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TCAL site critique

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  • 11-09-2006 11:38pm
    #1
    dangerman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭


    Hey everyone,

    it's that time again, time for a spit & shine on TCAL. the Current version: http://tcal.net/ is seriously falling to pieces and showing it's hacked togetherness far too much.

    So here's a picture of the new version:

    http://tcal.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/newtcalpreview1.jpg

    Sorry about it just being a pic, i haven't got around to setting up a proper staging environment.

    It's very much a 'it ain't broke' approach, as in right now we want to keep the basic elements the same, because people are used to it.

    Some points:

    Too american flaggy?
    Too web20ey gradienty?
    Too much/too little white space?

    That and anything else + radical suggestions also appreciated. Be as critical as possible!

    This is not a dead-set redesign, we're more than willing to trash it and start over if it's not good enough. It's also worth pointing out that we plan a much bigger redesign when we actually get down to the functional level and hack wordpress to bits.

    Update: The new theme is now live across the site, so if you see any problems, please let us know.


Comments

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    #2
    CuLT
    Subscribers Posts: 9,716 ✭✭✭CuLT


    To be honest Dave, I don't think I'd have noticed a change if you hadn't pointed out "here is current one, here is new one".


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    #3
    dangerman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭dangerman


    zing.

    yeh you are absolutely right. it's more of a 'lets clean this place up' rather than lets blow everything apart with a new design.

    If you look at the current one, http://tcal.net, the amount of text alignment problems is unreal. The code is also a mess, so this is more of a clean out the cobwebs move than anything major.


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    #4
    CuLT
    Subscribers Posts: 9,716 ✭✭✭CuLT


    Well, in that case it does the job just right! After some brief examination there it does appear cleaner.

    The buttons at the top are certainly an improvement.


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    #5
    Rollo Tamasi
    Registered Users Posts: 3,514 ✭✭✭Rollo Tamasi


    hey dave, slightly ot but that sig you have...it's a wordpress plugin yes? can you give me the link for it please :)

    i'm in the same boat as Cult, i couldn't notice any real difference. I do think it's a bit too white though.


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    #6
    frodo_dcu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 119 ✭✭frodo_dcu


    i belive he has added some red gradient backgrounds to the headers which are quite nice i mite add. but i really can't see any other differance,

    just noticed the right hand coloum looks more squished in the new one

    sorry danger but i wouldn't even call this a "spit & shine"


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    #7
    dangerman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭dangerman


    Rollo Tamasi wrote:
    hey dave, slightly ot but that sig you have...it's a wordpress plugin yes? can you give me the link for it please :)

    i'm in the same boat as Cult, i couldn't notice any real difference. I do think it's a bit too white though.


    not a plugin, i wrote it based on someone elses code.

    details here but its a disaster cause i wrote it back when i barely knew what php was so on your own head be it: http://tcal.net/archives/2004/10/24/tcal-rss-super-button-tutorial/

    back on topic. Too white... I agree too a point, but i wanted to give a lot of more space to elements... rather than bordering up with lots of lines.


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    #8
    frodo_dcu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 119 ✭✭frodo_dcu


    CuLT wrote:
    The buttons at the top are certainly an improvement.

    true it does help dispell the wordpressyness* of the page

    i think white helps keep it clean but a little colour wouldn't go astray


    *wordpressyness is a real word honest


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    #9
    dangerman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭dangerman


    frodo_dcu wrote:
    sorry danger but i wouldn't even call this a "spit & shine"

    lol this is interesting.

    it's amazing how different i see the redesign but i guess thats cause i'm very close to it.

    It's all tiny things like alignment issues, spacing of text, clarity of links etc. that's being changed.

    So in that respect I guess my bad - it's quite subtle what's being done but it's the little things that make all the difference - especially when trying to cater to both brand new visitors and people who return every day.


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    #10
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    Not much to rant and rave about, but an improvement on the current theme for sure.


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    #11
    dangerman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭dangerman


    and just to add a bit of excitement, we just turned on the new theme so it's live across the site now. So if you find any niggles at all, lettuce know!


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    #12
    frodo_dcu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 119 ✭✭frodo_dcu


    dangerman wrote:
    lol this is interesting.

    it's amazing how different i see the redesign but i guess thats cause i'm very close to it.

    It's all tiny things like alignment issues, spacing of text, clarity of links etc. that's being changed.

    So in that respect I guess my bad - it's quite subtle what's being done but it's the little things that make all the difference - especially when trying to cater to both brand new visitors and people who return every day.

    I know what you mean i've often spent ages trying to get everything to line up just right esp when i was first learning css


    your still having a little trouble down the left as far as i can see, well in saying that i would have the names indented further that the titles and not the other way round if you get what i mean

    edit: also the "Click here for details on signing up to TCAL and posting your own links." is about 1 maybe 2 pixles too far right if you want real "niggles"


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    #13
    dangerman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭dangerman


    frodo_dcu wrote:
    I know what you mean i've often spent ages trying to get everything to line up just right esp when i was first learning css

    your still having a little trouble down the left as far as i can see, well in saying that i would have the names indented further that the titles and not the other way round if you get what i mean

    yep, i spotted that one. And ghaaah, there's about a million problems that have just arisen as we turn it on... kaboom ... :)

    one last thing: we know it doesn't validate yet, but it will...


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    #14
    Figment
    Registered Users Posts: 1,747 ✭✭✭Figment


    It is a slight improvement.
    The site is very busy so you are always going to have a hard time organising the layout. You need to decide which data you want to have the most importance on the page, number it by importance from 1-10 and work the design from that.
    I have always liked the site anyway and check it daily :)


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    #15
    dangerman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭dangerman


    Figment wrote:
    It is a slight improvement.
    The site is very busy so you are always going to have a hard time organising the layout. You need to decide which data you want to have the most importance on the page, number it by importance from 1-10 and work the design from that.
    I have always liked the site anyway and check it daily :)

    absolutely, the structure of the information has always been the hardest thing. We're pretty sure by now that the 'latest comments' on the left is pretty much number 1 (the comments are often the most entertaining thing AND give you a good indication of what's popular at the moment, AND introduce a sense of community etc.), but after that it gets very difficult to arrange.

    Which is more important - recent irish posts or the features - which people poor lots of work into ... all kind of questions like that. I suppose you could let people choose in a myYahoo type way, but that introduces needless complexity. Very hard to architect it all and keep it clean.

    Thanks for the compliments.


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