Boolean Soup help (Rincewind's Worklog)
Contributions to this website. 
Boolean Soup: a glimpse of the future?
I made a design for a Boolean Soup frontpage, complete with all the side boxes you would ever want. It can't be integrated with Boolean Soup yet, but I'm hopeful it will at some point.
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(Posted on November, 16th 2008, 14:39)
Comments
yonni said:
Very nice, I like it a lot (especially beacause, as a rule, light-coloured sites with dark text are better than vice versa)
But is there a difference between "Featured game" and "Game of the day"?
But is there a difference between "Featured game" and "Game of the day"?
(Posted on November, 16th 2008, 15:41)
Sandman said:
Yes, it is the bomb. Except for that banner, like Htbaa suggested. It's so low and small.
(Posted on November, 18th 2008, 00:15)
Rincewind said:
Thanks. I thought the small dirty header was pretty nice to contrast with the clean rest of the site, but I'll see if I can make something better of it.
(Posted on November, 18th 2008, 15:24)
DTM said:
I do still like this castro(??) theme though. The blue and yellow one. The light colours seem a bit generic... 
but the layout and boxes are indeed awesome.
but the layout and boxes are indeed awesome.(Posted on November, 18th 2008, 19:50)
Fiona said:
It's cleaner. I'm not sure it's better than Castro.
Castro is very subtly detailed. But it's dark, and I think Boolean Soup needs a lighter layout, this would suffice but there's a difference between light and pure grey.
The content is a bit weird, it assumes that everything on every page is separated into individual blocks, which it isn't as you know. It's a single content block with optional sub-blocks in it. The news is a bit misleading as headers tend to span the entire page.
The header is pretty bad. For a start there's a massively unnecessary gap - not sure what you were thinking there. And it's not a great contrast to the clean it's just radically different. Also, centred headers always look not thought out. Ditch the drop shadow on it before doing anything else.
The blocks on the side showing new things are good, we've had them on "the list" for a while. But they are all in confusing places and in weird orders.
Do not get me wrong, the lightness and clean feeling is the direction we should be going for and this is certainly walking the correct path.
I think it's great that you're taking the initiative and doing something to dust this old bird off anyway.
I've been passively watching web designers do their thing for the past year and a half, so I hope my comments are taken in a critiquing manner and not offensively.
Castro is very subtly detailed. But it's dark, and I think Boolean Soup needs a lighter layout, this would suffice but there's a difference between light and pure grey.
The content is a bit weird, it assumes that everything on every page is separated into individual blocks, which it isn't as you know. It's a single content block with optional sub-blocks in it. The news is a bit misleading as headers tend to span the entire page.
The header is pretty bad. For a start there's a massively unnecessary gap - not sure what you were thinking there. And it's not a great contrast to the clean it's just radically different. Also, centred headers always look not thought out. Ditch the drop shadow on it before doing anything else.
The blocks on the side showing new things are good, we've had them on "the list" for a while. But they are all in confusing places and in weird orders.
Do not get me wrong, the lightness and clean feeling is the direction we should be going for and this is certainly walking the correct path.
I think it's great that you're taking the initiative and doing something to dust this old bird off anyway.
I've been passively watching web designers do their thing for the past year and a half, so I hope my comments are taken in a critiquing manner and not offensively.
(Posted on November, 18th 2008, 23:24)
Rincewind said:
Thanks for the feedback.
Quoting DTM:
The light colours seem a bit generic...
Quoting Fiona:
But it's dark, and I think Boolean Soup needs a lighter layout, this would suffice but there's a difference between light and pure grey.
I'll see whether it's an improvement to change the grey background color to a texture.Quoting Fiona:
The content is a bit weird, it assumes that everything on every page is separated into individual blocks, which it isn't as you know. It's a single content block with optional sub-blocks in it.
The "Games" sub-header seemed pretty useless to me, which is why I left it out. This can be done:Quoting Fiona:
The news is a bit misleading as headers tend to span the entire page.
Could you elaborate on that?Quoting Fiona:
For a start there's a massively unnecessary gap - not sure what you were thinking there.
I'll remove that.Quoting Fiona:
But they are all in confusing places and in weird orders.
Thought has been put into the order, and I would rather not change it, but the box order probably would be best off skin undependent anyway.Thanks for the feedback.
(Posted on November, 19th 2008, 14:02)
Fiona said:
I was talking about the main content in the centre of the page. See how you have it all separated into individual boxes? My point is that you've used the news page as reference, and as it stands the news page alone gives the impression that the site is built like this.
