New Background Images

Summary:

Improving the appearance of the site

New Background Images

jhubert 16 Jul 2009 05:35

I'm currently subscribed to Clipart.Com, and I want to use this opportunity to improve the look of the Arcana Wiki. So browse the various images on Clipart.Com, and tell me of any images which convey the overall theme of the Arcana Wiki. I will then try to create a background theme around them.

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Re: New Background Images

jhubert 16 Jul 2009 20:37

I've started with a new background image for the top bar. How do you like it?

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Re: New Background Images

quarkstomper 17 Jul 2009 15:20

It's okay. It doesn't distract from the page, which was the thing I'm most concerned about. I generally stick to generic default layouts on the websites where I have accounts mostly because I've seen too many MySpace pages where people go bananas with the graphic elements and wind up with something garish and hard to read.

Since this Wiki is such a protean, eclectic thing, it's hard to come up with a single image to represent it. The one you chose works okay. If it sounds like I'm damning with faint praise, I don't mean to; I can't really think of any sort of image offhand that would work better.

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"All the World's a Stage and Everyone's a Critic" — Mervyn Alquist

Re: New Background Images

r_b_bergstrom 18 Jul 2009 14:49

I'd like to echo everything quarkstomper said. The new image is a significant improvement over what we'd had, and I really like it, but I don't see a lot of need to add extra visuals beyond that.

Re: New Background Images

jhubert 18 Jul 2009 17:12

I'd like to echo everything quarkstomper said. The new image is a significant improvement over what we'd had, and I really like it, but I don't see a lot of need to add extra visuals beyond that.

I see a reason - getting more Wikidot.Com users to visit the site.

You may not have noticed, but on Thursday Wikidot.Com has started to add top and bottom banners to wikis which have been created by people with a pro account. And the bottom banner displays miniature versions of the start page of four wikis which have been created by users with a pro account. For this reason, I finally broke down and upgraded mine.

You can see how this looks like here. Obviously, wikis which look different from the standard themes have an advantage over the others.

For a somewhat more fancy example of what's possible, you can see the Urbis Wiki which I've also improved a bit…

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The Spambot Death Wall
Arcana Wiki - Distilling the Real World for Gaming
Urbis - A World of Cities - an urban fantasy setting of industrial magic
LiveJournal

Re: New Background Images

r_b_bergstrom 19 Jul 2009 05:28

So, given that is the goal (and it seems a worthy goal), then we should focus on imagery that:

• Says "gaming" to anyone that just glances at it.
  • The shapes of gaming dice, for example. (I know, bland and boring, but instantly recognizable)
• Doesn't make the individual pages hard to read (ie: avoids the "MySpace Shotgun" effect)

Is there anyway to see what our front page would look like shrunk down to the size of those pro account images? We'd need images that convey their meaning at that size.