New Goodies At TSO

[filkertom]

A few changes, a few new live shows. There will be more of those within the week, possibly tomorrow.

Now you can, if you so desire, talk up the site (not individual pages yet, sorry) on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and Digg. The Donate button's more obvious, and on every page. And I simplified the menus -- I'll have the individual album pages working by tomorrow, and you'll be able to just click on an album on the Buy Stuff page to go to details about it. There'll also be links to the individual album Bandcamp pages, for your FLAC/AAC/Ogg pleasure.

Please let me know what you think! And, if you happen to notice anything broken while poking around, please let me know, huh? One very specific thing: I missed narrowing the page on the Free Stuff page. Does that look better than the relatively narrow rest-of-the-site? I'm thinkin' it does, but I want more opinions.

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

I don't know about "broken," but I think you missed removing a couple of "NEW!" markers on the Buy Stuff page. Conflikt 2010, and What the Hell Con 2010 part 1.

Meantime, *clicky* on the new albums.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Will. I'll get 'em in the morning. Sleepy. :)

[solarbird]

Actually I think the narrower version looks better at the text level, compared to Free Stuff page. But I think I see what you're seeing, and I think the underlying problem is the overly busy right column, which also looks wider than it actually is, because of all the outlining you're doing. That's less emphasised in the wider version just because everything's spread out more. You've got boxes in boxes syndrome going pretty hard - I mean, you've got four lines between your toolbar and your DONATE button, not counting the toolbar button edges or the white lines, just the black. That's a lot of lines, and you don't need most of them; most of the things you're putting in boxes already make boxes on their own by their geometry.

I'd suggest trying losing the outer set of box lines entirely and let margins and the blue backdrop do their work for them, and turning the right column set of boxes into single thin lines, or better yet, none at all. In fact, here, I'll do it for you - click on thumbnails for larger versions:



And one small table cell size change as example of emphasis by spacing...



All your design elements are already boxes, you don't need to box them yourself. I'd set all those table cell borders to 0 and fiddle with margins a little more than I did and think you have a winner.

[solarbird]

Also, separately, I think that black Twitter box has too much visual weight, and I'd lighten it a little - to a dark blue, maybe. Something that still lets the links be obvious links. (You could also experiment with making it a very pale blue, and make the white text black. Green links could still be green, or could become dark blue like the rest.)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I think I may experiment with not having the Twitter box. That's the only reason the sidebar is as wide as it is. It's a nice thought, but huge -- not to mention that, except for the link in that box, I also forgot to put links to my actual Twitter/Facebook/etc. pages, which I'd kinda like to be obvious. And I'll certainly try the sidebar without the lines.

Many thanks on the feedback! You didn't have to go to the trouble of screenshots. :D

[solarbird]

If a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing, I always say. ^_^

I might keep the twitter box but lighten it, or move it down underneath all the pages (facebook/etc) links. People who scroll down will be interested and that'll make the visual weight issues go away.

[hms42]

Thanks for the new concerts.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you, Harold, you recorded two of 'em. :) I'll try to have more up before tomorrow morning.

[hms42]

And I'll get a 3rd this weekend... :) Next time, I set the Zoom to high vs medium.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

That "thumbs-up" pic doesn't look particularly appealing to me.