[Lilroo503]

EDIT: This is no longer a Beta. Some of the information below may be outdated.



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After years of staring at the same old black and blue website, we decided it was finally time to spruce the place up a bit. Yep, that's right, we've finally gone ahead and done a full redesign of our website!


~~~~~ Story Time ~~~~~

A few months ago we took a look at our site and decided to reevaluate what was most important. Our look (and the code that supports that look) is very outdated, and I'm aware that many of our users had been asking for a new design beginning a long time ago. We all agreed and started out on the long journey to create a new image for the site.

There were many disagreements along the way about what would look best, what our users would like, what would provide the best functionality, and more. Eventually the look was decided upon and it was then time to begin coding the new design (see the RuneHQ Development Blog [my blog] in a week or two for more information on this process). It took a while to get the site looking exactly like we had in mind, but when we finally arrived, it was a pleasant site for all involved.

For the past two weeks, I've been inviting people to take a look around the site to give their opinions and help iron out any kinks still around. It's now finally time to let the public do the same and get a feel for what RuneHQ will be about in the future.


~~~~~ What Can You Do? ~~~~~

We are still considering this the testing phase (beta) before we roll it out completely to everyone. You can turn the beta on and off as you please from the User Control Panel (see below). Now that it's on, simply use the site like you would on any other day.

If you come across something that looks broken, odd, or misplaced, head over to the Tracker and post a bug report. Provide as many details as you can about the issue so we can track it down as quickly as possible. If you look at something and just keep thinking to yourself that it would look better if it was changed to that instead of this, post it in this topic and we can discuss it.

In short, Bugs go in the Tracker and suggestions go in this topic.


~~~~~ How Do I Access the Beta? ~~~~~

Because this is a beta, you will have to manually go in to turn it on if you'd like to view it. You are also free to turn it off at any time should you truly hate it.

This only applies to RuneHQ.net! It will not be added to the .com servers until the beta period has completed. Make sure you are using the right server.

1) Head over to the User Control Panel
2) The bottom-most option before the save button will say Site Design.
3) The drop-down menu next to it has the options of "Current" and "Beta".
4) Select the "Beta" option and press the Save button.
5) The page will reload with your previous setting giving a confirmation that preferences were saved.
6) The next time you load any page on the site, you will be viewing the beta site.

If you ever wish to go back to the black and blue, repeat those steps but choose "Current" rather than "Beta".


Quick links to switch!
Switch to beta: http://www.runehq.ne...eta&submit=Save
Switch to current: http://www.runehq.ne...ent&submit=Save


~~~~~ Frequently Asked Questions ~~~~~

• How long will the beta period last?
  
  • It all depends on how much feedback there is and how much needs to be changed because of it. The goal is that the site will be considered live in one week on Monday the 21st, but we won't be forcing that deadline.
  
  
• This sucks! Will I really have to use it?
  
  Nope, it's entirely up to you! Both for the beta and after it goes live, the option to use the old site will remain for the time being. Try being specific about what you don't like and maybe we can compromise to get you using our updated look as we won't be fully supporting the old one anymore.
  
  
• More to come as questions pop up...

[Norway007]

It looks...
AWESOME!

w00t w00t!
More colors <3

[TheGame]

STEVE I LIKE IT <33

Go on and do more work and make it non-beta

[Ludo]

Steve, you've done a BRILLIANT job with them

[Relztik1]

Oh I like it very much thank you

[Bobby]

Looks great!

[Lunar_Teddy]

That must have been a lot of work to do! I'm sure we all appreciate it. Thanks!

[senug5]

Niiiiice work Steve

Me likey

[Acryllic]

Hot, only word to describe it.

[Tenseiken]

Looks great.

Just two things for now from me.

I'd like to suggest that in the items and monsters databases, the background in the image box to be the same as the rest of the table. I'm not sure how it would look, or if it would look better, but I think the different images would fit better in the lighter background.

Also, the "RHQ Forums" link in the menu bar links to the site map page, and not to the forum home page.

p.s. The title at the top says "Site Design Template" still

This post has been edited by Lord_Dude: 14 June 2010 - 02:09 PM

[Paintball]

Looks awesome! Kudos to everyone who helped make it possible

[Lilroo503]

Quote

p.s. The title at the top says "Site Design Template" still

Fixed... Bugs should go in the Tracker, please. Comments / Suggestions here, bugs in tracker. Linked in the first post.

[admiral_bunny]

Love it, once again good work guys.

[Stormys_Amazon]

It is nice to see that you guys are liking the change to the site - but how about some real feedback. Tell us what you like and dislike about the design.

