The new design...

[VulgarDaClown]

I know you all think I "owe" it to you in some way or another, or that I should have to prove myself to you. You are, however, sorely mistaken. The only person(s) I would have to prove anything to would be the owner(s) of this website, should they be interested in my services. Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not going to get in an online pissing match

so far the only people who have posted in this thread are the devs and admins and you, so by "owners" who do you mean as they are both here, as are their staff. also, im just razzing you on the 1996 thing. honestly i agree with the toolbar thing. i actually made one using conduit but not many ppl used it so i stopped updating, i might go e-do it though if time permits.

[MyLittlePwny]

Sorry it took me so long to get back, I've been fighting off (and still am) a nice case of strep these past few days. Suffices to say that I'm not in the best state of mind to be delving into specifics. I will say, however, on the matter of the toolbar: your navigation should be your #2 item of the whole website. The #1? Your logo, obviously. That's what helms the whole thing. That should be the most prominent thing that catches the user's eye first and foremost, and is what will stick in their mind later when they think back on it. The navigation is #2, and should be located and arranged as such that it "flows" from the logo, and "leads" to the corresponding content. Having half user nav / half site nav, in two separate places, jumbled together and not logistically placed anywhere special, doesn't promote a sense of balance and order. And when you have as much going on as this website does (which in itself is a good thing), it can be a REAL disaster.

[VulgarDaClown]

ok, since you dont want to show us your past work, why not do some mock ups of how you would bring this site into at least 2001 instead of 1996? so we can get an idea of where you are coming from, that would be very helpful.

[adam zombie]

I agree the menus need some convergence and also some other pages could be combined to place settings / features in one location. Instead of separate pages to navigate to and from.

Logo is fine how it is imo, look at most branding on popular, well developed sites and you will notice their logo has taken a back seat to other functions and site presence. Having an in your face, bigger then life logo, is what was done in 1996..

Going back to the OP first post, the tech behind this site can be found here, http://pwned.com/technology/.

Softer edges, maybe some translucent glass effects for the pages, better organization for navigation.
Unbalanced isn't the word I would of choose as far as the features, content and overall layout that you keep hinting as having issues. I believe from my design perspective this site feels Sterile and needs more content and functions brought to the home page for user interactions and also on other pages that suffer from this term I use, Sterile. Ease of use for adding content to the users profile along with a greater selection of profile designs and better integration of the forums to the main site, particularly messaging. It is the only thing I miss from the old site. new one is borked and I don't like using phpBB for PMs.

BUT a lot of this sites features and functions are determined by the users interaction and input. Glogs need to be fixed and brought back online so the game pages are not so barren and lifeless, Sterile. I suppose that is what happens when you choose white as a main color. But on a good side of that, everything is easy to read

[MyLittlePwny]

ok, since you dont want to show us your past work, why not do some mock ups of how you would bring this site into at least 2001 instead of 1996? so we can get an idea of where you are coming from, that would be very helpful.

Unfortunately, I don't have a whole heap of spare time for "just for fun" work. Although if I do find a few spare hours, I would like to do something like that, if for nothing else just to have another good design example for my portfolio.

[MyLittlePwny]

I agree the menus need some convergence and also some other pages could be combined to place settings / features in one location. Instead of separate pages to navigate to and from.

Logo is fine how it is imo, look at most branding on popular, well developed sites and you will notice their logo has taken a back seat to other functions and site presence. Having an in your face, bigger then life logo, is what was done in 1996..

Going back to the OP first post, the tech behind this site can be found here, http://pwned.com/technology/.

Softer edges, maybe some translucent glass effects for the pages, better organization for navigation.
Unbalanced isn't the word I would of choose as far as the features, content and overall layout that you keep hinting as having issues. I believe from my design perspective this site feels Sterile and needs more content and functions brought to the home page for user interactions and also on other pages that suffer from this term I use, Sterile. Ease of use for adding content to the users profile along with a greater selection of profile designs and better integration of the forums to the main site, particularly messaging. It is the only thing I miss from the old site. new one is borked and I don't like using phpBB for PMs.

