[khraythia]

Anime Central's website is back up, with a significantly freshened look and feel. We're working on getting all the page links re-established; most of it's there, but there's stray ends around.

[Valentinez Alkalinella]

I like it! It gives a spooky feel to to go with the Thirteenth theme for this year!

[Scott]

It looks good, I like it! A lot more "web 2.0" with the look/layout.

[Neko_master_Luna]

is it safe to register? MY roommate just got her WOW up & working so she's been hogging the computer & I have not been able to register yet.

[KnitChick]

khraythia, on Jan 24 2010, 02:51 AM, said:

Anime Central's website is back up, with a significantly freshened look and feel. We're working on getting all the page links re-established; most of it's there, but there's stray ends around.

It looks great! Nice job, keep up the great work!!

[redx1]

Looks great. The map on the bottom is a really nice touch. I like the "blog" feel to the articles on the homepage. You guys were sure thinking SEO when making the update

[khraythia]

redx1, on Jan 24 2010, 02:33 PM, said:

Looks great. The map on the bottom is a really nice touch. I like the "blog" feel to the articles on the homepage. You guys were sure thinking SEO when making the update

Yeah. The intent of the rework was to minimize the space used for graphical, navigation, and otherwise administrative junk, and maximize the amount of content space. (To borrow a Tufte phrase: maximize the data-ink ratio.) We have a long way to go in this regard, but this is a start. The navigation elements of our new design take up quite a bit less space, and don't compete nearly as badly with the content. The new design also simplifies the presentation of structural elements like headers (there's only two levels of differentation now) and tables (just a single thin line and heavier fonts separating headers and table body; no more annoying light blue background.)

On the other hand, the link colors used for navigation elements do clash a bit and draw too much attention to themselves; that's something I need to work on. Some pages built before this new theme need to be updated tp better work with e.g. the new header styles.

Anyway, when you do that sort of simplification, you raise your signal-to-noise ratio, and it's a nice side effect that that's good for humans and search engines.

The "blog" feel is completely unintentional, and is more a result of me needing to get things done quickly instead of spending an inordinate amount of time tweaking individual layouts. The next major milestone (for me, anyway) is to introduce a style in which we devote a large portion of the front page to our most recently announced guest or event, and then arrange past or secondary announcements in the remaining space. (If you've seen Apple's website, you'll have an idea of what I'm looking for.)

[redx1]

khraythia, on Jan 24 2010, 02:31 PM, said:

On the other hand, the link colors used for navigation elements do clash a bit and draw too much attention to themselves; that's something I need to work on. Some pages built before this new theme need to be updated tp better work with e.g. the new header styles.

I, personally, don't think so. I feel links need to draw attention to themselves moderately. I think it's a good ratio, but I'm no designer

khraythia, on Jan 24 2010, 02:31 PM, said:

The "blog" feel is completely unintentional, and is more a result of me needing to get things done quickly instead of spending an inordinate amount of time tweaking individual layouts. The next major milestone (for me, anyway) is to introduce a style in which we devote a large portion of the front page to our most recently announced guest or event, and then arrange past or secondary announcements in the remaining space. (If you've seen Apple's website, you'll have an idea of what I'm looking for.)

Very cool concept! I can see where it may be over-simplistic, but good job making it work. I'm anxious to see the end result.

Now to really impress me, I would love to see the forums integrated with the website

[Voxx]

Very nice! I really love the look of it but I did like how the older page had more of a user friendly layout with the information. I dont see the page about the hotel information or where the Hyatt is. Maybe I overlooked it....

[khraythia]

Ska_Toranpetta, on Jan 24 2010, 11:11 PM, said:

Very nice! I really love the look of it but I did like how the older page had more of a user friendly layout with the information. I dont see the page about the hotel information or where the Hyatt is. Maybe I overlooked it....

The hotel information and ACen's location are in the site map at the bottom, in the "Anime Central" section, which is the leftmost column.

It may be worth promoting this sort of information to something that can be found out either on the front page or a new "About us" page; I'll check out options for that.

[TheRabbi]

By the way, guys, we know that there are bound to be some broken links and such lurking around so, if you find one, shoot an e-mail to webmaster@acen.org with the page you're on, the section of the page the link is in, what the text of the link is, and the address it is currently pointing to (which you can get by clicking the link and selected "Copy Link Location" and pasting into your e-mail).

Thanks for all the compliments! Though I can't take credit for it, I know our web team is excited to hear the good feedback. They are awesome - go them!

[KolalaKitty]

The only thing I want to comment about is the fact that the Acen logo at the top is incredibly hard to read now with the black background. Perhaps the font needs to be changed from black to grey or white? Or maybe even red? Just something so it isn't black on black...

[Smokey]

Thank you for getting our page up. It looks great.

[obakasan]

KolalaKitty, on Jan 26 2010, 09:12 PM, said:

The only thing I want to comment about is the fact that the Acen logo at the top is incredibly hard to read now with the black background. Perhaps the font needs to be changed from black to grey or white? Or maybe even red? Just something so it isn't black on black...

I agree with this. I thought it was just me, and/or I just was used to the old one, but it is indeed a little to small. Too much text, not enough graphics. It's still something of an advertisement after all. Snag new visitor's attention.

