Ideas for website

[Starshine]

Since I am new to Joomla and have 2 wonderful people willing to help me configure / design the site ... I could use some advice from the great members of x10.

1. Here is my site so far : www.projectmicah.com

Although not sure HOW it will happen, I plan to have a section dedicated to the Animal Crossing video game ( for Gamecube and Nintendo DS )

My question to you kind folks would be :

A. Should I change anything? ( Add / Edit / Remove )

B. Since the site will mostly be for Animal Crossing ( and a few other "off topic" ideas ( a blog, forum, selling ad space, etc ) ... what should I offer on my site?

Those that know CMS / Joomla are encouraged to post. I am learning about it as I go along, so I don't know what all I can do with it ... or how much I can customize to really make it look nice.

Any help would be great!

 

[Zenax]

Well looking at the template, I think that the people who designed it have done a very good job with the design.

An idea maybe that there should be a flash arcade maybe? just to add a bit of fun.

There are as with all CMS and Forums etc, addons that you could perhaps use, or learn to code yourself.

Another idea that could probably be used with the design of the website is that you could have maybe a fading type, side show effect on the friends list area, so that they fade in and out, with perhaps a 10 second interval or something??

Maybe the tree type banner at the top of the layout could be changed to something that suits more to the layout, as you have some characters at the top, so perhaps you do the same in the banner?

Thats all I can really think of right now! If I come up with any more ideas, I shall post back here.

Regards,
Zenax

 

[the_king_dollars]

Well, since you are using Joomla!, you can install the CB (Community Builder) component that I think can give you the ability to create custom fields for profile registration. I'm not really sure of the features but seeming that it got many downloads from the community of Joomla! and earned an Editor's Pick award you should install it. If you want it you can obtain it from the Joomla! Extensions site.

Hope that this helps you!

 

[Starshine]

I guess I should point out that my main ideas is to kinda get the feel / design of a combination of : www.animalcrossingcommunity.com and www.animalxing.com

Yeah. My designers and I are planning to change that tree banner, we just haven't found anything that seems to fit yet.

So, here is my ideas :

1. Doing a sorta combination / look / feel of above given websites
2. Adding a message forum ( that allows for sub-forums, ranks, other "special" items )

3. Adding a support ( live help / e-ticket ) service ( like Fantastico has LiveHelpDesk that I seem to like.

4. Possibly adding an arcade ( like it was mentioned )

 

[Zenax]

However, you must remember, just because it has really good reviews, and has won awards, does not mean that it will suit the needs of StarShine.

Joomla Extensions Website: http://extensions.joomla.org/


Few Useful links:

Blog Extensions
You mentioned you wanted a blog! Here is the link to the blog extension sections, which displays the many different blogs you can get

Forum Extension
You mentioned that you wanted forums, so here is a list of forum extensions that can be used on Joomla!

Advertising Banners Extensions
This list gives you 48 different possible solutions to the ad space area, that you were on about!!

I hope this helps you!

 

[Starshine]

Thank you Zenax.

Okay. Besides throwing things at the site. Any ideas on how I can possibly pull of making the site kinda have the look / feel of those that I posted above?

Somehow I can't picture Joomla allowing me this option. Php_Nuke maybe, but not Joomla.

I am more after the look and feel of animalxing.com than anything ... as I like how its laid out ...

Anyone have an idea for a nice graphic that could fill the space of the tree lined forest banner? ( That someone mentioned should be changed )

I've never dealt into Anime - so I have no clue where to start to even find something that would go with the look and feel.

 

[Zenax]

Ok, I have never really dealt with Anime either, however here might be a suggestion. maybe create a banner full of different Animal crossing characters? and then maybe some text. Kinda like the updated banner you have now, but maybe a few more characters thrown in or something.

Or if that fails, you can use other anime characters, which can range from various things such as Dragon Ball Z to Pokemon!

I kind of like the new banner you have anyways!!

Erm, looking at the animalxing.com website it seems to be a bit more of a blocky text feel. They use colours that match such as the green, so you are doing the right thing by having colours that blend, however the main text blocks seem to be on a different colour all together, which makes them stand out!

Perhaps a different colour for the main text modules?

They both also seem to have three coloumns of content. On the left is the navigation, middle content, and on the right seems to be polls etc, so perhaps maybe a third coloumn showing polls, etc.

Regards,
Mr Ed

P.S I shall let others contribute, as I seem to be talking too much!

 

[SEÑOR]

When i played animal crossing when i was 10 or 11 it was pretty entertaining. Your layout colors look great and are themed well. Just your banner has got nothing to do with anumal crossing really?

 

[Starshine]

Thank you everyone for the advice. Its actually quite helpful.

I agree Zenax. I was trying to say that I liked how it was seperated into the two games. If I had more points to offer, I would ask for one of you guys - if you were any good at working with Joomla ( or even using a different system ... )

Although I don't have a problem with the two people I am working with, it has been a challenge because of the language barrier to explain what I am wanting or after in the look of the site.

If any of you would be willing to help, it would be wonderful to have you aboard. I can follow directions when told where to go do something, but to do banners, or edit templates, etc ... its not something I am experienced at.

I'd be willing to scrap what is there, take the pieces ( like maybe design a base template off what is there and NOT use a CMS ... as I think its hindering what I am really wishing to do ) ...and just start from scratch.

Any ideas? ( Or any takers to help? Heh. )

 

[Zenax]

Erm I am not really good on the graphic design front, and I really like the template that you have at the moment.

I think that it might be a wise idea to just remove the CMS all together, and create a base template from it, as it is all PHP so you can do most of what is in a CMS anyway!

I will take a look later at the design and see what can be done with it, perhaps it might be wise to remove that banner all together, but I shall have a look into it later, as I am at college, and can't really do much about it!

Regards,
Zenax

Work Started on base layout for StarShine, shall post when complete!