Shameless attempt to get you to visit my website...

woofersus

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2006
1,080
0
76
www.eaststreetaudio.com
OK, so two friends and I have been working on a tech humor website at ShatteredWindows.com and we've just put a bunch of work into making it more pretty, so I'd like some feedback from people who no doubt regular the most popular tech humor webistes of the day.

Our goal with the redesign was not only asthetics, but also to make the content easier to find than the big long list on the left we used to have, or the drop-downs from tabs we had before that.

I'd also like to know what you think is funny since we'll want to focus on what is well received. IMO, the news articles are hit and miss, with some making people crap themselves, and others just being a tad amusing. The Real Technology Heroes spots are some of my favorite content, so definitely check them out.

There's more multimedia on the way in the near future, as well as a vista parody logo, which will go on the merchandise when it is done. We ran into a copyright issue with the xp parody logo, which I'm positive is legal because it's a parody, but the bots on cafepress.com flag it every time :(

Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think. We're about to branch out with ShatteredScifi.com and ShatteredPolitics.com. We have some plans to promote a gun voucher law to end violent crime and endorse Leroy Jenkins for president. (at least he's got chicken)

It appears I should note we're not just collecting stuff from other places. This is 95% original content generated by us. (we link to youtube videos and that's about it)
 

irishScott

Lifer
Oct 10, 2006
21,562
3
0
Meh. I just checked out the RTH section. Not bad, made me lol a couple of times, but too exaggerated IMO (ie: No one actually has 15 shortcuts to my computer) Part of the humor of the bud light commercials was that they were (or at least sounded) roughly true.
 

woofersus

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2006
1,080
0
76
www.eaststreetaudio.com
They are a bit exaggerated, but we all work in a computer repair shop, and I swear I've seen more shortcuts to the same thing than you can possibly imagine. Some will even be in compressed archives, and then pinned to the start menu, which is in the task bar as a toolbar. Some of the RTH stuff is just rediculous, though :)
 

doze

Platinum Member
Jul 26, 2005
2,786
0
0
Needs a graphic designers tough, kinda reminds me of something from the 90's
 

woofersus

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2006
1,080
0
76
www.eaststreetaudio.com
I'm feeling the clutter factor myself. We're considering making all the modules line up, but it may lead to white space. We're also working on setting up a server to host the site ourselves so we'll have better access to it and be able to get a lot more customized with the skin. We're a tad limited by DNN right now in that we're a little tied to the columns approach. Doze will be happy to hear that we actually have a graphic designer working with us on developing nicer graphics and stuff. (he's working on the new logo first)

Of course, the content is our primary focus, but it's nice to get some ideas what people like and don't like about the design, because it helps us make it more appealing at first glance. If the front page looks stupid, people won't dig around for the content.
 

Goosemaster

Lifer
Apr 10, 2001
48,775
3
81
Originally posted by: woofersus
I'm feeling the clutter factor myself. We're considering making all the modules line up, but it may lead to white space. We're also working on setting up a server to host the site ourselves so we'll have better access to it and be able to get a lot more customized with the skin. We're a tad limited by DNN right now in that we're a little tied to the columns approach. Doze will be happy to hear that we actually have a graphic designer working with us on developing nicer graphics and stuff. (he's working on the new logo first)

Of course, the content is our primary focus, but it's nice to get some ideas what people like and don't like about the design, because it helps us make it more appealing at first glance. If the front page looks stupid, people won't dig around for the content.

yeah...whip that boy hard so he starts on the site as a whole soon.

In this day and age, the presenation can make or break the content for new visitors, minus the rare digg.
 

J0hnny

Platinum Member
Jul 2, 2002
2,366
0
0
Whoa, way to cluttered for my taste. Too many links to too many things? Didn't understand the content in the first few seconds which means it's NO GOOD!
 

edro

Lifer
Apr 5, 2002
24,326
68
91
I'm not sure that you are allowed to watermark photos that are not yours... but I may be wrong.

Surprisingly... there are a bunch of photos on there that I have never seen. I liked it.
 

woofersus

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2006
1,080
0
76
www.eaststreetaudio.com
Those photos are all taken by us. We don't borrow any photos. We have linked to youtube videos, but it should be pretty clear that those aren't original content. Everything else is pretty much created by us.

BTW, I should note that there are a couple of layout bugs that show up in firefox. We're working on correcting that, but it displays properly in IE
 

mooglekit

Senior member
Jul 1, 2003
616
0
0
Too much clutter, not to mention I'm never a fan of a site where one of the first things I see at the top of the page are google ads...those should be relegated to a sidebar at least. I'm someone who likes to get to a site and immediately know what it's about and where I can find what I came there for, so the clutter and the ads would make it so I'd never come back. It's tough to get site design right...just keep tweaking it and take peoples opinions for what their worth...incorporate what you can with reasonable effort to better the site and keep asking for feedback
 

woofersus

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2006
1,080
0
76
www.eaststreetaudio.com
I'm getting a trend that says we need to simplify a little. de-clutter as much as possible. We used to have the features links below the header instead of in it. I think the crowdedness at the top may be contributing to a feeling of too much clutter.

We'll need to brainstorm a bit on how to reduce clutter without burying the content in layers of tabs. Our most recent redesign was intended to bring the content to the front page as much as possible.
 

palswim

Golden Member
Nov 23, 2003
1,049
0
71
www.palswim.net
Also, I can't listen to your "Real Technology Heroes" by using the mms protocol. If you used the basic http protocol for those links, then everything would work for me.
 

palswim

Golden Member
Nov 23, 2003
1,049
0
71
www.palswim.net
Originally posted by: palswim
Also, I can't listen to your "Real Technology Heroes" by using the mms protocol. If you used the basic http protocol for those links, then everything would work for me.

Originally posted by: woofersus
hmm, not even sure what that means. I'll run that buy the the person who set that up.

Haha, sorry - I assumed you did everything, but then I read the OP again. Basically, it tries to lock me into using Windows Media Player to listen to anything.