Mess v3.5: Ta-daaah! Do you like our new look? Options

[dwergs]

Didn't see this one coming, huh? Or you probably gave up hoping a long time ago!I'm proud to welcome you all to Mess v3.5, an interim version of this site while we reconstruct "the mothership" that is Mess.be behind the stages.It's been beyond far too long since we last updated our layout but I've finally...

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[Chris4]

Wow! You're right, I wasn't expecting that.

Very nice!

[Shoop]

It's about freakin' time!

If I'm completely honest I don't like the new look at all, but at the same time it's better than the old one! There's a scary amount of ad's and red was a really bad choice for the links, but the chuck norris sign makes it all better.

So is this house style going to stay the same for v4?

[anonymousjon]

i'm with shoop on this one, but nice to see an update and look forward to seeing what the final v4 brings

[bface]

Dont like it at all.

First i should kill the iframe, second i should look for a real designer.

[Chris4]

I regret saying I like it..
What I meant to say was.. It's better then the layout before and it's nice to see an update, but still, agree with the posts above, I dont like the design.

As for the ads, I didn't notice in Firefox (+ Adblock Plus)... until I opened Internet Explorer. That's a lot of ads .

This post has been edited by Chris4: Feb 26 2008, 10:58 AM

[psyko]

It's about freakin' time!

If I'm completely honest I don't like the new look at all, but at the same time it's better than the old one! There's a scary amount of ad's and red was a really bad choice for the links, but the chuck norris sign makes it all better.

So is this house style going to stay the same for v4?

I think Shoop summarizes everything I got to say, other than it's about time!!!!!

[Mad_Griffith]

I was expecting something like the MessPatch Area, which is brilliant in my opinion. Sincerely, I'm disappointed.

This post has been edited by Mad_Griffith: Feb 26 2008, 01:22 PM

[ketamine]

Dont like it at all.

First i should kill the iframe, second i should look for a real designer.

My thoughts exactly. I'm a pro web consultant, and all the time I want to make an example of bad iframe usage, I pont to mess.be as a fine example.

[Nick]

it is nice to see a change in design/update but it does look really ameteurish and kind of thrown together. Mass amount of ads is distracting and kinda takes the eye away from content. Plus black on orange/red looks very harsh, not easy on the eyes.

I think the design could look good with the style just a little neater. Anyway good job on an update =]

[AdamVester]

i like the top part of the site befor it gets to the ads . i no i no you need funding but it looks like a page full of adverts. maybe move them about a little looks overcrowded in the positions they are in also to much white im going blind ahhhhhhhhh.. na serious though good stuff guys and girls.

[noroom]

Sorry to say it dwergs, but it's too little too late. This site might have worked in 2002~2003, but it has been neglected for too long.

Even after the layout update it continues to be one of the worst websites I can think of, regarding the way it presents its content. A big shame, honestly.

[Lukeyy19]

by the looks of this this is just a temporary under construction layout (black and yellow stripes)

i hope so as i dont like it to be honest, should have just left it as it was and spent the time on V4

[sunny81]

it's cool

[Russ]

it looks decent. better than before. bet v4 will be better tho

[ice_king]

well, honestly, i think it looks like it's been wiped on something but i guess that's the 'under construction' part i can't wait to see v4!

[Frackounet]

Cool, but there is a bug with Opera 9.26

[thahim]

previous look was good

[*Nat*]

It doesn't look too bad. Not briiliant but ok. Hurry up and get v4 up I say. The add to the right of the latest headlines I would say move that either to the bottom of the page or maybe down the right side under the other one. More space for the latest headlines to stretch out then.

[Markus]

It's about freakin' time!

If I'm completely honest I don't like the new look at all, but at the same time it's better than the old one! There's a scary amount of ad's and red was a really bad choice for the links, but the chuck norris sign makes it all better.

So is this house style going to stay the same for v4?

it is nice to see a change in design/update but it does look really ameteurish and kind of thrown together. Mass amount of ads is distracting and kinda takes the eye away from content. Plus black on orange/red looks very harsh, not easy on the eyes.

I think the design could look good with the style just a little neater. Anyway good job on an update =]

I couldn't agree more!! Please stick to a modern, neat and most of all professional look, like the Mess Patch site.

To sum up what I think about the 'new' site:

• Don't use so much black.. it looks very 1999. A bit of black in the header image is ok, but the black menu is killing me.
• Apart from the iframe and other lame old technology (inews.shtml anyone?), that I hope will be fixed in 4.0:
  Why do you set XHTML 1.0 Strict DOCTYPE and then don't follow it in any way?! You should try to follow the W3C standards. They exist for a reason.
• Although I understand you want to be compensated by ad revenue, I must agree there are far too many ads and they're positioned in such a way that it is very annoying.
• I'm afraid the navigation hasn't improved either. The left menu is still quite a mess (nope, not trying to pull a cheesy joke ). The menu on top is somewhat of an improvement, but I think you should stick to categories, like the pulldown menu on the old site, but then in a better way. Mess.be is just to big to put all pages together. Maybe you can use javascript to create a dropdown menu or an submenu bar thing that appears onclick or onmouseover.
• Like Nick said, the combination of colours is quite harsh. I'm not a web 2.0 fanboy, but I must agree all web 2.0 have very 'friendly' colours that make your site a lot more user friendly and do not distract. Check this site for the sort of colour palette I mean

Don't get me wrong; I'm a frequent visitor of Mess.be and I really hope the site will live on for many years. I hope you don't take this criticism personal. I just get frustrated when I see that you've taking such a wrong turning here.

PLEASE read what I posted in the other thread about mockups for Mess.be this week .

(I hope it's all good English, as I wasn't sure about some of the expressions I used )

This post has been edited by Markus: Feb 26 2008, 08:20 PM