The "ATS 2010" Project: The Creative Look & Feel of ATS.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I have yet to run across a better laid out public forum than ATS so I'm afraid that other than suggesting a slightly more futuristic/minimalistic design I can't offer much help.

One of my favorite sites is addict-o-matic ... here's a random search for "swine flu:" addictomatic.com...

Have a cruise around the site and its interface ... I think it would be a pretty neat way to arrange a future "my ats" type page which would include a comprehensive search feature, so that search results are laid out ergonomically and according to forum/author or however the user wishes.

There are some very well laid out websites out there like:
www.whitevoid.com... (use the fullscreen feature, it's actually pretty cool) But they tend to be pretty heavy on Flash and bandwidth requirements so probably not ideal for a forum.

Ultimately, other than a general esthetic adjustment and an existing bug cleanup, the ultimate goal I would presume would be to make for a more pleasant and intuitive user experience ... in this regard, in the context of an internet forum, I can't think of more qualified folks to defer to than the ATS brain-trust.

And thanks for always trying to improve the site ... you surely have laurels which have never been rested on.


[edit on 4 Jan 2010 by schrodingers dog]

Im a big fan of video games and I frequent most often the IGN Website which has had a serious overhall in the past couple of years, and I enjoy the scrolling type boxes and the somewhat easy navigation.

~Keeper

I am kind of fond of StarWars.com's lay out. Especially with the dropboxes/risers and the revolving storyboards.

[edit on 4-1-2010 by djvexd]

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Im a big fan of video games and I frequent most often the IGN Website which has had a serious overhall in the past couple of years, and I enjoy the scrolling type boxes and the somewhat easy navigation.

~Keeper

Reviewing the links posted here, this is my favorite so far. HOWEVER.
I think ATS is already attractive, and easy to navigate. Especially the firehoses make everything simple in locating current interests.

I would request not too much animation, however. It takes it's toll on speediness, and I like speed.

Edit to add: I think it's extremely cool of you guys to ask for our opinions!

[edit on 1/4/2010 by ladyinwaiting]

As far as this type of site goes, this IS the one I like the best. My opinion; if it ain't broke, don't fix it

I'm most fond of the light text on the dark background I can use here. The sites with light blue or gray text on white gives me a headache. That seems to be a fad I hope you DO NOT follow. The light pastels and the light gray or pastel text on white I mean.

I also like the fact you allow the large avatars and perhaps you could raise the allowed limits on file sizes so we could see some more creative ones of the animated variety. I've come to associate people with their avatars and really like that I can scroll quickly thorough and find my posts as well as others so easily.

You might also take into account most people are on wide-screen displays now. Perhaps you could offer multiple formats to accommodate the new higher quality displays. Even my laptop is an HD display.

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


I agree, i'd prefer that they keep the animations down and the smoothness up. Really what I wanna see is something aking to sexy lol

You know, like Mac OSX sexy. Beauty mixed with simplicity.

~Keeper

I've always rather enjoyed websites that have unique interactive qualities and although I don't see how any of these could be incorporated (albeit perhaps a few features in the media portal), I do still like the "wow" factor of them...

My first one I like because of the look and feel of the page turning..

www.subliminalinflux.com...


This one is just cool again because of the mouse interaction with the page.

wonder-wall.com.../en

The following I think would be kind of neat for the Media portal

www.silenzio.fr...#/en/movies/grid

The last one I'm throwing in simply because I'm fascinated with Space and I think these folks created a very unique page presentation

www.wechoosethemoon.org...

[edit on 1/4/2010 by JohnnyAnonymous]

While I really like the current format, I think a customizable format like Igoogle might be cool. One you could move the forums you frequent to the top of your screen and add plugins where applicable. If not, then keep it like it is. I fear change.

reply to post by network dude


Actually that's a great idea. I google is perfect for getting exactly what you want out of the internet.

We could have an iATS or something, I mean we do have the My Ats, but with different plugins we could perhaps track our replies and our threads better.

As well I know we have some pretty good computer and software types here as members they could build some really cool addons for firefox and the likes for this sort of website.

