Want $200 and Neverending Glory? Redesign eyesonff.com!

I will give $200 to anyone who comes up with a new design for eyesonff.com that I love.

Here is the facts:

:: I feel like eyesonff could use a little make over. I don't have the time anymore, but I still love the site and I want it to grow and stay competitive.

:: I was going through some old design ideas (1, 2, 3)that Ash threw tegether way back in early 2001 and it got me thinking about how nice a change would be. Please note that while I show these images as examples, I do not necesarily suggest that I want you to copy that style. Be creative.

So here are the rules:

1. If I get 50 submissions and I'm not happy with any of them, no one gets any $. A reward will only be given for the artist of a design that is chosen.

2. Make as many designs as you want. You can make 20 designs if you want to.

3. If your design looks like any other FF site, I will most likely give it little to no chance. I don't want EoFF to look like anyone else. This design, for instance, looks FAR too much like a certain other site.

4. Don't be afraid to experiment with colors. Maybe make a site with the existing eyesonff colors and then make another with different eye pleasing colors.

5. Redesign of eyesonff.com may spark a redesign of a new style on the forums. This, for instance, would make a great header to the main site as well as to the forums. You get my point?

6. You can post your work in this thread, or you can email me at webmaster@eyesonff.com.

7. In terms of the amount of time for this contest to go on, right now we're looking at at least 2 or 3 weeks. If I'm not happy with the submissions or it's not enough time, I'll extend it.

8. All I'm asking you to do is come up with a design idea, not take eyesonff.com and go through and plug in every page to your design. Just work out the graphics and html on eyesonff.com/index.shtml and I'll all the rest of the pages in myself (if I chose your design).

Good luck.

Just so everyone's aware, Cid is running this himself so please don't PM me asking for any details. :p While I'm not good enough to come up with an HTML-from-scratch of sorts (and therefore it's very unlikely I will be submitting designs) I have always had a lot of ideas for the site that I would like to use, I'll do my best to remember as many as I can and list them off in this thread. If anyone sees an idea they'd like to implement just say so. Off the top of my head, these include using a different News program (we currently use the extremely ancient Newspro) which allows for an RSS feed as well as having specific images for each type of news, drop down menus a la Loki 7 or even a la the vB3 forums, integrating the site with the forums, as well as smaller things like seperating FF and SE games. I'll obviously come up with a lot more later on. :p

Cid: Should we not advertise this on the frontsite/announcements, and can we advertise at other forums if we like? I'm thinking of submitting this to vBulletin's forums to see if we can get any more good ideas as well as possibly a couple of people submitting designs.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

drop down menus a la Loki 7

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Is vaugly famous :D

Nah I shall have a stab at it for you, I doubt I can come up with anything spectacular but who knows I might just have an idea for something you might want to use...

*shrugs*

Edit: If you can't get hold of any webspace to display your example page PM me and I'll probably upload a copy onto my back-up server so you can show them off to Cid and whoever. Only bother if its a complete one though as I won't give you FTP access because my host doesn't give me 2 FTP accounts...

Oh yeah, you can contact me about that - If anyone wants me to upload a design for submission onto my eyesonff.com/BoB/ space, I'm happy to do so. You'll have to email, loony_bob at yahoo dot com.

By design? Do you want an image provided of a specific design, or do you want HTML included?

I'm not any good with HTML so I can't provide that, but I can do something by an image of a design I may make.

Once you decide which one is fit for the forums, will you 'test' it out for a bit and gather reactions from the members. Though I trust your judgement, if you pick one that no-one else likes, I don't want to be stuck with it ^_^.

Just what I've got so far:

http://www.merchantsofdoom.com/~baloki/eoff_test1/

Not finished of course but I'll add to it now :D

Edit: Added to it, just need to add the right hand bar and it should be finished :D

Edit²: There should be finished, I dunno if I missed anything but meh... I now wait to see what my competitors come up with :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Agent Proto

By design? Do you want an image provided of a specific design, or do you want HTML included?

I'm not any good with HTML so I can't provide that, but I can do something by an image of a design I may make.

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I pretty much meant html :(.

If you want something different, green is a nice color that I haven't seen used in any FF sites. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by White Raven

Once you decide which one is fit for the forums, will you 'test' it out for a bit and gather reactions from the members. Though I trust your judgement, if you pick one that no-one else likes, I don't want to be stuck with it ^_^.

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I would plan to have this style (EoFF v1.0) still selectable from the style menu, of course.

Im HTML stupid so would you be accepting anything done with Microsoft Frontpage?

Sure, that's html too.

My only two cents on this is that when the winning style is selected that one central style-sheet be used for ease of updating the site's style in the future.

Plus if you wanted to real slick you could assign a style sheet to each style (the current one and the winner), then you just need a javascript method that loads the style-sheet that the user selected and set their preference in the cookie. So then not only could a user select the style they like in the forums, but for the front site as well. Of course to do that then the layout of the forums couldn't change, or it'd be a nightmare trying to readjust everything in the javascript.

And on a side note: If you ask me nicely I might HTML-ize your entry for you if you're HTML illiterate.

FM if you were gonna go down the route of using two different layouts for the front site and making them selectable you would probably be better off PHP'ing it and having done wiht it :D

Yeah, two different layouts would be better that way. But for two different color schemes javascript would be worlds easier.

