Linda Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 As you may or may not have noticed, we've been working on finalizing the design for the Game of Thrones section of Westeros over the last weeks.We're now almost there, so we just wanted to get some feedback before we go further. http://www.westeros.org/GoT/Does it seem to be working in your browser? IE 6 is _not_ supported. I am not sure how Opera handles it.Is there anything that seems odd?Is there anything we should consider adding? Its mostly decided what the site will contain ... but maybe we've overlooked something.Once we're entirely happy with this design, it will be rolled out over the whole of Westeros, with some smaller changes in colour scheme for each subsite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser_not_appearing_yet Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 It looks good, and seems to work fine on my computer. The colour scheme is a little dry, but other than that no complaints here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LugaJetboyGirl Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Hi Linda,Here are some of my thoughts. I personally like what you are doing with the site, so these are just small issues:The Gallery page came up blank for me, just a white screen. Maybe that's because nothing is there, though?I always have a hard time remembering where it is/finding the site. Perhaps the link on the main westeros page can be more visually significant? I'd appreciate a section on the Cast and Crew. You have a section on the Characters but without much info on the actors who play them, pictures, etc. That's one of the main things that I want to know about, that's what I was looking around for, a 'Who's Who?" of the series, with little bits about who's the guy doing special FX; who's the chick that's doing costumes and what has she done before; who are the actors? That sort of thing. Of course, I understand if that is not the direction you want the site to go.That's all I could think of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 works with FF. I agree with Lugalirra, in that people might be interested in the actors themselves. It might help if you guys (through the features dept or whatever) link to a map of Westeros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Gallery is something we're waiting on a bit because of the new version of our CMS, Expression Engine, is being unclear about what they're doing with their gallery functionality. Once that's sorted, our plans include publicity stills and other authorized images (would love to see some art and costume design sketches), CC and public domain photos of shooting locations, and things of that sort. Map of Westeros is a good idea, too, help give people a sense of the scope of the thing. :)Will definitely do more with the actors. I'm not quite done listing all the roles from the pilot script, but we'll eventually link to the actors (either IMDB and/or official sites) and (hopefully) pictures of them playing their parts. :)Thanks for the feedback! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik of Hazelfield Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 I've tested it in the browsers I had on my Linux machine, which were:OperaIceweasel (which is just Firefox rebranded for Debian)KonquerorEpiphanyLynx (text-base browser for the terminal)The page looked fine in all of these. The only problem I encountered was in Epiphany, where an Amazon ad covered the text halfway down the intro page for Game of Thrones (see linked screenshot). I usually don't use that browser, so I don't know if the problem is on my side or yours.http://www.trybom.se/bilder/Screenshot-ad.png Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Yes, we've seen that as well. Amazon sometimes ends up serving the wrong format of ad for some reason, putting in a banner ad when it shouldn't do so. We've got the latest version of the code in, so we're not sure why it's happening. Thanks so much for testing in so many other browsers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 Oh, and about linking to the site more prominently: once we're done, this will be the design for the main westeros site too, so the "Sites" menu will hopefully make it easy to move between sections. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable899 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Agree, colour scheme is a bit dry. Also, with the mottled background, the text can be a bit hard on older eyes. Perhaps a larger, heavier font or a sans serif font. Navigation bar should be simpler font also. The yellow on yellow of the title in the top banner has no impact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 I am not quite sure how to interpret "dry" here?The fonts probably won't be changing, I think they're pretty crucial for the look, but we may experiment with a different parchment. Possibly if I can manage a way of allowing people to change on the fly to what they prefer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brude Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Just pulled it up with Safari for PC (I figure FF on PC, which I normally use, has been well tested?). I had the same issue with the Amazon banner ad that Erik noted with one of his Linux browsers.The only real issue I have with the fonts is the red on top of yellowish parchment and the gold title on yellow, as well, which is very hard to see. It really should be bold and visible. Two warm colors like that on top of each other I think is a little hard to look at. Perhaps a more white parchment color? The most difficult things to see are the "Game of Thrones" at the top and the section links a bit below that (Home, News, etc.), as well as the red text below. