New website design! :D (comments wanted)

[Mercifull]

• First to mods: Please don't lock this thread and tell me off for advertising my website. This is NOT a crappy invisionfree website and I am asking for serious comments and criticisms on the design I have made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intro

 

 

 

As some people here may be aware I help administer the Battlestar Wiki, an online encyclopedia for the Battlestar Galactica sagas. It runs using the MediaWiki software which also powers Wikipedia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because we are closing in on 2,000 full articles in the Engish database (11,761 total pages) I decided to make some modifications to the basic design in order to make it look a bit more spangly and less like a default installation with a black background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Features

 

 

 

I have spent many hours over the last few days making changes and adding or removing features that have been trialed out by either me or other Admins over the last few weeks. Follows is a list of changes different from the current design. (items in italics are are already implemented onto en wiki, red items are features removed)

 

 

 

1. 
    
    
    
   [*:2c4hvkl8] Smooth edged favicon - Already implemented
    
    
    
   [*:2c4hvkl8] Removed "Main Page" text - Already implemented
    
    
    
   [*:2c4hvkl8] User icon - I have changed it from the pixely white silhouette to a smooth Captain rank pip
    
    
    
   [*:2c4hvkl8] User Text highlight - The 'username', 'my talk', 'my preferences' links etc now highlight a slightly reddish colour on rollover. Before nothing happened so I took the idea from the English wiki that has a white highlight in thie area.
    
    
    
   [*:2c4hvkl8] Language Wiki information box - Removed information box above the 'Search' box and replaced with new flag (see below)
    
    
    
   [*:2c4hvkl8] Miniature language flag - In the top right corner of the screen after the login/logout link is a small flag icon. This represents the language of the wiki you are currently looking at and changes automaticly in the skin via a simple php script.
    
    
    
   [*:2c4hvkl8] Redirect image - The current one looks invisible on black but the new one works on both. See

here and here.
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] Red edit icons - self explanatory
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] Background - Added a picture of the computers from CIC and over-layed a slightly red cloud effect like a nebula kinda thing.
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] "Battlestar Wiki" title in header - This has been removed as many people commented that it was only unnecessary on the main page and would possibly annoy people that the tabs weren't in the familiar mediawiki location (see also below)
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] Tabs flush to the edge - This has been put back to how it was before again for the same reason as above about tab locations being slightly different. This is my personal preference and would appreciate comments on this.
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] Tabs roll-over colour - Simple addition to the tabs. On roll-over they go a slightly different colour.
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] Battlestar Wiki title - I have spent quite some time trying to make it look good and would spend equally more on it trying to get it perfect if other people like this idea. This title image shows only on the Main Page and next to the title is the flag of the country whos wiki you are on. This idea of showing the flag was taken from the Turkish wiki. It has been suggest by others that an image similar to the one on the [http] could go in its place. Comments welcomed.
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] Social bookmarks - They seem to be all the rage right now so I have added some of the more popular ones. This also took me an insanely long time to work out how to make it pick up the url that you were on but got it sorted in the end.
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] If logged out, your IP address will not show in the corner along with the associated IP user talk page
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] "In other languages" flags - The other languages section on the main page includes flags of each language where before it had simple bullets.
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] Red broken links - Broken article links stat red even after you have visited instead of going to the pinkish red which is similar to the colour used for external links
 
 
 
[*:2c4hvkl8] Button border - Search and Go buttons now included a 2px border

 

 

 

I think thats it for the moment... I would really appreciate comments, suggestions and insults please. Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Links

 

 

 

Current Design (English Wiki)

 

 

 

Modified Design (Hangarbay)

[Mercifull]

A few dozen views and no replies? Whats up with that, every other topic seems active with people posting comments, crits and suggestions :(

[woopidoo2]

The design looks very warm and cosy, and easy to read.

 

 

 

I would use that site if I was a Battlestar Galactica fan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting to see what you are fixing, good luck with that :wink:

[Mercifull]

I created a feature something similar to Wikipedia now, where the background of the articles is different for Main pages to Talk, edit, special pages etc