We have more projects in the works, so we need your feedback to help us provide you what you want (as much as possible

[March1392]

Ok to the whole staff especially Steve and deb for creating the new update on the site, it's a wonderful blessing and kudos for all your hard work. Ok, so criticism hmmmmmm... Ok, so lets do the good things first....the color coordination is very strikingly well done along with all the new updates to the menu's and such. I also love the way you have everything neatly organized along with lots of colorful graphics for every new news, that is a HUGE turn on for just me, if not new visitors to RHQ who see it - KEEP IT! Also not only the looks but the way the site is organized is also nice having each thing in it's proper place, however lets go to the downsides...first of all other then the one changing menu the site is lacking any easily seen rs news which is how some people saw the news before they actually went to the main site, I would love to see it on the slide show at the top of the page. Also the play rs button is convenient however, is it really needed? most people already have the rs client or the RHQ client, or a tab for the official runescape site, so a button that is just taking up bandwidth is unneeded. Which leads to my final bit of criticism, BANDWIDTH, with all the new fancy graphics and illustrations, are you worried that our users with a low bandwidth or use dial up will be able to access the new site at all? It took my high speed connection nearly 10 seconds just to render the page completely, if you take that to dial up, our users may have to wait about 2-3 minutes just for the homepage to come up, which is nice that you probably did think of this by keeping the old original RHQ open up in the future. One suggestion if this is possible, make the menu's able to be changed to the user's personal uses rather then have one set format, that might help with bandwidth, and it would be an increase in user functionality. So once again, great job! So here we go - rating:

Creativity: 9.5/ 10
Graphics: 9/ 10
Organization: 10/ 10
Navigation of Site(1 being easiest to navigate, 5 being unnavigable): 1
Size of Site (Bandwidth): 6/ 10 (I don't know if this can be really fixed or not)
Overall: 8.5 / 10
Great Job overall!!!

[Jasper]

Well March, most browsers nowadays have a built in Cache, this keeps all the images etc. saved, so that when the page has to load, the images etc. don't need to be reload for a second time.

[Laieta]

Nice! I love how you are working on a better design and that you give the oportunity to give some feedback. So I will try it, it is only my opinion so don't take it hard :$ Also my english is bad, I will do my best to explain my points but if you don't understand something please ask me and I will try to explain it better.

Functionality and Organization

Main page

I think you did a big improvement on it. Everything is much clear and better organized.
I love how you made text bigger too, that helps. Also typography is better.
Menu pops up more clearly, and it is same style as old one that was already good.
I love that first box (with twitter and links) I think it improved a lot, good organized.
News are well diferenciated as they were before

Browsing around guides

You keep the menu bar when going around as on the old version, thats good.
I like the box you added on the right with guide information, makes it much clear.

I cant say much more about organization here, for me it looks ok. Probably there is a better organization on adds, before they were a bit messed (maybe just like everywhere )

Overall

good job!


Fashion

Main page

On a quick view I don't like how it looks, there are improvements but still... hmmm I think there are too much textures (and hmm ugly ones?) combined.

Top bar, I love the new icon, I think it was good before but I like the new one more. But I think that wood texture is really bad, color is too much saturated and it seems to look pixelated? Im not sure if it is a good idea to use a wood texture tbh and one reason of it is because another fansite have been using it for years.

Menu bar, I think it is good, I like the shape it has, it is original, but again maybe a so hitting texture and too much saturated color. Still I think it could work if the other elements change. But I totaly dislike how it looks when you open menu, do you think it is a good idea to use a opposite color? it is TOO MUCH contrasted, it should be an harmony color, darker green... lighter green... And again a diferent texture that makes this contrast bigger.
Main box, amazing. Good fadings and color. I like how links colors makes harmony with bar color.

News boxes, again wood texture, I already said it but if you want to keep wood you will need to find a better one, and another color for it.

Background, to use a map for sides is good, but I don't like that picture, you cant just use Runescape one?
On the main background you used like a paper texture, I think it could be a good idea but I dislike that one, also it was a so saturated color on the start that fades to a cream color, I think it could be better all being cream because it gets too much attention, you don't want people focusing in background, you want them to get attention to the other elements. Or at last a less saturated fading.


Browsing around guides

See how it changed when you lose the main grey box, design lose a lot.

I already said most things that repeats here. Too much saturated, too much textures.
I like the 2 colors for inside tables, Rs style. But I don't like tables heads texture, I think it is a poor texture.

Maybe for quests guides, on the first parts titles are too much big and that makes a messed feeling.


Overall

Im not sure if you took the time to see which colors could combine better, to think which ones are opposite and which are harmonic to decide where you want more attention and where not. You should have chose colors first, like 4 and then organize them with some sense, I totaly have the feeling that you chosed them randomly, it is messed o.o. And you have a problem with saturation all colors are too much vivid.

