Alright, I'm about ready with the CMS to start posting new discussions in this board again.
One of the things in this site that has been becoming increasingly irrelevant with what this site is about is the graphics section. What do I mean by irrelevant? I mean that for a community of web designers and web developers, resources are relevant whereas designs aren't so much. We offer Avatars, Backgrounds, Forum Sets, Userbars, Wallpapers and Website Layouts. The Color Schemes are also grouped together with those, but only because of the lack of things to really group it with.
At this point I'm not sure if there are any graphics that we should all-out get rid of (except maybe the Wallpapers section), but one thing that is clear is that these sections will have to become much less prominent in the new IC and be organized in the web design section only as less prominent features or extras.
I'm thinking of getting rid of the Wallpapers section as well as the Backgrounds sections, because these graphics seem to be less relevant to web designers. Wallpapers because they have nothing to do with the web (period) and designers can easily make or find their own. And even though backgrounds can in theory be used by designers, the reality is that designers don't really spend time "looking" for backgrounds for their designs. Backgrounds are usually things you would be looking for if you want to add it to a myspace profile or something similar.
Avatars, Forum Sets, and Userbars are still relevant in a way because this is an internet community, but again these should only be "extras" in the web design section. I'm also planning on converting the forum sets section to forum signatures, since that would make more sense. The avatars from the sets can go to the avatars page.
Wait, I have a better idea. We can just easily group all these to a new section of the site under a new tab called "Extras." It would be much more of a community aspect rather than something with web design anyway. Under that section could go Avatars, Forum Signatures, and Userbars. I'm still not liking the Wallpapers and Backgrounds sections, but maybe you can talk me out of it if you would prefer to keep it.
For the design section to be more relevant and popular among web designers, I'm thinking the most prominent parts of the section ought to be the blog and the resources.
That said, in an ideal world, I would love to have more frequent blog updates. At least once a week for the department alone (and for all other departments as well). We should also provide more resources to compliment our color schemes. Textures? Brushes? Not only Photoshop resources but also provide for GIMP and others? We have stock photos. =P
I have several ideas for new department features and for blog posts that I would prefer to post first in the staff forum and perhaps surprise you with when the site comes out. =P
What are your thoughts on the graphics section? Should we get rid of wallpapers and backgrounds? What design resources (if any) would you be interested in using if we were to add them to the site? And be honest, if you don't use brushes or textures now, you won't use them if we added them. What other things should we add to make the web design section better? (I have my own ideas, but won't tell you now. XP)
Yeah, I mentioned similar ideas in that other topic. It's a good idea to focus more on the resources and the blog, and downplay the other sections that no one cares about.
I'm not sure if "extras" is a good name. Maybe an "other stuff" page or section, but to have a whole tab of links would be too much.
Background and wallpapers can go like you said; I'm not going to talk you out of it. The "extras" could probably be named "Other Graphics" or "Misc. Graphics". I dunno.
It will be hard to kick-start the resources, after all, most of them (brushes especially) are hard to make. My section for Windymill so far consists only of two sets since all of them are hand-drawn. I never added them so IC can have them. Photoshop actions. Scans/stock images? To go with our hugemongous stock photos.
About the web-layouts. Perhaps, instead of just having the HTML ones, we should turn them into WP themes. Dreary to do and not that many people can, but once the code is there, it'll take me at least 30 minutes to WP-ify them. Normally.
Perhaps we need more web-design related articles not just PS tutorials? It's hard to think of them but they're really interesting once thought up like the ones from Smashing Magazine/Noupe.
I don't use brushes or textures in my graphics but that's just my style. Most people do. To be honest, I don't think that section needs huge expanding after we get rid of the backgrounds/wallpapers and move out the extras anyway; it'll be OK small. If we do get more design related articles in, there wouldn't be much need to add so many new resources.
And once again, I'll say this: we should honestly compile a list of article ideas for everyone to write up when they have time. I can never be bothered to think of any.
Jenny-Jen-Jen :D
Bloggity: www.windymill.net
Web-Design Portfolio: www.jenny-aster.net
I'm thinking the resources, since they would be scarce, just show them as a category for the blogs? That way we can also write up some posts about awesome free resources made by other people. There are a ton of web design resources that aren't plug-ins like brushes and patterns, but instead they are projects or web pages. We could group blog posts about them together with blog posts about our own resources. The post would talk about the resource and end with the download link if the resource was by us. If not, it would end with a link to the site.
I've been compiling a list of blog ideas that I will get to work on once the new IC is up. I've been programming and planning so much on the new IC that I wouldn't mind much just focusing on regularly posting new blogs to the site.
The difference between "extras" and "other stuff" is "slightly interesting" to "completely boring." Not really something you would want on the main navigation for a site. And the reason I would prefer it to be under its own tab is because I'm thinking of treating those features mainly as community-related goodies rather than something that pertains to web design.
Nobody uses the wallpapers or backgrounds.
TRASH THEM!
I'm a jack of all trades in training.
Haily, I gotta build up Starlett's collection of brushes and stuff x_X So I would submit those things, but I can't D: Stock Photos I will continue submitting though.
I'm a jack of all trades in training.
If you are still trying to attract a few people from the neopets community, then I suggest keeping the backgrounds and stuff. Sure, we probably won't add a lot more backgrounds or whatever to the site, but since they are already up, we can just keep them in the extras. It's not like they're a page with only 2 backgrounds or something either. If we are making an "extras" section then we can just leave them as is in there.
And i agree with the list of tutorials idea, and maybe create a deadline for them as well - I have school starting (tomorrow :( ) and would prefer knowing when i have an article due so i can work on it in due time :D
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If you are still trying to attract a few people from the neopets community, then I suggest keeping the backgrounds and stuff.
I'm pretty sure he's not; Haily wants to end all of IC's ties with neopets.
Anyway, I think you should get rid of the Wallpaper's and Backgrounds. No one uses them, well at least, I don't know any web designers who would use them. XD
And once again, I'll say this: we should honestly compile a list of article ideas for everyone to write up when they have time. I can never be bothered to think of any.
^That. :D
You'd be surprised how many hours younger people spend looking for some good backgrounds... I did, many people I know do...
Graphic Designer
I agree with Rhama, younger people who are interested in coding and such still look for backgrounds. Since we have them, theres no harm in keeping them. If nothing else, they may attract a few hopefuly coders or take up a little disk space..
And we really need to compile a list of article ideas.
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Yeah but we're not a Piczo type community that offers glitters and blinkies and other thing that are otherwise useless to web-designers. And they do harm IC's image or maybe not "harm" but more of detract from it.
Jenny-Jen-Jen :D
Bloggity: www.windymill.net
Web-Design Portfolio: www.jenny-aster.net