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Feedback on our Game of Thrones site wanted


Linda

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I am afraid I really don't like sans-serif fonts, so not considering that for the body text.

Not quite sure what to do about the Amazon ads. I am hoping its a temporary error on their part, since it only appeared a while ago.

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Site worked fine when I tried it. As others have said, the fonts/color scheme is a bit hard on the eyes. One other nitpick... The title being simply "Game of Thrones"... Perhaps add in wordage making it blatently clear from the get go that it concerns the HBO series? The simple:"TV Series" sort of gets lost (again, mostly due the font) Otherwise, as to be expected, masterful work. :)

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I've asked about the Amazon issue, seems it happens when there's any lag contacting their servers. It then serves a ". 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

I wonder if you might ask our talented Russian photoshoppers for permission to use some of their incredible art? For anyone here who hasn't seen their work, look at the 'Photoshoppers Show Us the Cast' thread. I think it would be a source of pride for all of us here if our own members' artwork adorns our own board.

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We'd only want to use imagery we've permission to use, and prefer illustrative rather than photorealistic works. That said, thanks to those who've suggested punching things up a bit, we've an idea that we're exploring. ;)

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Please recheck the site, folks -- may need to do a CTRL+R or F5 to get a fresh CSS page. We have permission from Ted Nasmith to incorporate his castle art for The World of Ice and Fire in the header (and the footer, but we haven't done that yet). Our present idea is that each site will have a different set of imagery -- on the GoT site, it's Winterfell on the left and King's Landing on the right.

We're not done with the title on top, BTW, and various other elements. Just looking at our idea for how to deal with the header to give the site a bit more flavor and color. :)

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I could get very nit-picky as to the aesthetics and color and fonts... (oh wait, that's what I do for a living :cheers: )

It is orders of magnitude better than v1.0. I like it. Great Job Linda (she does all the heavy lifting, right?) :cheers:

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Yep, Linda does all the code and graphical work. I am just the content monkey. ;)

Also, we've added the footer and images (basically just continuation of the Winterfell and King's Landing images). We'll maybe add some copyright text or something down there, rather than leave it entirely blank.

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I don't want to be too radical, but you did ask for feedback.

I think the site looks very busy at the moment - there's kind of a lot to take in, and the text is still kinda small and not very easy to read. I think if it was me I'd banish the column on the right to the bottom, and I'd get rid of the long 'about' paragraph - it's by no means verbiose in style, but I don't think the site would lose out if it went. Then I'd make the 5 boxes that are there now bigger and make it so it says eg. News then has some relevant picture, then when you click it you go to a separate page with news on. So basically the user would be faced with a title bar (which looks great btw), 6 boxes each just with a title and a picture and no text - News, Features, Characters, Episodes, Gallery, Westeros forum, and a column on the left with ads, the short 'about' paragraph and all the other links and things at the bottom. I think as it is it's basically fine, but it could be more user-friendly.

I appreciate you might not want to implement any of that, but if there's one thing i think is quite important, is that the ads should look noticeably different is possible. At the moment they're kind of the same size and kind of the same colour and format as the boxes and as the right hand column. Which makes it look a little bit overfacing and overadvertised.

Anyway, that's my ha'penny worth

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I think the front page could do with some work, as well. At the moment it's very confusing, with a bunch of roman numerals that you have to hover over to know where they go. And even then, titles like "all sorts of wierd stuff" may be descriptive, but would be unhelpful for new people.

Edit: And maybe a link to the GoT section would be good.

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Slick,

Yes, splash page is either going to be redone or dropped entirely. :)

HT Reddy,

Thanks for the feedback! We're definitely wedded to a top navigation at the moment, after years of sidebar navigation.

Quoth,

No radical changes, I think, but we have been fiddling. Running into some trouble with consistency of some color usage, but we'll sort it out. :)

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In general, I think it's fine. However, what I'd change personally:

1. That background. I like the textured look, but I'd flatten some of the contrast on the background itself, to bring up the contrast between text + bg. Put me in the camp that finds it distracting/difficult to read over.

2. The colour used in the non-initial letters in the top banner. With no edging, I find that it starts to blend into the image (particularly "the" under "Game")

3. The third column / minimum width of the site. I have to resize my browser window in order to see everything, which I as a viewer don't enjoy. I personally would move a lot of the things in the left-hand column (e.g., the search box, the RSS and Twitter icons, etc.) to a second, thin horizontal section under the top banner. That would then free up room to move the "Our sites" column to the left. I understand you're separating them for a reason; I'm just saying what I'd do. I find it far easier to scroll only up-and-down than up-and-down-and-left-to-right. (See again my bit about resizing the window. I don't maximize my browser window, and don't have that large a screen even if I did.)

4. That dropdown menu (a bit), Sites - if I vary very much at all when moving my cursor, the menu disappears before I have a chance to click on it. Or even read it, the first time. I'd move to a click-based interface -- or at least the option to click and hold the menu "open" -- instead of just onmouseover.

5. I would have at least one additional option skin, in order to be a more accessible site. High contrast, plain text or few images, plainer fonts / resizeable characters (e.g. not too many image-based "text" sections), and so on. This includes properly alt-ing all images and links, so that screenreaders can process everything.

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1) Still considering it, but I'd probably want to try remaking the texture at 500x500 instead. Perhaps something to look at once everything else is finished.

2) The colouring there will be different one each site, so finding 6 colours that work equally well might be tough. Its blue now for the GoT site, which I think seems to work quite well. The font doesn't take to edging well at all at that size, unfortunately.

3) While I understand that not everyone has their browser-window maximized, not designing for less than 1024 is something I am firm on this time around. There was just too much I couldn't do if I limited it to 800.

4) I think I may be able to extend the "hit" area a bit, though I am not sure how to do on-click in a good way (especially with no javascript at all). Persistent on-click is terrible awkward, I find.

5) Possibly, but I think that by the time I am done, I won't have the energy for that for another few years. ;) Though essential images will get their alt-tags, its on the list.

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