Okay now I'm certain that I like the integration of the site and the forums.
If it weren't, the main site would just be a boring wall. The band takes requests, and doesn't just play a set all the time. That philosophy should be reflected in the site too, I suppose =3
Before clicking anything I thought, "what content would I want as Bard noob?"
and I thought of history and profiles, but they're decently arranged in a frames-esque manner. Frames are usually good, and the way you have it is navigate-able.
Hey! Something I just re-noticed that has troubled me about the site in the past: when I hit 'back' ... it doesn't go back? I don't know if my experience is unique, but if that could be remedied I think the whole Bard site experience would be improved.
Just an idea:
Okay, let's say we've clicked "the band". Well, we get "the band" page, but on the 'toolbar' where you originally clicked 'the band', it's not highlighted or anything. So it's just not visually clear that you're inside that section "the band".
That kind of tab-like interface is what I'm used to, so I'm throwing that idea out there.
Something that the new site definitely needs is DATES. You need to date every single page every time it's updated. For example, on the bottom of each page it would say in italics "This page last updated 12:01AM 12-29-08"
A page like 'news' doesn't really require that, as dates are the nature of that page.
Maybe you could have pictures from all your past cons and shows? Like, I see a list of all past shows, and I click one, and I see a bunch of pictures from that concert or con.
Maybe there could just be a list of past shows (perhaps organised by year/month to save space), and beside the shows that DO have pictures, you could put a small icon next to it signifying "we have pictures for this show". And that show's text links to the pictures.
If these types of things aren't collected, then maybe they could be organised in this manner in the future.
You could even just link to other peoples' galleries.
Maybe you could also say somewhere "Got any suggestions for the band or how the site can be improved? Go to this thread/email this person."
I really don't know if there is enough info or curiosity for such a thing, but maybe even a FAQ section might be useful. It could include things the band gets asked a lot during cons or shows, or even on the forums.
And again I'll suggest there be some sort of list of songs everyone in the band knows. But I remember asking about this previously and hearing that this would be a pretty tall order.
And as far as the graphics and pictures and layout of the site goes...
maybe you could integrate more video game/anime themes? Since that is the nature of the Bards' work. Maybe a certain game's font used in some places on the site,
or sprites as bullet points.
Looking at a list of the Bard members, it could say somewhere "choose your character" like in a fighting game. Actually, if you made a table of each member's face with name and instrument underneath, that'd be even more like a fighting game.
To take that idea even further, their instrument could be a symbol like the game-series-symbol shadow by the characters in Smash Brothers.
Video-game inspiration integration can range from sparse to heavy.
Sparse being a few sprites here and there, and
Heavy being the entire site's layout being inspired by the composer in Mario Paint.
Wow, and you could also integrate video game noises into certain link clicks. But I don't know how hard that would be to do. With this, too, the noises couldn't be all over. It would be annoying if there was a special noise for each link clicked. April fools joke: Navi everywhere.
Another idea: Text boxes could mimic in-game text boxes. A frame - maybe this frame could be changed, since there's usually an option to change games' text frames.
A "continue" signifier, for multiple page articles. It would tell you there is a next page. In Pokemon it's a small triangle in the lower-right corner. In other games it's just "A" signifying "press A to continue".
Okay. I think I'm out of ideas for now. If I think of any more I'll edit this post.
And these are all just ideas in the spirit of improvement ^_^ No demands or expectations.
Oh, and whenever the new site is put up, I'll continue to keep improvement in mind and let you guys know if I think of anything.
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Topic: Feature Request for Spoony Bards v3 (Read 1152 times)
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