And that's a possibility for you Cid, if you like a certain layout but can't decide on the colors, you can always use the same layout with two or three color schemes that are selectable in the footer of every page. How many Final Fantasy sites offer that outside of their forums, huh? :cool:

EDIT:I have a question, how do ads play into this? Do contestants need to consider where they go in the layout and do they have any room in deciding where they go and what they are (i.e. banner ads vs. sidebar ads)?

Doomsday - I'm only interested in looking unique from say, the top 10 Final Fantasy sites. If a small message board uses green, don't let it discourage you from doing so. Although most sites use blue, no one uses that particular hue that we do on the front page, so I consider it unique.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Olly

Im HTML stupid so would you be accepting anything done with Microsoft Frontpage?

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Can't be much worse than what was used to code EoFF in the first place. :D

I'm thinking of submitting something but I don't think I could get money for it since it'll mainly be alterations rather than a new site.

Master Cid. would a colour scheme like www.carrotmaster.com/joel be workable?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Olly

Master Cid. would a colour scheme like www.carrotmaster.com/joel be workable?

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Probably too dark, me thinks.

Don't be afraid to even try a white background and work from that, as long as it looks professional.

Hey Cid, if we base it on your design can we split the winnings with you? xDD

I'm not that good with HTML, and my website designs would be all depressing, like black and grey, if I could even make them. So good luck everyone. :)

For the love of all things holy, could you add a requirement that this thing has to work in Firefox and Opera as well as IE? Or add a requirement that it has to be XHTML compliant or something? See http://validator.w3.org/

When you say design do you mean you want the layout to remain the same and you just want a new graphical look? Say like a box around all the titles for the games and so forth.

Can I use javascript and stuff to create drop down menus and more java script to do stuff?

I am not good with making pictures and things like that as the only thing I have is paint. Will it be held against me if I use say a big box that say 'insert banner type picture here' and leave it up to you guys to create a picture for that spot?

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Originally Posted by Dr Unne

For the love of all things holy, could you add a requirement that this thing has to work in Firefox and Opera as well as IE? Or add a requirement that it has to be XHTML compliant or something? See http://validator.w3.org/

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Mine does work in Firefox considering I built it in FIREFOX!

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Originally Posted by edczxcvbnm

Can I use javascript and stuff to create drop down menus and more java script to do stuff?

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If you do that you should make sure that the same functionality is present if the user has javascript disabled, i.e. not using javascript won't inhibit the user from traversing the site.

I think it'd be nice if someone kept it simplistic. For example, I think that the FFOnline layout has far too much going on. Images and crazy designs and such. I always have enjoyed how the EoFF layout kept a simple style.

But that's me. I don't intend on making a layout unless I get really bored or motivated.

I agree. Websites with tons of images suck.

I agree with Unne as well. And if you're going to use CSS, might as well validate that too. :D

If you do your images right, they shouldn't take long to download. I'm looking at some old stuff right now that was intended for the site, and while there are a few more images (emphasis on few), none of them are over 47k.

I'm thinking more along the lines of the entire layout being one, or a few big, clickable images. That's bad. Simple as it may be, the old text within a table, a banner, and a few more images here and there works best, I think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yamaneko

I'm thinking more along the lines of the entire layout being one, or a few big, clickable images. That's bad. Simple as it may be, the old text within a table, a banner, and a few more images here and there works best, I think.

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Exactly.

Yeah, I agree, simplicity is key. Most people won't try to navigate a site that's too crowded or confusing. If your news is the most important part of your site, it should be plainly visible and obvious that it's the news, if game sections are the most important part of the list, they should be linked to planing and obvious that they are links to games, etc...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yams

I'm thinking more along the lines of the entire layout being one, or a few big, clickable images. That's bad. Simple as it may be, the old text within a table, a banner, and a few more images here and there works best, I think.

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Oh, in that case, I totally agree.

Here's an example of a clean FF site without a lot of eye-candy: http://www.ffinsider.net/

Haha, I was just looking at that place just a couple minutes ago. Being a light-colored site (I'm not big fan of light-colored sites), I like it.

Black backgrounds scream two bit fansite.

I'm thinking black background with maybe lime green text. We should have EoFF scrolling across the top in red Times New Roman and have the FF7 theme playing as a midi on loop.

Frames are a neccessity along with as many animated cutsey .gifs of all the characters as possible.

Oh yes indeed.

My HTML knowledge is about as limited as that though, so although I have ideas I wouldn't be able to submit anything.

Chaos

Actually, I like black backgrounds. You might call it two-bit, but I think white backgrounds suck. It also comes down to who you want to appeal to. FF fans aren't exactly white-background-loving people, and black backgrounds are generally accepted by them. That's why Baloki and I aren't going too far from Cid's design - I'd hate for EoFF to lose itself like that, and I really do think that "going corporate" would lose us more fans than it'd gain us. I really hope we don't end up with a white background.

I don't know how much I can say while Cid is my boss, but I really do hope that we don't change too much because what we have works well for us and has done for four years now. Still, I trust his judgement. I think. :p

I accept check, cash or paypal.

Spiff, you stole my idea. You bastard.

Quote: Originally Posted by Chaos I'm thinking black background with maybe lime green text. We should have EoFF scrolling across the top in red Times New Roman and have the FF7 theme playing as a midi on loop. Frames are a neccessity along with as many animated cutsey .gifs of all the characters as possible.

