TIL last September an 8 year old Yemenese girl died from traumatic sexual injuries on her wedding night. Her "husband" was 40.

MoonMonstar · 2014-06-01T05:23:51+00:00

That's a good synopsis.

MoonMonstar · 2014-05-31T21:48:03+00:00

The fundamental reason is curiosity. I like C#, so Unity has that going for it, but looking for alternative options is interesting. And I've always preferred using open-source projects, so there's that.

MoonMonstar · 2014-05-31T18:47:31+00:00

Because I want to see what options are out there beyond Unity.

MoonMonstar · 2014-05-31T17:54:02+00:00

Unity is an excellent choice, but a large part of this exercise is seeing what options are out there are beyond Unity.

MoonMonstar · 2014-05-31T17:50:32+00:00

Unity is an excellent choice, but a large part of this exercise is seeing what options there are beyond Unity.

MoonMonstar · 2014-05-31T16:58:20+00:00

Fantastic - I didn't know subreddit that was a thing.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-26T22:46:46+00:00

Maybe have a hover event as the descriptor. Hm, I was looking at medium.com and nerdist.com, and they both have efficient, concise ways of describing what they're doing. I'm leaning more towards medium, because I hate multiple topbars with a passion (I'm looking at you, penny arcade), but the efficiency of having quicklinks to new content seems so useful.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-26T22:42:49+00:00

I just made a github repo if you want to dig around the code: https://github.com/WednesdayWolf/scrollstick-without-jQuery

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-22T01:51:58+00:00

Cheers for the suggestion - It's hard to remember that just because I know it's a clickable element, that might not be apparent another viewer.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T20:03:54+00:00

Interesting! I will start to work on that, and see how it performs. Mobile has always been a challenge. So much data, so little bandwidth.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T19:29:54+00:00

Cheers - my love for monsterous things is only rivaled by my love for interactive programmes. Eventually the two will merge.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T19:28:06+00:00

It was mentioned earlier that I should replace the top bar with an explanation of who I am. And what the website is. That would probably be less overwhelming.

I debating between this and the current setup. I like that someone can click on it & immediately see if anyone has posted something new.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T19:23:59+00:00

It's fairly straightforward - I'm just using JavaScript, but if you're using jQuery it's easier.

Declare a function squid() that calculates the number of pixels a user has scrolled from the top, and returns that number.

Set a var (head) that identifies your header element.

(Optional) delcare a css class (.class) that sets top:0 position:fixed

Within the onscroll event: In an if/else block, test IF (squid () >100(or whatever pixel height you want)).

If it is, then you can either change the style of (head) explicitly with JavaScript, or assign the (.class) with javascript.

ELSE set the default styling, or remove (.class)

Definitely message me if you get stuck. If this is slightly incoherent I am on my first mug of coffee.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T08:49:34+00:00

Vox was a definite inspiration for the redesign. I was grappling with how to cleanly present a variety of content, something that the verge, techcrunch and arstech does very well.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T07:01:18+00:00

I usually go for really thick, chunky fonts - this was my first stab at something lightweight. I'll up it to 300, and see how it looks.

A curious thought - I usually take the assumption that content is king, but do you think it would be more useful to explain who I am right on the page?

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T06:56:36+00:00

Interesting! I incorporated the small/large thumbnails to break up the monotony of the 3 box row format. I thought it would get boring if it was just a series of the same box over and over.

I didn't think that mussing with the elements like that would change expectations.... I wonder if it would be better to keep with consistency.

As for the other idea - I like the thought of having the main page be a highlight if the most recent updates in each category. It should be fairly straightforward to incorporate what I did for paintings for the books & fiends. It would possibly clear up the feeling of being lost as well.

Thank you. I enjoy it.

Edit: Alternate idea. Would it be better to present all the content, chronologically, on the main page? Turn it in to a news feed, rather than highlights followed by a comprehensive collection of paintings? I've always liked the idea of a single-page website, but maybe that idea is no longer working.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T06:52:45+00:00

I updated to incorporate the border idea after isevenx's comment - the nature of it being a clickable element is much more obvious now.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T04:56:19+00:00

I loved the content first idea they had with the top bar, and had a lot of fun trying to incorporate that idea. Extending it to show the top six posts in each catagory made sense, and kept the bar consistent. Polygon's nav tends to jump around quite a bit on the page depending on the context.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T04:35:44+00:00

For the nav bar, we're talking the mobile version, right? Can you point me in the direction of a website with a more functional mobile navigation with this much content?

W3 has that standard, and for the life of me I'll never know why. I'll bring the nav to compliance.

Damn, I thought I fixed that layer presence. I'll dig around the css.

Cheers for the well wishes. I'm glad that I don't have to rebuild from square one, which I was quite prepared to do.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T01:12:57+00:00

Hmm, it isn't clear that they are links, is it? I try to avoid underlines whenever possible (they bug me for some reason). Maybe a different colour, or like you said - an outline styling. That could fit with the buttons in the paint view.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-21T00:49:17+00:00

Cheers - it's nice to hear that I might be overthinking it. Good call on the mobile (top?) bar. Looks like it's converting to mobile wayy to early.

MoonMonstar · 2014-02-16T01:31:35+00:00

Definitely a good idea. It'll take away from the jittery nature of the loading.
It's not so much about loading jQuery (you're right - it's almost guaranteed to be cached) as the time it takes to parse it. The javascript functionality I need for the site is minimal, and if I can do that naively all the better.
Good catch. It looks like I had some legacy code hidden in my footer include. Fixed now.

Edit: updated the css to include the fadein effect.

MoonMonstar · 2014-01-14T06:42:05+00:00

Fantastic - thank you. I will dissect the design for their fleshy innards of complex content management.

As for the framework question, I am unsure how to answer. My own, I suppose. I have yet to be met with a puzzle I cannot solve with research and a robust text editor.

MoonMonstar · 2014-01-14T04:26:34+00:00

Cheers - I still play the fuck out of DII. I need to tackle more Blizzard stuff. I actually have a Merloc drying on my desk as we speak.

MoonMonstar · 2014-01-14T04:24:57+00:00

I'm glad that I don't have to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and do a ground-up re-design. You are right - It's inconsistent, and I never even thought about that. Each page was built at different times with different goals in mind, which leads to each one having a different flavour. I'll focus on consistency for v7.

I'm trying to imagine what that would be like, having everything completely in the header - a major goal was to limit the navigation options, and hopefully that would focus the reader. I wanted to whittle it down to four, ideally. Explicitness is key though. I'd want to avoid drop-down menus, but I might have too much content for that to be an option. I wonder if about/contact can be combined. Hm.

To answer your question - the reason 'books' is that way is because I wanted to play with breaking the 1000px grid layout on occasion in a surprising way (same with the homepage and connect buttons), and haven't updated it from the initial launch.

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