Author Topic: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign  (Read 551405 times)

vpsaxman

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 197

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7781
How about something more like this (but with a better image):

That's also beautiful. Maybe have that in some gradient overflow with the current candidate picture?

AvikB

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 945


Too bad it's a Mac in the background, which could be misleading.
ahh, i like this image, clean and elegant! how about this:


no more apple logo!

AvikB

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 945
That's also beautiful. Maybe have that in some gradient overflow with the current candidate picture?

what do you mean about having the grad overflow?

AvikB

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 945
And in some countries music is forbidden.
Come on. We can't please 100% of the people.
wait there are countries with music ban? that is outrageous!
i agree we can't please 100%, but i think a compromise to not keep the offending image would be a good choice.

Yet I do agree with the sentiment that the picture is showing a slightly narrow aspect, namely live pop music.
So if somebody could present a good photo/illustration representing some more diversity with pop/classical/electro/live/studio/concert/home etc. that might be even better.
But it would take some skills and talent to do that in one image without getting crowded and messy.
Or, use this picture as the main background picture, and try to insert and present a few others in a tasteful manner. (sliding? fading in/out?)

i am afraid we are out of the image slider option at this point, i would love to add one, but i can't exceed the optimization lavel i am targeting, the current home page already has several images, and it takes a bit to load them on slow internet, and third world countries have slow connection(30kb/s), so adding more image is already out of the window.

currently the the musicbee screenshots(png files) are the worst optimized, each of them takes about 500kb, i will have some better screenshots in there(which will be optimized) when the site is atleast 98% complete.

Well to get best images you will need to hunt filckr or other sites that have suitable licensing, which i won't be doing now as i already am busy with dashboard. But you guys can suggest me one if you found one.

AvikB

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 945
Wouldn't it make sense to use an image more related to home audio (like headphones or a photo of a nice high end audio setup)? I can see how the live crowd relays an idea of excitement and joy, but it's 1. not very related to MB 2. it looks rather bland.
i do agree, i like the ones you suggested to me, i have also removed the apple logo. If that is suitable i would use it.

And 3) the new image contains -almost- the same potentially offense hand gesture.
I'd also suggest, in the interest of being politically correct, deleting the initial image so no one gets offended.
hmm..... i knew someone would point it :P

vpsaxman

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 197
ahh, i like this image, clean and elegant! how about this:


no more apple logo!

Yeah I like this one as well. Like you said, minimal and straight to the point. This is the kind of setting I can picture most MB user using.

The license for that picture is CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) so we should be good with using it and modifying it.

The question now is, even with the apple gone, would it be misleading for someone who doesn't know MusicBee and is an Apple user? It seems to me the focus of the image is more on the speaker so it could be suitable.

AvikB

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 945
This is the kind of setting I can picture most MB user using.
It would be dream to have a setup like this(except for the mac part, i am windows only person) :)

The question now is, even with the apple gone, would it be misleading for someone who doesn't know MusicBee and is an Apple user? It seems to me the focus of the image is more on the speaker so it could be suitable.
I don't think that would be a problem, there is a giant download now button saying that it is for windows user.

vpsaxman

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 197


It would be dream to have a setup like this(except for the mac part, i am windows only person) :)
Wouldn't it be nice indeed? :)

I don't think that would be a problem, there is a giant download now button saying that it is for windows user.
Right. Well, I dig that picture but there are many more options if anyone can find a better one.

AvikB

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 945
I don't think that would be a problem, there is a giant download now button saying that it is for windows user.
Right. Well, I dig that picture but there are many more options if anyone can find a better one.
well it is upto you guys, if most people agree on this, i can make the change permanent.

UPDATE:
few things i forgot, that was included in the last update.
I am dropping support for browsers that has JAVASCRIPT DISABLED, while they can still browse few core pages of the site, like home page, forum, download page they will get an error at the top telling them that javascript is needed.

Few pages that can't be used is: admin panel, addon page, dashboard, release note page and most of the other page that will be introduced later.

I am also dropping support for most older IE browsers out there, only IE10 or above and any other modern browser is supported.

to check this simply disable javascript in your browser and visit the demo site, you should be able to see a warning. While i can add fallback for no javascript browsers, i won't do it. It is tremendous amount of work to rewrite few core structures. and i am not willing to do it.

AvikB

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 945
Another update, This update brings some breaking changes. Previously the site urls tends to look like this:
OLD URL STRUCTURE
        http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php?id=1
        http://test.getmusicbee.com/download.php
and so...

NEW URL STRUCTURE
       http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/win10-style/
       http://test.getmusicbee.com/download

the new structure looks more beautiful and catchy, it provides a lots of benefit(i am not going to go through them), BUT with this changes few things did broke, i fixed all of them so the site should work normally. also even with this BREAKING CHANGES, you can still visit by the old url, and everything should work properly, i made sure the backward compatibility is there.

another thing:
lets say we got this url:
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/win10-style/

and user may forgot what is the last text or made some typo
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1/this-is-a-typo-blah-blah/
or
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/1
or
http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons.php?id=1

every one of this will point to the same page, not only that upon visiting any of these mistaken url, you will automatically redirect to the correct url(301 permanent redirect, better for search engine).


And the home page is updated with the non-offensive image.
Last Edit: January 03, 2016, 07:58:03 AM by AvikB

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7781
That's also beautiful. Maybe have that in some gradient overflow with the current candidate picture?
what do you mean about having the grad overflow?

I was thinking about using two or three different pictures, and blending them into one.
E.g. using such two pictures:





And combining them to such:


Skoop

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 277

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7781
^^^Put somebody in that chair wearing headphones and you'll have it.

That was exactly what was in my mind too ;-)
But that is really way beyond my Photoshopping skills.

hiccup

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7781
^^^Put somebody in that chair wearing headphones and you'll have it.

That was exactly what was in my mind too ;-)
But that is really way beyond my Photoshopping skills.

;-)