Jan 26, 2007 08:49 pm I love the new mouse-overs, and the way everything is organized at the top of the screen...two thumbs way up!
OK dB...What's goin' on?
Posted on Jan 26, 2007 08:48 pm
guitar_jim
Czar of Cheese
Member Since: Jun 09, 2004
Pretty sweet new look and feel you got goin' here. Much of a surprise, but I love it! I can't wait to hear all about it!
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Jan 26, 2007 08:49 pm I love the new mouse-overs, and the way everything is organized at the top of the screen...two thumbs way up!
Jan 26, 2007 08:57 pm Thanks Jim, I've been waiting about 3 hours for some feedback...sheesh, it's been killin me, glad the first comments were good!
I've been working out some ideas for a few weeks, this new skin is phase 2 of a multi phase change/upgrade. The first was a bunch of backend stuff I did last week that no user really sees, just makes life easier for me.
I am still unsure exactly whats coming next, but I have lots of ideas, I have wanted to do this upgrade for ages, to get all the branding up along the top and get dropdowns working...I worked for a while choosing the right dropdown generation object...it's hard cuz so many have browser issues with CSS layers and stuff, and CSS is the only way I'd do it, not pure JavaScript cuz Javascript would limit me too much with what I wanted to do with the dropdown in the ""my account" tab (meaning it's variable based on who logs in with what permissions)...the one I am using now seems pretty stable in most all modern browsers...
I gotta keep you guys on your toes. :-)
Thanks for the positive feedback Jim!
Jan 26, 2007 09:01 pm A nice extra touch would be a 'rotating boobie' mouse pointer for the Pro members.
Jan 26, 2007 09:11 pm One thing, though, when I click on the little "Home Recording Connection" logo at the top I get a 404.
Jan 26, 2007 09:22 pm Well I did, but now I don't. It's all good, probably this piece of **** Mac i'm using! :-)
Jan 26, 2007 09:24 pm I don't understand.... How do I get to like the back rooma nd stuff? That whole sidebar is gone...
Jan 26, 2007 09:27 pm "My Account" -> "Private Forums"
There's a few other ways, too. I'm really liking this the more I use it. I was always confused about where to find stuff before, but now I just do a mouse-over and I can quickly find what I need (because of course my time is FAR too valuable to be looking through sub-menus...ha!)
Keep up the good work, my man.
Jan 26, 2007 09:38 pm Yeah, Loki, it's a top bar now...
Normally I warn the staff about things like this...this is what happens when I don't ;-)
Thanks Jim, it's a calculated risk, my usual methocology, basded on things I have learned in usability tests and such is to give people drill-down baby step menu's...dropdown just link every page to every other page...which sometimes gives people too many choices and they weird out...some thrive in the situation, some freak out and just leave.
Dropdowns are now so common though most people are used to it, and I figgered it was about time I stop worrying about supporting v4 browsers...
Another issue with linking every page to every other is that bots for Yahoo, Google and such have a hard time figuring out hierarchy of a site when they are all linked, it kinda makes them all equal.
Jan 26, 2007 09:46 pm If I try to select any text, it freaks out !?!
Jan 26, 2007 09:46 pm What the hell you selecting my copyrighted text for? ;-)
Jan 26, 2007 09:48 pm HAHAHA !
What the hell good is the UBC quotin' thang for, then ?
Jan 26, 2007 09:56 pm Other than that, all the changes seem pretty dang cool !
Jan 26, 2007 10:01 pm eh, good point!
That said, I haven't seen a problem yet in Opera, FireFox 2 or IE7...
Jan 26, 2007 11:11 pm ...and now that I can see very clearly that my HRC Pro 'expires' three days ago... I should let you know i'm going to be a bit late on it... err...later than I am...
...and not that my opinion counts anymore :) but the only problem I have with drop down menues is when you miss an offset link like 'HRC Pro Forums' the entire menu closes... be nice if it was persistant until a click. ...however consitering thats the only offset menu item, I think I can manage.
Jan 26, 2007 11:50 pm Looks great dB! Very slick and professional.
don't forget this snippet:
if(yourBrowserSucks)
puts("Upgrade your damn browser, hippie!");
:D
So who's that in the banner pic?
Jan 27, 2007 12:15 am Quote:
Thanks Jim, it's a calculated risk, my usual methocology,
Ehh, not sure what that means, but keep on dBin'!
Jan 27, 2007 04:08 am Very nice layout! Speedy drop-down menus,nice:)
Jan 27, 2007 04:41 am I like the new format nice & tidy. My only suggestion would be to lose the redundant links to the various forums at the top of the page so that you don't have to scroll down so far before you see the posts & the menus will be quicker to scroll back up and access.
