WiP new website

RiccardoBlb · December 8, 2020, 1:07am

I wasn’t pleased with the current website, so i’ve been working to a new one that i believe gives more exposure to the project and to the community.

This is just a quick post to get some opinions regarding the design.

The preview is here:
https://new.jmonkeyengine.org

The main features, besides the new theme, are:

One random backer and github contributor are displayed on the header
Author infos (name,bio etc) are obtained directly from github (no more author.md pages)
One random image from the showcase is displayed in the background of the top banner with a link to the project page
One random backer message (left on our opencollective page) is displayed under the top banner
Categories do not exist anymore, only tags are used to group posts
The Features section has been redone, and it now features also links to mature third party libraries from the community (marked with a little puzzle icon for addon)
Probably comments using the hub embed code (still looking into this)

Some images:

pspeed · December 8, 2020, 1:20am

Looks good.

Only thing is that some of the fonts look weird:

And for me, I find this black/gray bordered text hard to read:

It’s especially weird here:

…because to my eyes the (unnecessary here) black border just makes the text seem blurry or something.

Maybe it’s just me.

mitm · December 8, 2020, 5:05am

The header and buttons menu look wrong to me as they are a black band and square buttons.

The black buttons for the home, documentation, forum, license should not be the same color as the background. Black is just not a good color for just about anything outside of text to me. Color makes things pop, black is just unimaginative.

The blue, purple, and gold colors at the start of pages, etc. blended with dark edges are awesome. Having it degenerate into the total dark monkey theme, not so much.

Not a fan of dark monkey, so I am biased. Looks real nice up to that dark part though. Just keeping the slightest blend of dark would be a winner imo.

Ali_RS · December 8, 2020, 5:51am

Looks awesome, great work

asser_fahrenholz · December 8, 2020, 7:58am

Awesome work! Keep it up!

Pavl_G · December 8, 2020, 10:40am

Great work ,love the general layout & the gradients , but text seems a little bit blurry on light backgrounds ( those cyan backgrounds otherwise on dark ones ,they make a good impression)

RiccardoBlb · December 8, 2020, 10:50am

I made some changes:

Removed text-shadow from articles text and buttons
Increased text-shadow on clored backgrounds
Changed font to “Ubuntu”
Changed color and roundness of buttons

I’ve also exported the colors into css3 variables on the :root element, so in case anyone wants, it is possible to experiment with the palette from the dev console.

oxplay2 · December 8, 2020, 11:01am

Like said before, site looks awesome! good work.

But since its opinion topic to make it perfect, here are some my opinions:

[recent update]Generally looks better, but about:

Increased text-shadow on clored backgrounds

exactly this:

previous was better IMO(or maybe its image related idk), but hard to say how would be best. (maybe need much different approach)

“Get Started” i would make 1.5x or 2x bigger with some Color to make it even more visible.
i would move “forum” to right side buttons and add it some color same as this buttons.

its just a suggestion, but i think worth one.

RiccardoBlb · December 8, 2020, 11:49am

Better?

I want to keep the same number of buttons on the left and on the right, so this means i would have to move something else.

XIIIRen · December 8, 2020, 4:21pm

Good job This is more clear than the old one, and showing random games in the banner is a great idea

oxplay2 · December 8, 2020, 5:55pm

maybe then move javadoc to left, and forum to right?

left = technical
right = community

kind of?

RiccardoBlb · December 9, 2020, 2:05pm

What do you think about this instead?

left = internal
right=external

asser_fahrenholz · December 9, 2020, 2:13pm

That’s very cool. I do think the “Donate” button should be easier to spot though, but all around very nice design

oxplay2 · December 9, 2020, 2:16pm

looks cool and logical

tho github icon should be bigger visible cat there

asser_fahrenholz · December 9, 2020, 2:43pm

Suggestion:
The “Get Started” page could have a “Next” button at the bottom, phasing the reader directly into a sort of guided lesson path - and the button could take you directly to jMonkeyEngine 3 Tutorial (1) - Hello SimpleApplication :: jMonkeyEngine Docs (which then at the bottom already has “previous” and “next” buttons) perhaps. Just a thought.

RiccardoBlb · December 9, 2020, 3:47pm

I am not sure if the Donation button should stand out too much, since we have already several references to donations around the website. However to make it stand out a little bit more from the other buttons, i “inverted” it, by making the foreground dark and the background light

Opinions?

tlf30 · December 9, 2020, 6:17pm

@RiccardoBlb
I see that some of the feature boxes have some user contributed libraries in them.
Would it be OK if my Monkey-Netty library was included under networking?

View Page - jMonkeyEngine - Store

Also, can the image fill the entire button on these?

Lastly, great job! This is looking awesome.

RiccardoBlb · December 9, 2020, 6:46pm

Sure. @oxplay2 already suggested that on discord, but i wasn’t sure about the maturity of the library.
If you think it is stable enough already, then i will add it there.
Also i plan to update this list often in the future as new libraries get released.

tlf30 · December 9, 2020, 6:51pm

Yes, it has been very stable in my projects, and I believe that @oxplay2 has been using it.
I am actively maintaining it, so anyone does find issues with it, or has features/improvement suggestions, I am more than happy to help make any required changes.

pspeed · December 9, 2020, 8:58pm

If you are going to include Monkey-netty then you might as well add SimEthereal, too.