racketboy.com restructuring and design tweaks

[racketboy]

OK, you may have already seen me tinkering with the logo design, but after some great feedback, it's going to stay closer to the original while giving new visitors a better idea of what the site is about. This is not finalized yet, but I wanted to give you a sneak peak of my latest revision of the logo and front page design



The main logo text will probably staying the same for two main reasons:
- Most people seem to like it
- I've already built a bit of a brand with it

The inclusion of a Saturn controller was popular, but I took some advise and worked with the white Japanese controller. However, I moved it to the right so the text was still anchored to the left. I also turned the controller to greyscale so it did not distract color-wise. I also faded it out with lower opacity and the burning tool. This also keeps it from being distracting.

The subtitle was added below the logo text to reinforce what the site is about, especially since the navigation headings will be changing (I'll get to this in a bit)

A year or two ago, the retrogaming blog was actually just a side project and I tinkered with the thought of having separate blogs on slightly different topics all on the same site. However, with the great success of the Retro Gaming section, that's what I've been known for and I haven't had the time or motivation to keep up the Game Room section or develop any of my other ideas. Essentially, I want to focus on what works and I was getting tired of having that Game Room section that was never updated.

Now, I know some of you liked the Game Room stuff, so don't get worried. The existing stuff will still be there, but the Game Rooms link won't be in the main navigation. I will also be re-posting some of the most popular pieces in the main (retro) section under a Game Rooms section. I will also occasionally post new Game Room in the main section.

So if you look at the mockup, you'll notice the new navigation:
"Recent Posts", "Topics", "Guides", "Forums", "Store"

Recent Posts: This is essentially the same as the "Retro Gaming" link as we know it now. All my main writings will go in here.
Topics: To make it easier for new and existing users to find specific types of posts, the link to the topics list is now in the main navigation.
Guides: Pretty much the same as it is now, but I've been meaning to update that page with the new stuff I've been doing
Forums: Same as now
Store: Same as now
You may notice the "About" Link is gone. Since it isn't a high priority, I'll be moving it to the bottom of the page with a "Contact" link.

Anyway, what do you think? Gimme some constructive criticism!

[durkada]

It looks fine. Which is almost to say that it looks pretty much the same as today, except the "News" section is awol from the front.

The real problem, as I'm sure you're tired of hearing from me, is one of organization and reference. Everything on the page is really quite ephemeral -- even though the content still exists, its not necessarily intuitive to find older articles. So, once its gone from the front page, the content seems to get lost. Unless, of course, its a heavily hit series (Cheap ways to build out your collections, etc.). This may be out of the scope of what you are asking, but if you spend any time with design and layout, I think a better content management system is in order. Again, I'll suggest a Wiki is that supports topic tagging is a good idea.

At any rate, it looks ok.

I recognize that the lack of content for Game Rooms may be lacking, but removing it from the front page seems like a mistake. When you add a subtitle, especially one which uses the word "lifestyle", its almost criminally negligent to remove that content to the front. The subtitle becomes a mission statement, and that staement suggests I would find kind of stuff: ways to bling out your game room, cool rero game related lighting fixtures, snazzy retro gaming art-prints, etc.

[racketboy]

It looks fine. Which is almost to say that it looks pretty much the same as today, except the "News" section is awol from the front.

The real problem, as I'm sure you're tired of hearing from me, is one of organization and reference. Everything on the page is really quite ephemeral -- even though the content still exists, its not necessarily intuitive to find older articles. So, once its gone from the front page, the content seems to get lost. Unless, of course, its a heavily hit series (Cheap ways to build out your collections, etc.). This may be out of the scope of what you are asking, but if you spend any time with design and layout, I think a better content management system is in order. Again, I'll suggest a Wiki is that supports topic tagging is a good idea.

At any rate, it looks ok.