And Im not a fan of textures but it is true that they help to have more dynamic compositions. But I think you overused them and chosed poor ones.

hmm Also I think that the colors you chosed remains me another site... Im sure you could work more on them to make it more original.

I really would like to give you alternatives, like not to just critic around and sit on sofa while you work but Im not sure how. And idea I just had is that the menu and main box looks great together, so maybe you could start combining those colors. How it could look a bluish wood texture?
If you want Im here for anything you need, I already said I wanted to help, Im not an expert and I have my own taste but maybe I could give you some fresh air? well up to you =)

I hope my feedback helps you and don't take it on a bad side

[Norway007]

Can't find the search bar D:

Is it not in the beta or will it be added later?

[Lilroo503]

@March -- Like Jasper said, it shouldn't be as big of a deal as you think, but yep.. that's one of the reasons we're keeping the old design around for now. Further into the future we're also looking at more possible designs as well such including a lite version that would remove most images and just provide you the content if you would prefer that over looks. No deadlines set and no guarantees about anything I've said, but it's being discussed.

@Laieta -- Thanks for the feedback. While I don't agree with everything you've said, I've noted it down and we'll take it all into consideration. The menu drop-down color has been a pain in the rear with nobody agreeing on any color combination we've tried so far. Sit tight with that for now as we've got one more thing we can try to please everyone that I hope to have done before next week.

@Norway007 -- The google search we had before was sub-par and I didn't want to bring it back on the fresh look. I would like to create our own site-wide search, but didn't feel that should hold up the release of the new design. That means you have 3 options: 1) Use the old design to use the search. 2) Use the new design and just figure out how to navigate to everything without the search. 3) Use either design... you can still search our site through google by typing something like the following into a normal google search "abyssal whip site:runehq.com". That tells google to search on only our website for abyssal whip. Hopefully you'll find one of those options suitable for the time being.

[Ludo]

Something I just noticed: the list of all items at the Item DB page is gone

I used that and Cmd+F to find items lol. Will it be back or not?

[Rowan]

Ludo, on 16 June 2010 - 10:20 AM, said:

Something I just noticed: the list of all items at the Item DB page is gone

I used that and Cmd+F to find items lol. Will it be back or not?

The list made it superslow to load, I always changed the settings that the full list didn't show up, it helped a lot lol. But you have a mac so speed isn't an issue I guess

[Lilroo503]

@Ludo -- It won't be available like it was, but there will be a page where you can still view all P/I/M's at once if you so chose. You'd have to manually visit this page every time, though.

[Clamball]

Will our site be more searchable via google and will it help it show up more. I just typed "ranging potion runescape" today in google and there was no sign of RuneHQ in the first page even.

[Lilroo503]

@Mary -- It's always been searchable via Google. How high we rank is based on many factors and is something we've looked into, but wasn't implemented into the design. It is fairly high up on our to-do list, though like everything else I'm not going to be setting a deadline atm. Our priority is getting as many people satisfied with this design and fixing any issues before we look into other major new features / changes.

[Clamball]

Cool Steve. It is still looking good to me and the page load time seems much faster.

[Lilroo503]

Over the next... however long it takes me... there may be periodic website downtime as I switch over the "beta" to be the default look for everyone. I'll be taking down only one server at a time (.net is first and is down atm). While .net is down, .com will be up and vice versa.


Status:

.net - Up, finished at 2:45am.
.com1 - Up, finished at 6:05am.
.com2 - Up, finished at 7:35am.
.com3 - Up, finished at 8:40am.

Completed.

This post has been edited by Lilroo503: 22 June 2010 - 07:42 AM

[hex]

Really nice new design. Good job

~ hex

[cake]

I don't think the bar that shows all the quests to the right should be taken off. Every time I used a quest guide I would skim through there for other quests I want to look at as well.

[Shinigami]

Lol, while you were doing you Beta switch thing, I tried to get on RuneHQ.com and it said you had that one closed down, and I should use .net... Well, Salvette can tell you... I screamed "STEVE KILLED RUNEHQ" on IRC... Now I see why it was down though.

[Im4eversmart]

Patch Notes - 6/22/10

• Smoothed the top of the "Poll Question" scroll to look more realistic/blend in more.
  
• Heightened the same scroll so "Total Votes" didn't overlap the bottom part of the scroll for long poll titles.
  
• Logo and logo text size increase
  
• Added padding for left-side featured images and links
  
• Created new Paypal image (other one disappeared?) so it no longer displays a broken image.
  
• Removed the bottom bevel of table headers and heightened it to fix the tiling problem.
  
• Increased line spacing in databases to match other site paragraphs.
  
• Padded the up and down sort arrows
  
• Tweaked formatting of subheader text in guides like Quests
  
• Added square blocks back to Item drop lists in databases