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OverClocked ReMix Design ?'s and Issues


Liontamer
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Hmmm, I dunno about that one. I dislike having to click on the game title, THEN find the view all link to actually see all the mixes for the games. I also still think, years later, that it was much easier to find the game you were looking for when there was a screenie of each one on the side of the page in the games list.

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Hmmm, I dunno about that one. I dislike having to click on the game title, THEN find the view all link to actually see all the mixes for the games. I also still think, years later, that it was much easier to find the game you were looking for when there was a screenie of each one on the side of the page in the games list.

I do too, but size efficiency is more important, I guess.

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I do too, but size efficiency is more important, I guess.

True, but what I wonder is how important vertical economy of size is to people on a webpage. I mean, vert scrollbars are pretty much a way of life. We certainly all scroll through these forums enough. So if we could have screenies without increasing page width or cramming up the CSS stylesheet, would it be that bad?

Honestly, I personally feel like a lot of the information we have as far as mixes and sorting now is TOO text heavy, and crammed too close together, which makes it very difficult to scan quickly. We've got a LOT of choices as to how to sort and view the mixes, but it's almost like there's TOO many different ways to do things. From a design perspective, I feel like a little bit of the visually artistic side of the site has given way to cold hard info that's difficult to see.

Don't get me wrong Dave, I'd sell my soul to be able to code up a site like this. The above is really my only gripe.

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Well, first the most obvious thing: the dark grays are too big of a contrast in my opinion, not only with the surrounding white area, but in terms of consistency with the rest of the site. You don't see those colors in any of the other, non-list content areas (front page, links, wiki, etc.) so there's a bit of a disconnect. It's not quite the color of the site header either, so that adds to the effect.

The second thing is pretty minor, but it might be preferable to align the headings left instead of center. Since there are now no grid lines or other form of differentiation between columns, it provides more visual organization IMO. In fact, right now if there is an entry that's long enough, it will cause the headings to appear to be on entirely separate columns from the shorter entries. Here, for example, the "title" heading is completely to the right of the titles until you scroll down. To this end, it also might help to wrap the sub-list of composers to a certain width (see: entry for "Blazing Lazers" on the same page) to avoid stretching out the column so much.

BTW, pretty sure it's been like this forever, but I just noticed that the "home" tab is on the very right, which is kind of odd. Not a gripe, just unexpected.

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Well, first the most obvious thing: the dark grays are too big of a contrast in my opinion, not only with the surrounding white area, but in terms of consistency with the rest of the site. You don't see those colors in any of the other, non-list content areas (front page, links, wiki, etc.) so there's a bit of a disconnect. It's not quite the color of the site header either, so that adds to the effect.

Yeah, I agree on all those levels regarding the dark color scheme of the lists and was thinking the same things (doesn't match the other areas) as well last night. Unless the rest of the site is getting modified on this level, which I don't believe is the case, I'd rather see the light color scheme back in place.

Dave mentioned to me he liked some of Shadow Wolf's comments regarding the screenshots, and I agreed that the games list looks too cold as well. The headshots of the various composers is a good example of how another area was spiced up, so it makes sense to bring back the screenshots as descriptors for the games as well, which also looks more consistent overall.

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Like the addition of screenshots for remixes (I only saw it when checking a remixer profile but I like it nonetheless). Lovely.

That's new, and based directly on user feedback. Hopefully the bandwidth impact won't be prohibitive. On the main mix list and on search results, instead of putting an ad banner on the far right, I've embedded it into the actual list, so that it only takes up vertical space, not horizontal. This makes a lot of sense to me and makes the lists more usable at 1024x768, imo.

I think I agree w/ Dhsu on column headings and left alignment. I'll look into that.

I can try to match up the colors a bit better, but... I'm really preferring the light text/dark bg for data tables. These guys present a lot of info, and I feel like the contrast with the rest of the site lets me focus on JUST the table...

