Indie-Resource.com

Well, I was going to wait, but I decided I would share the website I am making for my web show I will be starting soon (no exact date planned yet).

http://beyondthebox.co.nr/

This site is hosted on my home server using WAMP. The login feature doesn't work yet, still coding it and there are no shows available, so the player at the bottom is blank. The Contact Us page is also complete with a CAPTCHA to prevent spammers. The email option on the contact us page, goes through a email server installed and delivered to my Outlook on the server desktop.

Its programmed with HTML/PHP and the login system is being done HTML/PHP/Javascript

Take a look and let me know what you think. I found this template online as a free web template, hence the reason for the link on the bottom right.

awesome stuff

The site looks nice m8.

hallsofvallhalla wrote:awesome stuff

Thanks!

Mouff wrote:The site looks nice m8.

Thanks!


I recently added a Facebook "like" option on the page.

It has been updated now with a video. All the video is, is a possible introduction for the web show. I created the intro using Sony Vegas Pro 9.0e. Hope you like...let me know what you think

The video looks cool so far! What is the theme of this podcast?

I don't know a lot about game design, but when it comes to web design I am fairly knowledgeable, so I'll give you a couple of suggestions: (I know the site is early in development, but these are some things to keep in mind)

Remove the big "Welcome" thing. That is a sort of web design no-no. Your title area takes up enough space to give people an idea of what your site is about, so use some of that space. The colors of that area are also very inviting, and draw the eyes towards it, so it'll help people find the main idea of the site to include a slogan, or short description of what exactly your site is about right in that space.

The number one thing to keep in mind when designing is that peoples attention spans are only so long. The 7 second rule has been mentioned before, and it's a good rule of thumb. If you have 7 seconds to get your viewers attention, and your site takes 3 seconds to load, you only have 4 more seconds to draw them in before they leave. With such a colorful title banner, your visitors will be instantly drawn to that space on the page. Again, including a short description like - "Highlighting the out of the ordinary, one podcast at a time" or something like that (sorry if it's a lame slogan, just a quick thought). Then rather than including the welcome area, just have a paginated view of different entries so people can get right to the content.

Just a few small nitpicks: Change the previous videos link to say "Archives". When you start to get more episodes, make sure to include a search function, as most users will turn to the search function if they can't find what they want right away.

As for as usability goes, you have everything in the right places so far. Menus are nice and visible right below the title area, and the content is on the left (which can help SEO, as well as readability).

There are plenty of websites that give tips on web design, but this is my favorite: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/does-my ... t-one.html

That checklist will help you determine what you may need to change/add/edit/keep etc.

Also, just so you know, I'm not trying to be negative. Quite the contrary: I like the name, and I think you could definitely have something here! Keep it up!

kaos78414 wrote:The video looks cool so far! What is the theme of this podcast?

I don't know a lot about game design, but when it comes to web design I am fairly knowledgeable, so I'll give you a couple of suggestions: (I know the site is early in development, but these are some things to keep in mind)

Remove the big "Welcome" thing. That is a sort of web design no-no. Your title area takes up enough space to give people an idea of what your site is about, so use some of that space. The colors of that area are also very inviting, and draw the eyes towards it, so it'll help people find the main idea of the site to include a slogan, or short description of what exactly your site is about right in that space.

The number one thing to keep in mind when designing is that peoples attention spans are only so long. The 7 second rule has been mentioned before, and it's a good rule of thumb. If you have 7 seconds to get your viewers attention, and your site takes 3 seconds to load, you only have 4 more seconds to draw them in before they leave. With such a colorful title banner, your visitors will be instantly drawn to that space on the page. Again, including a short description like - "Highlighting the out of the ordinary, one podcast at a time" or something like that (sorry if it's a lame slogan, just a quick thought). Then rather than including the welcome area, just have a paginated view of different entries so people can get right to the content.

Just a few small nitpicks: Change the previous videos link to say "Archives". When you start to get more episodes, make sure to include a search function, as most users will turn to the search function if they can't find what they want right away.

As for as usability goes, you have everything in the right places so far. Menus are nice and visible right below the title area, and the content is on the left (which can help SEO, as well as readability).

There are plenty of websites that give tips on web design, but this is my favorite: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/does-my ... t-one.html

That checklist will help you determine what you may need to change/add/edit/keep etc.

Also, just so you know, I'm not trying to be negative. Quite the contrary: I like the name, and I think you could definitely have something here! Keep it up!

Thanks! I will put a lot of thought into that. The good thing is this website was a free template, hence at the bottom right design by Reality Software. I have been putting so much effort in how I want the intro of the web show to be and what the first episode will be about, I wanted something quick for the website. I don't have time to go about making a full fledged site, at least not right now, hence the reasoning for the template. Something quick and editable. It might have taken a bit to load, but thats due to my home server running the website, not some independent outside source.

But thanks for your opinions and I will put them into thought and consideration!! And the "Beyond the Box" title was my wife's idea!

Oh I wasn't complaining about load times, just saying that if it takes X seconds to load, you have (7-x) seconds to grab a users attention. And I don't mind the layout, with a little work it could look really great!

I find that looking at other templates gives me ideas for layouts. Once you get to that step have a look at http://demo.rockettheme.com/ for some inspiration! I love their templates

Newest intro test:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b36t4I1JP8[/youtube]

Pretty epic! It would be nice to see some footage behind the text as opposed to graphics, but it's really cool so far!