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Is it just me or did the website get a face lift?
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Is it just me or did the website get a face lift? // Roundtable
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 7, 2007, 9:36pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Normally I just head for the forums, but loaded up the main site today and it seems a bit softer, wavy, and even a touch more feminine.... ;)
Also looks like 7.5 got some nice reviews too.
BTW, I noticed that the "games" and "collaboration" buttons don't do anything yet. |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Sep 7, 2007, 10:01pm
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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Normally I just head for the forums, but loaded up the main site today and it seems a bit softer, wavy, and even a touch more feminine.... ;)
Also looks like 7.5 got some nice reviews too.
BTW, I noticed that the "games" and "collaboration" buttons don't do anything yet.
Wow. Sure has changed!
I'm not so much a fan of the small icon-like approach to the mainpage subject images, but maybe someone has plans to place more items on that page soon which would warrant it, and that might be a good idea too.
After seeing your post here on it I went for a quick gander and toured around a tad, I see what you mean about the prominent reviews (although some appear to be in regard to TS7.0 if I'm not mistaken) and I think it's a very good idea to keep reviews in a prominent place in relation to your front door... lots of business folk have little patience looking for those but do place a very high priority on examining them prior to making investment decisions.
I'm still concerned that the educational and research areas of the site pertaining to the use of truePlay and TS7.51 realtime collaborative capabilities remain tabs going nowhere... hopefully that too will be addressed soon, there's much to flaunt on that score so their development should be a cakewalk.
Looks like maybe the Big C found a new webdesigner?
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by splinters // Sep 7, 2007, 10:17pm
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Nice new look but could more use be made of the main page? It seems very squashed with those large grey borders either side. I am sure most people run at 1024x768 or greater nowadays. |
Post by splinters // Sep 7, 2007, 10:18pm
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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I'm still concerned that the educational and research areas of the site pertaining to the use of truePlay and TS7.51 realtime collaborative capabilities remain tabs going nowhere... hopefully that too will be addressed soon...
- 3dvisuals dude
I am looking into this myself...:rolleyes: |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Sep 7, 2007, 10:26pm
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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I am looking into this myself...:rolleyes:
Well, not to hijaak this topic here but briefly... last night I had an opportunity at the Thursday night meeting to share some thoughts for a few minutes with Roman on the development of concepts similar to that kiosk being expanded for educational and business usage within a shared space context. His interest in doing such things became evident to me that night and I believe we will be seeing some related developments along those lines start to manifest themselves from both the Community Scripting side and the Caligari corporate side. I have lots of things in mind myself to pursue along those lines and have already started on some, so things are looking up.;)
I now return you to topic with my apologies,:o
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by Matski007 // Sep 7, 2007, 11:56pm
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Matski007
Total Posts: 539
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the website is looking good, but I think its about time its completely redesigned to get into this century.
For one thing, in w3C validator it throws up some 103 errors in the coding Here (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.caligari.com%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0)
In my work for various companies in my local area, it would seem that the future for things such as corporate websites are to use CMS's (Content Based Management Systems), whereby regular updating is a doddle via some kind of login form. Software such as Joomla allow you to create a template and CSS file and run all pages off of a database, it allows for faster loading and is fully W3C compliant (as is http://www.mcreations.co.uk)
I would gladly have a go :p |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 8, 2007, 12:57am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Ack Matski...I took a look at your website and your colors are killin' me. :(
A tip that might help you out is that different colors have different visual strength and even though they balance on a color wheel it may take different quantities of each to actually have a balanced color composition.
Also sometimes when using complementary colors, varying intensity (saturation) and value (brightness) can be helpful.
Hope you don't mind, a couple critiques on your site:
1.) The google ads don't fit well into your color/style/presentation theme.
2.) The menu and ad panels should be moved to the right hand side to be less distracting.
3.) On your services page, the text column spacing and that black line look haphazard and non-professional.
4.) needs some stock graphics like people leaning over a laptop, people hand shaking, cool photos of servers and network equipment, etc.
5.) use nicer and larger fonts.
6.) better spacing and use of graphics to separate your groupings text elements. For example a light grey background with rounded corners behind text elements that go together.
Sorry didn't mean to rip it so much. :o Just trying to help out a bit and I think if you improve those things the presentation would be better and you could get more high profile clients. |
Post by Matski007 // Sep 8, 2007, 2:07am
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Matski007
Total Posts: 539
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hah! thanks.
Most of the content is copied from my original website, because I have to balance University work, my job, my video editing and this, it becomes hard to concentrate on one thing. My original colour scheme is created with a colour wheel, it should contain blue as well but I just havent had time.
Thanks for your suggestions though, I will certainly be implementing them soon, along with my hosting service heh |
Post by prodigy // Sep 8, 2007, 2:19am
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prodigy
Total Posts: 3029
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Hi, i've check the validator page and almost the error imo are not valid..
