WIP Site design

Mark Dygert

New: http://www.vigville.com/test/
Old(now): http://www.vigville.com

Rip it apart. Tear it to shreads and tell me how to build it up right. I have next to no HTML experince and I am using Image Ready to make the pages. I am vaugly aware there are better ways to construct the pages so any pointers would be GREAT!

Also keep in mind I have no interest in ever becoming an expert web designer, I only want to know enough to get the job done so I can get back to making art. Everything that is black/grey are place holders. The only thing that is finished graphically is the side navbar/blocks.

notman

It sucks... scrap it..(how's that for ripping :P)


Seriously, I'll start with the positives. I really like the idea on the menu bar. It may be better to have as flash, but I know you probably don't want to get that involved. I'm thinking flash would be a smaller file. If possible try to reduce the file size of those images. 7k per file kind of large, but if you lose too much quality to reduce, then stay with it as it is.

As for the negatives, creating it in image ready, it's created a bunch of gray boxes as spacer rather than spacing the table with code. The problem with that is the code takes milliseconds to download compared to the seconds for each image. This is easily fixed once you have your layout ready. You can go through the code and replace the gray images with code to create the spacers. Someone here may be willing to make the adjustment for you even.

So to recap:
Pros: Cool Menu Idea
Cons: Reduce image filesize and replace gray squares with code.

ScoobyDoofus

Pros: I like that you're presenting against grey now. This allows your artwork to stand, literally, against a neutral background. The nav menu is pretty cute, but a tiny hair tough to read.

Cons: Why are you showing catagories in your nav bar if you are going to display all catagories simultaneously on the right? Seems kinda pointless. The grey stuff to the right is very plain by comparison to your nav bar.

Mark Dygert

I think I'm on to something. I figured out how Image Ready can handle blank spaces. I was able to get rid of all the spacer images and replace them with "tables" (whatever the hell those are) and a 1px spacer.gif, it should load a lot quicker now.

The side nav bar stays in place when you click on one of the projects in the middle. The project page (not done yet) will take over that area. If you want to visit some of the other areas the side nav is the way to get there. I guess I need to flesh out more pages to give a better sense of how the nav will go =/

Mark Dygert

I finally got some time to read up on HTML and finish off the site. It is very streamlined and VERY easy to update compaired to my older designs.
I still need to finish the main page but that won't be more than 3-6 projects highlighted. I might take a few hours to rework the top "vigville.com image" does anyone else think it needs to expand all the way across the page and not have that dark shadow on the end?

www.vigville.com

Feel free to rip this one apart before I start sending it out on monday. Tough crits preferably I like it rough =D

yeluis

i would make the images a bit larger so they fit your box better and you can see more detail. Id also add a description about what engine, map sizes, polycount, stuff like that. I like the scrolling navigation to the right