Monkey website design suggestion
Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Discussion/Monkey website design suggestion
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| Hi everyone, Initially I planned to do this design for the site of Russian speaking Monkey community. But after I completed the first drafts, I decided to show it to you. I think it would be nice if the official website looked like this. What do you think about it? This is a WIP, I will periodically update this topic. Critique, suggestions and comments are welcome. Thank you! WIP mockups: Home page: http://imgur.com/g74KF About page: http://imgur.com/sCOpV Store page: http://imgur.com/HCozp Docs pages: http://imgur.com/SDBLkVs http://imgur.com/GrNc75u http://imgur.com/nECpEnN Forum: http://imgur.com/rOvWvzw |
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| This looks pretty good! For new year monkey needs to refresh the web design, maybe lunch it together with new monkey update. Congrats! |
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| That does look pretty good, actually. |
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| That's awesome. I really like it, not just the look of it, but also how information is presented and organized. It feels much more solid that current home-page and provides a much better first impression about what Monkey is. It could potentially translate into more sales. |
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| Nice design looks in good fitting with the current design bit just a bit of slick added :D The new monkey icon is also a nice tweak! |
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| That is certainly MUCH better. The white background probably needs a change, but everything else is very good. I like the concise information. |
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| As someone who has argued in defense of the current site, I have to say: that looks pretty good! |
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| That looks much better! It gives a much more professional look, which would show potential developers how well Monkey is! And I love how you decided to use our game banner on the draft! :D @Mark, I just thought about using Monkey character for our game. This could be a way to let the world know more about this engine. I wonder if we could do that? |
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| That's awesome and way better (meaning better organized, better aesthetically (more appealing and attractive)) than the current design. MAKE IT SO! :-) |
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| Looks very good! |
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| +1 from me, really like it! |
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| Mark make it happen. If it's a money thing I am sure the monkey community could throw a Euro or two into a fund? After all fan/community funded projects are all the rage at the moment. |
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| I like this a lot more than the current one. But I also think the brown borders just get in the way: No brown borders (the colors and font of the nav should be changed to match the rest of course) PS: Looking at it again, my version now seems too cold and unfriendly. Maybe changing the bg-color to something warmer? |
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| Thank you, guys! I will keep on working on it. @Origaming thanks for nice banner :) @Shinkiro1 interesting idea. Looks pretty good! I will try to use it. Thanks! |
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| I dunno, I like the brown bars.. it makes the site look LARGE and quite strong/mighty! It also helps focus your brain on the content area. |
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| Love Shinkiro's, but change the white background to the light tan behind the forum posts and it would be perfect. This really needs to happen. Mark, please take this free design device into consideration. We want to see Monkey get more traction. |
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| Looks great! |
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| Excellent! |
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| I think it's cool, but I need to tell something about my experience with Monkey. I buy it early because of BlitzMax and discover over the years that Monkey wasn't really fulfilling the same goal. Which is OK but by my "standard", it's not really a game engine, it wasn't advertised like that before and I think you should avoid to do such thing. Some people like me will desperately wait that Monkey (or should I say Mojo) support features X and because I now understand how's working BRL, this will never happen! Focus more on the qualities of the language rather than what it is capable with Mojo. Cause it's an excellent language for developers loving to write everything by themselves but not interesting for some games developers. Now that's just my advice. But if you don't mind catching the wrong target and dealing with tons of annoying customers, then compare it to a game solution. Now that's just my 2 cents cause Monkey isn't expensive anymore. Feel free to avoid my advice but that's exactly how I feel currently : puzzled in a fanboyism crowd. I, most of the time, don't even understand 50% of Monkey updates Log and don't feel very concerned by those incredible *stuff*. To compare my feeling, it's like buying "Torque 2D", "Construct 2" or "GameMaker Studio" advertised as a "Game maker on steroid with Built-in Angry-Bird engine" and discover the outdated and poor integration of the physic engine. It will work for a moment, but not forever... |
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| The new versions of mockups. I took into account all your wishes and used a hint from @Shinkiro1. Now I need your help. I have three versions, and I need to know which one is better. I would be glad to get any feedback. Thank you! Version #1: http://imgur.com/WIABm Version #2: http://imgur.com/GSzXR Version #3: http://imgur.com/InkFy P.S. Simon and Mark contacted me. This design may become an official one |
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| The second one. This design may become an official one That would be really cool. |
