What makes a good site?

***Heroine of the Dragon*** · 05-10-2005, 11:40 PM

Other than content... up-to-date content?

Do you like flashy - moving - shiny things on sites? Or do they get old really fast and bore you?

How much colour do you think a site should have when imparting information?

Is coloured font distracting from the message?

Should each page have some form of graphics or buttons, or something that's not words? Should some of these be animated?

Just curious for your opinions... so post away please!!!

DELICIOUS POISON · 05-11-2005, 01:06 AM

A reason to come back. If it's just an info page, dependability is nice. If there isn't much content, make as much as possible accessible from the front page. Things don't have to move too attract attention, don't insult your audience. Anything that repeats too frequently is nerve racking. And please remember to either set both the background and text to default colors, or the background and text to specific colors. Some idiot always manages to set the background to default, but the text to black. And I commonly use a black or dark background. That doesn't work. Other than that.. just prove that you can be dependable. People will come back.

***Ace Mercury*** · 05-11-2005, 10:46 AM

I like a simple, elegant, unique design that's easy to navigate in. I'd like to be able to go where I want in two mouse clicks or less. So, a nav bar along the side or at the top or bottom is cool, if it doesn't take up an inordinate amount of space.

Too many animated things are distracting and personally I don't like them on the screen. Especially stuff that moves on it's own for no reason. Animated backgrounds are stupid beyond all reason; the blink tag is an HTML joke.

Colour is nice, but I don't want white text on a pure red background or some ridiculous setup like that. With text, I want easy readibility with reasonable contrast; I prefer a non-dark text colour on a dark background (e.g. white text on black background) or contrasting colours neither of which are bright. If it's just graphics I'm looking at (an art gallery or something), whatever is aesthetically pleasing. In terms of site design, I don't think a site should have more than six different colours as part of framework. VGF for example has that lime-green, blue, black, light blue, which seems to work pretty well.

As for content... yeah, frequently updated is the way to go. Constant and regular updates is most important in my books; I don't check websites that don't update as per a schedule every day in hopes that the webmaster/webmistress updates.

Super_Mario_1987 · 05-11-2005, 01:17 PM

Stuff that keeps my attention like flashy fun sweet stuff.

Swordmaster Link · 05-11-2005, 02:00 PM

Do you like flashy - moving - shiny things on sites? Or do they get old really fast and bore you?

~ They're nice I guess, but I don't need those to enjoy the site.

How much colour do you think a site should have when imparting information?

~ Really doesn't matter. As long as I know where to go

Is coloured font distracting from the message?

~ Unless they're really ridiculous colors that I have to strain myself to read. It usually isn't that bad, though.

Should each page have some form of graphics or buttons, or something that's not words? Should some of these be animated?

~ It definitely helps. I like the different templates here cause you get a certain vibe from them.

Jonathan Resop · 05-11-2005, 05:57 PM

Porno. Lots and lots of porno...

Er...

(Runs)

-jay

DELICIOUS POISON · 05-11-2005, 07:01 PM

What the heck are you doing at VGF then, Jay?

Super_Mario_1987 · 05-12-2005, 03:57 PM

[img]graemlins/lol.gif[/img] Jay and porno sites... jeez.

Shane Sacobie · 05-13-2005, 03:24 PM

Donezdude · 05-13-2005, 07:50 PM

Everything here.

Glyph Phoenix · 05-14-2005, 12:30 AM

Holy crap, Donezdude. I was just about to link to that. No, really. I even checked to see which number email it was. Anyway...

One of the most important things is content, of course. And that's directly related to how much you update, how often, and who contributes. The more time you spend on a site, the better it gets. This isn't just a practice thing, either... you could be an excellent webmaster, but without content no one is going to come to the site. And just updating steadily for a long time is really the only good way to get content.

thunt · 05-14-2005, 06:42 AM

Guess Jay fails then.

***Heroine of the Dragon*** · 05-17-2005, 07:29 AM

I am amused... and thank those who gave me feedback!! I will put it to good use. *gives everyone marshmallows dipped in chocolate*

***Saria Dragon of the Rain Wilds*** · 05-21-2005, 11:06 PM

Other than content... up-to-date content?
Can't really stress enough how important being up to date on news and info truly is.

Do you like flashy - moving - shiny things on sites? Or do they get old really fast and bore you?
I just like flashy-moving-SHINIES in general. I'm likely to play with buttons and the like if they do stuff when you hover the mouse

How much colour do you think a site should have when imparting information?
Just enough, and for the love of everything NOT RED AND BLUE x__x Coordinating colours, please people.

Is coloured font distracting from the message?
As long as it's easy to read, I don't believe so. I enjoy a good colour scheme.

Should each page have some form of graphics or buttons, or something that's not words? Should some of these be animated?
Little pictures are good stuff, and you can seriously go mad with Flash sites. Of course, anything big takes way too long to load for me, but if I had some sweet DSL, I'd be happy with a lot of graphics.

