(Going to copy over what I posted elsewhere as the thread intention is the same)
Sorry for the length of this post! And really sorry if the images are too large.
Hey everyone. I've recently joined the community to hopefully improve my skills and gain more knowledge into design. Basically, with this post I'd like to get as much advice, suggestions and opinions (and critique I suppose?) as I can. This is my first attempt at creating a layout for a site so I'm still getting to grips with what looks good and what does not. Just as a side note: I won't be coding and scripting this, it's a bit of collaborative work between me and a webmaster of another site I help run.
So, about the site. Simply put, it's going to be a gaming news site (yes, we know there are plenty but we're going to make this a start-up then expand if it's successful, using the success of the first site that's already going), with all the usual features but a few other little things we're hoping to include, I've been asked to keep those hush-hush for now though. Layout-wise I've been trying to go for something fairly striking but familiar to readers. I'll put images below with a brief summary of what's going on in each one. I'd like to mention that the latest ones are still largely unfinished, but once I hopefully receive some tips and advice I can get to finishing the layout of the main page and then the pages that follow. Also, these are simply mock-ups, there's not a working version of anything yet. I understand it's hard to determine functionality from still images but hopefully I can get more advice/critique on that when there's a working coded version. Also, we're intending to go for a responsive layout.
#3 A refinement of #2. The featured area is scrapped in favour of tiles. Not a huge amount to say here.
IMAGE
#5 This is the same as #4 but with the addition of side bar items on the right, these are things we REALLY want to include on the main page but I feel that they make it all a bit cluttered, so any suggestions there are a bonus. They're hopefully going to contain information on a large part of the site.
IMAGE
Hopefully that's all good. I tried actually embedding the images in the post but they weren't showing in the preview for some reason, so assumed they weren't going to work. I am open to critique on all aspects, like I said this is my first time doing this so the more advice I get the better. If you require larger images or any more details I'll happily provide them. I'll also update later with a small addition I've added relating to navigation, which isn't including in #4 & #5.
Thanks!
Sorry for the length of this post! And really sorry if the images are too large.
Hey everyone. I've recently joined the community to hopefully improve my skills and gain more knowledge into design. Basically, with this post I'd like to get as much advice, suggestions and opinions (and critique I suppose?) as I can. This is my first attempt at creating a layout for a site so I'm still getting to grips with what looks good and what does not. Just as a side note: I won't be coding and scripting this, it's a bit of collaborative work between me and a webmaster of another site I help run.
So, about the site. Simply put, it's going to be a gaming news site (yes, we know there are plenty but we're going to make this a start-up then expand if it's successful, using the success of the first site that's already going), with all the usual features but a few other little things we're hoping to include, I've been asked to keep those hush-hush for now though. Layout-wise I've been trying to go for something fairly striking but familiar to readers. I'll put images below with a brief summary of what's going on in each one. I'd like to mention that the latest ones are still largely unfinished, but once I hopefully receive some tips and advice I can get to finishing the layout of the main page and then the pages that follow. Also, these are simply mock-ups, there's not a working version of anything yet. I understand it's hard to determine functionality from still images but hopefully I can get more advice/critique on that when there's a working coded version. Also, we're intending to go for a responsive layout.
_________
Here goes...
Images #1 - #4 I've included to show the development process, we've moved away from using those for the simple fact we don't don't like them. That doesn't mean we won't or can't draw more elements from them if you think they're stronger.
#1 Basically, this was the first layout created, with a few follow-ons to the right (the slanted thing was never going to happen, merely trying something a little abnormal). Follows a generic news delivery site format. The large area at the top was intended as an area to display feature news as well as latest submissions from users. The rest should be self explanatory. The grey rectangles are the logo and information I've withdrawn for now. The logo however is fully complete, just not wanting to show due to it revealing information not ready to be shown.
IMAGE
Images #1 - #4 I've included to show the development process, we've moved away from using those for the simple fact we don't don't like them. That doesn't mean we won't or can't draw more elements from them if you think they're stronger.
#1 Basically, this was the first layout created, with a few follow-ons to the right (the slanted thing was never going to happen, merely trying something a little abnormal). Follows a generic news delivery site format. The large area at the top was intended as an area to display feature news as well as latest submissions from users. The rest should be self explanatory. The grey rectangles are the logo and information I've withdrawn for now. The logo however is fully complete, just not wanting to show due to it revealing information not ready to be shown.
IMAGE
_________
#2
Next up is a more image-based attempt. Far from finished, yet maintaining the 'featured news' area.
_________
#3 A refinement of #2. The featured area is scrapped in favour of tiles. Not a huge amount to say here.
IMAGE
_________
#4 This is hopefully our final layout (after suggestions and improvements). Again, the black rectangle is the position of the logo. The entire image at the top is a single featured area. Which displays the latest article relating to it, along with a preview of the games 'Hub' (a congregation of all things related to the game). Tried to maintain a tile look.
_________
#5 This is the same as #4 but with the addition of side bar items on the right, these are things we REALLY want to include on the main page but I feel that they make it all a bit cluttered, so any suggestions there are a bonus. They're hopefully going to contain information on a large part of the site.
IMAGE
Hopefully that's all good. I tried actually embedding the images in the post but they weren't showing in the preview for some reason, so assumed they weren't going to work. I am open to critique on all aspects, like I said this is my first time doing this so the more advice I get the better. If you require larger images or any more details I'll happily provide them. I'll also update later with a small addition I've added relating to navigation, which isn't including in #4 & #5.
Thanks!