Website design (with example)

Well looks like you have ebbed on the side of "simple" a lot for your site . There is such a thing as too simple and your site is bordering on that. However I do like your font you used and it loads reasonable quick. Maybe add a bit more spice to it as it looks how do I say it, not as professional as it could be.
I looked at your Smugglers 2 (MORE INFO) and I loved your rant on George Washington and so forth, even though you live in Germany , maybe you US citizen or something. Anyway good luck with your game, how are the sales going?
-Jason Starr

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Freeze Software
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Hello,

thx for your answer.
What kind of "spice" do you suggest?

(btw concerning the S2 text: Although I am a German I love US and GB and so now a lot about it. ).

I think it looks great. The only change I would make is to try and bring more attention to Smugglers2 and the links for it.

Pretty good...

One suggestion -: Your pages all have a common menu (Products, Press, Support, Links... etc), but there is no indication of which page the user is currently on. Maybe you could highlight/change the colour of the page being displayed. So for example if I were on the links page the word "links" would be highlighted in blue and all the other words would remain black. You could do other things to show what is selected (for example our website blurs everything which isn''t highlighted - although I think that uses a small bit of java).

The address probably doesn''t need to be on all pages - you have a contact page - it belongs there!

The products page looks too long and thin - all the products are in one long thin column. Maybe you could make two columns so each row has 2 products shown on it.

Finally it may also be nice to have a downloads menu item with all downloads on the same page. (Still keep the downloads on each game, but a central download page would be nice).

--
Simon O''''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com

I think you've done a pretty good job of avoiding a "garage"/amateur look, and I agree that a minimum of text is important.

However I think you should reconsider the focus of your main page. A new visitor to your site is not going to be interested in buying your game. They will be interested in screenshots and a demo (in that order).

Also, the "more info" page (http://www.nbsd.de/smugglers2.html) seems kinda redundant (and confusing) considering you've already set up an "official site" (http://www.smugglers2.net).

quote:

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a website should... not have Flash or java-script stuff that some browser not understand or that needs plugins

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I agree with this somewhat... a site should definitely not require Flash or Java (tangent: why is it that a typical DirectX app can push 10k tris @ 60 fps, but a Flash animation running at 10 fps seems to bring my system to a crawl?). However, don't use this thinking as an excuse to have a drab, minimalist website -- the pre-rendered art in your game looks great, so why not use it in your web pages as well?

The JFK quote is very cool, btw.

Edited by - Eric on October 11, 2001 6:23:08 PM

Just my opinion, but I find it annoying that you use pictures containing text, instead of real, actual text (at least give your pictures a meaningful ALT-text). I sometimes use Lynx when I surf, and your page is almost useless without the pictures (I realise that Lynx-users are a small minority though ).

Otherwise, the site looks quite good. I like the clean design.

Edited by - Dactylos on October 11, 2001 6:47:24 PM

Good website, but like someone said before it may be a little too simple. It has lots of white space, and looks somewhat empty. I''m not saying fill it up with useless information but more or less use your space wisely.

Wow. A lot of feedback. Thx.

I''ll try to improve it and then call back.

feel free to offer opinions on mine too
http://www.positech.co.uk

http://www.positech.co.uk

Edited by - cliffski on October 12, 2001 9:03:50 AM

(Always one to jump in on a discussion of graphic design...)

Despite what others may have said, I like it. Header and menu is nice, like it--it''s clean and legible. Maybe the address should be in the same column and row as the header image.

It''s not too simple. I find a lot of amateurs try to be too flashy, I''m personally from the school of simplicity and minimalism. (ie: [url]http://www.bmw.co.uk/[/url])

The first page is okay, though it suffer many of the same problems as the products page does. (see next)

Products: I''m not feeling the layout. I''m not sure what I''m looking at and nothing really stands out. (I didn''t even realize those were games and that you''re selling something!) Stuff looks just generally scattered all over the page (too much whitespace). Whitespace is a powerful and often over looked component of design. And why are all the text images?! I guess I''ve been babied by mouseover, but I like my links to respond when I hover over them. Also, the font you chose has a very heavey weight, so everything looks bold. I don''t know about you, but that just sticks out like a sore thumb to me. Also, it''s too skinny to be used as regular text.

You need to fix those images with skewed aspect ratios. They make your products (and your site) look unprofessional.

Press page: I like it. Not much you can do.

Support: again, image text?!

Links, I like. Why? Well you explain what the links ARE!! I think you can stand to lose the table borders, however. Your layout is logical enough that it can do without them. Another suggestion, place page breaks inbetween the links. Right now the tables look connect and you really can''t tell where one ends and the other begins.

Corporate: perfect in everyway.

Contact: here comes those image text again.

Oh yeah, don''t forget to include the alt-text--it''s helpful and considerate to everybody.

About Flash and JS. Don''t down them completely. They are useful in moderation. JS is especially useful in form validation and CGI assistence. Generally, JS "tricks" are useless--usually being more trouble (to the end user) than they are worth (ie: multilevel cascading JS menus). As for Flash, you may not like it because you haven''t seen it used tastefully or correctly. As for me, I absolutely hate cheesy flash intros. I have yet to see a meaningful one. If you''re gonna use Flash for menus, just make the whole thing in Flash. And make sure the UI is logical and easy to use. The only downside is that most of the time, you need a broadband connection to truly enjoy them in real time (bad). Alright, I''m in danger of going off on some tangent, I''ll end it now, if not for the children''s sake! (Won''t someone think of the children?!?)

Btw, please don''t judge me by my site--it''s crap. I know good design, I just can''t do it myself.

Jinushaun
Nation Leprechaun

Wow I didn''t noticed the aspect ratio thing. Looks like you have reeeaally taken a close look (thx!).

The reason why the text are images was originally that the user might not have the special font I am using and I wanted everything to look "out of one piece" (don''t know the english term - but I guess you got me). But if this makes problems, then I''ll make them normal text.

quote:

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Original post by Jester101
Wow I didn''t noticed the aspect ratio thing. Looks like you have reeeaally taken a close look (thx!).

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If you need for all your pictures to be the same height and width, I recommend cropping.


Jinushaun
Nation Leprechaun