Trek Site skin ideas...

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2004-09-25 10:22am

Been working on a project that is still some considerable months off, a fan site for the new ST MMPORPG, but anyway as there are some talented peeps and critics in here just thought I'd ask some of you about this skin we're designing for the community.

Is it took dark? too 'lcarsy' (based on the dark hues of the Nemesis panels)- would you be comfortable with the postbit layout like that, etc... thanks in advance. (some of the graphics are 'placeholders' that have been popped in for now, such as the delta arrow on the top right etc etc)

Index/Forum Home:
http://www.startrek-online.net/images/idea-index.jpg

Viewing a post:
http://www.startrek-online.net/images/idea-post.jpg

Again, just inital concepts buit a good general idea of how graphics would be used.

[Just asking for feedback, not 'advertising' or anything, this site is a long way off and aimed generally at a different audience ty]

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2004-09-25 10:40am

Very nice. Although you should NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER.

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2004-09-25 11:20am

StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:Very nice. Although you should NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER.

Now now, you didn't even bother to recommend a better alternative?

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2004-09-25 11:25am

Yes Yes I've been meaning to switch browsers... I'll um do... get around to that soon

IE isn't so bad...

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-09-25 11:52am

Looks very nice. I like the coloring of the general interface. I think the text is too dark, though.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2004-09-25 05:25pm

Thanks, indeed the monitor was on quite a high brightness setting when they were made, looking at them on default levels renders the text in some cases almost unreadable. Can sort that with a css change easily, cheers.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-09-25 05:55pm

Another thing, screenshots of text do not work well saved as JPEG (that's for photographs, not text). Save screenshots as PNG instead if you want to retain quality; you can cut down size a bit with some tweaks, but the file will always be bigger than a JPEG.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2004-09-26 12:39am

sketerpot wrote:
StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:Very nice. Although you should NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER.
Now now, you didn't even bother to recommend a better alternative?

Sorry, but I'd rather not have a browser capable of allowing a fucking JPEG (!!!) to execute any program code it wants or letting autoexecuting autoinstalling spyware and its eighteen resource-hungry friends into your comp just because you dared to scroll in a web page!? FUCK THAT SHIT!

KILL IDIOT EXPLOITER, GET FIREFOX!

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2004-09-26 02:37am

Is it me or are the colors very dark?

I do like the smooth LCARS look.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2004-09-26 02:51am

The colars are very dark, but the lcars are nice. Keep it up!

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2004-09-26 11:35am

Um, get over my use of IE6, it doesn't hurt you now, does it?

Crayz9000: Thanks, I'll start doing that then.

Back to the images... by 'very dark' do you refer to the browns and purples of the lcars cells? I really don't want to have to go down the pastel pinks of voyager or the bright oranges of early TNG, does it seem 'uncomfortable' to look at/navigate?

Thanks.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2004-09-26 02:04pm

Jon wrote:Um, get over my use of IE6, it doesn't hurt you now, does it?

Crayz9000: Thanks, I'll start doing that then.

Back to the images... by 'very dark' do you refer to the browns and purples of the lcars cells? I really don't want to have to go down the pastel pinks of voyager or the bright oranges of early TNG, does it seem 'uncomfortable' to look at/navigate?

Thanks.

You have a point

Ah, I overreacted a bit. My apologies.

Yes, the darkness is a bit much. Great colors, just bring em up a bit

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2004-09-26 02:17pm

Jon wrote:Um, get over my use of IE6, it doesn't hurt you now, does it?

Crayz9000: Thanks, I'll start doing that then.

Back to the images... by 'very dark' do you refer to the browns and purples of the lcars cells? I really don't want to have to go down the pastel pinks of voyager or the bright oranges of early TNG, does it seem 'uncomfortable' to look at/navigate?

Thanks.

You could use the blue that they used in "Nemesis"

Mopeyennuui · Post by **Mopeyennuui** » 2004-09-26 03:49pm

Jon wrote:Um, get over my use of IE6, it doesn't hurt you now, does it?

Crayz9000: Thanks, I'll start doing that then.

Back to the images... by 'very dark' do you refer to the browns and purples of the lcars cells? I really don't want to have to go down the pastel pinks of voyager or the bright oranges of early TNG, does it seem 'uncomfortable' to look at/navigate?

