Revamping the look of the site (NOT the forums); part 2.

After a previous thread that failed in spectacular fashion, this is a reboot thread taking on suggestions for how the visual appeal of the site can be improved. There is one, firm stipulation:

The forum look stays as is, period.
(no more debate on this issue)

With that said, the mainpage and other sections are really in need of work. We're not necessarily going after a complete redesign --rather revising and refining the elements and design into something that looks more modern (e.g. cleaner). While the side bar is nice, the overall layout is a bit messy and confusing.

Feel free to share ideas. Keep in mind, though: this is NG.com, so people can be a bit, um, passionate about designs they don't like. Think of it like the Apollo for web design.

Bobak said:

After a previous thread that failed in spectacular fashion, this is a reboot thread taking on suggestions for how the visual appeal of the site can be improved. There is one, firm stipulation:

The forum look stays as is, period.
(no more debate on this issue)

Click to expand...

Stays as it is or is the software unable to be upgraded?

BonusKun said:

Stays as it is or is the software unable to be upgraded?

Click to expand...

Software upgrades aside, the (downright militant) consensus in the old thread is the design/look of forums need to stay as is. We kept getting members chiming in to only say that they weren't okay with any design changes to the forum.

Thanks Bobak! Could you do me a favor and close this thread? http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2439715#post2439715 It would make things less cluttered and easier to update.

Okay, well here's all the a few logos I made up, 2 for the site and one for my avatar:



Someone said this one was too busy and I kinda agree, so I made the one below:



This one I made from an avatar I made to look like the old round NG logo:



My previous avatar:


If the admins want to use any of this stuff for the site then feel free And I'm always up for new ideas as I am doing this just for fun!

EDIT:

galfordo said:

I say take away the asian symbols on the first one and you've got a winner.

Click to expand...

So I did just that.

Bobak said:

Software upgrades aside, the (downright militant) consensus in the old thread is the design/look of forums need to stay as is. We kept getting members chiming in to only say that they weren't okay with any design changes to the forum.

Click to expand...

Can we at least get rid of this?

neo geo logo looks hideous, but the blue logo looks alright i spose

A few suggestions for the main page:

- The frames have to go, content should be dynamic/RDBMS-based

- Free hovering graphical buttons instead of clickable textboxes as a menu, nothing too fancy.

- Limited space in the center of the main page area for News section (possibly with a vertical scrolltext) to avoid cluttering of the page.

- Smaller text size, font should have small serifs (makes it better readable, that specially goes for long texts like reviews), less usage of text attributes (bold, underline, etc.).

- Wider line/paragraph spacing.

- Get rid of underlined links (give links a different color without underlines), this makes the overall appearance less "nervous".

- Separated vertical logo/link/ads area on the right.

- The whole main page should fit in a 800x600 or 1024/768 window (no scrolling necessary).

- Revise the main menu links. All forum- and member-related stuff should be combined under a "community" link (forum, member list, forum faqs, collection pics, chat). Other menu items could be combined as well, e.g. Games (master list/price guides, reviews, cart pics, arcade).

.
.
.

I'm glad to hear the message board layout stays as it is, ng.com wouldn't be the same without it, but yeah, the main page needs a bit of cleaning and some slaps of fresh paint here and there.

Why not a have a couple banners that get rotated every so often?

Dandy-J said:

Click to expand...

This is it! Outstanding!

There's one thing I would do if it was me; I'd take the bevel effect on the Neo original logo, just because it's trampling the yellow Neo letters, other than that I love it!

guys...as gaudy as this site may look, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Takumaji said:

- Get rid of underlined links (give links a different color without underlines), this makes the overall appearance less "nervous".

Click to expand...

I agree with all your suggestions except for this one. I'm a bit of a usability whore (I don't think Jakob Nielsen is always right, but he makes some good points), so given that underlined links are the status quo why would you want to change this?

What do you mean by "nervous"?

It's a small point -- rather meaningless, really -- I'm mostly just curious about your reasoning. ("nervous"...hm)

I think I'd seriously like to throw up a few ideas, what kind of timeline are we looking at?

Lochlan said:

I agree with all your suggestions except for this one. I'm a bit of a usability whore (I don't think Jakob Nielsen is always right, but he makes some good points), so given that underlined links are the status quo why would you want to change this?

What do you mean by "nervous"?

It's a small point -- rather meaningless, really -- I'm mostly just curious about your reasoning. ("nervous"...hm)

Click to expand...

