Suggestion: Website update

[Tad Carlucci]

I would make the following suggestions:

* Use only proper HTML. Stop depending upon web browsers to correctly guess what you intended .. sometimes they'll get it wrong.

* Separate function. Put content in HTML, presentation layout in CSS, and functionality in Javascript. Avoid inline script in the HTML.

* You're married to MyBB and Vision Helpdesk for the forums and support. So some areas are going to be a mess. But outside of those two sections (Forums and Support) use HTML5 .. and be STRICT about it.

* Stop checking for and trying to support old browsers. You're using CSS, so IE3 just won't work. So why try to support IE3 .. especially since the functions are done wrong and won't support it anyway?

* Use CACHE hints. You're serving out a lot more content than you need to because you're not hinting at what changes and what doesn't.

[Ethereal Hurricane]

Besides using IE at all, I'd hope that everyone (I won't even say most people), have moved on past IE3.

I also don't think the forums or the support need to be changed at all, they work just fine, and serve their purpose. My main point for updating the main page was that welcome pages have generally fallen into disrepute and are unnecessary considering the fact, and I use myself as a perfect example, most people are impatient. Most people go to websites, most of the time, for a specific purpose. I'm not going to go to the main index for any reason except that its faster than typing the extra /forum/ when being lazy, which means I'm probably never going to read the news, as that would be an extra click, aside from it also being out of site, out of mind.

(04-14-2013 07:02 PM)Tad Carlucci Wrote:  Well, I spent the afternoon blocking out a slight redesign. I didn't want to change the major style, but I wanted to make it a bit more friendly, especially to new and potential customers.

It's decent, but I still think getting rid of the whole 'welcome' thing is needed. Put the news/blog on the front page! Your redesign would work well as a new framework, but I still think it needs to be completely face lifted.

[Tad Carlucci]

IE3 is completely unusable on today's Internet but, still, people put code in the web pages to support it. Somewhere around IE8 or 9 Microsoft seems to have given up on trying to define the standard and work with it, instead. If you're only interested in IE9 or later, you barely need any shims at all. Perhaps, in another year or two IE and Opera will get their acts together.

As to main pages .. yes, you can design around them. But most sites presume you're well knowledgeable about them and the subject. To my mind, that's a mistake. I like the way Second Life does it. If you have an account, the main page takes you either to your personal Dashboard, or asks you to log in. But if you don't it gives you a page where you can learn what Second Life is all about, and create a new account. That's easy enough to do .. if the browser has a PHP session cookie, showing they have an account, redirect to their Dashboard; otherwise serve up the default page.

I agree those huge images on the main page are a problem if for no other reason than they make it all but impossible to support iPhone and Android directly. I left it, as I said, because I didn't want to depart too much from the current style. I was mainly interested in making the page more useful to new and potential customers.

Personally, I get turned off by sites which shove news/blogs at me. I like a site which hits me with a lean/clean landing page and lets me drill down to the point I'm interested in. It's easy enough to bookmark a deep link so, for the sites I go to a lot, I'll often bookmark the point I'm likely to want to start at. The idea of directing the user to a page based upon having an account (or, better yet, let them choose one via a preference setting) does the same job, just from the server-side instead of forcing me to do it with bookmarks.

[Winter Phoenix]

(04-15-2013 02:02 PM)Tad Carlucci Wrote:  
Personally, I get turned off by sites which shove news/blogs at me. I like a site which hits me with a lean/clean landing page and lets me drill down to the point I'm interested in.

The accueil 'landing page' , wait...no accueil??? ANTI FRANCAIS????
Bet there are more French speakers in here
than 'valkoma' speaking Icelanders!!

The home page works fine for me.
Says ' THIS IS THE KittyCatS WEBSITE',
and lets you go from there.
Shows you a big blue eyed kitteh with a collar
and what appears to be the chow store behind it.
It says in one picture...

"THIS IS WHATS UP!
KITTEH'S IN COLLARS AND THE FOOD STORE YOU WILL BE CHAINED TO!!"

I'm good with that, but. . .

The leita kassi má ekki vera falinn!

[Ethereal Hurricane]

(04-15-2013 02:02 PM)Tad Carlucci Wrote:  As to main pages .. yes, you can design around them. But most sites presume you're well knowledgeable about them and the subject. To my mind, that's a mistake. I like the way Second Life does it. If you have an account, the main page takes you either to your personal Dashboard, or asks you to log in. But if you don't it gives you a page where you can learn what Second Life is all about, and create a new account. That's easy enough to do .. if the browser has a PHP session cookie, showing they have an account, redirect to their Dashboard; otherwise serve up the default page.

This would be nice, and seems like they already have the ability already in place, as they have the forums/support/cattery tied to one login.

And to your credit, I thought what you did was a nice start, I just think the whole site should be completely redone to something more stylized. After all, the website itself is a product, you want to showcase what you're providing. You can make the argument for clean/lean and that is fine, but what we have no is just bulky and 'dated'. ->> FACE LIFT!<<-

I feel the people who do all the hard work coding, designing, and everything, should be represented well by their website. I'm not saying OMG WHY ARE THERE NO CUTE FLOWERS AND BUNNIES AND KTTIES RUNNING ACROSS THE SCREEN JUMPING AND SAYING 'HI!' However, I do feel it should be a bit more styled to KittycatS.