Some other improvements - enough so that I may do an announcement once I stabilize minor tweaks based on feedback:

  • Quick search for games now lets you search for games by composer
  • Quick search for mixes now lets you search for mixes by composer AND ReMixer
  • Both types of quick search now also search against game alias. This field hasn't been fully populated, but would allow for shorthand searches e.g. "ff7"

Pretty much.

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Darker tones are a bit easier on the eyes, but the contrast between them and the rest of the site is a little too strong. Darkening the whole site is a lot of work, so I suggest not putting white on dark and instead going for something a bit more in tune with the rest. Unless you're gonna change that as well.

I like the changes I've noticed, but I don't browse that often, so I dunno which ones are new.

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OK, this looks AWESOME:

GamesList.jpg

My only question is, why do I get the pictures there if, for instance, I search for a remixer and click his name to see his mixes, but when I click a letter at the top of the page to browse the mixes, I still get this?:

BrowseList.jpg

If I actually click the title of a game to view mixes for it, I'll get a screen next to each mix, but no screen for the game title in the lists. In other words, it looks like the screenies are implemented on the remix listing level, but not on the game listing level. It'd be helpful to have them there as well. And pretty.

In other news, while gathering screenies for this post, I found what would seem to be a sort tag problem in the FF7 remixes:

Whoopscopy.jpg

OK I'm done with my image heavy bitching now. Thanks Dave!

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I don't see any screenshots... plus, when browsing, the tabs are gone! You used to be able to switch from browsing remixes to remixers to games... and now you can't. And I'm not seeing any screenshots.

EDIT: Oh, it's only when looking at a specific remixer. I hope this feature will be extended to cover everything, and that whatever complaints I have about the new... uh, design, is the result of the design not being finished yet. That is, the tabs, the colors, the pictures only showing when browsing a certain remixer... Feels like it's been a long time since you were able to browse games with their screenshots next to their names, like it was when I first came here in 2002. Those were the days.

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That Raptor/FF7 song association is legit; check the writeup for the mix.

ReMixes DO have screenshots, games do not... this is logistical, based on a desire for game listings to be lighter, take up less vertical space, etc. - that won't change, as it allows for much more extensibility.

The alpha listings haven't showed mixes in a long time, just games, so they too won't have screens. Instead of tabs for mixers and composers, those are now displayed right on the same alpha page, to the right.

Things ARE in flux at the moment, as I make some tweaks, but the decision to have lightweight (i.e. no screenshots or icons) listings for games won't change.

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Well, the writeup mentioned absolutely nothing about FF7, but it was a source in the judge's decision, and listening to the mix, I can kinda hear it. Enough to let you off the hook anyways. You're a lucky man tonight David Lloyd. A very lucky man.

Anyhow, I understand how it's more extensible to leave the screenies off the game listings. I just loves mah screenies, I've been here so long I can see a screen pop up on the front page and I know what the game is before reading the title. Granted that's probably because most of the screens ARE the title.

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That Raptor/FF7 song association is legit; check the writeup for the mix.

ReMixes DO have screenshots, games do not... this is logistical, based on a desire for game listings to be lighter, take up less vertical space, etc. - that won't change, as it allows for much more extensibility.

The alpha listings haven't showed mixes in a long time, just games, so they too won't have screens. Instead of tabs for mixers and composers, those are now displayed right on the same alpha page, to the right.

Things ARE in flux at the moment, as I make some tweaks, but the decision to have lightweight (i.e. no screenshots or icons) listings for games won't change.

Ok. The K page looks pretty funny now as there are lots more composers than there are games though.

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I thought everyone disliked them. I know I do, and I said so before, too.

Everyone? Maybe four people or so... I'm reluctant to call that everyone. Dhsu thinks the colors could be fixed and it could work, and I agree that they don't match up 100% with the header, for instance, so I think I'll take a stab at fixing them, then maybe run a poll to see who prefers what after they're fixed.

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