Outstanding Website Design?

[Orneryboy]

Is it just me, or does giving a webcomic an award for Outstanding Website Design seem a little bit like giving a novel an award for Best-Looking Cover, or Outstanding Typesetting?

[Reinder]

I'm pretty sure that there are design awards for books.

[Gengar003]

Yeah! The Illustrators and/or cover designers need to get credit and awards, too!

Why should the writers hog all the prizes?

Seems like a perfectly valid idea to me.

[Zortic]

Is it just me, or does giving a webcomic an award for Outstanding Website Design seem a little bit like giving a novel an award for Best-Looking Cover, or Outstanding Typesetting?

Yes. No question about it. But the difference is that with books, someone else is doing the cover illustration and editing. With a webcomic, the artist is usally also designing how it's presented. It's more like a culinary award that acknowledges how a dish is presented in addition to how it tastes.

[Orneryboy]

Taken from that point of view it makes much more sense. I just find it amusing and ironic that I've been designing websites for so many years without any awards or recognition for my work, and the first recognition I receive for my foray into webcomics is a nomination for outstanding website design.

Oh well, I'm used to having my website ripped into because of my use of Flash, so this makes for a nice change of pace. Thanks!

[Hyperboycomics]

If they do go ahead with awards for best website design, they should probably separate it into more specific categories, i.e. traditional HTML, Dreamweaver, Flash, I can't think of anymore.

Nice site OrneryBoy!

Check out my site Hyperboy, it's simple but it works.
<a href="http://hyperboycomics.comicgenesis.com/">here</a>

[LurkingFish]

I don't really understand why everyone seems to be so down on Flash all the time. I've never, ever had a problem with reading a webcomic that uses Flash (specifically, I guess I'm talking about Alpha-Shade - and they seem to get a lot of flak for using Flash, too).

I don't use Flash myself because I don't know how, but I don't really understand the complaints. Oh well.

[Jdalton]

I don't really understand why everyone seems to be so down on Flash all the time.

Because not everyone has Flash installed on their computer. I once nearly lost a chance to get an illustration job because my portfolio was all in Flash and the art director couldn't see it and couldn't be bothered to install it on her computer just for me. I don't know what percentage of webcomic readers don't have Flash, but why miss out on that potential audience if you don't have to?

[LurkingFish]

Yeah, I guess so. I don't really see how one who was at least reasonably interested in the internet wouldn't have Flash installed on their computer in the first place, though. I guess a lot of websites use it badly and people would rather not be bothered with the blinky stupid stuff.

In other news, I live in Vancouver, too - almost. Howdy!

[Palantir]

I guess it all comes down to what benefits a Flash-based interface will give you over the likelihood that you'll be missing out on a little bit of traffic.

If it weren't for the many comic management systems already available online, which can seen on any computer without downloading additional software, I probably would use flash myself. As it stands, though, it seems Flash works well for non-essential aspects of Webcomic websites.

[Jdalton]

I don't really see how one who was at least reasonably interested in the internet wouldn't have Flash installed on their computer in the first place, though.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But there's a lot of old people and poor people out there I guess, or people on dial-up, most of whom probably don't read webcomics, but you never know. Also, when I do use Flash, I always export the file as an old version of the software, not the latest version. It's never good, I think, to be the one website that forces someone to download or upgrade their software.

In other news, I live in Vancouver, too - almost. Howdy!

"Almost" pretty much describes it. It took me two hours to drive in to downtown today with the traffic! Ugh!

[Dandy Q. Dog]

Well, I plan on taking this opportunity to point out the awesome work a fine fellow named Jeston Tigchon did in taking the rough (aka, crappy) website I loosely designed many moons ago and turning it into what it is today. (aka, good AND functional)

Personally, I think this is a great category no matter WHO designed the website, though I think that if a website is nominated for the final voting, it should be made clear who designed it if it's someone other than the webcartoonist. Just seems fair to me.

[Biev]

Ha, as a web designer I was worried that if my site didn't look like the average webcomic site, people would just get confused. Even though I prefer sites where you have to look around and play with stuff for the cool art to pop up, I'd rather have people who stumble upon my page go "this is clearly a webcomic, here are the back and next buttons" : P Also, can't have the site looking prettier than the comic, you know? : ) The day my comic becomes interactive is the day the site will be interactive. Until then, I'm going with easy and plain.


...Ehh I don't know what prompted me to say all this (-_-);

[Kirb]

When I judge a webcomic site's design, I usually favor simplicity and site art over anything else.

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I really don't like vote buttons and donation buttons littered all over the site. Even IF they're well organized, it's just an eyesore. IMO, a webcomic index page should have the comic, the few necessary buttons, a tagboard, and the rant if needed.

Anything else is clutter.