Well, it's an useability vs. design issue, non-underlined links look way cleaner and more professional IMO. With "nervous" I mean distracting and irritating, that specially goes for larger chunks of text. Many web designers stopped using underlined links and their designs still are perfectly useable, at least for me.

Of course the links should be clearly visible as such, for ex. by giving them a darker or lighter color tone than the normal text.

Bobak said:

Software upgrades aside, the (downright militant) consensus in the old thread is the design/look of forums need to stay as is. We kept getting members chiming in to only say that they weren't okay with any design changes to the forum.

Click to expand...

Mmm What about the option for options to add new forum skins? I'm sure with as many talented designers, users could stay with the classic Neo*Geo.com style or choose a newer board style that would better suit multiple tastes.

This is a very old site now so why not give the boards a little extra love.

BonusKun said:

Mmm What about the option for options to add new forum skins? I'm sure with as many talented designers, users could stay with the classic Neo*Geo.com style or choose a newer board style that would better suit multiple tastes.

This is a very old site now so why not give the boards a little extra love.

Click to expand...

The updates to the forums are more in Mouse_Master's domain because he does all the heavy lifting --if Shawn is fine with the idea it would then be up to M_M to do the work to add the feature. I don't think its a bad idea.

Buro Destruct said:

I think I'd seriously like to throw up a few ideas, what kind of timeline are we looking at?

Click to expand...

Flexible. I don't think there's a D-day for submissions, but we were to eventually have one I'd make clear note of it here. Right now we're just trying to see what ideas people have and see how they might work.

Bobak said:

The updates to the forums are more in Mouse_Master's domain because he does all the heavy lifting --if Shawn is fine with the idea it would then be up to M_M to do the work to add the feature. I don't think its a bad idea.

Click to expand...

Well if Keith has the freetime I'm sure he wouldn't mind adding some new forum skins. It just comes down to those people willing to design the icons and create the images needed to make the newer forum skin work.

It's not really hard since creating a new skin these days is very user friendly. It just comes down to more or less Keith taking the time out to add it.

Please, keep the side arguments outside of this thread. War Room it or something. I've deleted the OT argument

My suggestion....

..make it where we don't have to look at all the smiles while posting a thread or post. Perhaps put them all into the box you click to open and only have them there.

I'm not sure why, but having to see all the animated smiles while posting has always kinda irked me a little. Especially the irritating jumping and laughing ones.

Why not just redesign the site using WordPress? (a blogging software)
This would make it site really organized and easy to update. Oh did I mention it's free?

whoa whoa WHOA, hold up....

this forum has a website?!
when the fuck did THAT happen?!

skot said:

whoa whoa WHOA, hold up....

this forum has a website?!
when the fuck did THAT happen?!

Click to expand...

Its a forum with a website problem.

Make the "FAQs" where it's a goatse link.

Then, wait to see how long before anyone notices.

Dandy-J said:

Click to expand...

This is sweet.

It would be also good to add in the main page a GaManteau (G-Mantle) image, as he's the original, one and only NeoGeo mascot/symbol character.

Just in case you're wondering, or just FYI the Japanese line in my sign is the exact original NeoGeo catch-phrase. Is says: "Sugoi GEEMU wo tsurete kaero!", which can be translated as "Let's bring the COOL games back home (with us)".

This is a key-point, and the real kingpin of the whole NeoGeo soul, identity and 'philosophy'. As you should know, the idea that MVS came out before AES is a wide misconception of the fanbase. As a matter of fact, MVS and AES came out the same exact day in Japan, and for (almost) the first year of business every single NeoGeo game came out both in MVS and AES format on the very same date with the very same price. That is because, you see, both MVS and AES originally aimed exclusively to two operator markets: the arcade one and the rental one. No commercial market was originally intended by SNK to be for NeoGeo.

So you see, the original idea of the NeoGeo, the very one behind its creation, actually was "play the uber-cool game on MVS in the arcades, and bring it as the real thing in your own home by renting the AES". The revlutionary idea of NeoGeo was to appeal the die-hard arcade fansabe (or GeeSenZoku in Japanese: GaCen-Tribe from where GaCen is taken fro 'Game Center') with the outstanding idea of letting the players enjoy the arcade gaming 'real deal' at their home also.

So maybe that original catch-phrase could also be added in the main page. That's the very origin and soul of NeoGeo as a whole!

Well here's a site I just completed.

www.SuperVS.com

I love developing with Joomla and I bet yall would love it too.