Dan
Jan 27, 2007 06:49 am good suggestion, Dan. I have links in menus and on pages for people that have browsers that may not support the dropdown layers type of thing, but they all do now...
zek, I am actually going to find the timer in the code and hopefully increase the timing that the menu stays open after rolloff.
Quote:
So who's that in the banner pic?
I dunno, some stock pic I found, I a looking for others, maybe have a random pool to display from.
Jan 27, 2007 03:12 pm Wow that was quick! :D
Since your working on the site there was one other thing I always kind of missed. At the top of each forum when reading posts the link path is shown at the top ie: Home > Community > Talkin Smack, it would really be great to have that at the bottom as well since that is where one usually is when your finished replying or reading so a path link at the bottom as well would be cool. Right now I just use the back button but that doesn't refresh the page when you go back that way and of course if you reply to a thread you also have to click multiple times get back to the level you want.
Dan
Jan 27, 2007 06:08 pm dB, I've been navigating the site, and from my perspective, I can't see any problems. I like the changes, and the new "Panavision" look, without the sidebars, is especially cool. Good job.
Jan 27, 2007 06:13 pm The more I use it, the more I like it. Truly a labor of love for you, it seems. Not knowing the first thing about web design, I'm very impressed with the complexity (yet simplicity) of this site. And your willingness to listen to suggestions only makes it better.
Good one on you, man!
Jan 27, 2007 06:46 pm Thanks all for the kind words.
As a site gets as big as HRC is, it gets harder to make easy to use...I think with this new design I have gone a big step forward in that direction, but there is still more I can do that I haven't found yet, so any ideas will be considered (maybe not done for whatever reason, but will be considered).
I like the so-called "panavision" too...seems to be a bigger usable screen, all site componenets are just along the top rather than top and side...
Thanks for the continued support of HRC, it keeps me on my toes.
Jan 28, 2007 11:24 am Very cool dB!
The new drop-downs are a huge improvement on the navigation. They're tricky to do, did you code them yourself?
Jan 28, 2007 11:52 am I have coded a few of them in my time, but they were mostly JavaScript menus, which suck for SEO since bots can't see the links. I tried a few and used DropDownMenuX this time, and will likely be the one I always use from now on out. All the links are still in the code so bots can still see and follow them, it is very cross browser functional and very customizable. Whoever wrote 'em did a great job.
Jan 28, 2007 12:16 pm That's a good way to do it. I wrote one once for a site, not very extendable or portable as it had many objects in the code that was dependent on specifics of the webpage but it seems to follow the same principles of your nav...keeping the links in the html and only using the javascript to toggle the display property and calculate the positioning.
Jan 28, 2007 12:20 pm Yeah, I just hate limiting browser acceptance any more than necessary, I am always reluctant to do that...but damn, HRC has over a couple hundred thousand pages on the site, it gets hard to make easily navigable (is that a word?) without using some functions like this, so some sacrifices have to be made...
Now that I broke down that barrier there are all sorts of possibilities :-)
Jan 28, 2007 07:28 pm Speaking of PanaVision, you should see what it looks like now on my wide screen's. Sweet as all get out. And indeed, I as well am loving the changes. I was used to the side menu and just seem to memorize those things for sites, but I do like the drop down's as they are indeed quicker to use.
And for the old timers, do ya remember the original HRC, black and gray baby!
Jan 29, 2007 05:54 pm Yeah, I dunno what it is, but I am a sucker for shades of grey...I like the dramatic effect of the black, white and grey type color scheme.
I have been cleaning up code all over, getting rid of some legacy, and now unnecessary tabling here and there, updated the online store catalogs, and positioning the template with CSS, now the real content is all the way at the top, the header and nav bars are at the bottom of the file, but positioned so they appear at the top in the browser. That should be groovy for SEO, even though I dunno if it will help rankings as they are already pretty good.
I hope not many peeps with old browsers come any more, or they'll be disappointed.
Thanks everybody for the positive feedback and good suggestions. You may not see anything new for a while, as I plan to spend the next few development hours going thru the site, page by page and cleaning code, optimizing database queries and hopefully increasing load time. The database is getting big enough where some tweaking could stand to be done. Places like the forum may not see a huge improvement due to it's size, but we'll never know until I dig around under the hood.
Jan 30, 2007 06:33 pm I remember when the sidebar was on the left, and everyone went weird for a while when it went to the right. Now it's all up top.
Very nice, dB-Wan.
Needs more cowbell...
Jan 31, 2007 10:47 pm I find the black and gray less distracting myself. Other then Firefox having a little color in the skin I use everything else in the windows scheme is dark silver or gray. I even changed Sonar 6 to a darker skin. Now I just wish I could re-skin P5 and it would all be good.
Feb 01, 2007 07:45 am Quote:
I remember when the sidebar was on the left, and everyone went weird for a while when it went to the right.
Bahahaha, I remember that too...hey, if I don't try stuff I'll never learn what works and what doesn't... :-)
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