Site Redesign

I have heard a lot of complaints about this site on debate.org
Most of them sounded ignorant (because they haven't tried the site) or were really silly, but one kept popping up constantly.
The background is very ugly. I don't think it's ugly, but it is pretty dry. There is no sense of fun in this sites background, format, or style.

I think one thing that would really stir membership, besides advertising, would be giving the site a lift up. I'm not a huge fan of the logo, the dark blue colors, or the bland pages. Here are my thoughts on what a nice site would look like.

1. I think the logo is good, but it needs to look sleeker. When I first joined this site, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. It doesn't ring debate, and the podiums appear to be covered by the letters. I kind of like the DDO logo, which is sleek letters in the corner. I think Edeb8 should drop the logo on the top corner (keep it around in other places like the PDF's) and make bigger and more textured letters. With a lot more shading and aliasing.
The letters are flat, with no dimension.

2. Replace the drab dark blue at the top with some slicker colors. I guess that was what made me uncomfortable on this site at first. Everything cried "Serious" and "professional". I realize that lars is trying to create a debating site, and not a social network like that hell hole debate.org, but that shouldn't hold the design back from being fun. This site isn't going to attract a lot of "fun people" or "fun debaters" if the design appeals to a "serious" crowd.

3. Create a background that speaks debate. I was thinking of different politicians in debate mode. Anything but this dry gray that I'm forced to stare at.




4. Add the resource, tournament, and blog links to the top of the page. I hate having to type them in manually.

5. Move the podium to the far left and put some kind of site phrase next to it.
Here is a model of the design changes I think should happen....
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Blackflag: Oh, you can't really see the text. Pixlr only lets you do so much to a canvas. Especially when the entire bottom half is one layer.

Blackflag: 1. I didn't make the logo. Happy for new logos to be submitted.
2. Trust me, if there's one color to replace blue when it comes to colors being serious, it's black. Just ask St Louis. Other suggestions I'm interested to hear. My original idea was a fun green color, then site users wanted blue, then they gradually wanted me to darken the blue until we have this.
3. On certain "special occasions" I've played with using different backgrounds. For example, on easter I changed it to easter eggs. I do plan to continue that, even if practically nobody even noticed. One idea I have right now is profile backgrounds, with an option to make your profile background the default background for when you browse the site. Personally I like grey though. It helps me focus.
4. I think blog is just fine at the bottom. Resources is a stronger contender, but I'm very much leaning towards nzlockie's suggestion of linking them through the main forum page at this point. The tournament link will be pretty irrelevant when the tournament ends tbh.
5. The site strap-line is "ultimate online debating". I had it in my original logo that people wanted to replace with this one. Regardless what is the logic behind this? Would seem to un-balance the header quite significantly.
6. many users here will remember my experiments with organizing the dashboard. I went through a great many potential layouts and such. This is the one people liked best. As for scrapping those two sections - where should the coaching and recent debates be advertised instead?
7.Dimension is possible to add to titles but shading isn't widely supported right now.
8. I think those boxes are grey enough. Blacker shading would only make them more grey and make the text harder to read.

admin: 1. Okay. Maybe I'll make one.
2. I personally think black is moire serious. I would be careful of trying to appease the audience you have, rather than the audience you want to attract.
3. Perhaps you can make it a setting? People can select a background in their settings tab?
4. Ugh, now that I think about it, the blog would be a clunky thing to situate at the top of the page. There is a lot of blank space, but I would really want to see the resources page up there. This site's focus appears to be situated around a culture of "improvement".
5. The debate page. Most of the people are from debate.org, and want edeb8 to look like debate.org. They aren't used to anything new, so they will ask you to look like debate.org. I would be careful of trading originality for comfort.
7. Okay, I think flat letters are a little drab.
8. Oh, I only meant the lines around the box. To make them more defined.

Blackflag: I've added some shading to the headings. Is it better like this?

admin: I think so.

Why don't you try a gradient?
Or failing that, soften the header by adding a thin transitional colour to the bottom edge of it. Light Blue or Green would work. Orange could look ok as well, but only if you switch the header back to black.

nzlockie: Gradients aren't *really* possible on top of text. There are two options:
> A very experimental bit of code that only works on Chrome, or
> Putting a gradient with the same color as the background on top of it. This is a real pain to do programatically and gets in the way if you want to do something like select the text of the heading.

To be fair, the current heading overlay (to make the headings look less flat) will also fail to display right in some cases, like if a user has no profile image ( http://www.edeb8.com/profile/the+tester ).

I'll look into adding a transitional color to the bottom of the heading.

I've removed it for a time, will put it back sometime soon. Just want to try a few things tomorrow.

ya, I feel logo is boring too

admin: It looks a little better, so yeah.

It makes the atmosphere of the site seem more,,,,,,, "debate" like

I made a very quick mockup that might be helpful, with a bit more vibrant colors and such.

[IMG] [/IMG]

JDSFDSFfsa: Impressive. I think the boxes for the "categories" is a MAJOR improvement. I prefer some more "debate" like colors though.

JDSFDSFfsa: I just did something similar to your idea for combining everything debate-related into one box. What are your thoughts, edeb8?

admin: I'm not edeb8, but I think it's perfection.

admin: Love it

admin: There are other parts of the site that could use similar organization.

Blackflag: ... like?

admin: I think the same board should show up on the bottom of the "debate" page.
Remove the leaderboards from that page, or make the leaderboard have a "tab" to see each board.