BreakmanX.com

looks great, the only thing i didn't enjoy was that that the front page had a lot of scrolling and the menus lenght didn't match with the scrolling lenght. yeah i know i sound like an ass, but hey i got to tell the truth. maybe you could just have pages instead of long scrolling text, graphically it is better. anyways i love the new layout.

hey great job guys, looks awesome!

Congrats on the new layout- and welcome to the new team members. I like the new front page much more than the old frames approach. Keep up the good work!

the old frames looked to cluttered up to me atleast , i like how its all organized now. but when u go to the game show tab it shows that old school mic just doesnt feel right, even thought its a radio show lol

Very enjoyable layout!

one questions, i can't find where to comment on the mainpage posts. am i missing something? or is that option no longer available?

The new page is a vast improvement. Forgive me for being my snobby self-appointed-graphic-design-expert, but there is still much that could be done imho. The colors on the menus aren't quite right, the icons change font too much and have too much centered text, the page layout is too close to the left, there is too much empty space on the right, the menu titles should probably be boldified, the center title could use some reworking, and the curves on the layout graphics should be much sharper. The icon for the game show is difficult to read, the text should not be centered and it should either not overlap the graphic at all, or be a different color.

The icon in the upper left is badass!

Damn that's a lot of stuff.. o.O seriously just trying to help!

Edit: Also this is not a big deal to me but one of the most basic rules of graphic design is to always use sans-seriff font for long amounts of text, like stuff you would read. Seriff fonts being better for logos, titles, headlines, etc.

The Siege wrote:Some text.. blah blah blah...

I second what Siege said. Especailly the 'two much space to the right' part.

EDIT: In most of places where E-mail addresses are mention, such as the contacts page, all addresses are start with a %20. Probably an error, but easy to correct.

Just to answer some questions and make some comments. The too much space to the right is my desire to make a page optimized all the way down to 800x600 resolution, which would cause so much space to the right. In retrospect I will make the page center aligned to compensate for that. Also, this page is in constant evolution, so feel free to leave all your questions/comments here and I will answer them, and most likely take your advice I'm busting some ass for y'all, so let me know what you want And also, the comment on posting will be addressed asap.

Thanks for all your support folks.

Afrotect

Afrotect wrote:...make a page optimized all the way down to 800x600 resolution...

Javascript to detect resolution, then link to different external CSS depending on resolution. I know that is easier said than done though... but it would be cool to have the page support 1600x1200 which I nativly browse at, but also have it at 800x600 for when Im at school, and then again at 320x240 when Im surfing on a web-phone or PDA*.
I'm trying to learn this these new fangled web-technologies (JS, CSS, XML, etc..) myself for personal improvement, so I'd love to discuss any of this with you here or on AIM, etc..

Afrotect wrote:I will make the page center aligned to compensate for that.

Sounds good; Center aligned pages are more appealing for some reason... I dont know why, there is still just as much wasted space, but I guess it is pleasing to see it is equally wasted on each side. Hehehe.

Afrotect wrote:I'm busting some ass for y'all

We can tell, and we all really apprechiate‡ it! Bravo - an excellent design and I can only see it getting better still from here.

* I don't own a webphone or PDA.
‡ I am a terrible speller. Me fail english, thats unpossible?!

A few more comments after the layout has settled in my brain for a while...

With the buttons at the top, I see two option. One is to move the text below the icons, instead of having text in the icons.

The second, which I like better, would be a stack of thin banners stretching across the entire circlet or whatever that's called. It would look like this:

(PA Icon)+++-----PENNY ARCADE INTERVIEW
(Halo Icon)++---------------HALO 2 ----------

etc. etc. Of course that's more my personal style. See http://www.copshow.net, I designed that site and the buttons on the left are set up in that manner. I think that'd work even better in this scenario.

Also if anyone wants to drop a comment for copshow.net's layout feel free.

Oh yeah and, for whatever reason, I associate BreakmanX with the color blue.. perhaps a palette swap is in order? Maybe... just a thought!

With the buttons at the top, I see two option. One is to move the text below the icons, instead of having text in the icons.

The second, which I like better, would be a stack of thin banners stretching across the entire circlet or whatever that's called. It would look like this:

(PA Icon)+++-----PENNY ARCADE INTERVIEW
(Halo Icon)++---------------HALO 2 ----------

That is a horizontal bar already, and that part of the page has horizontal flow. If you put those stacked buttons like in the navbar on the left, a feeling of verticality, despise the fact that the bars move from left to right, it would totally interrupt the horizontal flow of that bar. As far as putting the text underneath, I had thought about it, but if I did anything at all, I would make the image smaller and put an encompassing box with the System/Type of story and the title of the story in the box, see http://www.gamespot.com. But that is for a later time. And as far as a pallette swap, unless Break asks for one, I feel that this is a more professional color scheme, the only thing I was thinking of is lightening the entire site a touch.

I feel that you all should know what I am working on, since you all have to look at this site as much as I. These are my short term goals, something I want completed by the new year, so you can have an idea of what I'm doing right now. As the general public, you should know what I am working on behind the scenes to help your interaction w/ our amazing writers

Let me know your thoughts, over AIM, here in the forums, or through e-mail, [email protected]

1) Make the site work for Mozilla and family browsers.
2) Rework the sidebars be the same size as the text box in the center.
3) Optimize loading speed.
4) Separate the CSS from the HTML w/o weird things happening.
5) Begin work on recently updated box and last updated button uptop.

Thanks guys, I hope I'm doing a good enough job for y'all

Afrotect, I am thinking you have done a great job. Is there any way instead of having the text go all the way down past the sidebars that you could take the content in the middle and put it in a frame much like that of your distance to empty site? Just an idea.

I have only one problem: your name. You cut off your afro. From now on I will refer to you only as Buzzsaw.

Comments are back on the main page, which is great - however, you need to move post authors name to the begining of their post possibly the date / time also. Thanks for the comment-adding-ability though.

EMP wrote:Comments are back on the main page

Wahoo!