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| First or second. I am tending a little bit more to the 1st one. |
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| Second one for me :) Great work! |
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| #2 IMHO |
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| #1 or #3 |
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| #2 |
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| #2 |
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| #1 |
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| Can't really tell the difference! Is #2 a little darker? I think I prefer that. |
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| 1 |
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| #2 Really love this. BTW: Would it be ok when I consider this for the German Monkey site? |
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| #2 I think the slightly lighter background (compared to #1) makes the text more readable and I don't like the no-border look of #3. |
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| #2 :) |
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| #2 looks good but perhaps it can be choice of user like current Monkey site? |
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| 2nd one plz |
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| #2 for me |
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| #2 ;o) |
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| Thanks for voting! #2 - is a clear favorite, I will continue to work on it. Also, I can make the mockup #1 as a sub-theme. @Xaron yes, of course! After I finish the design and make html files I can send them to you. |
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| Awesome site, #2 for me too! |
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| Any updates on this awesome new redesign? I have been a very good monkey this year and a site redesign is just the gift I deserve. |
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| Hi! Currently I'm preparing for Ludum Dare. After LD I'll return to work on it. Approximately at the end of the next week I'll post new mockups. Sorry for delay. |
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| devolonter, thanks, that would be awesome! :) |
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| Now this looks sweet are you coding the front slider with monkey by any chance ?? |
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| I finally went back to work on the design. And now I can demonstrate the final version of the home page. I added/changed icons, menu, and added two blocks - the latest news and new Monkey application. Please let me know what you think about this? http://imgur.com/uFFWW @Taiphoz Thanks! No, I'll use jQuery |
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| That version is great. Good job devolonter. There is really no reason not to use jQuery. |
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| Very professional look. Great job. |
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| Looks really good. |
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| "About" page draft: http://imgur.com/3V54I I didn't have any idea about inner pages for a long time. I hope now work will go a little bit faster. |
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| Small fixes of previous pages. And new "Store" page mockup - http://imgur.com/HCozp |
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| Really nice design, and have to admit it does help to 'sell' Monkey. (Any idea how to incorporate the forums, though?) |
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| @DruggedBunny Unfortunately, currently I have no idea about it. I tried to make the forum page a week ago, but I did not manage. In the near future I’ll return to the forum design once again. I hope I can find a good solution. |
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| Did you got any response from Mark on this ? this is amazing! |
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| @Rushino Yes, Mark and Simon contacted me. When I’ll finish to work on the design I’ll send html files to them. I plan to do it in early February. |
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| Hey can you send me the HTML files then as well for my german site? :) |
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| Not a design question, but important too: In the last days I often could not access the site, because of any "sql problems"... For me it is essential to have access to the knowledge base when I write new software. Only in this moments I recognize how important this knowledge base is. Therefore I would suggest to rent a second domain and webspace on a third party hoster as a "mirror". The mirror could be without any possibilities of writing new posts. It would be enough to have reading access to old articles. An Update once a week or once a month would be enough. How big is the content of blitzbasic.com and monkeycoder.co.nz? Is this possible? Is this payable? What do you think about the idea? |
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| Money wouldn't be a problem, I even would mirror it on my page. |
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| #2 is perfect! |
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| @Xaron Yes, of course. I remember about you ;) @Midimaster I think it would be good if the BRL sites worked more stable and did not need any mirrors. But if it is not possible then the mirror is a good idea. |
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| Being able to get onto the site when coding is pretty crucial for me also. Has BRL commented on what the issues are? |
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| Main documentation page http://imgur.com/SDBLkVs |
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| wow! |
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| Great work. |
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| Looking great devolonter. Keep up the good work. |
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| #2 |
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| Thank you guys! The new pages are - Inner documentation page http://imgur.com/GrNc75u - Compatibility tables http://imgur.com/nECpEnN Now I'm starting to work on a forum design |