BUT a lot of this sites features and functions are determined by the users interaction and input. Glogs need to be fixed and brought back online so the game pages are not so barren and lifeless, Sterile. I suppose that is what happens when you choose white as a main color. But on a good side of that, everything is easy to read

As far as the logo goes, you're completely wrong. The logo on those websites may SEEM to have "taken a backseat," but they all follow a specific set of guidelines that all designers know to abide by in order to keep the logo memorable and significant. Just a few of those guidelines:

- The simpler, the better (and more memorable)
- No more than 2 or 3 colors, unless it's tastefully and purposefully done (i.e. a color-wheel or flower or something).
- Easy to read text
- Works at both very, very small, and very, very large sizes.
- Looks just as good in black & white as it does in color

The logo for this website follows most of those rules, but has a few design faux-pas. Namely, the big white "P" in the icon clashes with the white lettering of the actual name next to it. In that sense, it's almost a bit TOO simple. It could stand to have a bit more flare to it. Also... why would there be a scope on the letter "P"? Makes no sense. Just because it's the first letter in the website name? I think there could be something much better done with it. But the logo itself isn't a huge issue with this design.

Mainly, the confluence of the site is the biggest issue I see. There are so many colors, different size texts, randomly placed items, off-margin elements, etc. All the content is there, but it's "too much" there, if that makes any sense. It's like someone took the clothes out of the dryer and just dumped them on the floor: sure, everything's there and you can find everything you need eventually, but it'd make things much easier if they were folded and/or hung up properly, and you'd get better results out of them as well. Get what I'm saying?

[MyLittlePwny]

Just for fun, since I had a spare 15 minutes, I mocked up this logo: http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i34/b ... pwned_.png

Just as simple as the current logo (if not more so), completely scaleable (within reason, of course), and adds a bit more character to the logo; makes it feel "alive."

If you look at every major website, the logo may not seem like much work was put into it, but I can assure you a lot of time, planning, and consideration went into whittling it down to the current logo. Ask any graphic designer, they'll be glad to fill you in on how logo creation works

Also, the "a society of gamers" tag-line is pretty redundant and a bit boring (not to be harsh). Tag-line/slogans should do one or both of two things: be interesting and memorable, and/or compliment the logo (ie. explain what the website is about, in a nutshell). While the current tag-line does the second part very well, it also does so very blandly. Maybe some play on being pwned in a game/standing still too long (a la Halo, Call of Duty, etc.)? Relating that to the web somehow? Being creative like that pays off quite a bit. If you come here and see "A Society of Gamers," you're not going to remember that a day or two later (unless you're already a member). If you see something that kind of made you chuckle, or sounded very creative/funny/clever, it's going to stick in your brain, and it's going to bode well for your impression of the website right off the jump.

It sounds complex, I know, but if you go to the offices of any very successful website, this is the kind of stuff they brainstorm and have meetings about. I should know, I've been in the industry for quite a while. And while it may not seem like very important stuff to some of you, it really is in the grand scheme of things.

In any case, I'll give a quick design mock-up a try soon as I nail down some free time when I'm not completely exhaused.

Cheers.

[VulgarDaClown]

i agree with the slogan/tag-line thing. but i rather like our logo. and yes andy, we need our old pm system, or a new one implemented, and glogs back. i do agree our nav system needs kinda streamlined too. i hope you find time for a mock-up soon, im looking forward to seeing it.

[SnappyDude]

speaking of glogs it think maybe throwing a notice on the feed when a user makes a glog or forum thread, with a link to said glog or thread would be a great way to promote those areas wince the first thing you see is your feed.

[pwned (mod-ular)]

The reason we still have the tagline is so people know what the site is, and they associate the logo with a gaming community. We're not HUGE, so we do need some help in keeping it memorable.