Arena2045 Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Ladies and Gentlemen... Boys and Girls... Feast your eyes on the newly renovated Streams-of-Time!Yes, this is a shameless plug for one of my sites...I've spent the better part of December totally recreating my music review site from scratch. We now have two new reviewers, a complete redesign, a search feature, RSS feeds, and 8 new music reviews for January.If you have a moment... check it out:Streams-of-Time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Just took a quick look at your site. I like the nice clean layout. It is nice to have the reviews linked so nicely so you can switch between reviews of the same CD. Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NRD Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Nicely done. The search feature is very handy! Nicely written reviews too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corrine Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 Very nice! Added to my music bookmark folder. (I bought an Enya CD as a souvenir on a business trip to Canada and its one of my favorites!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arena2045 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Share Posted January 2, 2005 Thanks everyone! This design a thousand times better than the original design and the Dec 2004 design. I'm really excited that I can now offer a simple search option, and RSS feeds to get the news, and reviews out to the masses!!!!It's amazing that I spent the last 4 days pushing to finish it, I just launched my news reader and I had over 2000 items that I have to weed thru. This design was literally put together in a few weeks. The subtle changes from each development revision was noticeable... but in the end it I believe this design is the best of the best for the site, that I can offer at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plukaduk Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 (edited) A very good site for relaxo type music revues... :thumbsup:Here's a Australian musician that you might be interested in Tony O'Connor who is an excellent artist in this style of music. Only about 45 - 50 minutes on the cd's though. The two I have are called Mariner and Uluru excellent stuff Edited January 6, 2005 by Plukaduk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epp_b Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 Spiffy A good "KISS" design.Are you open to suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arena2045 Posted January 6, 2005 Author Share Posted January 6, 2005 Thanks everyone for your kind words about my site.Plukaduk: Thanks for the link... I'll check out his music.epp_b: Yes we are always open to suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epp_b Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 OK, you asked for it ... I think the main links ("what's new", "about us"...) should be more prominent. Maybe try bolding and/or darkening them. Perhaps title-caps them too Let the "wavy" header flow into the white background rather than cutting it off with a straight line at the bottom of the header background. How do I get back "Home"? Make a "Home" link and/or make the Streams of Time logo a link to the homepage. Put "Featured Reviews" in a box with a very light background. Make the breadcrumbtrail on every page consistent with the hompage. Eg.: Streams-of-Time.net :: About us instead of About us ::, etc., and also put an extra space below the breadcrumbtrails. IMHO :DBTW, I really like the overall clean, crisp design! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arena2045 Posted January 6, 2005 Author Share Posted January 6, 2005 epp_b:Thanks for the suggestions... much of what you have mentioned was in the last site revision. I decided to not incorporate some of them in this new design.For functionality purposes, I decided to split the header into slices so that I could incorporate the search feature, as well as have the header image print, since background images are not printed by default in so many browsers.It's very hard to notice but the wavy background does fade, it just fades quickly and behind the navigation links.I considered making the navigation links more featured, but I wanted the content of the site to be the main focus. I may change that though.Getting back home... yes. The previous design had what you suggested in the bread crumb trail: Home > Section > Subsection.The main page in the previous designs did not have any purpose but to include links to the sections. This design incorporates a short welcome message, and 2 featured review listings. The rest of the content is within the linked pages in the nav bar. I know one should always include a link home, but I felt that this time it wasn't necessary. I will incorporate a way to get home in the next update.The featured review sections had a background color in one of the development builds, but I removed it for this update. Ill consider adding it to showcase the featured reviews more.Adding more space to the bread crumb trails, some of the album titles are long, and I'm limited by space, that is one of the reasons why there isnt a home link in that area. I'll look into making it longer, for more space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paracelsus Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 Very well done!... and fast transitions between pages. However...Who is that ID10T, Frank? :hmm:Even though he only has two reviews...It's quite evident, that clown doesn't know diddly about Classical Music! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corrine Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 I really like the way the site is laid out. The only comment I have is that I would find helpful if the name of the group were listed. For example, if a reader does not know that Only Time - The Collection is performed by Enya, they may skip past it. I suspect one of your reviews is Ken Davis, but not knowing the title, which one? Make sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arena2045 Posted January 7, 2005 Author Share Posted January 7, 2005 Thanks all for the feedback and suggestions...Corrine: would incorporating the artist/band/group in the individual review pages work? I would add the artist to the listing, but some of the titles are really long and would cause the listings to wrap, something that I want to avoid.The search feature would help pinpoint reviews... even though its a simple search tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corrine Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Oops! I'm at work and checking the boards before my day starts and unfortunately any site connected with "music" is blocked by the corporate firewall. I agree that the presentation of the listings looks perfect the way it is now. It is my thought that having the artist's (group/band) name listed someplace in connection with a review would serve as another "grabber". I may not recognize the title, but if it is a favorite artist, I'd be inclined to check it out. I'll take another look from home where the site isn't blocked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corrine Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 A possibility also is on this page: http://www.streams-of-time.net/news.htm . Although it makes sense to include on the review pages, they are "pretty" the way they are and many already have a lot of information on them. The font is small enough so the page wouldn't be filled across and the info could be added in parenthesis, not part of the link to the review. The information would then show up in search but would also be available "at a glance", with our without the words "composer/artist/band": * 8 NEW Music Reviews now online: Joshua's Reviews: Journey to the Edge (William Edge, composer) [ 4 / 5 ] Mystical America (Laura Sullivan, artist)([ 5 / 5 Top Pick! ]Suggestion: Change the links to the official site so that they open in a new window instead of directing away from Streams-of-Time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arena2045 Posted January 8, 2005 Author Share Posted January 8, 2005 Thanks Corrine... excellent ideas.About the open in a new window. That was my default way for any offsite link. I read an article recently however about the down side to doing that. They did however offer an alternative (a visual queue that a new window would be opened). I'll adopt that in the next update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 However...Who is that ID10T, Frank? :hmm:Even though he only has two reviews...It's quite evident, that clown doesn't know diddly about Classical Music! I hear he is a really nice guy, with great ideas....but...... he just forgets where he is and that he has to submit his reviews. I think he must expect them to be transmitted directly from his brainwaves without action on his part???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 great ideas....but...... he just forgets where he isOT...I had a college instructor like that. He'd start a list and then go in another direction so I'd start another page of my notes hoping he'd come back to the list but he never did. It drove me bananas to have this notebook full of partial thoughts scattered all over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 Actually the person referred to is a friend Paracelsus and I both know who is just fun to tease! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paracelsus Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 Actually the person referred to is a friend Paracelsus and I both know who is just fun to tease! HA!!Scurrilous Innuendo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 Moi? I did say he was fun to tease! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arena2045 Posted April 25, 2005 Author Share Posted April 25, 2005 Yup, I just had to revisit my Shameless Plug thread... Amazing how fast time flies.I've made some improvements, and there are new reviews online.http://www.streams-of-time.net/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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