~Keeper

Honestly, I LOVE this page: www.abovetopsecret.com...

It's the page I have bookmarked for ATS and don't even go to the technical home page. The little icons are very visually appealing and easily navigable. Out of all the forums I've seen, ATS' forum home page is my favorite by far. It really is impossible to provide a more aesthetically pleasing page than that according to my personal preference.

Flash home pages are too boring and can be confusing/lack content/there is only so much space to highlight your content. Sites with 'blog style' layouts seem so plain. The literal ATS home page is along the lines of a 'blog style' layout that doesn't really appeal to me. But I love our forum home page.

The above probably doesn't help at all but that's my honest preference. It's very beautiful and something I've come to associate with ATS. And non clickable side bars. lol

reply to post by vkey08

Gotta disagree with you on that point, and here's why.

What exactly are you disagreeing with? That 3D is going to be big this year or that this site can benefit from it? If you're disagreeing that 3D is going to be big this year you would do good to brush up on your sources and the numbers that are coming in. If you're disagreeing with this site benefitting from it, again, you need to look at the numbers that are coming in and double check your numbers.

Even some of the 3d/stereoscopic renders I've seen done on another site that is on my top sites fav bar (in fact the one I visit more frequently due to it being part of what I do) it really is a hard medium to get just right so it looks perfec ton all computer monitors and even moreso when you factor in color settings and the like.

Nothing looks “perfect” on all systems just like audio sounds different when played back through different systems or rooms with different acoustics. Moreover, you’re basing your opinions on something you’ve seen, but you haven’t seen everything I’ve seen or that my cohorts have seen.

One render looked different on 14 different monitors and only truly showed in 3d (this is using Lightwave to do the processing mind you) on 2 of those monitors tested.

See above, btw, were you present at Autodesk University and will you be present at the 3D Gamming Summit in April?

It's just too much of an effort to attempt to make it across the board perfect, and if your monitor is older and out of calibration, the migraines will set in rapidly.

Refer to previous comments.

But what do i know I'm just a girl who does CGI for a living.

But what do I know, I’m just a (insert gender here) who is a director of biz dev for a company that specializes in CGI and 3D applications.


[edit on 4-1-2010 by EMPIRE]

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Im a big fan of video games and I frequent most often the IGN Website which has had a serious overhall in the past couple of years, and I enjoy the scrolling type boxes and the somewhat easy navigation.

~Keeper

You beat me to it.

I'll throw my 0.2 Ameros in on the subject.

I love ATS, I like the black toned down colors. But the "AboveTop Board" software is a pain in the butt in my opinion.

It has a ton of formatting annoyances like the bold, italic, underline input boxes. I wish it could function more like the Vbulletin software where we can lay those codes in by keyboard shortcuts.

Other then that, I think it's a great system and a marvelous site.

Originally posted by EMPIRE
reply to post by vkey08

 

Gotta disagree with you on that point, and here's why.

What exactly are you disagreeing with? That 3D is going to be big this year or that this site can benefit from it? If you're disagreeing that 3D is going to be big this year you would do good to brush up on your sources and the numbers that are coming in. If you're disagreeing with this site benefitting from it, again, you need to look at the numbers that are coming in and double check your numbers.

Even some of the 3d/stereoscopic renders I've seen done on another site that is on my top sites fav bar (in fact the one I visit more frequently due to it being part of what I do) it really is a hard medium to get just right so it looks perfec ton all computer monitors and even moreso when you factor in color settings and the like.

Nothing looks “perfect” on all systems just like audio sounds different when played back through different systems or rooms with different acoustics. Moreover, you’re basing your opinions on something you’ve seen, but you haven’t seen everything I’ve seen or that my cohorts have seen.

One render looked different on 14 different monitors and only truly showed in 3d (this is using Lightwave to do the processing mind you) on 2 of those monitors tested.

See above, btw, were you present at Autodesk University and will you be present at the 3D Gamming Summit in April?

