New Website - Work-in-Progress

[Dan Dixon]

I'm developing a new website to accompany the upcoming marketing push for version 2.

It's still in a very early state and the links and text don't go anywhere yet.

http://universesandbox.com/new/

Thoughts, comments, criticism, ideas ?

[deoxy99]

I don't like the following sections:
Epic
Smash galaxies together for fun or rip apart Saturn's rings because you've had a bad day.

The bolded part of it is what makes it terrible.

Interactive
Like actually interactive. Change any property of any object at any time and simulate the effects.

The bolded part makes it sound redundant.

[atomic7732]

Create new stars or launch asteroids into planets.
s

Has no heading. And what is the s?

[Dan Dixon]

Those are good points.

Keep in mind that the text isn't final. I'm still experimenting with the copy (the text).

Other thoughts or ideas?

[deoxy99]

The paragraph under H2 level Heading is messed up.
"Create new stars or launch asteroids into planets." crashes into the word justo of the H2 Level Heading Paragraph. How about you make the H2 Level Paragraph stay in it's column rather than flowing into the 1st one. I think that's called a widow.

[deoxy99]

WOW HAVE I GOT AN IDEA! You know the video? You could use jQuery to make it so people can show it or hide it! I can code the jQuery for you if you want. Can I give you the script when I'm done with it?

[atomic7732]

deoxy... why do you need the video hid... you just don't play it if you don't want to see it.

[deoxy99]

deoxy... why do you need the video hid... you just don't play it if you don't want to see it.

I think it'd be a cool effect.

[deoxy99]

Here are the edited files dan:

You don't have to use these versions. But I want you to see what you think...I want you to use them though. Look at the last line of the left column, and click on the Hide Section line.

[Bla]

I really like the new background. The rest also looks more Universe Sandbox-like, with it's own menu "theme" (most boxes are squares with soft corners etc.).
Maybe the upcoming(?) links at the bottom should be more noticeable somehow, or placed in a menu, especally if they're going to be drop-down.
But it looks great.

[Dan Dixon]

Thanks deoxy. I agree it's cool, but it seems superfluous. It is a very cool effect.

And thanks Bla. Turns out I like rounded corners (soft corners as you called them).

I've updated it again with a section for quotes and more placeholder content.

Let me know what you think.

[atomic7732]

Yay! I like it. 

[Chaotic Cow]

I like the basic layout and round corners makes everything cool.

[infringement153]

For such a professionally done program, Universe Sandbox does deserve much better awareness...

And yes, the website looks much better.

[infringement153]

Also, I think that you need to make it more clear that it is a gravity simulator.  "Astronomy software for everyone" makes it seems like it may be some sort of planetarium or viewer with gravity tacked on, not a dedicated gravity simulator.  Try and make that more clear.  I think I would be confused if I stumbled on that website with no previous idea of what it is.

Hmm, and maybe mention "creating your own universe," and not just saying that we can edit the known one

[deoxy99]

You need to check this out Dan.
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http://universesandbox.com/new/

Your site is invalid. Could you fix all the warnings and errors?

[Dan Dixon]

... I think that you need to make it more clear that it is a gravity simulator.

This is good feedback. Thanks for this.

Could you fix all the warnings and errors?

There's a few that I will address, but most of these are issues with the YouTube video embedding code (which is copied directly from the YouTube website).

[Dan Dixon]

I've posted more work on the website to:
http://universesandbox.com/new/

Thoughts on this?

Only 3 pages at the moment: Home, Download, and What is it?

[deoxy99]

I saw that. It's cool.

[Bla]

The new pages look awesome. The download page could look more exciting though, I think. I think variety is great, I like how everything is organized on StarCraft 2's website for example, it looks so awesome. But it requires that there's something to fill up those structures too, they have a story and lots of gameplay to describe, Universe Sandbox mostly has features to describe, they're two very different games/programs.

[InfoBloe]

Hmm, and maybe mention "creating your own universe," and not just saying that we can edit the known one

Aye
I've comprised some slogans you could use...
-
"Create your own Universe, save it, and destroy it!

-"The physics of gravity have never been so interactive! (and nonetheless fun!)"

-"Create anything from simple Moon-Planet orbits to Galactic collisions!"

-"Craft the universe into YOUR universe!"

Hope this helps 

[Dan Dixon]

Thanks infringement153. Those are fun.

The new website is now live.
http://universesandbox.com/

Let me know if you find any problems or have any feedback.

Thanks!

[deoxy99]

Interesting jQuery script.

[atomic7732]

Looks the same to me. What did you change?

[Dan Dixon]

Looks the same to me. What did you change?

What do you mean? It's similar to the old site, but cleaner and more up to date.

[atomic7732]

It didn't have that rectangle... It was the EXACT same. Today it has the rectangle... odd.

[Naru523]

I noticed you changed it on the forums, too. But the home button makes it go back to the home page..

[Dan Dixon]

I noticed you changed it on the forums, too.

Yeah... Lots of fixes to the website.
- New header and background for both the forum and blog.
- Added the Install button to blog and forum headers. (for those that arrive via search engines)
- Set width of blog to 960px (like both the forum and the main site)
- Fixed forum main page title (was 'Universe Sandbox - index', now 'Universe Sandbox | forum')
- Fixed problem with icons never appearing for forum actions, like 'New Post'.
- Updated favicon for both the blog and forums.

http://universesandbox.com/blog/
http://universesandbox.com/forum/

It's amazing how long all that took.

But the home button makes it go back to the home page..

I changed the home button back back to work the way it did before. I've always thought it was confusing that Home only takes you to the home of the forum page. You can return to the main site home by clicking on the logo.

It didn't have that rectangle... It was the EXACT same. Today it has the rectangle... odd.

If things look weird, hit refresh in your browser. That may be why some people have reported strange problems with layout.

[Flandre Scarlet-chan]

The background is nice~

Where did you get it?

[deoxy99]

From his faithful program Universe Sandbox.