I recognize that the lack of content for Game Rooms may be lacking, but removing it from the front page seems like a mistake. When you add a subtitle, especially one which uses the word "lifestyle", its almost criminally negligent to remove that content to the front. The subtitle becomes a mission statement, and that staement suggests I would find kind of stuff: ways to bling out your game room, cool rero game related lighting fixtures, snazzy retro gaming art-prints, etc.

Well, I hope the "Guides" section to turn more into the organizational tool you were talking about.
The wiki thing is something I toyed with, but it may be too much trouble. Skinning a wiki to match the site would be a lot of work as well.

As for the game rooms, like I mentioned, I still plan on having the content -- I may have it featured in the "Guides" section as well. It will also be listed in "Topics"

Maybe I'm wrong, but I imagine most people click on the "Game Rooms" link and think one of two things...
- There isn't much interesting here (The best posts fall onto other pages)
- This is the same stuff that was here 8 months ago
I want to keep everything fresh and useful on here.
Also, knowing the way my mind works in terms of planning content for the site, I think I will be more likely to write about Game Room stuff if I have it mixed in with the pure gaming stuff.

But yes, my next challenge will be to make all the old and useful stuff more accessible.
I have ideas for that which you will see later on...

As for the news section, I was getting the impression that nobody cared about it.
I have like two or three people subscribing to it on RSS compared to the near 1000 people that subscribe to the blog. (lack of promotion probably has something to do with it)
I was thinking I will still keep the feed running, but I will use it as a reminder to post the stories in the forum.
That way we can get actual conversations going on them and they will also be listed on the front page as recent forum entries.
How's that sound?

[durkada]

CSS is your friend.

Perhaps what you say is true: perhaps people do think that about the game room pages. I, for one, thought it was one of the most interesting aspects of the site -- certainly, its one of the more unique game related elements on the internet. But, forgoing that argument, my point is not to defend the content, but rather to suggest that by proclaiming racketboy is the "guide to the retrogaming lifestyle", you have to make that content a priority. If "lifestyle" is used as a term, invariably thoughts of environment and decor come to mind.

People may not be subscribing to the news because its not apparenl which RSS feed relates to it. For instance, I just hammer at the web with firefox, which puts the little RSS icon in the nav bar when a page supports it. I click on it from the front page to subscribe, and its not apparent that the news feed would be part of any of them. Other people may not give a crap because they got Kotaku or whatever -- but I really like the news section because the articles are filtered for my enjoyment. I don't subscribe to the news items via RSS, but I do go over the links on the homepage everyday.

Well, I hope the "Guides" section to turn more into the organizational tool you were talking about.
The wiki thing is something I toyed with, but it may be too much trouble. Skinning a wiki to match the site would be a lot of work as well.

As for the game rooms, like I mentioned, I still plan on having the content -- I may have it featured in the "Guides" section as well. It will also be listed in "Topics"

Maybe I'm wrong, but I imagine most people click on the "Game Rooms" link and think one of two things...
- There isn't much interesting here (The best posts fall onto other pages)
- This is the same stuff that was here 8 months ago
I want to keep everything fresh and useful on here.
Also, knowing the way my mind works in terms of planning content for the site, I think I will be more likely to write about Game Room stuff if I have it mixed in with the pure gaming stuff.

But yes, my next challenge will be to make all the old and useful stuff more accessible.
I have ideas for that which you will see later on...

As for the news section, I was getting the impression that nobody cared about it.
I have like two or three people subscribing to it on RSS compared to the near 1000 people that subscribe to the blog. (lack of promotion probably has something to do with it)
I was thinking I will still keep the feed running, but I will use it as a reminder to post the stories in the forum.
That way we can get actual conversations going on them and they will also be listed on the front page as recent forum entries.
How's that sound?

[Abras]

It looks fine to me. My only issue with it is the subtitle.
I think you should replace "for" with "to" in "your guide for a retro lifestyle."
I can't explain why in a big OED type way, but it just sounds better.

[racketboy]

CSS is your friend.

