Webpage!

[Stickly Man!]

So I had to make a webpage for a final project in my web design class.. And I'm not really creative altogether.. So I decided to recreate our Ulysses homepage!
http://atg.ulyssesmod.net/CS2350/draft/index.html
It's got some fancy CSS3 stuff, shadows, and even some colors that seem just a bit off. Yay!

But what I really wanted to show is the "Plugins" page-- I think we need some kind of page (simplest being my page there) that shows off screenshots and summaries of the cooler addons. Then add voting and we can show most popular addons too!

Anyways, just thought you'd guys like to see that

[JamminR]

NICE!
Re:Plugins - Great idea. Wonder if we should call them modules? (Every other admin mod likes that 'plugin' word..it's ok, I just want ULX to be different)
Too bad URestrict has gone the wayside. I hope someone picks it back up soon. Too many people ask for the features Jay included in it.
Re: Download page having SVN links "At the top!"... awesome. Still need to remind people that it's code can change at any time on a (better thought out than Garry's changes) whim though..

And I'm not really creative altogether.
http://atg.ulyssesmod.net/CS2350/draft/index.html

Ha. This coming from someone who just redesigned our entire menu GUI.

Megiddo, don't know the opinion of the other important people around here with access to this thread, but, I say it's time for a home page update.
I'd also go so far as to add a redirect forum link from the main forum index that points to it.

[Megiddo]

I talked with Stickly Man while he was designing the site. Good idea on calling 'plugins' as 'modules', that's what we already do from the code-side anyways. I have no objection to updating the home page, the current one is a little dusty.

[Stickly Man!]

lol, Thanks guys! I just updated the site to say Modules instead of Plugins.

@JamminR
Yeah, I guess I should add that warning. I think it may be better to put release on top with SVN right under it as soon as we have a more up-to-date release

And I'm not really creative when it comes to site design or figuring out what I want to make a site of, or messing with the colors, finicky layout, etc-- Now GUI's I can handle! Skinning and designing a gui with artsy elements.. probably not so much lol

As for the homepage update idea-- Well, there's only a few snags with using this example site:

-First, the News feed is completely static. I don't think it would be too difficult to integrate the automatic feed thingy like we have, but, remember I'm doing this for a school assignment and we're just starting Javascript (and hopefully PHP), so I'll have to see if it's feasible when I turn this in later as my final project.

-Second, It uses lots of CSS3. Looks epic on any browser that supports it! Try opening it on I.E. and you got yourself a kinda ugly site There are ways to get those things working on IE, but it involves a lot of IE-specific code, if I remember correctly. (Something involving DirectX transforms or something).

-Third, I would want to do more changes with the color scheme (as it seems a bit off as it stands), and I'd definitely need to change the font of the title lol.


Yeah, doing this website made me realize how out-of-date some of our content is on our homepage, so I agree that at least the content of our site needs to be updated


Edit: Added the warning to the downloads page!

[Stickly Man!]

AAnnd now I present my probably finished version of the homepage (according to what I need to get my grade, anyhow)

http://atg.ulyssesmod.net/CS2350/final/index.php

I only really just made some aesthetic changes (you can compare it to the old site). I was supposed to add some javascript.. somewhere... as a requirement, but I couldn't really think of any good place to stick it. Oh well, I'll still get an A out of the class either way

Remember kids, viewing webpages in IE (any version) is bad!

[Megiddo]

I don't like the shadows in the navbar and I think the navbar text should be bolder or bigger somehow... but otherwise it looks great!

[Stickly Man!]

Kinda sorta updated the navbar and color, I think it looks too plain without the dropshadow on the navbar, so I made it a little less noticeable.

I'm bad at this whole color thing anyways, something still looks a bit off but meh, for now it's good

[Stickly Man!]

Okay, so Megiddo wants to get this site pushed as our main website sometime tomorrow! 

http://atg.ulyssesmod.net/CS2350/final/

I'm not quite done with it yet, but now is the time for feedback and suggestions! I think the text on the about page needs to be updated.. thoughts?


Here's my current TODO list with this site:
-Fix up the news page
   -Move the poster and post date in a smaller font below the title (if not, then fix icons changing size of the contentTitle divs)
   -Add formatting for the quote blocks
   -Make the comment links a bit fancier.. Perhaps some kind of image/button?
-Color scheme could do with some improvements
-Navbar buttons shadow/glow/etc. -- Megiddo doesn't like the shadows   I want to make the buttons a little more distinguishable

And for after we make this our default webpage:
-Bring back the modules page and make it much better (voting, etc.)

[Megiddo]

The icon is too close to the title, or is that what you mean by the icon messing up the contentTitle divs?

Good work!

[MrPresident]

I love how good CSS3 looks, just be weary that hardly any of it is supported on IE. You did well in making sure that it at least looks presentable on IE at least.

[Stickly Man!]

Yeah.. the CSS3 effects make it have a very polished feel, but.. well, at least IE9 now supports rounded edges and dropshadows

Anywho, I think I've just about got the final design down!
http://atg.ulyssesmod.net/CS2350/final/index.php

Me and Megiddo started playing around with some of Google's Web Fonts, and we picked a few for the title, copyright, section headings, etc. Feedback on the fonts would be greatly appreciated! (Especially the title font, it doesn't look like it fits)

Other than that, this website should be going live sometime this weekend!

[MrPresident]

It looks great. I think it has a very indie feel which completely suits a website basically dedicated to a mod of a mod. The title font is a little different, but I think it suits the overall feel of the website.

I saw a video of a google seminar where they talked about what made good websites and such and one of the things they talked about was being able to tell within the first 10 seconds or so what the website is all about. This seems like it might be somewhat difficult for the type of website Ulysses is, and maybe you don't agree with that statement due to the audience they we attract. I have one suggestion though. The main page is a blog and that makes sense. Maybe add a small blurb before the blog sets in that contains a most recent download link and a small description of what it is that you guys do.

Either way, it looks great.

/twocents

[Megiddo]

It looks great. I think it has a very indie feel which completely suits a website basically dedicated to a mod of a mod. The title font is a little different, but I think it suits the overall feel of the website.

I saw a video of a google seminar where they talked about what made good websites and such and one of the things they talked about was being able to tell within the first 10 seconds or so what the website is all about. This seems like it might be somewhat difficult for the type of website Ulysses is, and maybe you don't agree with that statement due to the audience they we attract. I have one suggestion though. The main page is a blog and that makes sense. Maybe add a small blurb before the blog sets in that contains a most recent download link and a small description of what it is that you guys do.

Either way, it looks great.

/twocents

All great ideas.

[MrPresident]

Part of the title banner doesn't render correctly in Google Chrome. Just FYI. here is a screen.

[Stickly Man!]

Only on Google chrome for windows. Apparently it has something to do with random characters (Apparently Capital "M" and "G") and text-shadows causing the whole word not to display   (Which is funny because I'm using google's own web-fonts)

Megiddo has gone to bed and I don't believe I have direct access to the site... soo, not much I can do at the moment. View it in Firefox instead? lol