Major Website Changes: have -YOUR- say!!!

[darrenbeck]

.....

[shmuelbwll]

I like the old site better

[Florian]

Hello Robert !

Looks great , but the title graphic is diplaced when viewing the site via netscape. The displacement is 9 pixels each form top and left side when I view it. Plus: the Menu colorchanging doesn't work either when using Netscape (referring to 4.7x versions here).


Florian

[Lorax]

The graphic on the top of the screen makes navigating through the forums, in a tiny window scrunched down at the bottom of the screen, a bit more challenging and less appealing than a full screen.  

I've never enjoyed frames, so I vote neigh.

Just my two cents.

"The future is all around us.  Waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of Revelation.  No one knows the shape of that Future, or where it will take us.  We know only that it is always born in...Tomorrow."

[Adrian]

Just a note: It would be useful if people could comment on both the colours and design.

Thank you!


Adrian.

[Myfreaky]

I vote yes.  I love the colors as well as the design!  It is a beautiful sight (site)!

Myfreaky

[kifyre]

The colors are pleasing to me. The navigation is much clearer and easier. I think this first page is great.

I think the articles and training guides should be emphasized more. They are of great value. Maybe put them on the front page along with books, or say "Free Training Guides" (don't really like that one), or "Online Training Guides" or "Complete Online Training Guides."

The home page is a a pleasing attention getter, but the main frame definitely gets scrunched when you navigate away from the home page. The internal pages should be less distracting so people can focus on content.

What's the mission of this site? In my opinion:
-To freely distribute information, to educate. (hard core people)
-To raise awareness (not so hard core people)
-To bring people together (the forums)
-To promote RB's books.

The books should certainly be on the first page, but maybe a whole lot more should be on the first page.

just my two cents; thanks for reading

Mark

[Spike]

Yep! I like it.
Colours are good, I love the blue.
Layout is clear, concise and everything important is to hand and easy to find without having to search for it by scrolling up and down to find it.
A big Thumbs Up from me.

Rich

[travrai blue robes]

blue is fine by me. I've been loving the new astral pulse header graphic too.

[Alex]

Hi,
The new look is just beautiful...
The colors are great, the design is good, but it could be better :-DD
My propositions are:
1. reduction of the size of the 'Astral Pulse' logo - I think it's a bit too big
2. I would break the Articles | Poetry, Forums | Books,Magick | Links | Help into separate lines
3. I would also change the font of 'Welcome to Astral Pulse', 'What's New', etc signs...

Just my 2 cents...
But these things are minor - the site is generally very good

Take care,
Alex

Human life is full of magic, one only needs to spot it.

[Joe]

The new site is an excellent step forward - my only suggestions would be :-
1. I am not a fan of frames, although people's tastes differ on this one. Try a version without frames and take a vote maybe...
2. The new colour scheme is great, although I think for a site that deals with content such as this, maybe a more "spiritual" or "emotive" look-and-feel would be good - something with warm browns, golds, a little more graphics for effect (eg. like the logo) - generally something that says "metaphysical".

All the best,
Joe

[cainam_nazier]

either or, no preference.
On a technical note.  I had no problems navigating the site.  It responds very well and the colors are plesant.  I was viewing it in 1024 x 768 resolution so I could see everything.  In 800 x 600 you have to scroll around a bit.

David Rogalski
cainam_nazier@hotmail.com

[Robert Bruce]

G'day Folks!

//http://members.shaw.ca/nu1/astralpulse/

Thanks for all the feedback so far.  Keep it coming!

*Take another look at the new look test site, and you'll find most of the links work now.

A few things to note:

# When finished, the forums will be loaded in a separate window, and not in the text box on the site.

# The pages shown contain the old navigation system at present. This will be changed and all text pages will be in simple black on white.

# All navigational index pages will be in blue on white, same as the 'What's New' page.

# We are considering shrinking the top banner a tad to increase space in the text box, for the pixel deprived amongst us:)

# All page colours will eventually match the main page theme, but as said, all text pages will be in plain black on white for easy reading.

# Everything will be optimised in the full version for faster loading and etc, and also so all browsers will read it with ease, including Amigas and Netscape and etc.

# The main index order is still being toyed with. All comments on suggested order will be taken seriously and much appreciated. We'll try to use the most logical and helpful order to best represent the material on the site.

[Salubri]

Hi there,

A few comments on the new site:

I like the new layout, especially the graphic on the top. What I miss is the total screen of the former site, it was a lot easier to read the articles fullscreen. But this is compensated by the "more professional/ serious"-looking style. Which makes the offered information and books more expert-looking.

But I do think the blue is too dark, it looks nice.. but it distracts the reader too much. And I think the left side, with the links, is a bit too empty.. Maybe a few graphical buttons would do the trick?

For the navigation I wouldn't put articles and poetry next to each other, the same for forums/books and magick/ links/ help.
If I myself would make it, I think I would use this navigation:
Home, Whats new, Training guides, Articles, books, forums/chatroom, links/help, mirror sites, Robert Bruce, associates. I would choose this because the first subjects are usually clicked on mostly.

Usually a person seeks something, he wants information.. Very likely that he wants it for free.. Therefore place articles and training guides first. The reader is then probably interested, and likes to see the books you are offering. Because he knows that you know what you are talking about. Chatroom comes later, because if the reader is interested in the first few subjects.. he will likely be looking further in the site for chatrooms and forums and the like. Whats on top is mostly read first, and if the reader likes it.. he will click further.. if not he's gone before discovering that there even were books and articles, chatrooms and forums.

