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Opinions on new Messenger Stuff - Printable Version

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Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by absorbation on 08-05-2008 at 06:30 PM

It's that time of year again where I annually update my Messenger website. So what's new? Not much really, a lot of the changes will be for my admins, but there is a comment update system as well as a new anti spam feature. Of course there are heaps of small little changes, such as new search engine friendly URL links and a cleanup of the downloads and custom content. However, what I want to ask you is, what do you think of the new design?

Any feedback would be helpful, and screenshots would be even better, as I want to see what it looks like in a wide variety of browsers and resolutions. What do you like and what don't you like? I hope to have the finished version up in the next couple of days. Thanks guys :P.

http://msgstuff.myhotmuffin.com

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Nathan on 08-05-2008 at 06:35 PM

And the images?

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Dempsey on 08-05-2008 at 09:19 PM

  • Maybe make the news post title link to the single post.
  • Possibly have date based archives as well as just pages of previous posts.
  • fix urls so they actually use the text, otherwise people could mispell links and they still work == duplicate content.
  • make the search feature search both the title and story at same time.
  • custom content such as emoticons etc downloadable in zip archives etc or even better in your own installer customess style.
  • MSN error solutions  (/msn-windows-live-messenger-errors/) gives 404
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by andrewdodd13 on 08-05-2008 at 09:21 PM

I like it, however, I've one suggestion - make things contrast ever so slightly more.

Mainly the buttons at the top and the background of the articles.

Other than that, I think it's pretty cool.

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Nathan on 08-05-2008 at 09:43 PM

Hmm I get no images :S

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by prashker on 08-05-2008 at 09:47 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nathan
Hmm I get no images :S
that's what it is :p
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Nathan on 08-05-2008 at 09:51 PM

I don't like it then.

It looks incomplete, the tabs don't fit the page, and its definitely going down from what you've got now.

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by vaccination on 08-05-2008 at 09:53 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nathan
I don't like it then.

It looks incomplete, the tabs don't fit the page, and its definitely going down from what you've got now.
Agreed.

Essentially all you've done is remove all the images from your old design =/
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by absorbation on 08-05-2008 at 10:27 PM

Nathan does a website need images? It makes the pages load longer and I can bloat a website. The problem me I have a 40% bounce rate. That's ridiculous, but I can see why, the current version looks very full and hard to knows where to start. It puts off users.

quote:
Originally posted by Dempsey
custom content such as emoticons etc downloadable in zip archives etc or even better in your own installer customess style.

Love the idea, and I know exactly how to do it :P.

I'll think I'll change the header bar, but I'm not sure how yet.
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by vaccination on 08-05-2008 at 10:42 PM

quote:
Originally posted by absorbation
Nathan does a website need images? It makes the pages load longer and I can bloat a website. The problem me I have a 40% bounce rate. That's ridiculous, but I can see why, the current version looks very full and hard to knows where to start. It puts off users.
I doubt that'd due to having a header image. Not to mention the fact your 'new' layout is exactly the same content wise.(except the 'messenger help' section, but you just removed a few links8-))
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Chrono on 08-05-2008 at 10:49 PM

it looks like one of those advertising sites 8-)

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Nathan on 08-05-2008 at 11:07 PM

Do something with the whitespace. Sure whitespace is good, but not in excess, with a few lines of colours here and there (sure it can look good, but this doesn't im sorry... but it's the truth)

You're current site design rocks, you just need to tweak it not remove large chunks of images.

If you're worried about load times, you may want to remove the amount of jsfiles you have. firebug is telling me it takes 11.5secs to load the whole site for the first time (and 5.5secs of that is the JS alone ffs)

Dont remove the images, just minimilze youre JS and remove stuff you dont need, AND try to put all the javascript into one file (saves loads of different requests).

If i was to see this site now, I would be put off by it.

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Quantum on 08-05-2008 at 11:10 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Chrono
it looks like one of those advertising sites 8-)
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Lou on 08-06-2008 at 01:10 AM

Firstly, why wasn't the msgstuff staff shown this before the rest of the world? :P

Secondly, I don't like it. It kind of looks like the first versions of msgstuff, back when you had only started making websites. I've seen what you can do, and this is far from your best ;).

