Well, it looks like RPin was right. It's tougher to adapt the design from the 'spot front page into something that works for Keenspace than it looks. I probably would've realized this sooner if I'd looked at all the other pages on Keenspot before I'd gone ahead trying to put this together... Even though the front page looks
very professional and sharp, all the others, with the exception of the "Services" page (which also looks quite finished and nice), er... don't, really. This might have clued me in if I'd checked them out sooner.
Anyway,
here is a .GIF of how far I got before I figured out that I was coming up on a brick wall. I haven't bothered to HTML-ize it, not for lack of ability (as I hope is evidenced by my
comic's site), but because, honestly, I don't see the point. In this stage already, it has too many problems. For example, I overestimated the number of different sorting methods available on Guide, so the mini-guide thing I was talking about doesn't fill up near as much space as it needs to and looks sloppy (of course, that could be solved by using large-style titles followed by smaller subentries more similar to what they have on the 'spot front page, except that would require an additional level of heading-styles for each of the sections on the page that I can't produce at this time because I don't have that font they used), there isn't enough space for news and the newsbox to be arranged in relation to each other like they should while at the same time not looking cramped, the logo superimposition didn't work out in Photoshop as well as it seemed to on paper, I need some other logo and some other, more extended text for linking to the Guide, etc. ... The issues are far too many and quite clear.
Plus, now that I've got it all down in a form that I feel is fairly indicative of what it would look like finished, I just don't like it. I liked the new 'spot front page because it reminded me of a spread from a magazine, or something, in a way. I think that's its biggest design strength.
This simply doesn't have that quality like I thought it would.
Finally, RPin has a more creative and
better start to begin with, which probably comes as no surprise to anyone, and while his still has a few kinks (I
still don't think you've adequately integrated that green area with the rest of the design...), there are less than I was quickly starting to run into. I think I already pointed this out, but I prefer RPin's second mock-up to his first, by the way... it just seems to suit the point of the site as a database better.
The only reason I posted this is because I didn't want it to look like I was giving up out of laziness or that I didn't even try. It just took finding the time to actually finish a mock-up (which is tough when one is juggling
2 comic strips and in the middle of college mid-terms) before I could see if it would work or not. It doesn't, so that's pretty much it and I may as well drop out, though I hope you guys won't mind and will continue to consider input from me if I have anything new to say about whichever design you
do end up choosing (RPin, since you're pretty much a shoe-in, you wouldn't be annoyed if I discussed it with you via private chat or on the Keenspace IRC channel, would you?).
Kisai, I apologize if you feel like I've wasted a lot of your time by creating unnecessary delays. I'd offer to draw some artwork for you like your sig says as penance, except given the dependability I've demonstrated, that probably wouldn't seem like much of an offer coming from me.