Just making sure the information is correct and worded interestingly is usually a good way to go. I've been to sites that the person's obviously just had a thesaurus binge, and that's not really... good. The words don't always have the same definition as they were looking for. Then we get to point and laugh <__<

LinkManDX · 05-22-2005, 03:59 PM

Here comes the obvious answer: MAKE SURE ITS FREAKIN' COMPATABLE WITH FIREFOX!!

Anyway, having somewhat of a knowledge here, I will give you what I think.

First, try to cut down on the animated GIFs. They get annoying after a while. And do not, and I mean do NOT use frames. They are obsolete, and browsers will, eventually, be NOT compatable with them.

Second, Color is VERY important. use contrasting colors with backs and text colors. Also, the use of content table colors is very useful, and it can be used well.

I hope you, HotD, and whoever uses my awesome knowledge, gets a little out of my useless rant.

DELICIOUS POISON · 05-22-2005, 05:36 PM

Many people use frames. It's laughable to suggest that browsers would be incompatible. Legacy coding is important, even if they were out of use.

05-13-2005, 03:24 PM	#9
Shane Sacobie Banned Join Date: Dec 1969 Posts: 0 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Points: 12,414.00 Bank: 500.00 Total Points: 12,914.00 Donate	Me.

05-10-2005, 11:40 PM	#1
*Heroine of the Dragon* The Grinnie Fool! ♥ VGFCodes Staff Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: In a pretty place surrounded by sparkly faerie dust!! Gender: Posts: 28,169 Thanks: 328 Thanked 409 Times in 313 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 128,090.07 Bank: 6,132,821.90 Total Points: 6,260,911.96 Donate	Other than content... up-to-date content? Do you like flashy - moving - shiny things on sites? Or do they get old really fast and bore you? How much colour do you think a site should have when imparting information? Is coloured font distracting from the message? Should each page have some form of graphics or buttons, or something that's not words? Should some of these be animated? Just curious for your opinions... so post away please!!!

05-11-2005, 01:06 AM	#2
DELICIOUS POISON Retro Nintendo Supermod Art & Literature Mod Metroid Mod Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 17,031 Thanks: 585 Thanked 1,841 Times in 902 Posts Points: 748.57 Bank: 5,372,520.80 Total Points: 5,373,269.37 Donate	A reason to come back. If it's just an info page, dependability is nice. If there isn't much content, make as much as possible accessible from the front page. Things don't have to move too attract attention, don't insult your audience. Anything that repeats too frequently is nerve racking. And please remember to either set both the background and text to default colors, or the background and text to specific colors. Some idiot always manages to set the background to default, but the text to black. And I commonly use a black or dark background. That doesn't work. Other than that.. just prove that you can be dependable. People will come back.

05-11-2005, 10:46 AM	#3
*Ace Mercury* Marshmallow Knight ☆ Supermod Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Southern Ontario Gender: Posts: 19,213 Thanks: 383 Thanked 1,700 Times in 849 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 117,879.72 Bank: 35,550,204.28 Total Points: 35,668,084.00 Donate	I like a simple, elegant, unique design that's easy to navigate in. I'd like to be able to go where I want in two mouse clicks or less. So, a nav bar along the side or at the top or bottom is cool, if it doesn't take up an inordinate amount of space. Too many animated things are distracting and personally I don't like them on the screen. Especially stuff that moves on it's own for no reason. Animated backgrounds are stupid beyond all reason; the blink tag is an HTML joke. Colour is nice, but I don't want white text on a pure red background or some ridiculous setup like that. With text, I want easy readibility with reasonable contrast; I prefer a non-dark text colour on a dark background (e.g. white text on black background) or contrasting colours neither of which are bright. If it's just graphics I'm looking at (an art gallery or something), whatever is aesthetically pleasing. In terms of site design, I don't think a site should have more than six different colours as part of framework. VGF for example has that lime-green, blue, black, light blue, which seems to work pretty well. As for content... yeah, frequently updated is the way to go. Constant and regular updates is most important in my books; I don't check websites that don't update as per a schedule every day in hopes that the webmaster/webmistress updates.

05-11-2005, 01:17 PM	#4
Super_Mario_1987 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Iowa Gender: Posts: 6,560 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Points: 7,425.04 Bank: 500.00 Total Points: 7,925.04 Donate	Stuff that keeps my attention like flashy fun sweet stuff.

05-11-2005, 02:00 PM	#5
Swordmaster Link Super Bodyguard & King of the Arcade Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Wherever you want me to be Gender: Posts: 31,202 Thanks: 232 Thanked 803 Times in 565 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 182.58 Bank: 3,146,152.78 Total Points: 3,146,335.36 Donate	Do you like flashy - moving - shiny things on sites? Or do they get old really fast and bore you? ~ They're nice I guess, but I don't need those to enjoy the site. How much colour do you think a site should have when imparting information? ~ Really doesn't matter. As long as I know where to go Is coloured font distracting from the message? ~ Unless they're really ridiculous colors that I have to strain myself to read. It usually isn't that bad, though. Should each page have some form of graphics or buttons, or something that's not words? Should some of these be animated? ~ It definitely helps. I like the different templates here cause you get a certain vibe from them.

