TPR Front Page RE-Design Contest!

[BeemerBoy]

I had never thought of the idea of the daily updates being horizontally displayed, but now that I see that I go "huh....I kind of like that!" I'm almost picturing that the line of daily updates could either scroll or swipe horizontally as well.

I kind of dig that look as well.

[robbalvey]

My thoughts on this one...

I think my main comment from the last revision still applies:

 

- I like it, mainly because it's similar to what we have now, but updated...however I don't think it's updated "enough."

- Too much text

- I'm torn on if I like the big image next to the video, or if we should just have one big image, and either the video falls lower on the page, or we just incorporate a daily video as one of the rotating updates.

- The "Theme Park Review Updates" does not HAVE to be as long as it currently is. The only reason why the TPR Updates is even there, is so that we would have a place to put the more "important" updates so they wouldn't get buried on the normal day-to-day updates. They are more like "featured updates." I mean, what if that section was just smaller, like only showed two updates, and if you wanted to see more from that section, you could scroll or swipe to see the rest. If someone could come up with a good solution for this, that section could actually be gotten rid of entirely. To summarize - the problem = "Need a way to display featured TPR updates that don't get buried by the day-to-day updates." Solution = YOU TELL ME!

- I like the tabs, but I'm not a fan of the graphic design chosen for the tabs.

- I like the random stuff at the bottom of the page.

- Not sure if announcements should go at the bottom, at the top, or at least somewhere visible in the middle without having to scroll. Thoughts from our TPR members on this one?

[robbalvey]

I had never thought of the idea of the daily updates being horizontally displayed, but now that I see that I go "huh....I kind of like that!" I'm almost picturing that the line of daily updates could either scroll or swipe horizontally as well.

I kind of dig that look as well.

Yeah. Gumball. I would say that, before you focus on any other parts of your page. Really refine this part below, polish it up, and post a new one. Fill in the blanks. Show it to me how it would actually look as though it was live today...

 

If we can nail that down, then we'll work on the rest....

[DougMJr]

Just thought I'd check the thread one more time before I went to bed.

 

Robb I understand your points. I think I may have a solution. I'll see how well it looks tomorrow. Hopefully by replacing text with images my layout will be less cramped. Also, if you happen to have any suggestions on how the navi bar can improve let me know.

 

So note to self, tomorrow:

-Axe the text.

-A picture is worth 1000 words.

-Unite, don't divide. Remove borders

-Keep the nav bar in mind.

-A little space will do some good.

[robbalvey]

Also, I would strongly encourage all the members who are making submissions to read ALL the feedback I've giving to other people as well. Some of it may apply to your design.

[Angry_Gumball]

A few more polishes, but here's what I have so far. I'm probably going to stop laying things out for the night and get my file organized...I have way too many layers and parts that aren't named...a nasty habit of mine I need to get rid of. My brain's like on overdrive now, especially after either getting over or in the early stages of becoming sick...feel like someone just spun me out on the tea cups...time to give it a rest

 

My main focus in tonight's final update was in the nav bar itself where I added subtle dividers (so it doesn't look so clunky) and fixed the capitalizaiton. Also, I'm not sure what controls you'll have over what the dropdown would look like but this is kind of what I had in mind.

[robbalvey]

^ The gradient and the empty space in the Nav bar is bothering me a bit. Fill in some more pictures on the updates swipe bar and let us see how that would look a bit more finished.

[Angry_Gumball]

Final update for the evening (as much as I said my last one was )

Slimmed down nav bar, gradient shade now uses the same shades as the lower 'swipe' bar (I kind of visioned this also having an ability to scroll as needed), plugged in the holes/placeholders for other announcements

[larrygator]

Another thing for everyone to consider is just as Robb said he didn't prefer the lack of capitalization is someone's tab, use of all CAPS MAKE WORDS MORE DIFFICULT TO READ. Not just in the tabs but also in the headers. Capitalizing The First Letter Of Each Word Draws Attention And Is Easier To Read.

 

Maybe consider using all CAPS only with GADZOOKS font which should be used in the site name and tagline at the top of the page. As Robb said no need to overuse GADZOOKS either just because it is that way on the current homepage.

 

Also consider making the dates on the updates appear in a smaller pitch

 

Lastly, just because all the text in the updates is current home page are flush left, has anyone considered center text and headlines. I don't know how this will look, but I'd be curious to see if it helps any designs.