It's just too much of an effort to attempt to make it across the board perfect, and if your monitor is older and out of calibration, the migraines will set in rapidly.

Refer to previous comments.

But what do i know I'm just a girl who does CGI for a living.

But what do I know, I’m just a (insert gender here) who is a director of biz dev for a company that specializes in CGI and 3D applications.


[edit on 4-1-2010 by EMPIRE]

Business Development and being on the front lines every day (and quite honestly I can't stand Autodesk for personal reasons, I HAVE to use them because they bought Maya but that's about the only contact i have with the evil empire) and dealing with the 45 million things that can go wrong with rendering in true 3d, especially with so many variables is / are two totally different things. I've been doing CGI since the Amiga days and on the technical end not much has changed, a good discussion was had about Avatar for instance that even by refining the process it's not really showcasing anything new.

As far as shows where they show off the latest and greatest? They have everything there calibrated together so there is maybe, MAYBE a deviation smaller than is measurable by the human eye, it's no surprise that things look better there and magnificent, but when you get it home in a real world application that it doesn't perform as advertised.

As far as telling me to brush up on my numbers? 3D / CGI has been gaining for 5 years now, ever since Lucasfilm/ILM refined the process so that it was a bit more usable and Pixar released Renderman. I don't think that 2010 will be the breakout year, why? it's already happened. 2010 may be a year of refinement of the stereoscopic process, but unfortunately until we can make cheap holographic displays, viewing anything in 3D on a computer monitor is still a while away. This is coming from a front line , day to day, hands on , and hair pulling out summation of the technology. it's promising, but not there yet.

My Link was crap..just pretend I didn't post this!

[edit on 1/4/2010 by Ex]

I regularly check out this new site:

www.nowpublic.com...

It's got the kind of user-generated material that ATS has, complete with threads and member comments, but what I find attractive is the outlay. Very clean.

Their Terms and Conditions (Code of Conduct) are very similar to ours and seems reasonably well-managed.

sp

[edit on 4/1/10 by masqua]

spacecollective.org...


the layout of this website would be very effective for ATS.


thanks, as always, to the ATS staff.

Originally posted by tgidkp
spacecollective.org...

One of my favorite websites, from the point of view of design and layout, in the whole internet. I'm not a fan of the blog style "comments" for a forum such as ATS, but from a design perspective ... great suggestion.

[edit on 5 Jan 2010 by schrodingers dog]

Instead of giving an HTML based idea I feel more comfortable sharing my views/ideas vocally at this point in time, if I come across something physical to show I will indeed edit my post.

For the most part I think a major overhaul (with the appropriate alloted time to ensure smooth transitioning) would be greatly admired by all who frequent ATS, and a bit of dazzle here and there especially on the front page and on user friendly welcoming forums would be a good center piece to focus on to attract all kinds of people (since all are welcome here who are willing to follow the cultivated terms when signing up here).

I suggest while this transition is being done, use a back up server (or however you can cost effectively do so) host the site in at least a basic format for all of us to continue posting and actively participate with the ongoing updates to the website.

For example, back up forums are setup (with all posts/threads from let's say the past year or so back up as well, or all important posts/threads marked by flags/stars?) and the main site is viewable on certain key dates which are announced on this backup forum site, and members can actively give ideas and bugs they find on the new site design/overhaul. Then those bugs/ideas/whatever are dealt with and implemented in the system.

This is really just a general approach to my idea, and sorry for my wording, I have been unable to sleep for the past couple days so I'm a bit off at the moment. Hopefully this post is helpful though. Cheers to the upcoming additions to ATS! I fully support whatever you all decide on, and am happy to see people giving their ideas to help shape this upcoming event which we all will identify as the new era of forum posting.

-highlyoriginal

Just one friendly little humblest of humble suggestions: Let's not argue anyone over their personal preference. We're just brainstorming here, throwing out personal designs that appeal to us. There have been some ideas in this thread I really didn't care for and I'm sure some didn't care for mine. But let's be cool and take this thread for what it is: subjective preferences and brainstorming. No need to get into a battle over something that boils down to personal choice.