</span(>) is an invalid close??? stupid robots.. ehhehehe..
The page has no errors on the source code.. ;)
About the webdesign, i like this "new" lines but i think the banner at this point must be a dynamic flash.. changing with few banners.. Something more dynamic.. i see this website too static.. Just my oppinion..
Regards.. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 8, 2007, 2:31am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Happy to help.
It does contain blue. But orange is more powerful than blue so takes a LOT of blue to balance a little bit of orange.
Also it helps to vary the value and saturation. If both complimentary colors are full saturation and value then usually it isn't harmonious. For example blue/tan can be more pleasant than blue/orange, even though tan and orange are in relatively the same place on the color wheel. To reverse the example with a bright orange try dark blue grey. But keeping in mind the strong visual impact of the orange, you'd still need the blue in larger quantity.
Working with yellow and orange (and in some cases red) as base colors can be difficult because they have such strong impact at high saturation and value. That's why a lot of times you will see a cooler (less warm ;)) color as the background and the warmer saturated color as the highlight.
On the other hand using warm colors imparts a sense of energy, so it depends on what you are trying to achieve. Adding white and light grays can help maintain a warm dominated color scheme without overpowering the viewer. Just keep in mind that you may want to balance value (brightness) as well between the different warm tones.
I can certainly identify with you about migrating old content, I haven't updated my old website since the 90's and it still has frames.... shudder... lol, I've had a rework in mind for a few years now, but things have come up that I'm probably going to have to do it soon. Hopefully I'll be able to produce as big as I talk, LOL usually not :rolleyes: |
Post by Jack Edwards // Sep 8, 2007, 2:33am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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@ prodigy, I agree its not as exciting as some of the competitors.
But static = easier to maintain and I'd rather they focus on software. ;) |
Post by TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb // Sep 8, 2007, 2:55am
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TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb
Total Posts: 858
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It now loads a LOT faster than it did before so that can only be a good thing. The more rounded look is also more pleasing on the eye than before so, again, a big tick in the box. I'm not wild about the overall colours, very wishy washy and not that dynamic (the aqua/teal buttons at the bottom especially, feels 'weak') and there's so much dead space at the sides it's almost like trying to read off a piece of ribbon! The main nav buttons should be replaced with Flash ones rather than rollovers, much nicer.
BUT, this, along with all other opinions, are just that, opinions. There is no right or wrong and the people in charge are obvioulsy happy with it so that's all that matters. As a user I'm happy it loads quicker and that the site is getting some attention as it was getting a little muddled and needed a de-tangling.
Bravo whoever's responsible! |
Post by Matski007 // Sep 8, 2007, 3:06am
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Matski007
Total Posts: 539
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updated my website briefly heh, some more blue in it.
But static = easier to maintain and I'd rather they focus on software.
Not True!! Static takes much more time to maintain. the internet is evolving into Web 3.0 which involves making every non static. If pages are not static then you dont need to use something like Dreamweaver every time you want to add a bit of news or something, with non static solutions you can quickly add content. |
Post by xmanflash // Sep 8, 2007, 12:34pm
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xmanflash
Total Posts: 335
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updated my website briefly heh, some more blue in it.
Not True!! Static takes much more time to maintain. the internet is evolving into Web 3.0 which involves making every non static. If pages are not static then you dont need to use something like Dreamweaver every time you want to add a bit of news or something, with non static solutions you can quickly add content.
I agree with Matski, (although Jack and Prodigy meant static in terms of not much wooshing and spinning stuff:-) we build a lot of websites (my business is website dev) and find that most companies are upgrading to content management. Nobody builds large corporate websites any more in Dreamweaver, its too cost inefficient to maintain (even with Dreamweaver templates). We still use Dreamweaver to build small HTML sites, and create templates for CMS and Shop systems though.
The problem with using a CMS is that is its often not an in-house job - you need a specialist to build any cms (especially Joomla) into something more than what is provided with the base system, otherwise you end up with a member of staff having to choose, and learn a completely new software system and its coding style, of course there are many add-ins but they don't all work and are not necessarily secure.
I tend to think a large corporate website is often best hand coded by the member of staff responsible using their own skills whatever they are, PHP, ASP.net, Ruby, whatever - it doesn't matter as long as it has CMS techniques built in for updating content. Customising other peoples code can be extremely inneficient.
btw, Joomla 1.5 is much better for customisation and SEO but is very buggy at the moment (still in beta)
The other thing to take into account though is that without code accelerators or proper caching a CMS can be quite inefficient with a LOT of users - something an HTML site can handle more efficiently.
The new site is much lighter, but where is the bottom of the home page? |
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