 

Keep up the good work everyone.

[megalyte]

After looking through the whole thread, I have 2 designs that stand out to me for particular reasons;

 

First, AngryGumball's design mainly for that awesome slider photo update thingy at the top! It looks awesome and I love the little boxes for the page you are on. In this case, a picture IS worth a thousand words. I also like the pull down navigation bar to the forums. I like to minimize the clicking needed to get to where I want to go on a website. To me, it's unnecessary to have the "index" page like here at TPR. I want to get to something fast, and with the least clicks. AngryGumball's design somewhat keeps the traditional TPR format, but definitely modernizes it to a 2012 standard.

 

Second, AidanCKY's deisgn (Page 9) for a cool refreshing format that looks nice and could be easily navigated through from a smartphone and/or tablet. I really like the top navigation bar with the little stripe of yellow at the bottom, it helps "present" the buttons in a more classier way (if you can understand that). The things I would change though would be to put a slider in the latest update box (Or the Europa Park box). The other thing I would change is to move the search bar between the videos and the official TPR update box, it would even out the content and make it look a little bit better.

 

The only gripe I have with most of the submissions (and this goes against the praise I gave to AidanCKY), is that most of these are made for non-widescreen monitors. In today's standard, almost every laptop and desktop are now in a 16:9 or 16:10 format. I think TPR needs to move a little bit away from the early 2000's 4:3 format. The only problem with making it wider is that smartphones are not in the widescreen format, so there would have to be a separate mobile site (which I am all for also!)

 

I hope my little feedback helps! I am very excited for the re-design!

[bmull19]

I like Angry_Gumball's design the best so far, but I think the gradients on the side need to go, and perhaps instead of a pure black background, perhaps a grungy dark grey? I think the black/dark colour suits TPR for a background, but it also contributes to making to look 'outdated', sort of like Windows XP. No offence intended to Robb or any of the designers of the current front page (but it is very very old. )

 

Just my 2 bob.

Edited January 11, 2012 by bmull19

[Murfie]

Seeing as this thread is growing quite fast I'd like to throw in what I'm working on.. like a few others Ive included a slider since, well, they're everywhere >_< Please don't take the navigation content too seriously as I'm trying out some things to get a bit of a cleaner look. Since a drop down menu is requested that leaves some questions as to what to do with the entire navigation.

 

Tried to slightly modernize the page whilst keeping the park index and original look in mind without messing up the easy and clear lay-out that the frontpage has right now. I was reading some of the other feedback while I was making this so I'm already thinking about changing a bunch of stuff xD But at the moment I've chosen for a two column lay-out to try and keep it easy to use and I gave the TPR updates two dedicated spots. They could be switched with the announcements, considering priority and scrolling.

 

In any case, before I start blabbering too much, just check it out below and if you have any first impressions/feedback to share that would be great! In the meantime I'll work on it some more and see if maybe I can make a widescreen and/or non scrolling variant as I usually wouldn't just go for the first version I worked out but try out several things. I really hope i didn't put this out too early but I felt like I was gonna drop behind if I didn't ask for impressions.

[AlmereStars]

Damn.. this thread exploded over night haha I've read all the pages, and for now I like Gumballs. Only problem I have with it, is the gradient background.. it's to much of a contrast. But other then that I've seen a lot of great stuff. I'm on my way to belgium now, so ill some time to work out version 0.2 now.

 

@robbalvey: I think I know what you mean with your feedback. And i'm guessing you want the color scheme to remain the same? or at least somewhat the same

[Double0Kevin]

Final update for the evening (as much as I said my last one was )

Slimmed down nav bar, gradient shade now uses the same shades as the lower 'swipe' bar (I kind of visioned this also having an ability to scroll as needed), plugged in the holes/placeholders for other announcements

 

I think by far this is the best design, but my only peeve is the text. Why do the updates need the full date above them and a description below? I think it would look much more clean if the pictures filled all that space and then you had the text bar with a brief description over the top, similar to how the "A Final Look at Jaws" looks, with maybe a small date (A Final Look at Jaws - 1/10).

[DKR]

I tried to make the design more updated, by changing the arrangement of the elements and removing the TPR's updates. The reason of this, is because if you have the slider on top, you can post all these updates here, so you don't see it repeated in the page.