But further than that, it looks fine!
Im sorry if I mentioned too much critics, I mean well.. ;')

Goodluck,
Salubri

[Pres Nevins]

Some impressions, hope they help:

The upper graphic while pretty, is huge (I think enough people have noticed that). If this were at the top of a single non-frames page (like the forum pages) then I could scroll it away and it wouldn't bother me. It'd still be larger than "normal" but no big deal, but in a frames set I'd get sick of it really quickly. A "normal" size  (to me) would size the top frame about even with the baseline of "stral" in "Astral," which unfortunately leaves the woman peeking over the edge of the frame like Kilroy...

Another vote for non-frames - linking within a frames set is a pain.

The content frame pages "f3.htm" and "whats_new.htm" have no background color set -- I have my browser's default color set to a tan color, so the pages (that frame) when displayed on my machine are mostly tan instead of white, with the pictures that want a white background looking out-of-place. Something to watch out for, if your browser is set to the same bg color you want your site's pages to be.

The left nav bar is about twice as wide as it needs to be, if all you're putting there are a dozen text links.

The text links should each be on separate lines - unless you're surfing on a Vaio Picturebook, there's lots of dead space down below them anyway.

There's no "Home" link to get back to the main page. Clicking on the face/logo does nothing, which makes it's hugeness stand out even more.

The Search and Forum links shouldn't be so far from the top of the page - at least put them high enough so that you don't have to scroll. As it is, it looks like the page has become just an ad for the books, and I don't expect it to change "themes" again down below.

Please date the entries on the "What's New" page so we can tell what's actually new.

Shouldn't the Search item be in either the top or left frames? E.g. if I go to the What's New page, I can't search anymore.


Pres

[Rob]

Looks great to me (very "modern"), I always found navigating the old forum a bit tricky. I was about to say I did not think that the background lemony yellow went with the bolder blue, but then I see this is going to be changed to white.
I have my screen on 1024*768, and the picture at the top is still a little large - I would agree with making it a bit smaller for easier reading.

But aye, very slick! Thumbs up from me.

[andy]

I like it! A slightly bigger frame *could/might* be nice but as it stands I say,go for it!The colours are perfect.Nice job!!

Peace,Andy

[Arulok]

Robert,

Love the proposed site.  The colours are good, I especially like the vibrancy of them.  And the layout is appealing.  The links worked well when I tried them as well.

Bringing each page into conformity with the proposed colouring will give you a site that excels.

- Michael

NB. I'm using iexplorer 5.1 for Mac OS X.  No problems when I was using the site.  Just thought you'd like to know.

[Pres Nevins]

Ah, browser check, good point! It seems to work fine here running OmniWeb 4.1b1 on Mac OS X. (Except for the background color thing mentioned above which isn't a browser-specific problem)

I agree that the blue and white is a fine combination. Lookin' good!

When do we see an example of the next iteration?

[Robert Bruce]

G'day!

Check it out again after the weekend, re Zufo is modifying the layout of the main screen and banner and etc at the moment.

Take care, Robert.

[n/a]

I like it better quick and simple, the way it is now.
Maybe have a small box at the top header that says,"Other Links".
That would supply the other site and its various subjects.
I didn't like how long it took to come up on the screen, when all I wanted to do was use the forum. If I want to buy your book, which I will pretty soon, or look for information I will click on the "other links" box. This would be better as I see it.
I guess I could get to the forum part and save it on my favorites, that way I could skip all of the extra time it would now take to get there.
I like what you are adding to this site, don't get me wrong, It looks like useful stuff. But I think the forum should be the home page.
           Thanks for asking....

[Rob]

Hi this one is a bit more techy. The top picture is (very very sweet but) 115Kb, which is pretty big (especially for laggy connections). I reduced the number of colours to 32K and size went down to 35Kb, and I couldn't notice any difference in the quality. Just a thought!

[Arena]

So far I like the old web site better.  The new design makes me feel claustrophobic.  I think it would be better without the top banner, if you are going to go with it.  I like the blue but prefer more changes, or a variety of colors and schemes.  If the whole site were in the same blue format, it would be more boring and monotomous to me.  More slick and professional isn't necessarily better.  To me, the old site has a more comfortable feel.

Thanks again though, for all your work and efforts.  (Whatever you decide will be fine.)

[Anon]

Greetings All!

The new site is great!  

Aside from the colour scheme, design etc (which I really like and find inviting) I think the best and most important improvement is the navigation of the site.

I don't mean to knock the old site in any way, but I would always be getting lost (especially while navigating the forums), and eventually found myself constantly clicking the 'home' button and go where I wanted from there (very time consuming with my slow connection speeds).  Ok, so this might just be a lack of brain cells on my part. Did anyone else have the same problem?

I get around the proposed site with much more ease, and I am sure that is one of the more important changes to consider.  Navigating the new site is like moving 'within' the site, rather than 'around' it (if you get my meaning).

An overall thumbs-up from me.

Love, Light and Peace.

[Robert Bruce]

G'day!

All good points and all under consideration; thanks!

A tip to all who want to go straight to the forums without loading the main website first.

go to //http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/

or //http://www.astraldynamics.com/forums/

The 'astralpulse.com' is our new domain.  But the old astraldynamics.com domain will continue to be active.

Take care, Robert