That stupid frontpage..

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Socoder -> Off Topic -> That stupid frontpage..
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 04:22
Jayenkai	I'm leaving this week's picks. The front page is a mess, and it needs sorting out. Here's the info that has to fit onto the front page. 1. Week's Workshop 2. Month's Workshop 3. Compo's Elsewhere 4. "This month" feature. 5. News 6. Weekly picks 7. New Showcases So, with that in mind, can anyone think of a nice way to format everything so that it fits nicely into the page? With diagrams if need be! 'cos I can't! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 06:48
spinal	I always liked the original BC site. https://web.archive.org/web/20030528150144/https://www.blitzcoder.com/ Perhaps a bit closer to that, changing some of the sections to more relevant ones. -=-=- Check out my excellent homepage!
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 07:18
Jayenkai	No space for images, there! I came up with an interesting idea.. To mix all the bits of data together, into one giant list of date-sorted stuff! News This week's workshop Pick of the Week New Showcase News New Showcase Last week's workshop Pick of the Week News News New Showcase New Showcase etc, etc I'm currently playing with arrays to see if I can get it all working nicely. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 09:06
Jayenkai	Hmmm.. Test version Thoughts? To me, it looks a little messy. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 10:28
mole	I don't really like that test version. Too big and bulky, and its a bit... boring Also, I like how they are currently all in sections... a news section a showcase section etc etc. Meh, just my views. I'll leave it to you web design peeps to sort out ^^
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 13:31
JL235	The test version looks terrible. It just looks like you've clunked all the stuff together into one tall table of stuff. Nothing seems to have it's own place.
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 14:16
HoboBen	The thumbnails changed size - oh noes! I'll have a doodle, but ain't promising nuffin' though -=-=- blog \| work \| code \| more code
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 14:56
Jayenkai	If I keep everything in that big clunky table, it's a big clunky table. If I put things into smaller tables, the thumbnails will be first to go. If I keep things as they are, but with even more stuff, it ends up being LOADS of little clunky tables. GAH!!! Too much stuff!! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 15:08
magicman	this work in any shape or form? the month workshop might be positioned poorly though. -=-=- Stuff... Yeah...
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 15:25
Jayenkai	Why does that image not rescale in IE!? Which idiot designed IE! Stupid IE!!!! OK, test version will be scrapped ASAP, and I'll start again tommorrow. As much as I like the idea of popping the "Pick of the Weeks" down at the bottom, I had originally moved them from there because they weren't getting noticed. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 15:27
Teasy	Or simply, as it is now, with the only difference of; putting Latest Showcases and Thingies of the Week all underneath each other so there's: 1. better overview and 2. more space to read the text. E.g. the same as you had, Jayenkai, in a simple list, but separated per section.
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 15:30
spinal	I was thinking like this - (Clicky imageshack thumbnail) -=-=- Check out my excellent homepage!
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 15:34
Jayenkai	But then the showcases don't have thumbnails, there's nowhere to put the news, and that top section is going to end up having "Monthly workshop" added on.. (I suppose "Pick of the Week" could be stripped to "either Workshop or something else..") Doing that will bring the Latest Showcases down a notch, and then if I add the News in, it just keeps on dragging it.. Deeper and deeper! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 15:37
spinal	You are trying to put a lot on the front page, some of it is going to be off the bottom no matter what your layout. Why do the showcases need thumbnails? -=-=- Check out my excellent homepage!
Wed, 12 Sep 2007, 15:41
Jayenkai	Because sometimes all that people will ever see is a thumbnail on the frontpage of the site. First impressions count! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Thu, 13 Sep 2007, 02:50
JL235	I don't see why it needs to be changed. But I like Spinal's design. Why not use that with the news just above it?
Thu, 13 Sep 2007, 03:03
Jayenkai	I actually made it more like Magicman's layout. The Pick of the Week is now missing from the front page, so I'm considering adding it into a Blog instead. That way, it shows up as an unread item on the Leftbar, and we also get a nice archive of them, too. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Thu, 13 Sep 2007, 07:38
JL235	Besides, I actually kinda like the current front page. But if it gives you more work to do, what the hey.
Thu, 13 Sep 2007, 11:16
shroom_monk	Yeah, I like the new front page. I think that test version isn't very good - it's all jumbled up! A front page should be neat and organised. Again, like it is now. -=-=- A mushroom a day keeps the doctor away... Keep It Simple, Shroom!
Thu, 13 Sep 2007, 14:53
Teasy	Apart from keeping each sections separated below each other, you could also order the sections by last update. E.g. if there's a new showcase entry, the entire showcase section moves to top. Then if there's a new news item, the news section moves to top. I can imagine this can be tricky in webcode, but I already see what the code would look like in Blitz
Thu, 13 Sep 2007, 14:57
Jayenkai	I could manage that, Teasy. To be honest, PHP isn't really all that dissimilar to Blitz. If you can manage one, you can easily manage the other. But, I think that'd get annoying pretty quickly. For now, it's been shuffled about, and most important info can be gleamed from a single scroll of the mousewheel. (Although, obviously, that's res-dependant!) -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Fri, 14 Sep 2007, 07:58
shroom_monk	"Jayenkai" that's res-dependant! Ooohoohooooooooo yes! -=-=- A mushroom a day keeps the doctor away... Keep It Simple, Shroom!
Fri, 14 Sep 2007, 09:20
Phoenix	I'm impressed; this site doesn't collapse when viewed at a 640x480 resolution.
Fri, 14 Sep 2007, 09:48
Jayenkai	Yeah, Hopefully it should look ok in most resolutions, big or small. The reason the right bar is inside a table, instead of being CSS/Div'd is so that without a stylesheet loaded (ie, you've disabled image loading on your browser) you can still see 99% of the site at a glance, with the leftbar appearing at the top, then the center and rightbars being below it, next to each other. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Fri, 14 Sep 2007, 11:11
Phoenix	It's quite ironic; people say that table based sites aren't accessible, but compared to many standards compliant sites this one is viewable by more poeple.