Thanks.

Inrestin.

Yes, I perfer dark colors above normal LCARS. Dont' listen to them. As long as your text is readable on darkened monitors. Also, ty a 'Lunar' theme, a 'Space' theme, a normal slver theme, keep the default Vbb. Also try a bluish theme, some like that. Have plenty of themes!

However, I don't like how the forum index has a FREGGIN HUGE IMAGE. (personal gripe from a 56k'er.) If you want the announcements on the home page, take the source from slashdot. (Anybody got the shashdot code page?)

I'd also suggest you look at trying the 'changable handles' on the forum Warpstorm had. (A hack of the VBB 'username' field IIRC.) Very useful. Also a 'default code' field in the Profile that wraps posts in a preselected text selection. (Mostly used for code, like text coloration/font. Can you tell I miss WS?)

~At least he's not using the default XP colors like most nwebs.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2004-09-26 04:53pm

Ein, you will cease and decist this instant.

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2004-09-26 05:53pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
Jon wrote:Um, get over my use of IE6, it doesn't hurt you now, does it?
You have a point

Ah, I overreacted a bit. My apologies.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2004-09-26 06:25pm

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
Jon wrote:Um, get over my use of IE6, it doesn't hurt you now, does it?
You have a point

Ah, I overreacted a bit. My apologies.

Maybe it's retroactive.

All the colors are very dark, to the point where reading text is very difficult.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2004-09-26 06:28pm

Jon, it looks very professional, but it is too dark. It looks like a control panel with no power running it. Try using lighter font colors for the letters, and that would make it easier to read.

Cyborg Stan · Post by **Cyborg Stan** » 2004-09-26 10:07pm

Err, this might be a bit late and hopefully obvious but I do point out that if you're making a website, you should test it out on mutliple types of browsers anyway to see if they would work in all.

EDIT : I will also note regardless of any security problems that a browser might have, hopefully you're not going to be catching anything from a site of your very own design.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2004-09-27 05:25am

Lord Revan wrote:You could use the blue that they used in "Nemesis"

Good point, I'll have a look into that, thanks.

Zerg Goddess wrote:Have plenty of themes!

We're working on a range of themes that will reflect all five series and even some alien layouts, klingon, borg and so on... and of course the default vb will probably remain availiable, as well as some 'light' skins for 56kers- as for forum hacks, I'm quite proficient at it and i'll be dealing with those when the time comes, 'launch' is some time off yet.

Lord Poe wrote:Jon, it looks very professional, but it is too dark. It looks like a control panel with no power running it. Try using lighter font colors for the letters, and that would make it easier to read.

Thanks- and most definitely, I've just logged in on a uni computer and even with the brightness set to max here, that index text is unreadable- it's going, indeed.

Cyborg Stan wrote:Err, this might be a bit late and hopefully obvious but I do point out that if you're making a website, you should test it out on mutliple types of browsers anyway to see if they would work in all.

Indeed, I don't have multiple browsers installed but I've many friends on MSN often who do so that's probably my plan, but as I'm just working ont he community styling at the moment, and using the VB templating system, it should be fine. Site design is running parallel but of course will be optimised to work well with as many browsers as possible.

Thanks for the volumous feedback people I am certain it will be of great help to me ~Jon

Mopeyennuui · Post by **Mopeyennuui** » 2004-09-28 03:07am

Jon wrote:
Zerg Goddess wrote:Have plenty of themes!
We're working on a range of themes that will reflect all five series and even some alien layouts, klingon, borg

Please, can you go form a Borg theme withat doesn't consist of square buttons? More round buttons and a very curved interface.

The old Borgcollective site was a good example. (ok, you can't change the forum display layout.. but do try to keep buttons from being rectangles. More circles.)

And I must ask for a token Zerg skin eventually.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2004-09-28 07:21am

Oh yeah I've seen some pretty dire borg themes and don't want to go down that standard route. I've learnt alot about manipulating the tables of these forum skins, mainly through trial and error, and I can change the forum layout- the lcars skin ive shown off here needed alot of that just to get the images to display properly. I'm thinking the stringy kinda displays you would normally associate with the borg, indeed- but time is of the essence atm, so that is some time off.