Just looking for feedback

Duskreign

I ran a particularly snazzy session of my Star Wars game last night, and with Dyluth's inspiration, I've decided to revamp my Star Wars wiki. My goal initially was to make it very immersive, but now, I think I want to focus on ease of use and fast navigation. All I've done so far is the "home page,":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic but I wanted feedback on the aesthetics. I worked with the Nebula background that Obsidian Portal recently unveiled, and I decided to incorporate the Portal's existing white-space into the actual design (there is a white border surrounding the 730px central wiki area, so I incorporated several white borders in the actual wiki design), I also moved the navigation up into the banner space, freeing up the area beneath for content.

Thoughts?

Ideas?

Rabid political rants? (please... please, no).

DarkMagus

That looks really cool Dusk! :)

I love these backgrounds but I think it kind of stinks that we only get to see the very edges of the pictures. The castle gate for instance is completely blocked and you only ever get to see the stone sides and a glimpse of the bottom of the gate. I like what you did, but I'm wondering if theres a way to just make the white space see-through instead of putting the background there in its place. What you did definately works for the background you picked, but it would look pretty aweful for the castle and maybe a few others.

I have no idea how one would go about such a thing so if any one has any ideas, that'd be great. I'm not really thinking of using this particular idea right now, but I find myself wishing I knew the code to play around with this.

Duskreign

The issue is that the background images are static, so even if you get rid of the white space, that 750px area will scroll as you move down the page, and the sides will remain stationary.

As for actually removing, or hiding, the white border? I have no idea.

I am actually struggling with the fact that I can't modify the forum or comment pages to match the rest of the wiki. I wish I could figure out a workaround. I can place all my characters and maps on a self-made wiki page, but there's not much I can do about the forums or comments pages.

Duskreign

"Here":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/wikis/the-story-of-grazael-ulturis is an example of my plans for the adventure logs.

DarkMagus

Hmm.. interesting. Sometimes I wish I had stuck with my I.T. major, but only for a few minutes and only while trying to understand stuff on OP.

Well I think it looks really good so far. Maybe someone will figure something out, this is a rather intelligent and computer savvy community.

RaseCidraen

Dusk - I leave the forums for a few days, and I come back and you've somehow gotten a PhD in interior/graphic design. All too cool my friend! I've been wondering what to do with the immutable White Background. Incorporating it is simply genius!

What you might be able to do, to solve the issue... potentially... (it might look horrible..) is... (ugh - this might look terrible...) static background image that meshes with the sides (I don't think it's a repeating image so much as a star map...) - and fix that in place. So essentially you have the frame and the background moving as one cohesive unit down the page, and the "content" sliding upwards as you move down. I don't know if it's possible to create an immovable background div while the content moves, but it should be, I think.

Duskreign

Heh, thanks, Rase!

"Here's how I want to handle all the faction pages.":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/wikis/the-player-characters In fact, most of my wiki is going to be set-up similarly. Thanks hugely for your help with the scrolling panels, Rase. I think they add a lot of functionality to this design. I'm real happy with this so far.

I just wish I had the skill necessary to create a viable dynamic character sheet for WEG's D6 Star Wars system. I could do the graphics, but the coding is, frankly, beyond me.

arsheesh

Hey guys, been MIA the last week or so but thought I'd chime in here. Dusk, the new setup looks really nice! I like how you've managed to keep the star theme consistent throughout the site, using the white background as a frame to separate the various sections of the page. I wonder though if there would be a way to extend the star pattern within the 750px section to the bottom of the page. It's not that the white space looks bad, but since you've already imported the star pattern within the 750px borders it would seem more natural for that pattern to extend all the way down to the bottom of the page as well. Just a thought. Looks fantastic though.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Duskreign

I agree, but due to the nature of the image, I am afraid of excessive pattern repetition. Having said that, here is something that flies in the face of that logic:

"My new character sheet design":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/characters/dakenraokun

RaseCidraen

I like it Dusk - Although it seems a bit busy without the white border following the image down, as it doesn't meet up properly with the borders of the page.

Duskreign

I agree. It's not working for me, Rase. I have to work on that more.

I can't extend the border down further for whatever reason. ???

I am considering other alternatives. Also, I want to leave room at on the page for backstory info.

I am considering making use of your scrolling panel code to shorten the sheet a bit.

/shrug

Duskreign

"How about now?":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/characters/dakenraokun

DarkMagus

Looks good. My only issue is that I tend to click and drag scroll bars and the rating stars are right over that so I ended up rating the character instead of scrolling down. But that's only a minor issue anyways.

Duskreign

Yeah, I have no freaking idea what I can do about those stupid always-on-top-of-everything stars :(

DarkMagus

yeah...

All epistemological concerns aside, I know one thing for certain: Coding is hard. :( I find that I get different results in different browsers. My border divider thingies appear in the preview but not on the normal page in IE, but show up in Firefox... I think your page looks good man, I'm completely amazed at what you guys can do with your site. I struggle for hours just trying to get some simple thing to work. But I am learning something, so that's good.

Duskreign

I was thinking I might be able to get it to work if I can place the images on a z-layer above the main page, but every time I try that, everything gets really messed up.

And if I try to work around the stars, I lose too much data space for the character sheet.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I want to get the design down before I go through and update all the character sheets.

Oh, and thanks, DM! :D

Duskreign

HOLY CRAP! "I got it to work!":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/characters/dakenraokun

edit: Sort-of. The stars are still there, and they pop-up when you mouse over them, so they are still an obstruction. I think this is the best I can do, though.

DarkMagus

z-layer??

sounds like the 4th dimension... in cyber space!
0.o
I'm not going to sleep well tonight!

Duskreign

x is horizontal
y is vertical
z is toward/away. Like you're looking at a stack of papers. The bottom page would be the lowest z-value, and the top page the highest. It is how the ascendant ribbons overlap your profile pic.

Sleep well!

DarkMagus

That actually makes much more sense than I thought it would. I think that means I have lost sanity points and learned about the mythos....

Later Dusk!

Duskreign

What you lost in sanity you gained in hilarity :D

Bogus

It looks real slick. I like it. I think it does well to suit your campaign setting.

Duskreign

Thanks, Bogus! It's a work in progress, in which the word progress is used quite optimistically.

twiggyleaf

Duskreign
I like the way the Homepage works. Even if the background is stationary while the inner background moves, it works as they are the same (or similar) image.
When it comes to the Main Wiki page, there are some moving stars on the inner background, which I really like, but I think the whole combination of three different types of star systems is a bit distracting when you are navigating around the page.

(You said it was NAVIGATION that you were mainly concerned with)

twigs