Perhaps what you say is true: perhaps people do think that about the game room pages. I, for one, thought it was one of the most interesting aspects of the site -- certainly, its one of the more unique game related elements on the internet. But, forgoing that argument, my point is not to defend the content, but rather to suggest that by proclaiming racketboy is the "guide to the retrogaming lifestyle", you have to make that content a priority. If "lifestyle" is used as a term, invariably thoughts of environment and decor come to mind.

People may not be subscribing to the news because its not apparenl which RSS feed relates to it. For instance, I just hammer at the web with firefox, which puts the little RSS icon in the nav bar when a page supports it. I click on it from the front page to subscribe, and its not apparent that the news feed would be part of any of them. Other people may not give a crap because they got Kotaku or whatever -- but I really like the news section because the articles are filtered for my enjoyment. I don't subscribe to the news items via RSS, but I do go over the links on the homepage everyday.

I'm guessing the CSS is in regards to the wiki? I'm just learning a bit more about CSS. I'm an old-school table-based HTML junkie that is trying to make the transition. I recently paid someone re-do the site in CSS since I didn't have the time. Something tells me it would still be quite a task to match the rest of the site exactly.

Also, I the wiki thing still intrigues me. But I have a hard time envisioning how it would be used to organize the content. Most wikis store the content itself. I don't really want to copy and paste all the content into a wiki. Could it be used to organize links without too much effort?

I think my biggest thing about having the "retro gaming" and "game rooms" in the main navigation is that I am mixing categories of content with types of content.
Also, there are some overlapping topics between the two and since they already blend well together, I think it could work again (after all, I originally had the game room stuff in the main section)

Also, this is how my posting habits work now:
I try to post something on Retro Gaming every two or three days
I try to post something unique and thought-out (which takes time)
If I write something for Game Rooms, it takes away time from Retro Gaming, which makes it hard to meet my personal posting goals/deadlines

If Game Rooms is part of Retro Gaming, I can write a Game Rooms post but have it "count" as a Retro Gaming post which helps me fulfill my posting goals.
Also since Game Rooms, at its peak, had 5% of the readership of RetroGaming, I was hesitant to post something in Game Rooms as it didn't get the exposure it deserved.
Also, I was posting stuff in Game Rooms that wasn't that relevant just so I could have something new on there.

I'm also thinking having more than one RSS feed is a bit confusing, so I think simplicity is more attractive in this case.

But, yes, part of what got me excited about the Game Rooms idea is that nobody else is doing it. But I quickly learned that it wasn't practical for me to keep it going as a long term thing. Again, I still plan on highlighting Game Rooms posts because I think there is an interest in it.


As for the Retro News links/feed, I'm having a hard time debating it. It like the concept, but there are some periods of time there isn't anything worth posting. And again, from what I can tell, there isn't a huge interest in it. Also, the front page as it is right now is rather text heavy and from a casual end-user perspective it can be kinda confusing as to what they should be reading. Because of this, I would like to trim the text down to the main features (blog posts and forum posts).

But I would still like to have the news around because I think it is useful for people like you and me. I just don't know where it should go without clutting the place up.

[racketboy]

It looks fine to me. My only issue with it is the subtitle.
I think you should replace "for" with "to" in "your guide for a retro lifestyle."
I can't explain why in a big OED type way, but it just sounds better.

Actually, I've been changing it between "to" and "for" for the last couple days in Photoshop

Anybody else think this way?

[Kagi]

You're doing a great job. Keep up the good work!

[The Apprentice]

Actually, I think "to" sounds just fine. Nice man, it looks great.

[Deefuzz]

Since I am new, I may have missed this.

But is there a forum topic for each news item posted? I see discussion that takes place below the news item for visitors to the site, but I was thinking a forum thread for each main article would be nice too. I was wanting to jump in and discuss todays article about art and photography, and maybe even share some of my own, but I cannot seem to find a discussion thread.