The NinSheetMusic Redesign Suggestion Thread: Look and layout

[Jamaha]

(For what this is about, see this link)

This is the thread for the look and layout of the new site. See the link above for how this works.

In addition to adding new functionality to the site, I'd also like to modernize the look a bit. I haven't started with designing the actual layout yet (as I wasn't exactly happy with the ones I made earlier) so all ideas are welcome.

I quite like the light blue color scheme, so I'm quite likely using it in the upcoming version as well. Or would you rather see some other color scheme? Perhaps even the old red/black we had in the early days of NSM? (does anyone even remember that?)

We also need some kind of actual logo, to use on for example our Facebook page. Currently we're just cropping the site banner. I'd also like to get away from just using the Nintendo logo as the base and would rather prefer something original.

[Ragster]

What if we used some classic 16-bit text? Then we could add a little animation for hovering over each button, like so:



That's very bad. But it gives you an idea on what I'm talking about

[JDMEK5]

As I've said in the past, I put the idea out there and got mixed opinions. But if we were to have sheets for instruments besides piano (trumpet, sax, guitar, etc.), ideally I think some tabs at the top somewhere (on the current main page, under the banner) for each instrument. Of course, this whole thing is theoretical and I'm kinda pulling a Meta-Ridley here. I do realize there are much more pressing issues at hand but this is one of those "what if?"s.

What if we used some classic 16-bit text?

I think I'd rather see some kind of cool(er) looking special-font.

We could add a little animation for hovering over each button, like so:

I love that idea. I just don't like Mario from the Mario & Luigi series. Likewise for example, Pikachu couldn't be a sprite from Red/Blue. I'd rather a pose somewhere from the anime or something. Not looking down. (Forget Pikachu, maybe a pokéball?)

Those are my thoughts on that.

[JDMEK5]

Wait, do we still need a new site banner?

[Taser9090]

You know how there's a "More..." on the navigation pane? I've always thought that the Nintendo games and the third party (and games from other consoles) should be separate.

It would look nicer that way.

[Ragster]

Maybe instead of it leading to a list of sheets for every game under 'more', hovering over 'more' would pop up a sub-menu, just so if we use the idea of animated buttons then we wouldn't have to worry about doing something for every other game. We could just have like a question block from Mario as the button for more.

Oh, and maybe the buttons don't have to be "animated", maybe just a Mario face that slides in from the left of the button when you hover over it, and shines white or something.

[JDMEK5]

I just had another thought regarding the blue on each side of the page. Maybe we could make it different for each franchise. Said background could vary depending on the newest game released in that franchise. For example, in the Zelda section, it could be open skies above the clouds corresponding to Skyward Sword. Or in the Pokémon section, we could have red on one side and blue on the other to correspond with B/W2. Of course, no copyrighted characters or other such elements would be used, but I think it would add color to the site. (But if not, it just can't end up black. It's so depressing. )

[K-NiGhT]

You could always use user generated fan art that doesn't directly copy the art style used in the game, right?

[JDMEK5]

Yeah. I mean, I doubt Nintendo copyrighted the sky and clouds background when Skyward Sword came out. (If that's the case, I ought to be copyrighting the colors. :-P)
As long as the art style looks somewhat different, there shouldn't be any problems. And even that's being pretty careful.

[JDMEK5]

Hey I was just browsing by arranger, and I thought it would be neat if our forum avatars could appear under/over our name or something. (This being on the pages you go to after clicking a name. Not on the list) That would make each page a little more unique and personal.

[Yugi]

So what you're saying is that you want NSM to be freaked out over my avatar.

[Winter]

To do that avatar thing we'd have to set it for the arranger name (assuming they are all correct on the site)
Right now the names for each sheet are manually entered. There's no link between those and the forum.. but it would be pretty neat if they did, but it'd have to be changed from the ground up. Or some awkward hotfix.

[Jamaha]

Actually, ignore Winter here. It is very much possible after a few changes.

[Winter]

What about people who don't want their forum name up on the site, but rather their Real name or an alias? Can you make those changes with this in mind?

[Jamaha]

Already taken care of.

See for example

http://www.ninsheetm.us/browse/arranger/904

aka The Deku Trombonist. The name itself can be anything as long as the ID itself (904 here) links to the forum account. Currently everyone else has their id as -#, because I haven't had the time to connect the arrangers to forum accounts.