Design and Layout Mock-ups...

[irriadin]

I think the colors could be lighter, that's my only issue with the look. After a while this would be pretty heavy on the eyes ^^

I was actually thinking the same thing, last time I looked at it. The colors are VERY vibrant, which is nice in some ways, but I agree, it would get to be a bit too much. I exported it to standard internet sRGB...the colors calibrated on my monitor weren't quite so high contrast.

[irriadin]

Working on it again... one thing that strikes me as particularly unfriendly about the current homepage design is that there's simply too much going on. The navigation on the left is comprehensive, but intimidating until you get used to it. The right column is pretty much a large waste of space.

The visual hierarchy is kinda muddled... AMV Spotlight should be accentuated more. And news is really easy to just brush past.

EDIT: Here's what I got so far. Working on the "News" and other sections of the main page below that, probably going for a two column structure.

EDIT2: http://www.irriadin.org/test/header_body.jpg Here's a good example of what the body content could look like. Other things I can possibly add to this design is a search bar and a login area. Also can add something like "top forum posts" or something like that, though that would entail custom programming. Still need to do the footer.

[Shin-AMV]

I really like the design, looks really nice.

One thing I always thought though, is that while the highly rated thing is nice it usually just rotates every week between the same batch of videos over and over. It'd be nice if we could feature newer things more often and it would give a greater incentive for people to come here and post their videos if they were more likely to get featured on the home page.

Cause really right now all I ever see on the highly rated recently is usually Random Nostromo video, This is Halloween, Blame It On 2009, Confessions to the Dance Floor, Sometimes an AMV Hell, Around the World, and then the list rounds off with something from Koopiskeva like skittles or Chiikaboom like Attack of the Otaku. While these are all great videos and editors, it'd be nice to have a little more variety and add some spice to things by keeping things fresh and giving people a reason to keep coming back for new stuff. Although, this is probably a whole other topic entirely, maybe I'll repost it in the org feedback forum.

[irriadin]

I really like the design, looks really nice.

One thing I always thought though, is that while the highly rated thing is nice it usually just rotates every week between the same batch of videos over and over. It'd be nice if we could feature newer things more often and it would give a greater incentive for people to come here and post their videos if they were more likely to get featured on the home page.

I was honestly thinking the same thing while doing the mockup. But I didn't want to introduce TOO many changes without getting feedback first. Maybe we could have it so that the highest rated videos in, say, the last 3 months or so were displayed. If we were to go with a crazy pipe-dream, maybe we could have it customizable so that users can pick the time span, kinda like Deviantart.

[gotegenks]

Maybe we could have a few different playlists. "up-and-coming editors" "all-time faves" "recent con winners" or something. but mostly an option to see some really unpopular editors that a designated person deems pretty good.