:smash:

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Originally Posted by Spaceman Spiff

I accept check, cash or paypal.

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Dude, send me that Yuna cosplay pic. Or post it somewhere else in a picture that isn't your troutty awesome website.

As long as its smooth looking im happy.

The way it is already is so suave.

Damn you, Spiff, that made me spit Pepsi by the nose. Now my nostrils are burning/itching.

All good things about change being said - I don't think EoFF should stray too far from how it is now. After all, there's a lot to be said for "if it's not broke, don't fix it". A little change would be nice, but the way I see it, EoFF has become widely known and respected in the tried and true layout it has now.

I would have to agree with Yams, BoB and Garland. In my opinion, anything too white/light would be too drastic of a change for EoFF, and the simplicity that we have here is also something that I would like to see stay. A site that is to busy looking just doesn't hold my interest when I first click onto it because it's just too much information assaulting me at once. However, this is not my site so I will accept whatever changes that Cid/Sean decides to make to it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chaos

I'm thinking black background with maybe lime green text. We should have EoFF scrolling across the top in red Times New Roman and have the FF7 theme playing as a midi on loop.

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Ah-HA! *steals this idea*

Ta-da! click me!

Now that $10,000 will be mine!

(Misfit rated my creation thus:
lvlisf1t: o_O
lvlisf1t: o_o
lvlisf1t: What is THAT?!
I THINK SHE LIKED IT! :D!)

However, I am considering giving another entry. A "Serious" one. But that depends on how inspired I am. And if my HTML stuff holds up. Wish me luck :p

EDIT: Oh, and those of you who click my link, I seriously recommend you use IE to do so. It'll make the site better. I mean geez, it's not like you're gonna get spyware or popups or anything from there anyway.

My eyes, the BUUUUURRRRRN!!!

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Originally Posted by Spaceman Spiff

I accept check, cash or paypal.

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I :love: you

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hsu

Dude, send me that Yuna cosplay pic. Or post it somewhere else in a picture that isn't your troutty awesome website.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Ah-HA! *steals this idea*

Ta-da! click me!

Now that $10,000 will be mine!

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:D

That really made my morning.

Anyway, the only things I can decently code are simple divs, and they're not pretty.... ;_;

I think I'll give this a go at the weekend. =)

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Originally Posted by Xander

I think I'll give this a go at the weekend. =)

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*Puts away the letter bomb*

Mental note: Save Psy's site design.

That made me laugh when I looked at it last night.

First of all, I would like to point out that I have no idea how any of this would be done. I am a complete web-design ignoramous.

That being said, I'm going to be spouting off my uninformed opinion. Something that I think would make the frontsite more attractive is a different way to present the news. I've heard different things about the current system/program/whatever in place, and know that's being overhauled. However, I'm unsure if that addresses my personal concern. Visitors to the site have to scroll down a pretty lengthy page to see the older news, which is surrounded by a lot of blank space on either side if you scroll down far enough. Like I said I don't know much about web-design, but page design I do know from working on my high school yearbook and for community newspapers and the like. The biggest thing I learned from this is that blank space is a BIG nono. So, my question/suggestion is; is there a way to make the updates on the frontsite more concise, scrolling-wise? Does this make any sense? I have no idea. If not, ignore me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fire_of_avalon

First of all, I would like to point out that I have no idea how any of this would be done. I am a complete web-design ignoramous.

That being said, I'm going to be spouting off my uninformed opinion. Something that I think would make the frontsite more attractive is a different way to present the news. I've heard different things about the current system/program/whatever in place, and know that's being overhauled. However, I'm unsure if that addresses my personal concern. Visitors to the site have to scroll down a pretty lengthy page to see the older news, which is surrounded by a lot of blank space on either side if you scroll down far enough. Like I said I don't know much about web-design, but page design I do know from working on my high school yearbook and for community newspapers and the like. The biggest thing I learned from this is that blank space is a BIG nono. So, my question/suggestion is; is there a way to make the updates on the frontsite more concise, scrolling-wise? Does this make any sense? I have no idea. If not, ignore me.

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Currently, the only thing that could be done would be to limit the news stories to 5 or 8 instead of the current 25(?) per page we have. I wouldn't want to do that. I certainly couldn't come up with enough links on the side to kill the blank space either... hmm...

We could open an advertising space there, although I'm not sure if Google ads allows for external advertisements on the same pages.

The main reason we have so many news entries on the main page is because it actually has an influence on our rankings within search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, so as Cid said, it's not advisable to take them away purely for aesthetic reasons. The amount they add to load times is minimal and if someone scrolls to the bottom then they'd likely only be interested in the news, so I can't see it being too big a problem.

If we made it so that instead of menues opening for each final fantasy game, the menus appeared under the appropriate games title in the menu we could get many more links appearing and there would not be as much wasted space.

The problem however with the folding menus I thought about using is that if the person doesn't have Java all the linksjust show up because the javascript isn't hiding them....

Tip for everyone: When using java, this should be how you set it up...

1) When you click on a game name, the sections for that game should drop down, much like subfolders do in Windows Explorer when you click on a folder (which has subfolders, obviously!).
2) If a browser does not have java activated, then when they click on a game name they should be taken to the index page for that game, just like they do on the current site.

This should nullify any problems. Make sure that when you do set this up that it works in as many browsers as possible, at the very least it should work in both IE and Firefox.

At least, that's how I personally advise you set it up.

If not done correctly, the java drop down could look very bad. Try to make it... um... look good!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fire_of_avalon

So, my question/suggestion is; is there a way to make the updates on the frontsite more concise, scrolling-wise? Does this make any sense? I have no idea. If not, ignore me.

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Actually you can also use <div>'s with a defined height and width to make a scrollable news "frame", without actually using any frames, like this:

Headline

This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news.

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Headline

This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news.

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Headline

This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news.

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Headline

This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news.

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Headline

This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news.

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Headline

This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news. This is news.

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*javascript

I'd have to kill you all if you installed java applets on the main site. :D

This is an entry, although it's not as pretty. Basically I'm showing it to give other people ideas and show a coule of things. First, you see that it has drop downs up top. Drop downs are great for navigation if you need to save real-estate on the page. And the other thing, the main thing, is you can see how easy it is to swap styles on the page by choosing your style from the drop down on the left, another cool thing if we want to allow people to choose a style they like, and it can even be saved in a cookie and remembered for later if need be (although I didn't do that here). Plus the news is in a scrollable div, so it avoids the nasty frames and such.

Basically I was trying for a simple and compact design.
http://www.geocities.com/chadmonkey/.../newlook1.html

Needs a few more br's and maybe another menu, but I like the basic idea and would encourage people to follow Mullets comments :D :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yamaneko

*javascript

I'd have to kill you all if you installed java applets on the main site. :D

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Yeah. Lots of people would.

There are ways to use JS without completely crapping up a site, but I don't think it's easy, and possibly not worth the trouble / risk. If you want to do Javascript dropdown somethings-or-other though, I recommend http://www.destroydrop.com/javascripts/tree/ . And if you put a non-JS version in some NOSCRIPT tags, it will work fine in non-JS browsers too.

I HATE IE

What? Don't look at me like that! Blame Shlup mentioning this in her LJ; 'tis the only reason I knew about it XD

Anyway, I hate IE. I spent ages coding this and it looks so <3ly in Firefox, but in IE... *shudders* It's just horrible, absolutely horrible. Of course, if someone nice were to fix it up for me I'd be greatful, though Seaniepants can do that himself I figure if he really likes it XD God knows I need sleep now, so ta- ra, and I'll probably never be back again. (How many times have we heard that before? XD)

You'll be back to answer my question. :D

Those underlined links burn out my eyes. Could you fix that? And maybe round out the bottom of the table with another image, like you did on top. The rest looks good. :)

It's just a matter of changing the link colors. It's very good. I hope this wins, because none others have been good. But there's more to be made, so we'll see.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spatvark

I HATE IE

What? Don't look at me like that! Blame Shlup mentioning this in her LJ; 'tis the only reason I knew about it XD

Anyway, I hate IE. I spent ages coding this and it looks so <3ly in Firefox, but in IE... *shudders* It's just horrible, absolutely horrible. Of course, if someone nice were to fix it up for me I'd be greatful, though Seaniepants can do that himself I figure if he really likes it XD God knows I need sleep now, so ta- ra, and I'll probably never be back again. (How many times have we heard that before? XD)

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Has a lot of potential. Clean it up and you could be in good shape. 95% of people use IE.

I think whoever gets there's picked should not accept the money and instead put the money towards paying for the website. That would make the person more noble and more respectable.

Here is a submission that I received through email:

http://www.eyesonff.com/redesign/Final/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cid

Here is a submission that I received through email:

http://www.eyesonff.com/redesign/Final/

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Have you lookedat that one yet? It looks like the entire site is squashed into the scrollable frame at the left. Something's not right.

Also, I updated my submission to look more "legit": http://www.geocities.com/chadmonkey/.../newlook1.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by White Raven

I think whoever gets there's picked should not accept the money and instead put the money towards paying for the website. That would make the person more noble and more respectable.

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Or you could give it to me to help pay my rent. That would be even more noble.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Flying Mullet

Have you lookedat that one yet? It looks like the entire site is squashed into the scrollable frame at the left. Something's not right.

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Yeah...it has a nice color and image scheme, but everything is too small and seperated from each other.

I figured out what it is, it doesn't run in Mozilla. :mad:

Instead of taking up the whole screen, pretty much everything onthat page tries to squeeze into the news frame.

Also, there are a lot of big images on that page that are a quarter to a third of a meg, so that the entire page is almost 1 meg when uploaded, not too friendly for even high speed internet.

OK, I made some changes, minor ones at that and got it working mostly (it's HERE if you're too lazy to just scroll upwards) though you may need to Ctrl+F5 to see it properly. The only hitch in it I can see is the 2 pixel tall gap beneath the chocobo, which only appears in IE, and it's been driving me crazy for hours on end, literally. I think I just fried my brain on all the other coding that I can't see the simple solution, so I figure someone else can fix that up.

A quick run though on a few things:

• The pic in the top-left corner I figure should change depending upon the section the viewer is in; i.e. one for each game and one for the main site, though always retaining the link back to the main page.
• The sidebar also should change for each section, since I figure that's important.
• I've tried to use as few attention grabbing images as possible, seeing I figure you'll still want to customize it a bit before throwing it up, if you do decide upon this design =P
• The entire content area, including the poll/feature/email bit are contained within it's own table, which should make removing the poll/feature/email bit for the game sections fairly easy.
• The site in general is designed to be converted into SHTML, since when i was coding stuff over here, I decided I really liked how it worked =P I'd have it up on my site as SHTML, except a, it doesn't work on my host, b, stuff like the poll/feature/email bit would probably end up being very different from what I'd have made it, and c, you can see exactly how it's working here, rather than having hidden pages n' stuff.
• The CSS is currently internal, but it wouldn't take more than a few seconds to externalise it, so you sods can do it =P

It's roughly 4:30am here, so I'm heading off to bed. I'll probably have a crack at the gap underneath the chocobo tomorrow, but if someone else figures out how to solve, please do tell =P

Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugue.

I like the way EoFF looks now. Can't we just not change anything and pretend like we did instead of trading in our present, awesome design for something that will probably look like it came out of a pit bull's rectum?

Edit: No offense to any of the aspiring designers, but frankly, our current design would be harder than a 15-year-old watching the porn channel to top. It just loooks that good

I agree with that guy. Whoever that guy is.

Email man's and Spatty's look promising. Although I'm a bit sick of blue now. A different colour would make it all the more unique and "out there."

Yes, if I'm not mistaken, EOFF's had this current layout for almost for...ever!?!? Nah; just as far as I know. More than 2 years, anyway. Or is my sense of time really bad?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mo-Nercy³

Email man's and Spatty's look promising. Although I'm a bit sick of blue now. A different colour would make it all the more unique and "out there."

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While you say "out there", I think "just like every other new FF site on the internet." There are dozens of nice looking sites on the 'net, and a lot of them have nicely designed sites. The fact that we haven't changed much, if at all, over the past four or so years means we have something that new sites don't. A lot of companies etc. in the world only make big changes if their existing setup isn't working for them. This one is working for us, so I personally don't think it should be changed that much - more so it needs to be improved. That's my opinion, anyway. The site design Baloki and I are working on is based on the existing layout but with a lot of improvements for both the user and the staff to work with.

I do admit that there are a lot of blue sites and whatnot around, but we are the blue FF site. If we changed, we'd give that title to someone else. To be the best of the mainstream is good, because mainstream is just that - mainstream - for a reason. People can change colours for a nice refreshment, but in the long run blue has worked for us and I'd be shocked if we changed too much, personally... although you never know, we might end up with multiple site options for all I know. I suppose anything is possible. =o

*gets back to working on the news template*

If we get rid of the blue theme, I'm going on a killing spree.

You big baby.

Email guy revised it a bit: http://www.eyesonff.com/redesign/fin...sed/Index.html

That link gives a 404 error in both IE and Mozilla, but so far, those are the colours that I like best. :)

Whopsie, fixed

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cid

Email guy revised it a bit: http://www.eyesonff.com/redesign/fin...sed/Index.html

---

Now THAT is awesome. The complaint I have is that the news is a little too far down - maybe the nav bars should be on each side of the news rather than all on top of it.

edit: Something else...there are images at the top for each of the FF games, so why not use those as links to the respective section rather than having them be static images and having the normal links to the sections in text?

The links outside of the games could just be in text as always, though.

It's not bad. I like the black but it would be nice to have more EoFF blue in it somewhere else other than just the boxes...like maybe for the links because that blue seems a bit on the bright side. I don't like the games listed all across the top though. That is one of the things that really would make it look like every other FF site out there because that's what they all seem to have. I like the background.

Another email entry: http://www.ffward.net/eoffprev.jpg

I kinda like hat one :p like the colors

Here is a working version of it. I need to finish up the banner. :(

http://www.ffward.net/eyesonff55.html

That is like the perfect shade of green. But it's...green! :)

Well, I would have done blue, but too many people have mixed feelings about it. Have any other suggestions?

Hell, I may even use this as my layout if it doesn't make it.

Two problems I saw with that one:
Not blue...which you already addressed.
No actual mention of the name of the site through banners or anything. Just the advertisement. Maybe in that image you had at the top put the logo in or something.

No, I like the green. It's would just be so different. I'd like to see it with the banner.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hsu

Two problems I saw with that one:
Not blue...which you already addressed.
No actual mention of the name of the site through banners or anything. Just the advertisement. Maybe in that image you had at the top put the logo in or something.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sean

I need to finish up the banner. :(

---

But yes, I need to add the eyesonff font, which I just recieved from Sean (Cid).

Edit: While I was originally going to add another image the header, I felt it was too cluttered already, so I just input the eyesonff font. If you want I can try a few different color schemes, if this layout is still needed/wanted.

Whoops. I need to learn to read more carefully.

Although I don't think it'd fit EoFF (I disagree with changing too much), I would find it really amusing if the person who won was 'Sean'. xD

:D You know it.

Any who, I went ahead and created a dark blue, almost gray, one.

http://www.ffward.net/eyesonff.html (green one)
http://www.ffward.net/eyesonff2.html (blueish/grayish one)

I really like both of those colour schemes, especially the blue/gray. Don't know if they would go for EoFF, but I like them. I also like the simple and uncluttered layout.

I cant do html but i can design banners and such if the new site needs them or someone putting an entrie(sp?) needs some done. If my voice counts for anythng none of the entries really look as good as the current site. No offense or anything.

That's because the current layout kicks a mountain of ass the size of the Death Star.

Nicely put

Here is my entry.

