What do you guys think?

Posted by LAR Games on Dec. 19, 2013, 12:23 a.m.

I just (for now) finished with a style and layout I'm satisfied with for my site. Take a look:

LARGames.com

If you don't want to visit my site for whatever reason, here's an image:

I'm not gonna force you to give me pageviews. It'd be nice to have them though. :D

Although if you want to see the changes I make later, it's probably best to just visit the site. lol

So, what do you guys think? I know there's plenty of design people around here, so it'd be nice to hear some comments/ criticism about the design.

Now I just need content. :P

Comments

Astryl 11 years ago

I like it (Though I'm not really a design person, so don't take my word for things). The only thing is that the side-bar makes everything feel a bit off-center. Maybe relocate the login/register/contact thingy over to the top of the screen under or next to the navbar, then center the content pane.

Your visual style is fine in my eyes.

LAR Games 11 years ago

Quote:
I like it (Though I'm not really a design person, so don't take my word for things). The only thing is that the side-bar makes everything feel a bit off-center. Maybe relocate the login/register/contact thingy over to the top of the screen under or next to the navbar, then center the content pane.
I actually was going for an off-center look. That's why I made some empty space to the right. I may change it if enough people don't like it though.

Quote:
Your visual style is fine in my eyes.
Thank you. :D

Eva unit-01 11 years ago

It's readable, the color scheme is nice and isn't blinding, the typeface on the tabs and header works well. I'm going to assume it's the same that's in your logo.

The background is nice, though a bit plain, which isn't much of a big deal anyway. But teh background you have on your blog could actually work quite well there, it's nice and subtle, imo, and it gives your page some tooth due to the texture.

The font size used in the body text may need to be dropped down like maybe 1 or 2 points, or maybe you can justify all the text left and reformat it to read a bit better. Centering the body with the tabs being over on the left makes my eyes wanna break apart from each other and go two different ways. Though it may just be me.

I'd put the tabs above the header, center them, leave the contact and login stuff to the left, and justify left the body text, with some -choice- centering in some places.

edit: Actually, putting the tabs over the header and justifying them left as well to line up with the border could work as well and keep you from that generic everything's centered look of most sites I suppose.

Blahblahblah. I like it.

Powerful Kyurem 11 years ago

Just some tidbits I learned from other sites I have visited.

Common locations: All sites tend to have a standardized layout. Not all use every box type but I will list the ones I know of. Please be aware that this is under the assumption that the box is NOT in the bulk of your text.

Login/Account Creation boxes tend to be at the top right or left of a webpage.

Navigation centers (like an outline detailing sections of the webstite) go on the left. A second one used for a subsection can go on the right. An example is this sites system: http://www.serebii.net

News and announcements go on either side (or both)

Recent activity (if it is a forum or wiki like thing) go on the right.

Adds go on either side. (I mean adds that from other companies to make money).

I think that is it. As for your picture. It looks good. I will go to your real site as soon as I post this and check a couple other blogs.

Astryl 11 years ago

Quote:
The background is nice, though a bit plain, which isn't much of a big deal anyway. But teh background you have on your blog could actually work quite well there, it's nice and subtle, imo, and it gives your page some tooth due to the texture.

This is actually a very good idea.

colseed 11 years ago

Seeing as I thought the main content pane was a nifty dynamic-popup-JavaScript-thing at first glance*, I'm not sure the off-center look was such a good idea. And it's not the empty space on the right that bothers me, it's the empty space on the left under the contact/login/register box.

Logo could be pushed a bit farther down, too - right now it's almost hugging the top of the screen, which keeps making me want to scroll up more when I can't. The color scheme, fonts, and gradients work pretty well though I think.

Also, the (actual) JS windows that come up when you click the log in / register buttons: that fade-in fade-out background darkening effect is mmm yes, but the fact that the popup doesn't disappear immediately when clicking to close it (i.e. it remains on-screen until the darkening effect goes away entirely) bothers me slightly.

* I may or may not have spent in excess of 20 seconds attempting to close said not-actual-popup after reading

Powerful Kyurem 11 years ago

I can definitely say that your mobile version looks perfect, although a button at the bottom to change it to the desktop version would be great.

Eva unit-01 11 years ago

Totally bypassed the actual link and did a critique of the image instead. Woups.

LAR Games 11 years ago

Wow. This is a lot more feedback than I was expecting. lol

@Eva

The font IS the same as my logo! Thanks for noticing. :D

I went ahead and made the font smaller. I also played around with moving the navbar around but I didn't like any location more than where it is right now. :(

I also changed the centered text in the body to how it's supposed to be. For some reason, I accidentally changed everything to be centered when I just wanted to do the titles. This is why feedback is awesome. :D

@InsertNameHere

Thanks for the feedback! Regarding the position of things and how other sites usually do it, I'm aware of the usual layouts. I just don't really want my site looking like every other site out there. Of course, I don't have that much content yet, (Nothing really) and the site will probably evolve as I start adding stuff again. (This site is pretty old now)

@Colseed

I pushed the logo down a bit. (That's as far as it goes though, because that's how I cropped the image. lol.)

If I ever wanted it to go even lower, I'd have to remake the logo again. (Or find the original PSD file somewhere on my computer.)

Regarding the login thingie, that's actually not my doing. It's made by someone else, and I haven't got the hang of customizing it yet, so It'll be a little while before I can change things like effects and stuff like that. I'll keep it in mind though!

@InsertNameHere

Whoa. I have a mobile version? I guess its just a side effect of my site being viewed on a smaller screen. I'll call it a feature! lol

@Eva

haha. I should make that link a little more eye catching.

EDIT: I also made the body take up more of the screen so it doesn't look so off center.

Eva unit-01 11 years ago

Just tried the actual site with the changes. Digging it so far. I think it was the size of the body font that was messing with the sidebar, because now it sort of nestles in there just fine. I don't have to strain my eyes out each time I shift my eyes from body to tabs.