, this is just a little taste of what I can do with it. I didnt want to write the whole thing untill I got some feedback.

BTW, how long should it be? 2 minutes, 3, 4? Should I make it loop?

Post by **Haplo** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:49 am

I really like it Macar, although I agree 'tis a tad bit on the subdued side. I think 2:32 or so (don't know why that number pops out to me) would be a good length... not too short, not too long.

Post by **Swiftoak** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:54 am

I think a new fresh layout is what we need. Call me crazy, but we've had this one since well...forever, since I joined. A fresh OBish layout of something of that sort would be really welcoming.

We could also split the OB and MW claims into two seperate areas.

Nichevo · Post by **Nichevo** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:45 pm

I think we need to plan for downloads. There should be a single location where you can get both betas, regions ( Hammerfell ) maps ( Morrowind) its dependencies et cetera. To save bandwidth there could be something like a version history for OOT with updates so you can download only the new stuff instead of a mammoth file. Better have downloads collected at one place than in different places in the (sub)forums me think

Making a system for download would possibly make it easier to see the overall progression of the different areas for outsiders/newcomers as well as modders.

Just a few ideas to consider

:edit just realized much of the downloads have been improved lately.. Handling of HF and OOT/datafiles could be discussed.

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:07 pm

Ideally, I would like to see our FAQs and Tutorials organized in a more logical way. Perhaps organized based on what they teach, and not who made them.
I'd also like to see our screenshots organized into thumbnail-based galleries. Categories of the different galleries could be things like exterior and interior shots, OoT stuff, concept art and NPCs.

Vrenir · Post by **Vrenir** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:28 pm

I already took the survey, but I forgot to include one thing that I'd really like to see changed in the Downloads section. That would be a space for TR-sanctioned Bolt-Ons. I know that Bolt-Ons have traditionally been the way of dealing with ideas that don't quite fit with TR's policies, and they have a very bad habit of dying, but with the release of Stirk and Map 1, it seems that they could start making a comeback. We've already seen a texture-edit (now merged with Map 1) as well as Gez's Transport Mod. There's also a unique NPC feature in the works (Think of an NPC thread), an MCA addition, and one maybe two alternative start mods being developed. Sure, you can look around TES Source or PES for them, but it'd be nice to have a selection avaiable by link or download from the TR Downloads page. You could even still have a level of quality control for which ones you allow on-site: Gez's Transport Mod passes, while sUPerbORg05's Glowing Chiten Axe of Doom doesn't.

Gez · Post by **Gez** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:27 pm

It seems Morden is the only one who shares my distaste of gratuitous flash.

Even though I've of course whitelisted Tamriel-Rebuilt.org, I browse with something called NoScript -- it's a little Firefox plugin which, along with Adblock+, greatly cuts on the crap the web throws at you sometimes.

My opinion has always been that a site should be functional with scripting and flash disabled. In my views, functionality first, cool-looking stuff later.

Also, good HTML is like water and flows to fill the page harmoniously. Flash is practically always of fixed size, and when it isn't, it scales badly (i.e., text becomes oversized if the screen is larger than expected by the designer, rather than having more text on the page).

Morgoth · Post by **Morgoth** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:41 pm

Actually, I would also rather something without flash. Most people come here to mod. Perhaps one small banner or something, would be nice. Any more than that, and it's too much.

An affiliates table with links to some related places- TIL, UESP, ESF, ChatSpike, and others, would be great. It would also make us seem a tad less seperated from the rest of the community.

I think the randomly changing screenshots are wonderful, and often catch my attention even now. I think the same thing should be done with the art gallery.

Which brings me to the point that both galleries are terrible, both to navigate, and to view. We should definately focus on something big for this.

The order in which things are organized is nothing short of chaotic. Adding more than just the four main links at the top would allow us to seperate some things. As of now, you hover over the MAIN link, and you get a giant drop-down list. (Oh, and we should also adopt a new drop-down style.)

The design itself needs more contrast. A bolder header, some harder lines. Same color scheme, and that "old parchment" look, but we need to stand out a bit more. Currently, the site is a bit desaturated.

Dexter · Post by **Dexter** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:39 pm

Gez wrote:It seems Morden is the only one who shares my distaste of gratuitous flash.

Woops. I'll raise my hand in opposition to flash-heavy dazzlies. My reasoning is the same as what Gez and Morden said (takes too long to load, unnecesscary...), and also because we're more creative than that. We've got some really awesome artists on this project, and I think they can come up with better ways of good visual presentation that doesn't involve some opulant flash monstrosity.

lb003g0676 · Post by **lb003g0676** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:48 pm

Dexter wrote:
Gez wrote:It seems Morden is the only one who shares my distaste of gratuitous flash.
Woops. I'll raise my hand in opposition to flash-heavy dazzlies. My reasoning is the same as what Gez and Morden said (takes too long to load, unnecesscary...), and also because we're more creative than that. We've got some really awesome artists on this project, and I think they can come up with better ways of good visual presentation that doesn't involve some opulant flash monstrosity.

Yer there are awesome artists on this project, past, present and hopefully in the future too. But there wouldn't be flash on the forum. Flash is just the first impression of a site. If you TR as a result after searching "Morrowind Mods" or " Oblivion Mods" and you are taking a chance, hoping to find soemthing decent to download, then a nice flash intro shows up, and after that a fluid and easily navigatable site shows up, you're gonna think to yourelf, "These people know what they're doing".

Flash heavy is OTT, but a nice intro and animated toolbars might be nice. And then ofcourse we can still incorporate the art.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:22 am

Check out the Black Mesa Source mod webpage for Half Life 2. They used to have a very classy flash intro, but i see they have taken it down. I was originally going to post it as a way that it could be done tastefully. Instead i'll direct your attention towards the soundtrack playlist which sits on the upper right side of the page. Seems like an amazing way to feature the music side of TR which doesn't recieve the recognition it deserves. To make it less obtrusive you could set it so that the tracks do not auto-play when the page loads.

http://www.blackmesasource.com/

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:50 pm

Another WIP, everything about the peice is still subject to impovement.

http://media.putfile.com/TRHF-WIP-II