But it isn't, it's all one large content div with bits inside it. The design doesn't reflect how the site is built.
The search should probably not be in the sidebar, it should most likely be in the header. The navigation is too low, put it above the quick login. The only people who see it are the ones not logged it, and it's inconvenient to put it above the navigation.
There are three boxes with game screenshots in. They're all haphazard, not lined up and just thrown in. Also what's the difference between featured game and "game of the day"?
I'd recommend just have latest game there, at the top of the right side bar. Placing latest worklog entries under it (latest stuff should go together.
Also thinking carefully about "top games" would be in order. The problem with having a constant list of top rated games is that the most top rated will continue to be top rated as they're what people click on. It's not a great situation.
I don't quite know what the "new year" thing is for, something like that would be in the news, and surely you don't need to be reminded every page view what time of year it is?
The trick is to make what you want to make most accessible nearest to the top left of the page, and grouping related things while at the same time ensuring you do not complicate the menu with lots of items that may not be absolutely necessary.
Quote:
The "Games" sub-header seemed pretty useless to me, which is why I left it out. This can be done:
I was talking about the main content in the centre of the page. See how you have it all separated into individual boxes? My point is that you've used the news page as reference, and as it stands the news page alone gives the impression that the site is built like this.
But it isn't, it's all one large content div with bits inside it. The design doesn't reflect how the site is built.
Quote:
Thought has been put into the order
The search should probably not be in the sidebar, it should most likely be in the header. The navigation is too low, put it above the quick login. The only people who see it are the ones not logged it, and it's inconvenient to put it above the navigation.
There are three boxes with game screenshots in. They're all haphazard, not lined up and just thrown in. Also what's the difference between featured game and "game of the day"?
I'd recommend just have latest game there, at the top of the right side bar. Placing latest worklog entries under it (latest stuff should go together.
Also thinking carefully about "top games" would be in order. The problem with having a constant list of top rated games is that the most top rated will continue to be top rated as they're what people click on. It's not a great situation.
I don't quite know what the "new year" thing is for, something like that would be in the news, and surely you don't need to be reminded every page view what time of year it is?
The trick is to make what you want to make most accessible nearest to the top left of the page, and grouping related things while at the same time ensuring you do not complicate the menu with lots of items that may not be absolutely necessary.
(Posted on November, 19th 2008, 14:53)
yonni said:
Also, the 'quick login' thing being above the navigation will be useful for those times when you're not logged in and forget about it. If the navigation isn't quite where you expect it to be, then it's an obvious nudge as to logging you in
Agreed
Maybe 'Featured Game' below navigation?
Also, I noticed "Full games; WIP Games; Demo games" capitalisation should be consistent throughout the site. Most of the headings appear to only have the very first letter capitalised, whereas "Message Board" and "WIP Games" have every word with a capital letter
Quote:
The search should probably not be in the sidebar, it should most likely be in the header. The navigation is too low, put it above the quick login. The only people who see it are the ones not logged it, and it's inconvenient to put it above the navigation.
Disagreed, I don't like a search box in the header, I keep forgetting where it is, and I go on this site quite alot. Left-hand column seems a pretty standard place to put it.Also, the 'quick login' thing being above the navigation will be useful for those times when you're not logged in and forget about it. If the navigation isn't quite where you expect it to be, then it's an obvious nudge as to logging you in
Quote:
I don't quite know what the "new year" thing is for, something like that would be in the news, and surely you don't need to be reminded every page view what time of year it is?
Agreed
Maybe 'Featured Game' below navigation?
Also, I noticed "Full games; WIP Games; Demo games" capitalisation should be consistent throughout the site. Most of the headings appear to only have the very first letter capitalised, whereas "Message Board" and "WIP Games" have every word with a capital letter
(Posted on November, 19th 2008, 19:25)
Sandman said:
I don't like a search bar in the header either.
(Posted on November, 20th 2008, 15:47)
Ariel Yust said:
I think everything is nice except the header which can be done better... maybe by me who knows...
and I want HouseBreak to be the first in the list of the greatest games! hehe
and I want HouseBreak to be the first in the list of the greatest games!
hehe(Posted on November, 20th 2008, 22:10)
Fiona said:
@Ariel If you can contribute anything to the design I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated. 
Let's make it more of a community effort, yes?
Let's make it more of a community effort, yes?(Posted on November, 21st 2008, 10:55)
Ariel Yust said:
I can try just tell me what you need and I will try to clear some time to make it good thing is that my computer is working again WHEEEEE!!!! 
good thing is that my computer is working again WHEEEEE!!!! (Posted on November, 24th 2008, 18:02)