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POLL: Ideal website layouts

Multiple Choice  

30 members have voted

  1. 1. Multiple Choice

    • LAYOUT: Sparse, art-oriented
      8
    • LAYOUT: Somewhere in the middle
      21
    • LAYOUT: Busy, content-rich, multiple columns
      3
    • SIZE: No more than what fits the content
      17
    • SIZE: Resizeable
      14
    • SIZE: Minimize whitespace wherever possible
      3
    • LANG: html/css only (maybe some DHTML, JS)
      23
    • LANG: Small animated elements(buttons, banners, etc.)
      6
    • LANG: 100% Flash or popular plugin
      2
    • LANG: Obscure plugin you probably don\'t have
      1


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Doing research for a new website that'll attempt to reach a large base. It'd be for a game company that may specialize in browser games, although a few projects may be for the desktop. So I'd like to ask everyone's opinion here of what kind of site setup they prefer in terms of elements and how they view it.

For example: I know that not a lot of people don't like to see a 100% Flash site when it doesn't serve a real purpose(i.e. just an overblown portal for a movie trailer). But some sites work when it's 100% Flash, like when Graphic Arts students host their portfolios.

For the purpose of this poll, assume that whatever elements I've suggested are somehow necessary. Of course, it's easy to change content to fit the design, so... yeah. There are different categories, so vote a few times if you want.

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Make the website Simple. Don't over complicate it with pointless flashy bells and whistles.

The perfect website is one that is simple and organized.

Black backround with BIG bold white text and an easy-to-find menu and links. Don't complicate a simple thing.

Why a black backround? Because anything else is like staring into a lightbulb. Dark colors are always easier on the eyes. Why big white text? Because it's easy to read, stands out, and isn't as annoying as the websites that have all their articles and messages in size 2 font. It would also help people with poor eyesight as well.

Fancy websites are just that, fancy. Nothing more than bells and whistles. Don't make a simple thing complicated.

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I wonder what it is about the Doomer community in paticular that makes the black background so popular.

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Psyonisis said:

Because white text on a black background is a lot easier on the eyes than black text on a white background.

Exactly. It's much easier to read for a long period of time on a black page with white text than it is to stare at a white backround... which, like I said before, is like staring at a lightbulb.

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Psyonisis said:

Because white text on a black background is a lot easier on the eyes than black text on a white background.

White text on a dark blue background must be hard to read, since that's not what he asked about.

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Huh. I figured you guys would've gone with at least "resizeable" in regards to the page width. I'd thought that with 1024x768 as the standard these days, and screens only getting bigger, people would get frustrated by seeing websites where the entire layout barely takes up half the screen. And I can't think of a single website off the top of my head that's designed for a larger resolution. Or maybe I wasn't explicit enough...

Let me elaborate: would people be OK with a website layout that's basically set to fit on a 800x600 screen, or should we start leaning toward more expansive layouts? Or maybe relative widths are the way to go...?

As far as everything else, it's what I expected. I don't enjoy a page that looks all artsy and there's maybe a paragraph, maybe an image map. But I'm also getting really tired of crowded websites that feature about 20 columns and three different sets of navigation menus, and whatever space is left is stuffed with ads and banners.


Also, I hear what you're saying about font sizes-- but I don't think it's a big point. A lot of fonts when enlarged past 14pts look fugly. I try to keep any type of header or title that should be larger than that as a graphic.

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I think the RGB color itself isn't that important. More like darker backgrounds with white, or other lighter coloring text would do. Like the dw forums here for example dark turquoise shades with white text...easy on the eyes

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There's a limit to that. Most sites avoid white on black due to the nature of CRT monitors and the way white bleeds. Especially with small fonts, they can look distorted and that results in Chaff-your-eyeballs-on-the-screen-itis. It's really freaking annoying with design programs when you have to compare sizes between light objects and dark.

Contrast isn't always a good thing.

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Numbermind said:

Also, I hear what you're saying about font sizes-- but I don't think it's a big point. A lot of fonts when enlarged past 14pts look fugly. I try to keep any type of header or title that should be larger than that as a graphic.


Even though I hate this website, I got the idea from here: http://maddox.xmission.com/

You should check out the number of hits this "fugly looking" website gets.

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If you want a popular website, you should have pr0n on it. The design doesn't really matter so long as there are lots and lots and lots of really big b00bs.

-E

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Don't listen to anyone here and do what feels comfortable for you to navigate and look at. Otherwise you'll hate what you're doing. For every good advice here there's a handful of amazing sites out there that absolutely trample over these "logical" design choices.

It's art. Duh.

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I love sites that you can't even freaking browse, because they only supposedly work in one browser requiring scripting on, sometimes fail to load content just giving you an empty layout, and violate your computer with spyware, or just right out freeze your browser. I also like filling out a form such as a forum post entry only to find that the submit button requires javascript on to do anything.

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Make sure you put stuff like "port, sex, cunt, tits, cock, anal" and so forth in your meta tag. You'll get 10x more hits that way. Take Doomworld, for example.

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S1lent said:

Why a black backround? Because anything else is like staring into a lightbulb. Dark colors are always easier on the eyes. Why big white text? Because it's easy to read, stands out, and isn't as annoying as the websites that have all their articles and messages in size 2 font. It would also help people with poor eyesight as well.

Just must find it weird that all newspapers, magazines etc. have white paper with black text.

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boris said:

Just must find it weird that all newspapers, magazines etc. have white paper with black text.

I think the important difference there is that printed paper doesn't glow the way a computer screen does.

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Fredrik said:

Wow. That site gets just about everything wrong.

Well, it looks okay, but I got bored of waiting for all the flash stuff to load before any of the actual content appeared. I thought my site was bad with all the images to load, but that site just takes the piss.

Try to avoid that at all costs. You could have the best content imaginable, but it's not much good if people close their browser window before they see it.

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my preference is short & easy:

Open Standards. No crap. No flashy, blinky, crappy, proprietary or other stuff.

That means true ASCII, HTML with pics and that's enough.
No Java Script or other script crap, no Flash, WMV, QT, Real,... nothing of it.
All files clear url for downloading. Larger text to download as ASCII, if formatting needed RTF or SXW. PDF only if it is a must. Compression should be zip or tar.gz. RAR is surely better than zip but many people will fail on it. (they just don't have the compression prog or they aren't able to use the command line for e.g. arj)
Pics only in JPEG and PNG.


A webpage should always be readable by every browser and every modem user should be able to browse it fairly. (Of course an artworkpage with high res artwork won't be fast, but I talk about an "everyday stuff page". E.g. some newsstuff.
Nothing should require plugins. Plugins aren't available for all browsers and they cause only (at least my) wrath.

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Fredrik said:

Wow. That site gets just about everything wrong.

right, your opinion
thxby

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