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sekhmet Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 I am not quite sure how to interpret "dry" here?The fonts probably won't be changing, I think they're pretty crucial for the look, but we may experiment with a different parchment. Possibly if I can manage a way of allowing people to change on the fly to what they prefer.I'm OK with the fonts, most of the really fancy ones are in titles, which does lend a style and look. Perhaps just fading the parchment a bit might not detract from your style while making it a little easier on older eyes. Even a "creamier" parchment might work, although I like the color scheme.I like what you're aiming at on content, and organization seems appropriate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrddin Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Works fine from Ecuador with IE8.I am not quite sure how to interpret "dry" here?The fonts probably won't be changing, I think they're pretty crucial for the look, but we may experiment with a different parchment. Possibly if I can manage a way of allowing people to change on the fly to what they prefer.I think the "dry" comment comes from the way the red hyperlinks blends in with the parchment and makes it a strain to read. Maybe tone down the background?The following are just suggestions, not an attempt to tell you what you should or not do:Since this portion of th site is HBO show centric, why not have the side bar show the most recent posts in the HBO section, versus the entire site. (No, I have no idea if this is even possible :) Just brainstorming.)And just a thought to "brand" that portion of the site, why not have the address be got.westeros.org or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mance Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Just pulled it up with Safari for PC (I figure FF on PC, which I normally use, has been well tested?). I had the same issue with the Amazon banner ad that Erik noted with one of his Linux browsers.I just opened with Safari for Mac and did not have any banner issues, though I did with AOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 I am also not a huge fan of the fonts. On the main part of the page, what other people have mentioned-- the serif font is hard to read against the mottled parchment right now, and I agree with whoever said it would be easier to read if the parchment were creamier/lighter. The links, specifically, are difficult to read. Maybe do a slight variation on the design where the general background is the parchment, but the text boxes were the same color/shade but solid? Similar to the headings in the body of the page that say "News", "Features", etc,, but with the lighter parchment color.I have to admit that I tend to avoid any site where I have to read any significant portion of text on a patterned background. The grey/white "snow" background on the Stark skin is about the most I'm willing to tolerate. :| Patterns are ok for "flavor" like in the top/sidebars, but the body is not making me happy.I have a similar problem with the top logo. Is there any way to change the text outline color so that it's a little wider or darker so the title stands out more from the background? Also, the font in the header where it has the section links is again, hard to read. There's something about the font which looks fuzzy to me against the background no matter what size I set my browser font.Otherwise, I like the site layout. It's just the backgrounds/fonts I have a hard time with. I am using Firefox 3.0.15. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thotk Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 I like what I see in broad terms, but I feel like its a little user unfriendly...not sure why but later I'll go over it more throughly...but I love the idea! and good work on whats workings thus far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 I would really like to make it got.westeros.org, but its a bit too late to make that sort of change for the other sections, and I think it would be awkward to have one be a subdomain and the rest not. Its something we've considered, switching them all to subdomains ... but I don't know enough about how to set it up to make sure all the external links to break. It also gets a lot more complex in terms of sharing various resources between the sites and with the setup for our CMS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 I generally like it: my eyes, old as they are ;), can cope with the fonts and background. I would suggest that visually, some sort of strong image on the home page other than the shields at top corners would be appealing, especially considering that the site is about a TV series. ps using Firefox 3.0.15 on a Mac, and yeah, I seem to be getting the same Amazon ad problem - the lower left side, under 'affiliation', that ad sometimes shows up as a banner ad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 I've asked about the Amazon issue, seems it happens when there's any lag contacting their servers. It then serves a generic banner, and for some bloody reason doesn't keep to the specified size.We don't want to use any photos or anything such for the TV site since the core idea is consistency between the Game of Thrones site, the Citadel and so on. So it shouldn't look more "modern". I'd love to have some more art to complement the text for the top (and the bottom), but I've tried drawing things for websites before. ;P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sekhmet Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 I will say that the rendering on my Mac is slightly better with Firefox than Opera. In Opera, the dark parchment is even darker.And I've thought about what others said about using a sans serif font for text, and I agree. Sans serif would make it easier to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.