Web Design and Graphics Room. Thread, New IDF50 Home Page

Long overdue but finally I have had a go at putting together a new IDF50 home page together Here

Not the finished article, I want to hear your opinions and ideas so that we can develop a style that really reflects the character of the site.

When I started the site nearly ten years ago I was determined that we wouldn’t have words like Age, Old, Silver or similar in the title. Took me months and months before I hit on “I don’t feel 50” but those four words sum up our attitude and bring a smile. I’m keen that our personality continues into our design.

As usual I waffle on too much but I am really looking for originality, we don’t want to be and hopefully have never been just a boring old folks site, another one of god’s waiting rooms on the web.

Of course many of you never look at the home page as you click direct to your favourite room. But it’s a bit more than just a new homepage we also hope to re-introduce a number of feature/reference pages to the site. I have added couple of pages already for Artist of the Month and Photographer of the month

So what do you think of the new home page?

I use a Mac, looked OK in Safari tried it in Explorer on a PC and it looked totally different. Had to play about with colours and balance the layout to suit both browsers.

Gone for 800 px width as I believe many of our members have older screens but tempted to go for a wider layout?

Used PNG format for most of the graphics but then found that only Explorer 6 up recognises the PNG format. Possibly have to go back to GIF/JPG.

Come on, come on, you are part of something extraordinary, help us keep it that way
Remember
- Welcoming
- Straightforward to use
- Design and layout is part of our image
- Create a real online experience

Cross browser compatibility is a major problem when designing a web page as you know Graham.
All Browsers should render the code to the standard as per w3org,
but none of them do so.
The standard recommended size for design is 800x600 and 1024x768 .
As most monitors are now around 17inch I would be inclined to design for 1024x768.

General info to all our IDF website makers.

My own web pages are set within a single table cell set to a width of 100%.
This means it displays full screen, at different screen resolutions,
some distortion occurs depending on design.

If you use several table cells in your page design,
use pixels to fix the sizes of them all bar one.
Make this one cell width 100%, fill it with anything that will not show badly if stretched.
It should then fit most screen resolutions.

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www.smitheram.co.uk

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Many many thanks for all the replies. This thread is running on a number of our forums and I've received a wide range of opinions, just as I hoped. I have put this thread on a number of our forums as some members never venture out of their favourite room and we do have a wide range of forums and interests on the site.

I am not satisfied with the new home page and I am sure I never will be satisfied (my nature) but I am keen with your help to develop a character that reflects the site. My back ground is in the publishing industry and I have never known the layout/style at the launch/rejig of a publication remain constant. To me a magazine/website should be alive, kicking and continually improving.

The new home page was online for well over a week and I never received a single response until I started these threads. No great surprise as most members just bookmark the forums and miss the home page. So the home page, especially at the moment is likely to be viewed only by potential newbies to the site. However I am keen to develop other editorial pages for the different forums and even possibly update some old ones.

In a nutshell I believe the home page should attract attention, invite participation and offer enjoyment. A design that pleases the eye is always more effective than one that does not. What pleases, however is a contentious point. The one certainty is that no two people see design in exactly the same way as can be seen by your varying comments.

Layout seems a bit blocky?
Not surprising I come from a typographical background and I suppose the typographical grid system is ingrained in me. Both revered and reviled in design education, for some it yields, precision, order and clarity, others it’s old guard a stifling cage that hinders expression. A more contemporary design may enhance the site or it could overwhelm things, it is a question of getting the right balance for our audience.

Cup Cakes?
Those two cakes - well everyone is talking about them they have been called weird, wonderful, woeful and everything in between. I like a bit of the absurd and wacky. I could have played safe and stuck a pic of a monitor there.

It’s a sort of a silly “my favourite” banner ad, IDF50 logo one side, cup cakes on the other side. Also many members come to the site for different reasons - some more technically inclined than others. While some use the computer just as a tool not at all interested how it works. I drew the cup cakes in Illustrator in about 5 minutes, and I hope other members might put together some wacky banners.

Like my pic of Kas and the PC?

I do appreciate your opinions, now please send me your real concrete ideas, PM them to me if you like.
Layouts, designs, logos, words, wacky banners, cartoons etc. etc.

Given the home page another coat of paint, bit of a departure, so I expect plenty of flak, tried to highlight some the brilliant talent on the site, plus some silly bits and pieces.
home page:
http://www.idf50.co.uk/

also check out these other pages as they run on from the home page
http://www.idf50.co.uk/home/bookofpoems.html
Art
http://www.idf50.co.uk/home/artaland.html

I just love the heading Graham, very good. :lol:
I liked the rest of page content also, clean and fresh.

__________________
Knowledge is not knowing all the answers,
but knowing where to find the answers.
www.smitheram.co.uk

Moderator of, Web Design/Graphics Room.
P4-XP pro-IE7-B/B-ZA-AVG

Only had a quick test on the page, on the problem of width, also set to the left.
First off the page is made of fixed tables, main table width 867 pixels.
To retain the current layout and centralize it on the page for all browser resolutions the division tag is required.
White space will be equal both sides of page.

This is placed before the initial table tag with an end tag after the end table tag at bottom of page.

An easy solution below

An alternative is to use a combination of fixed and dynamic tables.
This takes a lot more work, using fixed widths in pixels and a width using a percentage of 100%.
This means the percentage column will expand to fill the screen on all resolutions.
The content of this column has to be able to withstand stretching, like text.

__________________
Knowledge is not knowing all the answers,
but knowing where to find the answers.
www.smitheram.co.uk

Moderator of, Web Design/Graphics Room.
P4-XP pro-IE7-B/B-ZA-AVG