[TheRabbi]

Not sure how it looks to you guys (screenshot, please?) but for me the logo at the top is both proportional and a dark grey on a white background image, which is very easy to read for me.

[Jguy]

I presume that KolalaKitty is using IE and the rest are not?

My work PC's IE8, fully updated:

http://img18.imagesh...041/acenorg.jpg

On my firefox on my home PC and my Konquerer on my test PC, it looks just fine and is fully readable.

I bookmarked the forums at work, not the main site, so I would have noticed this a whole lot earlier...buuut. XD

[obakasan]

I'm popping back and forth between IE8.0.6001.18702 and Firefox 3.5.7 right now. The logo is about the same size, and I think it's a bit small, dark, and "underwhelming" on both.

The text colors are slightly different in that the header text is colored in orange but the body text is in white in Firefox (links are in orange), but both header and body text is in orange in IE8 (links are a "duller" orange). The text on the bottom of the page is all in white (site map) on both.

The text on the IE page looks a bit sharper too.

[Lina]

I am using Opera and it looks the same as it does on Firefox and IE (except IE has the orange body text). I don't like the gray font against a black background. It is difficult to read. The lighter gray isn't that bad, but the darker gray for the dates is more difficult. I think you should go with white and/or orange. Those would work A LOT better against the black background.

With the logo, the gray foggy background makes it easier to read. The foggy background is still kind of dark so it blends more so than pops out, but if you took that away it would be a lot more difficult. You could make the foggy background brighter.

In general, don't use gray. Choose brighter colors to contrast the black background.

[sammy-45]

How about a red outline on the animecentral part of it. It will help it pop out more, plus still fit in with the look we have going.

[Smokey]

I hate to complain, but we won't be opening either location at 4 AM on Thursday. Could someone please change the hours on our page to 4 PM? Thanks.

[Lina]

An orange or red outline would be just fine. Though I'm thinking orange would be better since the theme seems to be orange and black/gray. Red would throw off the balance.

[Neko_master_Luna]

I'm sorry, but I miss the art. I liked that picture!

[kimuhalu]

Drop-down boxes would've been nice. It's weird to be looking for links for everything at the bottom. I don't think the average user would think to look for important info down there.

[TheRabbi]

Kesshoutan, on Feb 1 2010, 11:00 AM, said:

Drop-down boxes would've been nice. It's weird to be looking for links for everything at the bottom. I don't think the average user would think to look for important info down there.

I agree. I've passed this along to the web staff, who also should be at least looking at the thread.

[frzndaqiri]

*waves* Hi guys!

Thank you for the compliments, and thank you even more for the feedback! I mean it, I can't possibly run every combination of system that our attendees use (though my home office looks like it can) and your input on something not looking quite right really helps us.

While I can't always get everything perfect for everyone, I sure hope to get close.

So keep the comments and suggestions coming. We're making it better for you, after all.

- Mel
Your friendly ACen webmistress

[KolalaKitty]

Here is what I'm seeing...



I'm using IE 7 because that's all I've got on my work laptop.

This post has been edited by KolalaKitty: 05 February 2010 - 04:29 PM

[Lina]

Is it possible to have a bio made before you announce guests to the public? Like, get a bio done once you find out a guest is coming and then post it with the announcement? Or is putting "Bio coming soon" possible because it looks like the guests that were announced aren't coming anymore because they aren't on the website. (They are on the website now, with the exception of Aural Vampire, but some weren't on the website) Colleen Clinkenbeard was announced a little over a month ago (January 5th) and her name and bio is finally up on the website (February 7th), but not under U.S. Guests. It's only on the front page.

I don't know how long it takes to get a bio up (Well I have an idea since Colleen's took a little over a month to get up on the website) or if you have to follow certain rules or you have to get a specific bio from what company they work for or what have you, but if there isn't any rules about only having the guest's name on the website if there is a bio, then I don't see what the problem is with putting their name on the website if they are confirmed. I don't think it looks good if you don't have the guests on the website when they are already announced. Especially someone as big as Aural Vampire. You'd want that on the main page. Besides, a lot more people probably check the website more so than the forums.

[Lina]

Double post.

[frzndaqiri]

Hi Lina: A few things-

Some guests (most in fact) require that we use provided bio information. Some even require that we DO NOT post anything until they have reviewed and approved how it looks on our site before it's public. This is fairly standard in PR circles to make sure that a client (the guest) is represented consistently and accurately every time. If there's a delay, you can bet that it's partially required as part of the terms of having the guest.

So while we can officially announce here that they're coming, we cannot put it on the main site until it has cleared their manager.

I will admit, some of it is coordination. There are only so many people that can work on the site, and even the higher up staff have day jobs (or night jobs) which always adds a certain amount of padding to the timeline. We are working as fast as possible, it is to everyone's benefit (including the guests, and their desire to come back) that we get that information out, I agree.

Also, I apologize for any missing info across some of the multiple locations (main page vs guests). We have had a few revisions to the site last minute and sometimes that happens. Thank you for bringing it to our attention! (Oh, and fixed now!)

[Lina]

Wow! That is all required for putting guest stuff on the website? That's insane. I guess it's understandable, but I never thought it would be that complicated. Thanks for the info on that though. That really helps a lot now that I have a better understanding of what happens.

And you are very welcome. Glad I could help.