Livid Penguin - Design Mockup

luke · 28th October 2006

Guys.

Just looking for some feedback on this design I'm working on for my site.
Its just a photoshop at the moment, let me know what you think!

http://lividpenguin.com/other/lp_design_mock5_bg1.png
http://lividpenguin.com/other/lp_design_mock5_bg2.png
http://lividpenguin.com/other/lp_design_mock5_bg3.png
http://lividpenguin.com/other/lp_design_mock5_bg4.png

I'm pondering about rotating the background image, I've got about 9 in total that I've done.

I'm planning on using the space in the left hand side in a few sections of the site (here' a small example: http://lividpenguin.com/other/lp_design_mock3.png)

n.b. Graphical design is not my strong point.

FastFragsUK · 28th October 2006

Looking good!

I like the idea of having colourful background images instead of plain colours, wonder how it will affect page loading times?

~ Fred.

AdamC · 28th October 2006

As Fred says, if you want a nice high quality background image your either going to have to limit your page width to about 750px or have a large enough image to cover screen resolutions upto say 1280x1024 (if not higher).

Rotating them will just have a knock on effect on your cache. Once a user has downloaded the first page then at least (with a fixed image) they won't need to keep downloading a new one each time the page loads. Of course, you could save which image they have in a session or cookie and use them same for that person all the time.

luke · 28th October 2006

Not too sure how much the size will be effected, we will see!

I'm planning on having the page work in 800x600 with a small scroll, but the main aim for the site will be 1024x768.

luke · 29th October 2006

I'll keep that in mind if I opt to rotate them Adam!
I was just thinking it would be cool and did not think much about the effect it may have!

I've almost got the css / xhtml version done, I've just got the buttons to do and some code clean-up. I'll stick it up once its ready.

The images in the background range from 80kb to 200kb.
After that there's just the logo (34kb) and some gradients (4kb each).

Its probably the 'largest' site I've done for my own usage, normally its nothing more then a logo, a little color and text!

andyb28 · 29th October 2006

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luke · 29th October 2006

Heh, your not the first person to say the roller coster looks 'out of place'.
I'm not too sure if I'll end up using that background, I've just been looking for an excuse to use the picture ever since I took it a few months ago.

The browser version looks pretty much like the photoshop version now, an updated version can be found here...

http://lividpenguin.com/other/lp_design_xhtml2.png

[inx]Olly · 29th October 2006

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luke · 29th October 2006

Well, its all working in everything BUT IE due to the transparency, will need to kick it later on tonight.

The reason its off set to the right is because there is a space for a left hand side bar / menu that I plan on using on some pages, also it gives you a nicer view at the background image its self.

I'll see how it goes with the side bar, if it sucks, well, I can just resize the div! :-)