Bleys is that you? Man I didn't even know. Hello :)

One and the same.

Ironically enough, as someone who's made an entry, I kinda agree with Plushiebunny. I seem to remember doing a redesign a while back that wasn't really a redesign, but just adding a bar underneath the banner image that contained links to the individual game sections because of the poor navigation on the site, but Cid decided against it, because he didn't want it to "look like every other FF site out there." I fail to see the difference between now and then =P

I agree that the layout shouldn't be changed too much, but I do think that improvements need to be made to the site (if we can figure out how to get them to work well) as there are certain aspects of our site that are not browser friendly, along with added features rather than layout changes. I'll talk to Baloki but we should be able to submit at least the link to the site revamp we're working on, including an entirely new news program which allows us for future upgrades as well as easy template changes / manual improvements as it's MySQL based. We also have a third member who has contributed to our design image-wise.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

I'll talk to Baloki

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I should appear online then >.> <.<

*too lazy to enter* I like Spatvark's design best at the moment.. the blue colours are nice and I like the rounded corners. Plus it's not too drastically different from the current site. The email entry is alright but still seems too fussy for EoFF.

A combined effort by BoB and Baloki. With the help of an old friend who made half of the images a long time ago.

zee coding, it burns, IT BURNS!!!! *.*

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Loony BoB

A combined effort by BoB and Baloki. With the help of an old friend who made half of the images a long time ago.

---

=Greatness.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Loony BoB

A combined effort by BoB and Baloki. With the help of an old friend who made half of the images a long time ago.

---

That is slick. It combines newness with oldness. Wow.

edit: Heh, I just noticed how old some of that layout stuff is. ZZN e-mail? Dual-DVD FFX poll? Hahaaaaaaaaa.

Did it load fast for you guys? I've got all the images cached so I'm not sure on how well it goes for a 56k person for the first time or anything. I think it loads pretty well though, given the increase in images.

The changes we made:

1) Obviously there's the images. New images for headers of sections and also images behind the various sections.
2) Java based menu - this allows anyone to get to any page without having to click through one, two or even three other pages - a huge help to people with slow connections.
3) Improved news system, which not only allows us to add categories (the category changes the image to be displayed), but it's also MySQL based which means you can modify it, add new fields etc. with ease. It's also a new freeware program which had it's last update just four days ago, so unlike Newspro, it's not ancient and it's still being worked on to this day. I actually had the news program fully set up on my server just to make sure it worked. :p I'm hoping to work this system so we can set up an RSS with it, that would mean out news reporters would no longer be required to cross-post entries into our EoFF News LiveJournal.
4) Toplinks (which could be removed if neccessary) to various parts of the site. This allows users to access the forums etc. from any area of the site.
5) Although not new, I suppose I should mention that it's SHTML - we can convert this to php if needed, which would allow for possible forum integration on the frontsite (although this would require hacking the forums, something we've been able to avoid so far). Nicely coded by Baloki, too. :)
6) Most importantly in my eyes, it's not a massive difference. This means that people who already visit the site won't be put off by the change, it will remain easy to navigate (in fact, it should remain easier to navigate) and it remains true to EoFF and what I believe to be a simple yet effective layout that needs no changes as simple and effective is exactly what it should be.

Also, the coding is by Baloki and we are able to create more of the same type of images you see on the page. This means that we won't be relying on people who are no longer with us to recreate images just to have them look 'not quite right'.

EDIT: Regarding the 'old' stuff, that's due to our long-gone silent partner who created some of the images you see on the right and also the banner. We, er, removed the 'Gamesquad' bit. ;) If you're wondering why the FF's don't go beyond FFIX, it's because poor Baloki hand-coded the lists you see there and couldn't be arsed completing the list entirely (and I don't blame him!).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Did it load fast for you guys? I've got all the images cached so I'm not sure on how well it goes for a 56k person for the first time or anything. I think it loads pretty well though, given the increase in images.

---

Very much so, then again I'm using cable. I actually enjoy your layout more so than the one I made; good show. The only thing I'd say is fix the css for the borders surrounding the links, since they don't show up as you'd like them to in mozilla. Other than that it’s good. :cool:

I'm all for shoving a .php ending on it, PHP is much more reliable and stable in Mozzilla/Firefox and Oprea when it comes to including files. Personal opinion though :D

What was the other thing :D Oh yes, what do you mean resizing the borders? I've got it running in Firefox and it seems fine to me, unless you mean the text getting very close to the border, but that can't be helped at the current time. Although I will try and fix it by reducing some image sizes :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Loony BoB

A combined effort by BoB and Baloki. With the help of an old friend who made half of the images a long time ago.

---

Oooo, it looks great. Its uberspifferiffitastic!!!

http://www.ffward.net/ieborder.jpg
http://www.ffward.net/mozborder.jpg

Not really all that big of a deal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sean

http://www.ffward.net/ieborder.jpg
http://www.ffward.net/mozborder.jpg

Not really all that big of a deal.

---

xD, nothing I can do, sorry mate :D

Thanks for bringing it up though :D

IE 1, Mozzilla 0 :D

Email guy strikes again:

http://www.eyesonff.com/redesign/r2/...ed2/Index.html

In the css create a new point (.blah or whatever) and add

Code:

---

.blah {BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse; then the other values you want here;}

---

Once you do that go to the tables with the links and add

Code:

---

class="blah"

---

inside the table tags.

mayyybeeeee *runs*

BoB and Baloki: very nice, definitely the best so far. I remember seeing Britt's new design ages ago, and not using it seemed a huge waste.

