unforum

[Alzheimers]

Do professional webpages make the game better?

[Wishi-san]

Flash a website does not make.

It obviously depends on context. If your site is being "made" by a billion dollar earning company they will - or should - have a professionally made, browser compliant website. However, if the local hairdressers have managed to find a copy of Frontpage stuffed in a dustbin and made their site with it, it probably isn't going to be a design masterpiece.

Oh, and "designed in Notepad"? I don't see why you're classifying this as a bad thing. Stock photos are used often, UH uses them and MU made liberal usage of them (as delightfully pointed out by catherwood - repeatedly )

[LGarrett]

Having my own site and having professionally worked on several sites, there's always one thing to remember (and I've had to remind clients of this repeatedly) -- a web page is designed to convey information. If you load a webpage down with flash or graphics, it may look cool, but is it functional?

Some individuals use their websites as a portfolio, so the site will be in Flash, with convoluted graphics and cool effects, but because it's so busy and takes a ridiculous amount of time to load, it takes away from the message, which is "Hey, I know all this cool stuff so hire me."

The key to any good webpage is to first ascertain what information needs to be on said page, and then make sure that information is accessible to the largest audience possible. That doesn't mean it has to be straight text on a grey background; it just means don't get so caught up in the medium that you forget to focus on the message.

And one other thing to remember -- load times are important. If you have players on dialup, generally you want the page to load in 30 seconds or less. I personally advise 15 seconds, myself. Long load times are just as dangerous as having text that can't be read due to the background color or pattern.

By the way, I used nothing but Textpad when I coded the HTML for my website (http://www.quasispace.org). The tools have nothing to do with the final appearance.

Just my $0.02.

[colin]

remember your creating a reality, you need to think how each page should look in that reality. as wishi said, it's about context. take i love bees for example, the page (without the curruptions) is really average and not that great, but it suits the context

[Nightmare Tony]

Which is why its always good to enlist a web designer who is clear on the concept of the ARg, from designing a simple 10 year old's website to a company looking one andhaving the code and styles to match.

[vpisteve]

I'd agree. It's all about context. Some sites must look professionally done for them to be believable (corporite sites, for example) while others can get away with varying degrees of complexity based on who's supposed to have built them.

I think one thing that's really important (this is just my personal preference) is that the sites really look like they're designed by different people, have a completely different look/layout to them.

Gambatte!

[FLmutant]

[Phaedra]

[Nightmare Tony]

if you ghave the right people doing it, you CAN get a good look. I had been PMing a game which just finished, and the company websites on the game looked pretty good, IMHO.

Its not about flash and stupid graphics tricks and CSS. Its about clear content and context.

[joebrent]

[Phaedra]

[joebrent]

And she speaks Yiddish too! Phaedra, if you tell me you're a Knicks fan, I'm buying a ring right now.

[Phaedra]