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Post by darkmatter1989 on Mar 14, 2014 8:55:01 GMT -5
I have been using this lovely website for several years now. I love the content it offers and best of all, it's free! However I feel the design is very... stagnant/outdated. It's pretty cluttered in some areas and it's not very streamlined. This is my attempt to correct those issues. Please understand I am not a professional web designer by any means (nor would I say I am a good amateur one) as this is my first real project. Anyway, I am just here to show the design overhaul I am working on for Soxprospects.com. It's nowhere near finished so this is just a sneak peek. Let me know if you have any suggestions, criticism, and or any appreciation is welcome.  Notes: I amended a lot of pages to be clustered towards a main page. For example, by clicking 'Roster' it will bring you to a page everything roster related. This includes 40 man, roster projections, depth chart, ex players, and injury reports. 'Prospects' includes Rankings history and the top 60 prospects in the orginization. 'Transactions/Draft' includes international signings. I forgot to add (and will add of course) is Schedule and Standings as well as link/button on the bottom for the 'About' section and to the right, I'll add a weather widget (so that it's view-able all the time). High Res Image Here |
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Post by okin15 on Mar 14, 2014 9:29:11 GMT -5
Off-topic or meta forum is certainly a better location for this, but I actually like the design. There is not nearly enough white space in the current design. I still think the main buttons on your version are difficult to read. Red on blue, or blue on red are tough without a thicker outline.
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Post by darkmatter1989 on Mar 14, 2014 9:42:48 GMT -5
I noticed the Meta section after I posted this. I would have posted it there had I seen it sooner. I apologize and I did already report for it to be moved there.
And are you viewing the high-res image at full size? It's a full HD image (1920x1080.) You have to click to zoom in again after opening the link. It looks fine to me. If you did do that then I will just wait for more feedback because I can read it clearly. If too many people note it as a problem, I can change it for sure. However that would mean I would have to choose a different font since adding a thicker stroke/outline wouldn't look clean enough for my standards.
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Post by jmei on Mar 14, 2014 9:59:59 GMT -5
Moved to meta forum.
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Post by darkmatter1989 on Mar 14, 2014 23:13:05 GMT -5
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Post by wcsoxfan on Mar 15, 2014 22:20:15 GMT -5
Looks great; especially the top bar and old-school font. Big step forward from first draft. Two things I noticed: - the transaction/draft tab looks a bit awkward with the font size due to the lack of space. Perhaps dropping draft, or placing draft as its own tab, would improve it? (probably some other ramifications to consider) - I like the box score feed on the bottom left. Will minor league box-scores be listed below it in descending order? |
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Post by darkmatter1989 on Mar 16, 2014 3:01:48 GMT -5
I could drop the word draft and replace the word with 'Trades & Draft'. That should fit. If not, I can just add another tab. As for the box on the lower left, it would use whatever coding they have on the site already for that. I can't remember if it shows the minor league scores, but if it does, then it will show the minor league scores as well. Thanks for the feedback. Any other suggestions are of course welcome as well. |
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Post by darkmatter1989 on Mar 16, 2014 5:47:38 GMT -5
Update 1c: I'm practically finished. Stylistically, there isn't much else to add and all the buttons are here (I think). However I do have one concern about one style aspect. Are the news title boxes too 'blocky'? If not, then I can start working on the actual code to get it as a working webpage and whatnot. All the work so far has been done in Photoshop just to get the visuals down. High Res Image Here |
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Post by Mike Andrews on Mar 16, 2014 7:21:07 GMT -5
Hi darmkatter -- thanks so much for the interest and ideas. You have some really cool concepts in there. Unfortunately, we are not interested in a site redesign right now. I'll let you know why - there are only a handful of us on the staff that know html, me being the only one that is "fluent." Also, all of our senior staffers have other full time jobs plus other life responsibilities, and implementing a full site redesign through coding, even if some new design concept is already approved, is something that takes hundreds and hundreds of hours. We have made the conscious decision to dedicate the limited time we do have to the site's content rather than the design. (And to the extent that we do minor re-designs, we typically do them in January when news is slow).