I vote for BoB's and Baloki's. Uber-pimpage, dudes. I wanted BoB to edit this post for me, but he didn't.

I like e-mail guy's layout, too. There are a lot of great designs going around.

BoB's getting testy so I'm posting...

Honestly, I don't know if I've seen anything so far that is worthy of a switch. I love the new news program with an image for the news story, I haven't decided if I like the javascript links.

BoBs and Baloki has potential, but I guess I'm just picky. It doesn't have a solid color theme, and I don't really care for the purple image background behind the poll and whatnot. One of my major complaints is that I don't care too much for out current top image on eyesonff.com, and I don't really care for that top image either. Lastly, I don't really like the lighting behind the annifont. I know most of my complaints are in regards to Britts image work, not your html work, but it weighs heavily on my mind nonetheless... which is not to say that Britt doesn't make great images. Anyway, there, I said it.

Just put the new news system on the current layout, then, and replace the top image with a huge bucket of chicken.

Not quite sure if you interested in my stuff anymore, but here is a revised version of my layout.

http://ffward.net/eoffprev.jpg

Note: I put my info on the layout, just in case you don't like it, I can use it. :tongue:

Heres mine.

http://www.riftwebdesign.co.uk/eoff/index.htm

Been working on this for 8hrs straight today. And I was up till 2am messing about in Photoshop last night.

Anyway enough of my moaning. Click the link. :p

Wow! That's not bad. :)

BoB/Baloki's and email guy's designs are great. However, both mainly uses imagery backgrounds instead of solid colors, or something. It would be better if the images were less subtle than it currently is, it would work perfectly. The email guy's design is great, but it's too-focused on imagery, so there's really no real color scheme to it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dr Unne

For the love of all things holy, could you add a requirement that this thing has to work in Firefox and Opera as well as IE? Or add a requirement that it has to be XHTML compliant or something? See http://validator.w3.org/

---

I bow to you. This was the first thing I was going to bring up once I waded through all 7 pages to post, but you said it for me :D Now off to reading the rest of what I skipped... I'll edit my post when I'm ready to talk about submissions.

EDIT: Ok, so far, BoB & Baloki's looks great, and NM's looks ever better (that one is damn good). I must say, like half the submissions I've seen in this thread were only rendering properly in IE... and some only in 1024 * 786 size. You people NEED to test your sites in other browsers and at higher and lower resolutions.

I'm going to work on a submission... I'm a slow worker and even slower in the graphics department because I assemble everything by hand in Notepad... but $200 is REALLY tastey and I'm going to make a serious effort at this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Agent Proto

BoB/Baloki's and email guy's designs are great. However, both mainly uses imagery backgrounds instead of solid colors, or something. It would be better if the images were less subtle than it currently is, it would work perfectly. The email guy's design is great, but it's too-focused on imagery, so there's really no real color scheme to it.

---

That has been fixed as soon as BoB can be arsed to answer my Yahoo call...

Should we be using Annifont (the one used all over EoFF) in our images?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chzn8r

Should we be using Annifont (the one used all over EoFF) in our images?

---

Yes, probably.

After looking at NM's design. I have to say that is very impressive. Take a good look at each letter in "FINAL FANTASY" and you'll see why. And the dark color scheme, minus the header image, is good as dark.

<3

Eh...I dunno, the header looks very busy. Too busy in my opinion =/

/cheer Miriel!

NM is winner

Yeah seriously, with that entry present, I lose all motivation to compete. Especially with my inferior-at-image-incorporation designs.

It's not blue. The blue scheme defines EoFF.

Hi, I am the email guy. :) I sent Cid another entry just waiting on him to look at it.

:confused:

I just deleted the layout (no gfx yet) I had set up... sorry but I can't compete =/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by *Renzokuken

Hi, I am the email guy. :) I sent Cid another entry just waiting on him to look at it.

---

I don't have anything newer than the last one I posted.

Slightly altered version of my design.

Changed the top logo and altered the bottom pic.

http://www.riftwebdesign.co.uk/eoff/eoffalt.htm

Original : http://www.riftwebdesign.co.uk/eoff/index.htm

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NM

Slightly altered version of my design.

Changed the top logo and altered the bottom pic.

http://www.riftwebdesign.co.uk/eoff/eoffalt.htm

Original : http://www.riftwebdesign.co.uk/eoff/index.htm

---

Yeah, I like that even better.

My only complaints are the following:

1. I don't really like the table border color for the news stories... seems to stick out.
2. The font should probably be verdana everywhere.
3. I don't really like the white table border on the side for the poll, mail, etc. If you could do something more rounded like you did the top image... that would be extra ace.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cid

I don't have anything newer than the last one I posted.

---

Hmm, that's wierd... I sent it again, hopefully you'll get it this time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by *Renzokuken

Hmm, that's wierd... I sent it again, hopefully you'll get it this time.

---

My mail is blocking it cause it says there is a virus O_o

All changes made.

http://www.riftwebdesign.co.uk/eoff/eoffalt.htm

Nice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cid

My mail is blocking it cause it says there is a virus O_o

---

Hm.. I hope there's no virus, I'm gonna scan my system and all and try to resend it.