Use the space provided by the browser. Don't leave loads of white space. You can also still have a simple header that looks better. Just have a small logo idea, and a repeating background gradient of some sort with a 1 px width. That won't kill the loading time, and it'll look better.

The new top navbar doesn't match anything. It looks like a modified version of google ads to be frank.

quote:
Originally posted by Dempsey
Maybe make the news post title link to the single post.
Definitely. This is a feature that's almost required for websites with news posts. Whenever I go to a website, I actually expect the post titles to link to a page for the articles. I'm still not used to having to click the comments/permalink thing for msgstuff's posts.

The top navbar, if used at all, should have a link to the forums, and be setup in the same exact way as the forum's and vice versa (i.e: same links.. integrate everything in the same exact way).

If possible, the new share button under each post should have seperate little buttons to directly share to the most popular websites (i.e: 1 little facebook logo, 1 del.icio.us logo, etc, 3-4 of these, and when clicked on, they go directly there instead of opening the menu. Then have another button that says "More...").

Integrate the tags more into the posts. Right now, they're only on the posts' specific pages. Have them on the main page as well.

Cut down on the javascript. We don't need that much.

The ads shown there, are they the only ones that are going to be there? If not, show us the rest, if so, good job ;). And give us our part.....


That's about it for now.
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Nathan on 08-06-2008 at 01:15 AM

quote:
Originally posted by .Lou
Firstly, why wasn't the msgstuff staff shown this before the rest of the world? (Smilie)
They were, I was, chris was... but you're not always there - I had that problem ages ago with my site :P
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Lou on 08-06-2008 at 01:17 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Nathan
quote:
Originally posted by .Lou
Firstly, why wasn't the msgstuff staff shown this before the rest of the world? (Smilie)
They were, I was, chris was... but you're not always there - I had that problem ages ago with my site :P
Unlike you, we're usually more organized. We have forums for this kinda of stuff. Also, like I told you MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of times, email does still exist.
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Nathan on 08-06-2008 at 01:21 AM

quote:
Originally posted by .Lou
quote:
Originally posted by Nathan
quote:
Originally posted by .Lou
Firstly, why wasn't the msgstuff staff shown this before the rest of the world? (Smilie)
They were, I was, chris was... but you're not always there - I had that problem ages ago with my site :P
Unlike you, we're usually more organized. We have forums for this kinda of stuff. Also, like I told you MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of times, email does still exist.
Yeah msgstuff is a team, skoolfun wasn't really a team, it was me, me, and you and chris but none of you really bothered about it (Don't blame you it was the world's crappiest site :P)
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Eljay on 08-06-2008 at 01:27 AM

Ok seeing as Ross didn't mention it, it was me who designed this. What he coded however, is sort of a "hybrid" between the old site and my concept :P

Anyway, I have continued working on rearranging things a bit more and making it look (hopefully) more attractive and stylish. I should probably show him this first but meh, here is the updated, almost completely different, concept image:

[Image: attachment.php?pid=920579]

Still a few things to do with it, and probably a few more by the time I wake up to your constructive criticism *hint* 8-)

* Eljay goes to bed now :P

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Menthix on 08-06-2008 at 01:30 AM

quote:
Originally posted by absorbation
I have a 40% bounce rate. That's ridiculous
I've seen worse TBH.
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Lou on 08-06-2008 at 01:42 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Eljay
Ok seeing as Ross didn't mention it, it was me who designed this. What he coded however, is sort of a "hybrid" between the old site and my concept :P

Anyway, I have continued working on rearranging things a bit more and making it look (hopefully) more attractive and stylish. I should probably show him this first but meh, here is the updated, almost completely different, concept image:

[Image: attachment.php?pid=920579]

Still a few things to do with it, and probably a few more by the time I wake up to your constructive criticism *hint* 8-)

* Eljay goes to bed now :P
Now that is much better. All of the actual design can be done in 2-3 images, the rest can be css. That's far from excess images, and it looks quite a bit better. Strangely enough, when I wrote earlier, I had in my mind set a design I had seen by you that worked quite well. Can't remember now, but anyway, what a coincidence.
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Chris4 on 08-06-2008 at 02:08 AM

That's much better, Eljay!

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by absorbation on 08-06-2008 at 10:57 AM

Right time to answer some questions:

quote:
Originally posted by .Lou
Firstly, why wasn't the msgstuff staff shown this before the rest of the world?