Moreover, it's important to note that we don't know of any affordable news aggregation software that automatically pulls in news content from our news page in the manner you have designed. So ultimately that would require us rewrite all of the content a second time in a second location every time there is a news post. If you know of any software like that, please let us know and we will take it into consideration. (Also there is no service that automatically loads box scores from every level of the minor leagues). So while there are some cool ideas, some of the concepts are not really realistic.
Again - thanks a million for reaching out.
Mike
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Post by darkmatter1989 on Mar 16, 2014 7:52:22 GMT -5
Hello Mike,
I was planning to do the design fully by myself including the coding. I do have HTML experience in the past. It's been a while and I have forgotten a lot, but I am confident I can learn it again. As for the implementation, you could do a 'soft launch' and or a pre-launch where basically instead of rewriting everything here, you host a 'ghost site' where the entire new design is made. Then once it's ready, you just relocate the URL and server to the new site. I have some experience in doing this before actually, though not enough to say that could entirely do it myself for a site like this. Though if this redesign is seriously considered, I could try to invest my time in doing it myself so you wouldn't have to worry about it.
As for the software for the news, I have some friends that might just be able to code it for free. If not, I can redesign the news interface. The design you see was more of a visualization concept anyway. As for the box score, you could very well just use the one you have as is. I could add another tab to the left for actual box scores where it provides links from the MLB to each games box score.
Either way, this is all being done voluntarily. Accepted or unaccepted, I figured it was worth my time throwing the idea out there. I really enjoy this website (even though I don't really partake in any activities surrounding it). Thanks for the reply, I will continue my work for now.
Joe
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Mar 16, 2014 20:07:32 GMT -5
Joe, can you please PM me your email?
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Post by okin15 on Mar 17, 2014 11:03:23 GMT -5
I like the newer version better Joe.
I also want to say that the current (recently updated) site is quite good, and I was not advocating a move to something different. I also understand the time constraints, and while almost any graphics can be improved, this site is fun, functional, clear, and professional looking.
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Post by wcsoxfan on Mar 18, 2014 0:15:56 GMT -5
Update 1c: I'm practically finished. Stylistically, there isn't much else to add and all the buttons are here (I think). However I do have one concern about one style aspect. Are the news title boxes too 'blocky'? If not, then I can start working on the actual code to get it as a working webpage and whatnot. All the work so far has been done in Photoshop just to get the visuals down. High Res Image HereLooks good. The white vs the blue definitely gives a much 'cleaner' look. Hope they let you try it out. |
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Post by tb01923 on Mar 18, 2014 7:56:21 GMT -5
I just wanted to jump in and recommend a few things to an emerging designer.
First read up on the ongoing debate on flat design versus skeuomorphism. It is pretty interesting, Skeuo is essentially an attempt to make things look like the "real world" and features techniques to make elements (like buttons) pop off the page in 3d fashion. Flat design removes all those embellishments - many site built in flat design are winning awards now. In order to make a flat design seem alive I think it requires proper use of whitespace AND photos.
Be glad to share more of my knowledge if you are interested.
Second take a look at CSS frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation. They encapsulate 20 years of web experience into an easy to apply framework. Sites created using these frameworks often have a flavor and can be identified, but it gets you close to a useable design quickly. Then you can decide whether to customize or not.
I am not a designer, but I am a CTO / technical co-founder type that often needs to put the designer hat on (and it barely ever fits)! That being said I am interested in creating a community or a platform such as sox prospects that incorporates player stats / blogs / message board etc (I have many other ideas), and some automation - that allows folks to take the sox prospects model nationally. But I wouldn't raise a finger without a team AND the support of sox prospects...
t
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Post by darkmatter1989 on Mar 19, 2014 8:26:59 GMT -5
Hello everyone, thanks for the input and feedback. However after a private discussion, I learned that a redesign isn't within Soxprospects reach at this point in time even if the entire design was prepared beforehand. So as of now, this project is dead; and no, I don't feel like it was a waste of time. I had fun doing this. Again, thanks for all the comments though. |
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