CARDRUNNERS

What's Your Edge

tcaby's Poker Blog

August 24, 2007

testing a long post

I spent some time on the new website yesterday and today. I understand it's still in process but you suggested writing down my thoughts so you and the developers can factor them in.

Overall

To me the site looks too white and bland (too much blank white space in certain areas). The various pages seem relatively lifeless and there doesn't seem to be a consistent font or style you see everywhere you go. I would suggest adding a consistent color scheme, font and background that is distinguishable as you navigate the various different areas of the site. I would like the logo to still be a touch bigger in relation to all the white space.

Home Page

The home page still needs to be refined. We left off this process a while ago, but no progress has been made. Links from this page that need major work are About Us (new pics, should include all pros and guest pros and bios to look like an impressive teaching team), HH Tools and Contact Us still need to be done.

Dashboard

I like the cleaner simpler look now but the light blue background to the video/blog/shop symbols doesn't hit me right, I would prefer another shade or color altogether. The Main Table and Latest Media Cuts might need to be retitled. Account Info and Help need to be less subtle and more pronounced to members can see them clearly. The Account info tabs at the top need to be adjusted slightly up as they are falling behind the foreground and the Update and Cancel buttons on the bottom are duplicated. I hope the new private message system allows more than 50, which it default listed as the max when I clicked on it. On the dashboard, I would hope that clicking on those big symbols for Videos/Blogs/Shop would take you to the master page with the below offerings, seems intuitive that it would. Does the Member News expand and collapse in size like our News and Notes now depending on how much/little we put in there? Will the help/search/contact us option be on every page, i think it should be somewhere if only a little link at the bottom.

Blogs

The master blogs page was a little confusing to me. I like the options offered, but the small type ones (i.e list all, featured, recently updated, most recently, most popular etc.) are right above the Blue bar title/categories and confusing as to which refers to which column. I'm probably not explaining it well, but what I mean is Most Recent Entries sits right above Last Updated, so its not clear which the list below is referring to. Same with Most Popular sitting right above PM etc. I would think clicking on the username to the left would also take me to the blog, or do you just want to make it on the right - view blog. Obviously one issue I want to make sure works well is picture resizing and how the blogs look and feel. I can't tell that yet. The last updated option is nice, but it might be nice to see like some color dot or something that would stand by the blog of someone who has a new entry you haven't read yet as you may not pay attention to the date and time you last read blogs to know if you had previously read the entry or not, time saver sort of like the videos previously viewed function. The sample blogs listed seem very bland and boring to look at but I'm assuming there are many modifications that can be made, color, look, style, pictures, to customize and improve them by each blogger in the software. Will we have the block IP and delete comments option on blogs by the blog owner for all blogs? We will definitely need it for the most visible ones.

Forums

There isn't much here to see yet, but when going on Andrew's post with the picture of his buddies in CR shirts, I dont see an easy button to reply or add to the post. Vistually its not the most appealing if you have a big automatic blocked out area and one line of text. Is that because of all the stuff on the left? The username I think needs to be bolded or bigger, as the title underneath it are the same size, confusing a bit. The smiley faces I could do without as wel, visually, rather just a green dot if they are online. The fonts in general used are small and against a white background are hard to read if you have a page full of options as the forums will be soon. How will the master Forum page look with 25 categories listed?

Chat, FAQ, HH tools, etc.

I'll put all my random other sections thoughts here.... It was mentioned in the meeting that the Chat was operational, but clicking on the link did not work at all. The FAQ link also doesn't lead to anything yet. HH tools I'm assuming will lead to both the hand converter and the HH replayer when complete? The converter is the only thing there presently and seems simply set up, except for what happens to the hand when you click Convert Hand at bottom? How would you then put it in the forums or blog etc. It should be a simple easy step. Have we seen visually how the converted hands will look, is it nice? I randomly clicked on the User Agreement at the bottom, which I assume will be like a terms of service type thing eventually, but now it takes me to refer a friend page. Its hard to see that it is a link on that background with that font etc. Where will the link be to our Ventrilo server, should be easily accessible. I don't see private lessons anywhere. Where will the link be to the live meeting option or won't we have that any longer? On my IE browser, the entire CR site doesn't fit naturally, the screen cuts off just a touch on the right in the middle A of FAQ or right after My Dashboard, is this what everyone is seeing and can it be fixed so that little bit of scrolling isn't necessary?

As this has gotten long, I'll write another email giving my impression of the admin side of the site.

picture is here: