Yeah, well, I'm back

[krainert]

I just realized how much I suck at visual web design.

Here's my current site:
http://www.ovrkll.com/
Not too good; looks like shit and is impossible to find anything useful on.

Here's a new version:
http://www.ovrkll.com/private/v3/

And here's another possibility:
http://www.ovrkll.com/private/v3_2/

Now I'm stuck. Should I go with the stretching top or the boxed version? Any suggestions? Or, even better, any suggestions on how to build the layout from scratch? The only thing I want to maintain is the "big-small-small-small-DOWNLOAD!" blocks as they pretty much contain everything I need for each map in a confined space which I like. Everything else is meh.

Thanks.

[zombie@computer]

heh, i kindof liked the original version. Then again, im very fond of menus and submenus

[Surfa]

I like v3_2 the most but I would remove the gradient from the menu bar (I have a personal hatred for gradients).

Also the green on the download bar is a bit bright. Also maybe widen the main content box a bit. Looks a bit small on 1920x1200.

[krainert]

Thanks for the replies
Ok, things to do:

1) Moderate download button brightness
2) Consider alternatives for gradient

Yes, I'm a huge fan of organization, hierarchies, tree views etc. myself, but they just complicated visitors' path from start to content - the new layouts display all relevant information from page one and even offers direct download links.

Oh, yeah, as always, width is tricky. I'm trying to build something that will fit on most monitors, and on my 22" 1680x1050 the current width of 768 can just exactly fit in a browser window filling out the left half of the screen - which, I find, is as perfect as perfect gets in terms of scrolling website widths.

Anything else? There's got to be tons of things I can do better.

EDIT:

Here's another possible layout:
http://www.ovrkll.com/private/v3_3/

I pretty much just removed the content background and separating lines. What do you think?

[KILLA-COW]

I think you should make it look like this;



Then when you have more maps you could have little arrows to the right and left and it could like scroll across.

[Pilz]

I think you should make it look like this;



Then when you have more maps you could have little arrows to the right and left and it could like scroll across.

The cow has spoken wisely.

[krainert]

Looks awesome, but I don't really think that style is suited for mapping portfolios... I mean, one slim image hardly represents a full map.
Oh, and I'd like to keep the dark header based top as a recognizable feature with my logo of somewhat awesomeness.

[KILLA-COW]

Looks awesome, but I don't really think that style is suited for mapping portfolios... I mean, one slim image hardly represents a full map.
Oh, and I'd like to keep the dark header based top as a recognizable feature with my logo of somewhat awesomeness.

No but they'd be hyperlinks to pages with more informations and screenshots, such that you click the one you want to look at and it links to a page with more detail, so the main page is sleek and uncluttered and not too information heavy. I dunno man I'm not a web designer, I just made what I think would look good as a portfolio.

[BlekksPoncho]

Looks awesome, but I don't really think that style is suited for mapping portfolios... I mean, one slim image hardly represents a full map.
Oh, and I'd like to keep the dark header based top as a recognizable feature with my logo of somewhat awesomeness.

The one slim image is the title image of the map, then when you click on it, it will take you to a page dedicated to that particular map with screenshots, video etc.

And I'm sorry but I'm not a fan of your logo, to much outer glow reminescent of everyone's first text manipulation attempts in something like photoshop. Sorry but it just looks really amateur. I much prefer killa's version.

As for your versions, they are all fine as portfolio designs but they lack any unique, discernable qualities. I also hate the silver gradient navigation bar, that's very amateurish.

I would go more along the lines of killa's idea, it means the first time a person sees your website, it will stand out and first impressions are everything. It needs to be clean, clear but also unique. Killa's design has that but yours do not as of yet.

[krainert]

Ok, I see what you mean. Experience has taught me that content should be as few clicks away as possible, but you're right: My layout is messy-clumsy-"clustery". And about the whole dark-with-bright-omg-pretty-lights logo thing, you're probably right as well; I might just get rid of the logo and merely keep the icon for gaming and favicon (that little 16x16 icon for a site being the HL2 logo in the case of Interlopers.net). I really like the columns, but one thing bothers me: How could I handle more than three or perhaps four sites? At present, I have three serious maps to show, but that will soon be four, and I really want a nostalgic one in as well (just for the sake of perspective - and plain fun)... And, well, then I'll remake a map, start mapping some new ones, and all of a sudden I have at least eight maps for presentation. My site really needs to be suited for that. So, what I'm asking is any thoughts on expansion of the columns concept?

[KILLA-COW]

Ok, I see what you mean. Experience has taught me that content should be as few clicks away as possible, but you're right: My layout is messy-clumsy-"clustery". And about the whole dark-with-bright-omg-pretty-lights logo thing, you're probably right as well; I might just get rid of the logo and merely keep the icon for gaming and favicon (that little 16x16 icon for a site being the HL2 logo in the case of Interlopers.net). I really like the columns, but one thing bothers me: How could I handle more than three or perhaps four sites? At present, I have three serious maps to show, but that will soon be four, and I really want a nostalgic one in as well (just for the sake of perspective - and plain fun)... And, well, then I'll remake a map, start mapping some new ones, and all of a sudden I have at least eight maps for presentation. My site really needs to be suited for that. So, what I'm asking is any thoughts on expansion of the columns concept?

I said about that, have little arrows to the right and left that when you click it scrolls across to the next split.

[krainert]

Yeah, I see. However, I think that's a rather... Unsophisticated approach; I'd rather have visual references to all maps on the index page. Thanks, though.

[KILLA-COW]

With a bit of editing and horizontally you could use something like http://www.dyn-web.com/code/scroll/images.php

Like I said I'm not a webdesigner I just made what I'd like if I were making/looking at a portfolio.

EDIT: http://www.dyn-web.com/code/scroll/horiz.php

[krainert]

Frankly, that gives me an idea... I shall return!

[BlekksPoncho]

Thanks for taking the criticism so well as it wasn't meant to be intended as insulting and quite a lot of people could take it that way. I do really like the logo you have as your avatar so yeah keep that, but the font and glow of the title bar isn't all too good.

As for killa's suggestion; I would do something exactly like that, I was going to suggest jquery as an easy api for making it but that one posted seemed well enough (don't really have time to look at it atm though).

Maybe try it with horizontal slim images then going down the page, that way you can have as many as you like, albeit it wouldn't be as nice as killa's suggestion. Maybe have a slider bar at the top with thumbnails of all the maps so users can see a small version of it, then slide to where it is to then go onto the page, it will look and feel really nice, but it isn't as good practicality-wise, just a suggestion.

Here is an interpretation of what I mean (Sorry, photoshop is on my windows7 and im on vista atm so Paint had to make do):