ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

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Matt
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Matt »

Seconding Jimmy re: not being at all a fan of Bootstrap, but my dislike is much weaker and ambivalent just because I don't see it quite as much.

I'm assuming the lack of linking to G/QZDoom will be sorted out in due course.

Degrades decently without Javascript, though a little warning "Please enable Javascript to see more screenshots!" might be nice (I thought it was just an arbitrary decorative strip like the gap showing the planet background under the first 3 circles).

Once activated, the carousel actually respects uBO's large-element blocking and allows a simple click to override it. THANK YOU.

Not a fan at all of those circles things. Too much advertising and too little function. I'd much rather that the four squares, Latest News, and then Getting Started were immediately after the screenshot strip, in that order. (If you really want to idiotproof at least one download button you can just make it green and add a down arrow...)

Would suggest removing "Beyond Doom" and "Make ___ ___ Again" wording.

The text in those blurbs under the first circle-triplet might be trimmed down a bit and used as captions for the screenshots. (The captions should ideally also include the name of the mod - I thought I saw some alt text but once the image is loaded they won't show up on a hover tooltip).

Suggestion: Add a search field for the wiki on the upper right, on the same row as the "start / news /etc." links. :D


EDIT: oh wow the other pages are done too! Um, I'd really suggest getting rid of those first 3 circles now, since they are positively distracting from that far more useful row of links!


As for colours, I like them, they don't hurt my eyes and I can see the links just fine.
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Wiw
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Wiw »

That's pretty rad! Although it does feel a bit much like the Blade of Agony site.
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nazakomu
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by nazakomu »

I really love this! It's definitely a rather lovely contribution to ZDoom and we will all miss it.

Being me, I will miss the aesthetics of Software renderer -- and considering Graf more than likely will have his focus on OpenGL features and ZScript; I don't see the Software renderer getting updated any time soon or if it breaks in the future somehow. Maybe someone will be there to help keep the Software renderer up-to-date in the future to be sure that people can play arbitrarily between Software and OpenGL.

Thank you so much Eruanna for keeping everything alive and being so generous as to redesigning the website, and I'm very sure randi will be satisfied with the look of it too!
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Xtyfe »

It looks a lot more functional than the old site, that's always a good thing
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Gez »

I'm not very fond of the "red on red" style for code snippets (from there). I know there's the whole "red and black" theme but perhaps the same two-tone gray as the other quotes would look better?
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Enjay »

On the subject of code snippets, would it be possible and/or desirable to have a default auto-syntax highlighting system in place? It would have to be fairly generic to look reasonable with DECORATE, ACS, ZScrip etc but it might be nice. In which case, the red-on-red thing becomes moot because it's unlikely that there would be a good combination simply made from various shades of red.
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Xaser
 
 
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Xaser »

Red-on-red is kinda an experiment to see what folks think -- if those are a "nope" then I'll make them share the quote box colors.

There's plenty of syntax highlighting libs available, so I can probably just get one of those and use C++ formatting with a dark scheme (and the neutral grey background too, so that fixes that). This mostly depends though if code blocks are going to be used often in the dev blog, since that's the only place I imagine them showing up.

@Devs: thoughts on this?
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Rachael
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Rachael »

Personally I like the red-on-red but I think it needs more contrast. Something like #e04040 on #400000.
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Xaser
 
 
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Xaser »

That does work a bit better. That'll be in the next update just to give it one more shot.
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arookas
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by arookas »

My two cents:

Pros:
- The responsiveness is nice. The layout changes very nicely on smaller resolutions, even the about page.
- Very fast loading. This is really appreciated.
- The domains are kept to a minimum (self, imgur, and google font API).
- Blog and news pages look very nice (the color scheme for code snippets withstanding). Also seems very useful for keeping up on latest developments and announcements (instead of just the forums right now).
- The about page and changelog are very faithful. I like that.

Cons:
- It's the BOA site with a zdoom logo.
- The entire landing page.

Most of my argument against the layout comes from start/home page. It feels like multiple different web pages stacked vertically. The random, realistic picture of mars doesn't serve a purpose or fit with any classic z/doom aesthetic. The project showcase is alright, however. The 3-column points use more space for images than actual text; on my monitor I have to scroll to read the first textual content. They also duplicate the points made in the about page, while being more vague. The entire 4-column footer is just a verbatim copy of the top navigation bar but with huge buttons.

Overall, it's pretty nice—don't get me wrong, but, I think using the about page as a base for the home page would be perfect. The page cleanly describes exactly what zdoom is to a layperson without being a bootstrap clone. Doing so would also clear out some space on the main navigation bar to make room for some of the top bar links (having two navigation bars at the top seems... odd).
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Gez »

arookas wrote:The random, realistic picture of mars doesn't serve a purpose or fit with any classic z/doom aesthetic.
I really really hope it does not survive. Replace it with whatever or remove it entirely; I don't care, but that planet picture has got to go! ZDoom is not a Mars TC project!
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Xaser »

The tricky part of that sentence is "with whatever" -- what's "whatever"? Removing it entirely is going to make the content bunch up too close and I don't have any ideas on what to slot into that space at present, so some ideas on that front would be helpful.

I'm considering that slot as a candidate for an eventual screenshot gallery, but that's just a rough idea and something that's going to be done post-initial-launch anyway.
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Rachael
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Rachael »

You could do a faded E2M8 screenshot. Probably kind of cheesy, but it gets the point across.
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Xaser
 
 
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Xaser »

"Protip: To install ZDoom, shoot the cyberdemon until it dies." :P

It's iconic enough to work, and with dynlights and some GL settings on, that could sell the "hey it's modernized a bit" part too. So... perhaps. ;P


[EDIT] Posted up a micro update with some of the circles filled in with proper images. Lemme know what you think!
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Rachael
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Re: ZDoom.org Front Page Redesign

Post by Rachael »

Those are some sweet images. I like. :)
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