New Design

[RWLinda]

Yup, it's time ... for a redesign of the site. I know it's relatively new (early december 2007), but the site isn't as "friendly" to visit as a site should be, so I'm once again working on a complete redesign. First sketchen have been made, but not "digitalized" yet.

If anyone has any suggestions for new stuff you'd like to see or if there's anything you'd like to see removed, please let me know and I'll try to make the site a little better.
It'll take at least several months to rebuilt a site like this, so don't worry about a quick change in lay out, removal of information or whatever. It'll probably take a year or even longer to completely finish it.

[scott]

Oh wow... Redesign, again? You sure are energetic

Well...um... I'm not sure. I think the site already looks pretty good. The front page might scare "new" people off with its wealth of information but that's all I can think of right now. The contrast of the colors in this forum sometimes hurts my eyes a little but it might just be my screen's brightness, lol. Creme+gray/black is a big contrast, but I haven't seen anybody who really has any problem with it.

If I were you, I wouldn't know where to start, honestly.

[RWLinda]

Well, yeah, I started working on it now, but I actually don't have time...it's just that I'd like to upgrade the design.
Where to start? Not that hard...making an inventory of all the pages out there. See how they fit together, which page should link to what other pages. Making color schemes and making some sketches along the way of a new look. It'll be a long process though, and I will possibly try to create a CMS system, so it'll easier to update the site (especially when there're more people updating).

[ChaseRobinFN]

I like all of the designs that you come up with.

Wordpress is good for updating and as a CMS. If you need a helping hand, give me a buzz. I'd be glad to help wherever you need me.

[RWLinda]

Hmm, Wordpress is more of a blog rather than an actual website and I therefore won't be using that. I'm using it for some other projects though, but it'll not meet eh requirements that this site needs. Thanks for the suggestion tho.. keep em coming!

Since the site has grown a bit out of proportions and I'm not able to do a complete redesign by myself, I'm going to start looking for 1 or 2 visual interface designers, 1 interaction designer and 1 or 2 people who can set up a CMS. I might do the interaction design part, but not sure. It'll depend on how many people are interested in working on this project.
If anyone here knows a good designer or CMS builder, please give me a nod!

[RWLinda]

Ok, turns out the students @ school are not interested in working on this site. Soooo, this means I'll probably do this on my own, (hopefully someone will help out with the small stuff, once it's possible).

Anyway, when it comes to the navigation of the site I've already made a new design and gonna lose some links that are currently in the menu.
But before I'm going to build the actual site I'd like to know what page you visit most?! Or what's your starting point? Do you always enter the site on the main page and go from there, or do you have another page favored like the Updates page, or Latest News page?
Curious to hear anything you have to say about the current site. What you'd like to see improved, added, removed, changed etc. Please don't think that your opinion won't matter... everyone's opinion/thoughts do matter!


Will show the conceptual design some time later this month.

[mastrfshrmn]

Linda,

I would agree that the front page does seem to contain a lot of information for first time users to look at, though it is nice that it gives you navigation to pretty much everything the site has to offer right away.

You already have things organized into listed categories... i.e.

Site
Films & TV
Media

etc...

Perhaps have those as drop down menus or expandable group boxes to not have all that information at once?

Also - i know there is a potential financial constraint here, but the ability to view pictures at full size would go a long way.
There are a ton of free photo sites out there like flickr that you could host the images on for free, and you could then post a decent sized thumbnail on the rw site and link to the flickr or whatever site for enlargement.

Similar with video/audio clips... you can have a youtube account to link to, or other free hosting services for video/audio to link to from the site.

I understand the desire to likely have the site be self containing, but it is annoying in this day and age with memory so cheap and streaming video/audio/pictures so widely available to every device, to only be able to view a thumbnail size picture on a website.

Also there are several dozen audio/video clips on youtube and all over the net of Robin that would be good additions, assuming there is no copywrite issues, which there always are. There is just always a great deal of misc material out there, never will have it all.

Just my two sense

[RWLinda]

Thanks for your reply! Really, really appreciate it.

First off, drop down menu's are not-done in the internet business .
I'll get rid of some links in the menu, that no one would miss imo (links that'll be removed are mainly those to the stand up comedy pages, like: live at the roxy, evening with, met etc). They can be accessed by going to the "comedygraphy" page first.

I plan on adding a large picture of every picture that's on the site.
The site is being sponsored (which means we only pay for the domain name) and recently we got 1 more GB of storage, which means there's plenty of space at the time. Adding tons of stills won't be a problem, adding tons of video material is a different story. There's a RWF youtube channel, but after having added a few videos, most of them were removed by youtube because they were consideren copyrighted (while other people still have them online). So, I prefer not to work with 3rd parties when it comes to media. I'll see how I can implement the video and audio content better. Thnx for the tips!!
The site will (hopefully) get a much more professional look, and having all content hosted on the same server is almost an absolute must. BUT, I'll see if there's another way to host tons of videos as there're so many to share!
Thanks again for your 2 cents. I'll definintely use your tips!

Currently, the way the site is built, it costs quite some time to update it. The new site will be built with a CMS, which means it'll take a LONG time to build it, but afterwards it'll be a lot easier to update it.
Still, I'll come up with a design real soon, it's almost there

[Geradine]

But before I'm going to build the actual site I'd like to know what page you visit most?! Or what's your starting point? Do you always enter the site on the main page and go from there, or do you have another page favored like the Updates page, or Latest News page?

My starting point is the main page. Updates and news on the first view.

Thanks again for your hard work with this website!

Je bent de beste!

[RWLinda]

Thnx

Even though I prefer designing sites over the technical stuff, I found someone to help designing the whole thing. Because I'm probably better at the technical, he'll be designing the new logo, buttons, icons etc.
I'll probably be focussing on the color scheme, fonts and overall look etc.
It's going to be an immense amount of work, but really looking forward to it and hopefully I can visualize my ideas better than last time .

Opinions/thoughts still welcome!

[crystalpierce]

I love the front page of this site....seems colorful and vibrant. Glad RW has recovered and BACK!! : -)

[RWLinda]

OK, here's a link to a VERY conceptional design of the new look I want the new site to have... (I know I shouldn't be sharing this, but ow well...here it goes).
Some of those empty blocks will get a banner/picture, there'll be one block with recent updates and one with the Latest News. I also have to design a new logo as well. There'll be no horizontal scroll bar either.
Colors and background image will probably change, but the lay out/structure will pretty much be like this.
Please let me know what you think of it!

The link below leads to a photoshop image and is not clickable or anything, it's just something to give y'all an idea of what I'm working on.

http://www.robin-williams.net/newsite.html

[crystalpierce]

I like the new possible site for RW. It is a little different but that is good. Good Luck! I know it will take a bit of your time but worth it.

[scott]

Looking pretty sleek and sweet. Keep it up!

[RWLinda]

Thnx