[Deer Thistle]

I think in general having that 'welcome' image is a big mistake - that's a Genesis Diamond before its two redesigns and isn't really indicative of the beauty KittyCatS has to offer in whole in 2013, it seems like a good idea for early 2011 during KC's opening but we're so far past that. We have colorful kitties, tabby kitties, exotic fur kitties and eyes (among other traits) to boot! Look at the list of traits in the beginning of KittyCatS http://goo.gl/tDkgd (most of these beginner cats are the only ones used graphically in the site design) versus the palette we have to work with now, it's time for an update on those images!

It also wouldn't hurt to have a more colorful demonstration of trait combinations even if the current site theme is kept simple (I'm a huge fan of simplicity myself and graphically, it allows for the kitties to speak for themselves in the images used versus a bold theme), I sure know it was the pink & white that got me into actually breeding KittyCatS, not the blue-eyed tabbies, and these colorful kitties aren't represented in any form in the design! There's so many people who love fantasy colors and join to acquire a pink & white, these individuals aren't enticed by the site at all even at first glance as these furs weren't around when the graphics to the site were made. Featuring solely those furs from the beginning is great but it also shows how the site hasn't been updated since to showcase the rest of these beautiful traits.

The "Welcome" picture itself could be so, so much better and is a giant turn off. An an interactive (and fun!) idea would to host a contest where community members submit their incarnations of the welcome page image (A picture contest of sorts?) and KittyCatS can select the winners that they feel best suits the main page in both picture quality and how well it represents the diversity of KittyCatS as a breedable. The final product would be the chosen winners featured on a randomized, switching slideshow of some sort as the welcome page image with the same dimensions, it'd be a great way for breeders to showcase their diverse catteries, and would cover a range of kitties and one to pique each new visitor's interest because that bland kitty on the "Welcome" page is so off-putting, even when I joined in 2011.

Reminiscing on joining KC, I remember I saw the site and it really didn't 'sell' me on wanting to partake in this breedable, I had to venture out into secondary markets and see the beautiful in-world cats to see just what KC is all about visually with the range of furs and colors, some which fail to be highlighted at all in the current site design. I assume the site design hasn't been updated since KC's opening by that much so I think it's time to re-vamp some graphics if not the whole layout, and potentially add more to that giant gray bar on the left like a Flickr image bar.

The more images people see of kitties and the wider the range and variety of those kitties seen, the better! And we've progressed so far since 2011 that I think in 2013 the site is more than deserving of needing of an overhaul, at least in some of the kitty graphics department like the "Welcome" page and potentially some of the banners. If a giant overhaul requires too much time and resources, at least host a contest or switch out that "Welcome" page because it's really not that welcoming and fails to show the beauty that is KittyCatS with its multitude of furs.

Maybe on the welcome image too KC could add little fun, informative facts that are enticing to know as a newcomer like "Did you know kitties can have over X possible combinations of traits!" "Kitties come in all sizes - toys, teacups, and more!" (Obviously better worded LOL) and whatnot to really let people know how diverse our breedable truly is, because that static image of the first incarnation of the Genesis Diamond really doesn't speak out in that way - make that picture dynamic and showcase the community's work, and make people feel "welcome" to just how amazing KittyCatS really is through these images, namely the "Welcome" one. This site is a first impression for plenty who are intrigued and wish to learn more - it was for me as well - and it doesn't do KittyCatS justice!

[Tad Carlucci]

(04-15-2013 05:46 PM)deerylou Resident Wrote:  The "Welcome" picture itself could be so, so much better and is a giant turn off.

... to pique each new visitor's interest because that bland kitty on the "Welcome" page is so off-putting, even when I joined in 2011.

Reminiscing on joining KC, I remember I saw the site and it really didn't 'sell' me on wanting to partake in this breedable ...

[Kayleigh McMillan]

I can't really tell if I would have been tempted by that picture because I met KittyCatS in world via the RFL 2011 costume kitties and they were very colorful and when I first payed a visit to the website during my registration I though that Genesis Diamond was pretty cute actually just like a real cat and that was pretty tempting.
The secrets behind the KittyCatS I uncovered way later and what they could hide I liked that journey in a way.
Perhaps I would have been discouraged if I saw all beautiful cats when I got my first genesis XD
I loved my Domino right away as I liked him better than the Diamond on the front page so I felt I was a very epic breeder already
If I only knew but I kind of like the fact that it is a surprise.
Now KittyCatS is my first breedable so maybe that is different than for someone who bred various creatures.
But can you imagine I threw away my first kitty, from which I later heard was pretty rare, which showed a glitter shade?
That kitty scared the crap out of me and it had fire eyes too >.<
Maybe die hard breeders want to know what a kitty can hide and all in first instance to know straight away if it is to their taste.
I think if I was confronted with a picture of a kitty with unnatural for example ody eyes and an Illume shade and pointed soft fold ears or ody 1 ( they did not excist back then) I would have ran away real quick.
These type of traits need to grow on us I think.
Therefore I understand they have chosen for a pretty average kitty the customer will likely meet after they bought a starter kit in the store the chances are high a genesis diamond is in the pack.
I think the fun part is one can find out themselves what that kitty hides made me feel back then a littlebit like a genius while if they showed all epicness up front it might have felt unreachable or not as a surprise or even if the kitty looks very funky not so attractive
As for the information offered on the main page I think this could need indeed some adjustments.