BF2S Forums It's the little things

It's looking better with each new theme, nice work. I'd be interesting if it were done in flahs or soemthing too.

looks better then before and like new! 

Hmmm...while creative and perhaps asthetically pleasing to some, the user interface aspects of the new BF2s homepage leaves some things to be desired...at least by me.

The menu in the center of the page is stylish, but very cumbersome.  Moving it back to the left or at least across the top horizonatally is a better choice in my opinion and follows conventional navigation for websites.

I really liked having the basic score information for the friends and clanmates on 'My Leader Board'.  Unfortunately, it is no longer listed unless you select the MORE/EDIT link.  This is probably due to moving the 'Top 10 Players' list to the left of My Leader Board.  Given the choice, I would do away with the Top 10 Players list since it is filled with stat-padders or multi-player accounts to the point where most people don't care about them.

The old BF2s home page did not scroll at 1024x768 and felt "cleaner' and more streamline in terms of the organization of the content.  The new one feels cluttered to me.  Perhaps it is the font sizes or something.  Not sure.

I hope that my constructive feedback is not taken for ungreatfulness.  I completely appreciate the hard work that is done on BF2s and would like to thank the organizer(s) and content managers for all their efforts in keeping BF2s the great site that it is.  It is why I donate a little something every month.

- Beatdown

Great job, keep up the great work

Beatdown Patrol wrote:

The menu in the center of the page is stylish, but very cumbersome.  Moving it back to the left or at least across the top horizonatally is a better choice in my opinion and follows conventional navigation for websites.

Conventions. Yeah, I suppose -- but considering the fact that it's kind of a dead giveaway what it is, I feel I've broken that rule appropriately. Additionally, there was a point at which I was considering NOT having a menu on the homepage because it is completely redundant. Each section of the site has it's very own link elsewhere on the page (with the exception of "About" and "FAQ" I believe.)

The rest of the site, however, does follow the convention. I think, however, that homepages are often victim to 'convention' when they are the face and portal to the entire site -- I wanted to break it out a little bit.

Beatdown Patrol wrote:

I really liked having the basic score information for the friends and clanmates on 'My Leader Board'.  Unfortunately, it is no longer listed unless you select the MORE/EDIT link.  This is probably due to moving the 'Top 10 Players' list to the left of My Leader Board.  Given the choice, I would do away with the Top 10 Players list since it is filled with stat-padders or multi-player accounts to the point where most people don't care about them.

I've already addressed this. Size limitations force the list to truncate (last revision to 4-5 players, this time 10) so even if you are using it for quick comparisions, you might not even be ON that list.

For that reason, and space issues (see you complain about scrolling) I took out the score. When I have people in my list, it's so I can play with them. If I want to get all "comparisony" with them, I visit the full page where I can sort all of them by each of that various stats.

Removing the top 10? It's a STATS site. They have the highest STATS, they stay -- regardless of their means, they've earned it one way or another. (Even if they stat pad on occasion, stat padding for over 1000 hours -- well then top 10 is theirs.)

Beatdown Patrol wrote:

The old BF2s home page did not scroll at 1024x768 and felt "cleaner' and more streamline in terms of the organization of the content.  The new one feels cluttered to me.  Perhaps it is the font sizes or something.  Not sure.

The old bf2s home page didn't scroll because it lacked a lot of the things that have since been added to the site. Specifically, the wiki and IRC channel are now big parts of the community here -- I wanted them to be better exposed. I've also brought back the player search which has long been mising. However, with the proliferation of scroll wheels (this is a gaming website...) I don't really take complaints of having to scroll a little too seriously -- especially considering that all of the important data is well above the fold -- even at that resolution.

(As a side note, 1280x1024 is 45% of the users here, 1024 makes up about 30%, the rest are higher than that -- about 1-3% remain at 800 or lower.)

I will concede that the right hand side has a wee bit much text.

As for streamlined organization goes, you might find it of note that there is a very, very specifc reason and ryhme behind the two columns: "BF2 Stats" and "BF2 Community" -- BF2S at the center of both. Huh? Huh?! Come on! Tell me that's not subconciously genious!

chuyskywalker wrote:

d4rkph03n1x wrote:

Random Curiosity: How often do you backup chuyskywalker?

Er, well, never?

I mean, I have all the database schemes and shit on my home machine, as well as all the source -- so if shit really hit the fan, I could just start the system over and everyone would be back in the queue. I'd lose tracking data, which would be sad, but not the end of the world.

I supposed I should automated it since my server has a 120 gb backup drive

OK, well, the scheme for the player stats database might be OK, but what about the forums' database? If that is lost, you admin and mods have a lot to type over the next few months!
Maybe you want to have a look at http://www.mysqldumper.de/en/index.php -- a php/perl script suite which allows for cronjob and manual backups and avoids the famous script timeout failure (like the phpbb restore function will bring up) while restoring huge amounts of database entries.
It's free and the development team will answer questions in their support board.

chuyskywalker wrote:

Conventions. Yeah, I suppose -- but considering the fact that it's kind of a dead giveaway what it is, I feel I've broken that rule appropriately. Additionally, there was a point at which I was considering NOT having a menu on the homepage because it is completely redundant. Each section of the site has it's very own link elsewhere on the page (with the exception of "About" and "FAQ" I believe.)

The rest of the site, however, does follow the convention. I think, however, that homepages are often victim to 'convention' when they are the face and portal to the entire site -- I wanted to break it out a little bit.

Understood.  I am a function before form kinda guy...within reason.  Everyone has a point to where something might function superbly but be so damn ugly, that you don't want to be seen with it.  You know…like a girlfriend that "puts out" like a sun but looks like a black hole.  ahem.  I digress.  Anywhoo.  My gut reaction was that I am "inconvenienced" by the new look, however I do understand the desire to make a creative statement with the Home Page.

chuyskywalker wrote:

I've already addressed this. Size limitations force the list to truncate (last revision to 4-5 players, this time 10) so even if you are using it for quick comparisions, you might not even be ON that list.

For that reason, and space issues (see you complain about scrolling) I took out the score. When I have people in my list, it's so I can play with them. If I want to get all "comparisony" with them, I visit the full page where I can sort all of them by each of that various stats.

Removing the top 10? It's a STATS site. They have the highest STATS, they stay -- regardless of their means, they've earned it one way or another. (Even if they stat pad on occasion, stat padding for over 1000 hours -- well then top 10 is theirs.)

True 'dat.  It is a stats site and the Top 10 SHOULD be on the site.  My point was that my PERSONAL concern was with the people that I regularly play with and track...not the Top 10.  So in terms of the importance of the information I was looking at, the Top 10 is far less important to me.  I don't know about others, but I would submit that the same would hold true for the majority of your users since the Top 10 rankings do not change as dynamically as My Leader Board.  Also...I misspoke.  I do not think that the Top 10 list should be done away with completely.  Only that the amount of space given to it should be reduced on the home page.  Perhaps a more fitting tribute to the people who live, eat, and sex Battlefield 2 would be a 'monument' page that is dedicated to them.  Of course, one would be able to link to it from the Home page, but the monument page would include some choice statistical data on all 10 of them like Global Score, Time Played, K/D ratio, W/L ratios, etc.  Another idea is that since the Top 10 information is relatively static, it would be perfect for a vertically scrolling ticker about 3 lines in height that lists the names and scores.  Just an idea.

chuyskywalker wrote:

The old bf2s home page didn't scroll because it lacked a lot of the things that have since been added to the site. Specifically, the wiki and IRC channel are now big parts of the community here -- I wanted them to be better exposed. I've also brought back the player search which has long been mising. However, with the proliferation of scroll wheels (this is a gaming website...) I don't really take complaints of having to scroll a little too seriously -- especially considering that all of the important data is well above the fold -- even at that resolution.

(As a side note, 1280x1024 is 45% of the users here, 1024 makes up about 30%, the rest are higher than that -- about 1-3% remain at 800 or lower.)

I will concede that the right hand side has a wee bit much text.

As for streamlined organization goes, you might find it of note that there is a very, very specifc reason and ryhme behind the two columns: "BF2 Stats" and "BF2 Community" -- BF2S at the center of both. Huh? Huh?! Come on! Tell me that's not subconciously genious!

Genius.  Pure Genius. 

With 45% of your users running 1280x1024, it makes the most sense to design to that resolution.  Case closed.  I am on a 19" monitor...so I am at the very limit of 1024x768 and 1280x1024.  Unfortunately, my aging eyes can no longer deal with 1280x1024 unless I am on a 21", so I have had to drop the resolution a bit.

In closing, thank you for the response to my comments.  Your explanation provided me with your line of thought in designing the page, which is very helpful in giving perspective to the challenges that you faced.  It is much appreciated.

Keep up the great work!


-    Beatdown

chuyskywalker wrote:

As for streamlined organization goes, you might find it of note that there is a very, very specifc reason and ryhme behind the two columns: "BF2 Stats" and "BF2 Community" -- BF2S at the center of both. Huh? Huh?! Come on! Tell me that's not subconciously genious!

HAH ITS GENIUS

Please use ratios not only "quite a bit" but *exclusively* in the rankings - absolutes have nothing to do with skill and should have no say whatsoever in someone's ranking.

Nic

midgetspy wrote:

Please use ratios not only "quite a bit" but *exclusively* in the rankings - absolutes have nothing to do with skill and should have no say whatsoever in someone's ranking.

Hear hear. Apart from really new players and such things, obviously. Like someone who's only ever played one round, and won.

Come to think of it - the very best solution might be to look at the latest 20 hours or so of someone's "career". Someone might start out as a complete noob, but get better and better and end up being totally awesome. If so, their ranking would suffer from their early gaming, and players who discard their old account and start anew would be rewarded. Which imo isn't really a good thing.

Just some random thoughts.

Last edited by MMad (2006-01-04 22:14:12)