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| Very nice Indeed so I take it you are officially doing this then :))? |
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| @Skn3 Thanks! Yes, it's future official website design :) |
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| Nice work ! I am happy to see that this is gonna be the official future website. |
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| Awesome cant wait to see it live :) |
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| Forum Home page. I hope you like it http://imgur.com/rOvWvzw |
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| I love it! |
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| Looks great!! But Rushino should stop spamming the forum :P |
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| How well will the new design work on tablets and particularly phones? The current website is passable on mobile devices but isn't that great to navigate/read on phones. |
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| @therevills nice joke :) @Beaker yes, I planned to make responsive design. But I didn’t plan to draw it. When I’ll start to make HTML files I will upload WIPs on my server so everyone could test them on different devices |
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| New to Monkey, but great job on the new design! One thing I always hated about Blitz was the forums, and Monkey is the same. I'm wondering are you coding the forums yourself, using a 3rd party forum or simply dressing up the existing forum code in a new shiny skin? Great job again, new design looks sweet! |
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| @rIKmAN Thanks! I just make design and HTML files. Forum's code will stay the same, I think. |
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| Ah that's a shame. For example I was cursing the lack of a subscribe to thread option, and then I somehow saw the teeny tiny "Subscribe" button at the very bottom of each page - great! Well, it was- until I realised that there seems to be no way to view a list of the threads you have subscribed to? I'm just used to more fully featured forums I guess, but it has always amazed me that the Blitz/Monkey websites have been so basic and barebones, yet full of such talented coders. |
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| rIKmAN I have to agree with you 100%, its something I am sure I have commented on a number of times, hell I am sure I brought it up back in the days of Blitz2D and 3D never mind when or after max launched and or monkey. The site as you put it does just the bare minimum to get by, the sad thing is that so many potential customers are put off by this as they simply expect better from a commercial site these days. if I had any say in the matter I would move the whole site over into the WordPress framework, it's simply put one of the , if not the very best web backend for websites like this, thinking of it as simply a blogging tool is a gross underestimation of its capabilities. |
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| Yeah I probably chimed in back then too - I'm new to Monkey but I'm a long time Blitzer, way back to the Amiga and beta testing Blitz2D PC :) It is just frustrating - I sat for 10mins thinking I was being stupid and there HAD to be a way to view a list of my subscribed threads - but sadly not. What if I don't have access to my email for updates one day? I have to remember every thread/post and check them all individually rather than click a link which listed all the threads I had subscribed to, with the last posted/time of post - simple. You could also go crazy and have it auto-subscribe you when you posted in a thread, maybe even with an option to turn this on and off (whoah there!) I also agree about it putting off potential customers, I am new so didn't realise how quiet the forums actually were. I replied to a few threads and made a post or two the other night, and on the main page it looked like I had been spamming as I was the last posted in almost every section, so I then actively held back from posting for a while - silly really when this is the only place for Monkey discussion. |
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| Yeah happens with me a lot, when I come to the forums for help, I tend to post around in more than one topic so my name tends to blurb the recent comments list as well. It bothered me for a bit a while ago but then I thought screw that I wana talk monkey and this is the only place to do it so, who cares if my names in the last 200 last replies lol. |
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| I apologize for another break. Now I need some time to work on my modules. My full-time job is also time consuming, unfortunately. I'll get back to the design next week. I know everything goes for too long. I myself would like to see the new site as soon as possible. We need to be patient a little bit. And I hope we will get to the final! |
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| Devolonter, have you had anything in for the form of an official response from Mark/Blitz? |
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| Raz, I received an official response from Simon and Mark. They like the design and they plan to use it. |
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| That's awesome :) well done |
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| Any updates/progress on this? |
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| it would be a lot better for Monkey to have a better graphically designed site. Hope to see it some day. As Supertino says... Any update? |
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| i'm really losing faith here.. :( |
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| Hi folks! At the moment I am working on the design of a new Monkey documentation system. I hope you will see it in the nearest update and you'll like it. I remember about this topic and I'll surely get back to work on this design. Moreover, I have already started to prepare html files. Yes, it's not fast. But there have been a lot of work outside of Monkey world recently. |
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