You were, weeks ago, along with another design idea.

quote:
Originally posted by .Lou
Use the space provided by the browser. Don't leave loads of white space. You can also still have a simple header that looks better. Just have a small logo idea, and a repeating background gradient of some sort with a 1 px width. That won't kill the loading time, and it'll look better.

The white space is a result of the fixed width news boxes, I'll guess I'll have to remove them.

quote:
Originally posted by Dempsey
Maybe make the news post title link to the single post.

I agree that is a good idea.

quote:
Originally posted by .Lou
The top navbar, if used at all, should have a link to the forums, and be setup in the same exact way as the forum's and vice versa (i.e: same links.. integrate everything in the same exact way).

I actually did that in an older beta, but during the design update it was removed. I'll add it again.

quote:
Originally posted by .Lou
Integrate the tags more into the posts. Right now, they're only on the posts' specific pages. Have them on the main page as well.

That's a good idea, but the tags really need a clean-up and one of the new features, that I am still working on, a tag engine to make sure tags are consistent is still incomplete.

quote:
Originally posted by Eljay

[Image: attachment.php?pid=920579]
* Eljay goes to bed now :P

Thanks Eljay, that design really adds more to the website. I love the content shadows and the new header bar. The only problem I have is what it would look like away from the homepage, where a menu is required. I can see a lot of you like it, but on a practical side I would still require a full menu (a).
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by vaccination on 08-06-2008 at 11:13 AM

Eljay's is better, bit too compact though for a site which has a lot of content.

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Nathan on 08-06-2008 at 11:59 AM

quote:
Originally posted by vaccination
Eljay's is better, bit too compact though for a site which has a lot of content.
I was _just_ about to say that... It's a great design, but surely people who want to see messenger news - quickly and easily? With this design they'll have to load page after page (you'll get an increased bounce rate probs) So yeah love it, but make it hold more content
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by absorbation on 08-06-2008 at 03:24 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nathan
quote:
Originally posted by vaccination
Eljay's is better, bit too compact though for a site which has a lot of content.
I was _just_ about to say that... It's a great design, but surely people who want to see messenger news - quickly and easily? With this design they'll have to load page after page (you'll get an increased bounce rate probs) So yeah love it, but make it hold more content

It will probably decrease my bounce rate, as most of my users are referring from search engines, looking for custom content or skins. The news readers tend to use RSS :P. Again, I'll be finding a hybrid answer to the problem i.e. menu, but new header and shadow effects topped with the recent post list on the top post of the homepage.
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Nathan on 08-06-2008 at 04:02 PM

I know I don't use RSS, ever :P - most users don't know how too - or even know what it is.  I still think you should have at least 5 news posts on the first page

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Thor on 08-06-2008 at 04:19 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nathan
I know I don't use RSS, ever :P - most users don't know how too - or even know what it is.  I still think you should have at least 5 news posts on the first page
RSS > *

Personally my thoughts seem to be in the same direction as most other persons here, but you could always add some ads to the RSS feed.
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by absorbation on 08-06-2008 at 04:27 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nitro

Personally my thoughts seem to be in the same direction as most other persons here, but you could always add some ads to the RSS feed.

I wouldn't do that, as the ads are there for those who will actually click them. News readers don't tend too, but those wanting some pretty new display pictures do.

I've implemented the new header bar. What do people think?
Note: the website reflects my localhost, and changes are constantly going :P.
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by Lou on 08-06-2008 at 05:34 PM

Even that change makes it all that much better. Where's the forums link? ;)

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by absorbation on 08-06-2008 at 05:49 PM

quote:
Originally posted by .Lou
Even that change makes it all that much better. Where's the forums link? ;)

It will be there, along with a couple of new features. The website is now compatible with all mainstream browsers in several operating systems and resolutions, excluding IE8 :P.
RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by user35870 on 08-06-2008 at 06:00 PM

Looking good absorbation, maybe add the shadow to the content holder like in the concept?

RE: Opinions on new Messenger Stuff by absorbation on 08-07-2008 at 10:44 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Chris UK
Looking good absorbation, maybe add the shadow to the content holder like in the concept?

Yeh, I'll think I'll add that along with the rest of Andy''s suggestions :). I may also change the header.