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| Mike Salbato |
Another batch of changes for RPGFan: Some cosmetic, some functional, all fun.
05.29.11 - 10:06 PM
Back in March, we rolled out our updated site design and new features, including the long-awaited sortable tables in certain sections. I also promised you we'd be bringing the handy sorta-bility to Release Dates, and now it's here, along with an overdue facelift for the page. Once again, major props to Dave for making the sorting work out, and both him and Bryan for determining the sort order.
Another page that's languished for way too long is our Staff page. Now titled "About," we include a super-brief history of the site, and have implemented all-new staff profiles with a layout similar to our new Review format. We've also added additional contact info for most staff, most notably our Forum handles, so you have a better idea of who's who. Not all of us make it as easy to find out who's who as I do.
The most exciting thing for me today is our new Reviews and Pictures pages. We've had an on-and-off-again site overhaul on the back burner since 2007, and one of the design aspects of it was what you now see on these two sections: a much more visual focus on the navigation. Besides just livening up the pages, we hope it makes your navigating the pages much more enjoyable than a couple dozen green text boxes. For now, we've limited this to "Current Generation" hardware: Since this is all original, vector-based artwork, it takes a bit of time to finish, and we didn't want to have to wait until all 30+ platform images are done to roll this out.
All "Current Generation" sub-pages such as the PlayStation 3 Reviews page have new headers featuring this console artwork as well. While incomplete, some older sub-pages have updated headers too. Fun fact: The Dreamcast was the first console image I completed, way back in July of 2008 (like I said, an on-and-off-again project!) I can't find any way to pitch these new headers as useful in any way - we just think they're way more fun to look at, and add some variety and color to the pages. And I find myself wanting a black SNES.
I saved the smallest (16x16 pixels to be exact) for last: We finally have a new site favicon (that little icon next to the URL in your browser's address field). The old jagged "RF" icon served its purpose, but was overdue for retirement. Some browsers have a habit of over-actively caching these icons, so you may have to reload or clear your cache for it to update.
That's all for now! We hope you enjoy these updates, and hope to have more to share with you later this year. Let us know what you think.