That is just a jaw-dropping design. Amazing. If voting ever has anything to do with this, I'm picking that one.

Okay, I fully scanned my comp for every type of wurm, virus, trojan, corrupted I/O and a whole bunch of other stuff. ^_^ It didn't find anything so I don't know why your email blocked it, I rezipped my entry to another partition and I'm gonna use a different email address to send it, hopefully this works...

[EDIT]

If it doesn't work something must be wrong with your mail cuz I just sent this file to my friend who uses hotmail and it didn't say there was a virus.

Sorry for the double post...

For some reason Angelfire is really lame so if you could picture Squall's head being at the very top instead of where it is, that is how it would look if it was uploaded to the EOFF server. The I, II, III, IV, etc buttons would also be clickable.

Another Entry...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NM

All changes made.

http://www.riftwebdesign.co.uk/eoff/eoffalt.htm

---

It looks very nice, the only problem I have is the white border. Maybe try using a darker color.

http://ploy.fateback.com/eyes/

www.gunbladeheaven.com/eoff

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cid

www.gunbladeheaven.com/eoff

---

That one is actually just a modified version of THIS layout from Day Dream Graphics with the required credits and links taken off.

Rippage is bad :mad:

>_< Ah well.

I knew it looked somewhat familiar. :cry:

Is there anyone else currently working on anything or shall I start the decision making?

I'm not sure if white is in your bag of goodies, but here's a design I made just for you.

http://www.sodapopgames.com/designs/eyesonff/

I love the news entry. :D

i might have a go with the layout, now let me see, wher did i put that program!

http://www.geocities.com/leviantantan/eyeson.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cid

Is there anyone else currently working on anything or shall I start the decision making?

---

I plan on making another entry, please don't decide yet.

I was thinking about it, but by all means go ahead with your usual plans as I might not have the time.

One more, duuuude. This one's blue n black...

http://www.sodapopgames.com/designs/eyesonff2/

I get the feeling that this template (not the graphics, heh) is commonly used. O_o

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rinoabella

I was thinking about it, but by all means go ahead with your usual plans as I might not have the time.

---

I like your site. You should give it a try.

http://www.angelfire.com/mech/renzok...ed3/Index.html If uploaded to the EOFF server Squall would be at the very top (along with the links and flash) of the page, also the links would be clickable... I can't really see anything wrong with it, would someone tell me what would be good to fix to make it better??

That looks too similar to the current one to be really considered.

I think that's up to Cid, Proto, since he's the one that's considering. :)

Yeah, I know. Can't I have an opinion as well?

I would like to make a design, but I would like someone to help me coding as I have little to none HTML-coding experience.

http://www.geocities.com/eyesonffdesign/

http://www.geocities.com/eyesonffdesign/ffdesign/

Many of those layouts are broken in Firefox. The best one I see so far is http://www.riftwebdesign.co.uk/eoff/eoffalt.htm. It's a table-based layout though, which means it doesn't conform to web standards. It may be that I'm the only one who cares. I may be willing to take any layout that wins and turn it into sane, standard HTML / CSS, if such a thing is desired (and it should be), and no one else wants to do the job. Just my opinion though. The one I mentioned above is the only one better than what we currently have, in my opinion. It could use a bit more 8-bit goodness though.

I wish I could work with graphics at all so I could make a layout entry myself.

How many submissions have been...well submitted?

If I could get someone to do the html I could concentrate only on the images and make a really good one, anyone want to team up?

http://www.geocities.com/eyesonffdesign/third

What is the max deadline?

http://www.sodapopgames.com/designs/eyesonff4/

There ya go, dude.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rinoabella

What is the max deadline?

---

Lets say the 25th.

You said that after 50 submissions, you won't give any money. Is the money still available?

Cid bought nachos with it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by square_is_the_best

You said that after 50 submissions, you won't give any money. Is the money still available?

---

He said if he gets 50 submissions and he doesn't like any of them, then he won't give out the money. In other words, there is the possibility of nobody winning if nothing good comes out of the competition, that's all.

Plus you shouldn't be doing it for the money, you should be doing it to further the site and making it more enjoyable for all.

This is a very, VERY rough version of my submission.

OMFG Bert!? :mad2:

Another version, but still very VERY rough. Was rushed, final would be much better. I can program PHP/MySQL and css (if needed). Oh, and Final Fantasy Rules!

Testing the layout in HTML with some rollovers and css (but no text or content)

http://www.game-reloaded.com/eoff/

If anyone is interested, I'll make a better version.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Flying Mullet

Plus you shouldn't be doing it for the money, you should be doing it to further the site and making it more enjoyable for all.

---

You are absolutely right. Which further proves that I am that broke. :D

This one will probably be my last entry.

http://www.sodapopgames.com/designs/eyesonff5/

I'm getting the vibe that someone who just learned html last week won't be able to keep up. Not that I am that person.
:shifty:
I hate you all!

HTML is an excellent place to start for programming.

Really? I mean...I'm not that person!!!

I hate you all!

Well I'don't Know html That well. But I'm can draw and me and sitb are soooooo gonna win this! (I'm trying to boost my already low self-esteem!!)Cryer :crying:

http://www.evenstar.nu/eoff/
From Rinoabella

Awesome one. :love:

See an update version of my submission, Visit: http://www.game-reloaded.com/eoff You can click the links to change the banners. (bit of PHP).