05-11-2005, 05:57 PM	#6
Jonathan Resop Banned Join Date: Dec 1969 Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Points: 38,256.00 Bank: 500.00 Total Points: 38,756.00 Donate	Porno. Lots and lots of porno... Er... (Runs) -jay

05-11-2005, 07:01 PM	#7
DELICIOUS POISON Retro Nintendo Supermod Art & Literature Mod Metroid Mod Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 17,031 Thanks: 585 Thanked 1,841 Times in 902 Posts Points: 748.57 Bank: 5,372,520.80 Total Points: 5,373,269.37 Donate	What the heck are you doing at VGF then, Jay?

05-12-2005, 03:57 PM	#8
Super_Mario_1987 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Iowa Gender: Posts: 6,560 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Points: 7,425.04 Bank: 500.00 Total Points: 7,925.04 Donate	[img]graemlins/lol.gif[/img] Jay and porno sites... jeez.

05-13-2005, 07:50 PM	#10
Donezdude Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: The Starbucks across the street from the Starbucks Posts: 304 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Points: 3,346.00 Bank: 500.00 Total Points: 3,846.00 Donate	Everything here.

05-14-2005, 12:30 AM	#11
Glyph Phoenix Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Gender: Posts: 1,774 Thanks: 2 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Points: 7,393.00 Bank: 500.00 Total Points: 7,893.00 Donate	Holy crap, Donezdude. I was just about to link to that. No, really. I even checked to see which number email it was. Anyway... One of the most important things is content, of course. And that's directly related to how much you update, how often, and who contributes. The more time you spend on a site, the better it gets. This isn't just a practice thing, either... you could be an excellent webmaster, but without content no one is going to come to the site. And just updating steadily for a long time is really the only good way to get content.

05-14-2005, 06:42 AM	#12
thunt Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: MY MOTHER WAS A SAINT!!! :punch: Gender: Posts: 1,117 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Points: 4,767.00 Bank: 500.00 Total Points: 5,267.00 Donate	Guess Jay fails then.

05-17-2005, 07:29 AM	#13
*Heroine of the Dragon* The Grinnie Fool! ♥ VGFCodes Staff Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: In a pretty place surrounded by sparkly faerie dust!! Gender: Posts: 28,169 Thanks: 328 Thanked 409 Times in 313 Posts Blog Entries: 1 Points: 128,090.07 Bank: 6,132,821.90 Total Points: 6,260,911.96 Donate	I am amused... and thank those who gave me feedback!! I will put it to good use. gives everyone marshmallows dipped in chocolate

05-21-2005, 11:06 PM	#14
*Saria Dragon of the Rain Wilds* Admin "mine.. not yours. NO. MINE." Epic Ladynerd Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Forteresse de Valois Gender: Posts: 24,360 Thanks: 504 Thanked 724 Times in 462 Posts Points: 31,716.84 Bank: 433,535.47 Total Points: 465,252.32 Donate	Other than content... up-to-date content? Can't really stress enough how important being up to date on news and info truly is. Do you like flashy - moving - shiny things on sites? Or do they get old really fast and bore you? I just like flashy-moving-SHINIES in general. I'm likely to play with buttons and the like if they do stuff when you hover the mouse How much colour do you think a site should have when imparting information? Just enough, and for the love of everything NOT RED AND BLUE x__x Coordinating colours, please people. Is coloured font distracting from the message? As long as it's easy to read, I don't believe so. I enjoy a good colour scheme. Should each page have some form of graphics or buttons, or something that's not words? Should some of these be animated? Little pictures are good stuff, and you can seriously go mad with Flash sites. Of course, anything big takes way too long to load for me, but if I had some sweet DSL, I'd be happy with a lot of graphics. Just making sure the information is correct and worded interestingly is usually a good way to go. I've been to sites that the person's obviously just had a thesaurus binge, and that's not really... good. The words don't always have the same definition as they were looking for. Then we get to point and laugh <__<

05-22-2005, 03:59 PM	#15
LinkManDX Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Some call it slums, some call it nice! Gender: Posts: 3,456 Thanks: 279 Thanked 230 Times in 141 Posts Points: 23,267.84 Bank: 11,925.13 Total Points: 35,192.97 Donate	Here comes the obvious answer: MAKE SURE ITS FREAKIN' COMPATABLE WITH FIREFOX!! Anyway, having somewhat of a knowledge here, I will give you what I think. First, try to cut down on the animated GIFs. They get annoying after a while. And do not, and I mean do NOT use frames. They are obsolete, and browsers will, eventually, be NOT compatable with them. Second, Color is VERY important. use contrasting colors with backs and text colors. Also, the use of content table colors is very useful, and it can be used well. I hope you, HotD, and whoever uses my awesome knowledge, gets a little out of my useless rant.

05-22-2005, 05:36 PM	#16
DELICIOUS POISON Retro Nintendo Supermod Art & Literature Mod Metroid Mod Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 17,031 Thanks: 585 Thanked 1,841 Times in 902 Posts Points: 748.57 Bank: 5,372,520.80 Total Points: 5,373,269.37 Donate	Many people use frames. It's laughable to suggest that browsers would be incompatible. Legacy coding is important, even if they were out of use.