[A.J.]

DKR, there's one glaring omission from your layout - there's no "forum" tab.

 

EDIT: I see there's a link down at the bottom for the forum, but I kind of like being able to click "forum" as soon as I go to Theme Park Review.

[DKR]

Ooops! actually this was just a lapse of concentration later I'll fix all the tabs

[SharkTums]

I think DKR and Angry_Gumball are both closest to what I like right now. If we took Angry's top and DKR's bottom I'd love to see something like that. Also, maybe instead of a 'latest forum posts' box that could be the Facebook Feed?

[robbalvey]

Thoughts on this one...

 

 

- The "T" shape having the big image on top bigger than the two columns below looks weird to me.

- While I say "Use Gadzoox" font, I think this might be an over-use of it.

- I had said a few posts back that the idea of "TPR Updates" could even go away, but in this layout, they are the first things you see scrolling down past the main image.

- Search bar needs to be at the top.

- Overall, it's not bad, just very similar to many of the designs we've already seen in the past 24 hours. At this point, I think for something to stand out, it needs to be different, and really "wow" us.

[sspaz1000]

I think DKR and Angry_Gumball are both closest to what I like right now. If we took Angry's top and DKR's bottom I'd love to see something like that.

 

Wow a few more pages than what I went to bed with, but I'm agreeing with Elissa here. A hybrid of those two's submissions I think would be an awesome layout.

 

Also someone mentioned widescreen. Even though it's more the norm than not, you still can't alienate the people who use 1024x768 (yes, that's me. I'm not about to go pay a few hundred $ on a new monitor when the one I have works perfectly fine and is flatscreen).

 

I also know that I'm usually on TPR for a couple hours on my iPad everyday, so if something were to have lots of scrolling, I know I wouldn't be using my iPad as much.

 

Just some rambly thoughts for the morning.

[BeemerBoy]

^^ The one thing that did catch my eye with that update is the way the dropdown box and "update" categories were highlighted with red, green, and blue. It was subtle enough to work for my eyes.

[Chroniq]

Can anyone think of a site where the "drop down" menus are down correctly? I just spent 5 minutes checking out all the sites I make a point of hitting each day and I couldn't find one that either had drop downs or had drop downs that I actually used.

 

Edit: another thought about drop downs. I think they should "expand" without a click compared to drop downs on a pc where you have to click to engage.

 

Also drop downs when using a tablet? That's always weird for me. Is it with in the realm of possibility that TPR could have a tablet optimized site and a traditional site? I guess that's more of a question for Robb & Elissa.

 

 

 

Edit 2: Regarding the whole widescreen versus 4:3 design issue- According to wikipedia, Steam did a survey of all their users in 2011

7.04% had 4:3 monitors

11.28% had 5:4 monitors with a high enough resolution to display a website nicely in the widescreen format.

81.68% had 16:9 or 16:10 monitors.

I wonder if those statistics are comparable to TPR's users.

 

But like Nicole mentioned- The ipad is 4:3

[A.J.]

I'm going to do some playing around this afternoon and tonight. I have a new idea.

 

Robb, what timeframe are you looking at for these to be finished in?

[robbalvey]

I don't have a timeframe, so I guess the answer would be "when I find something I want to move forward with."

[AlmereStars]

here is version 0.2 of my design! This time I used the current colour scheme, although I did made some changes.

 

Social: Added Google +1 and Facebook Like buttons

 

Menu: You guys want to be able to expand the menu, but I want to do something different. Instead of using a vertical navbar, I used a horizontal bar. To emphasize Club TPR some more, I used the logo text. I didn't know which font you use for Club TPR but you'll get the idea

 

Photo/Youtube These don't have titles , but I can add them if you want. the size is the correct format for embedding youtube video's.

 

Login: This is where you can login or search the site. Once logged in you'll see new message icon, a Submit button for the Reviews, Exchange and CoasterTube and more. (search area remains the same)

 

3 columns At first the idea wasn't to be scrollable, but I actually like it. I added the date as a graphic instead of a single line of text.

 

Randomizer Right know the randomizer only shows a review, but why not include random Videos and Downloads??. I also included a refresh button in the title bar, so when you click on it Randomizes again.

 

and I added a facebook box, (used an image from google, searching Facebook Box)