First off: every post not including any help (or discussings other's ideas) will be deleted in this topic, this is a topic which should help me!

So, all of you know that the entire DLDB sucks. Especially the layout, the way it is presented.
Talented designer of SEN: post me your ideas, if possible with some images, for every part of the DLDB (splash view, popular, file itself, editing area of a file....)

On a side note: I'm doing these changes on my localhost -> you will not see any of them until I'm done with all that stuff.
Thanks in advance!

Easy. First you click the "database" link under the starcraft menu, which brings you to the front page of the DLDB.

That page should consist of map categories, a map search function, and maybe a "map of the day" type thing.

Then each category should link to an alphabetical list of maps within that category. Just make everything big, clear, and easy to see.

Get rid of all that "Recently" crap and everything except the map categories and search function. Anything not a file probably shouldn't be in the DLDB, it should have its own section.

For about the eighth time, use dropdown boxes on the submission/edit page to force UMS maps to have a category (or 'other') tag rather than relying on people to type in correct tags. People are stupid.

@Vrael: I'd actually say to keep the "Map Spotlight" and the "Sunken Treasure".
As for my contribution:

1) Make the title itself also clickable to download (but keep the file name download).
2) Give possibility to download right from the Main Page: some times, people know what they want exactly, so having to get into the file's page to download it is just superfluous click.
3) Try to automatize the "Map Category" based off the files' extension. Starcraft version should be auto-selected too, based off extension (scm/scx).
4) Re-do the "Images" category. It is buggy and having to press "Delete" and reloading the page before "Generating thumbnail" is rather annoying.
5) Make a "Submit" button that works for all categories (File description, Images, File upgrade, etc.)
6) -> 7) Enhance the 'Vote' system (though I do not know how).

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 1 2010, 10:13 pm by DeVouReR. Reason: fixd bbcode

Multi-level contextual hierarchical nav.


Lighter links are selected. The contents of the last two rows of the nav ("UMS..." and "Adventure...") vary depending on which of their parents is selected. Hovering over a link on the first two rows brightens the background to a shade between normal and selected. (On the last two rows, hover and selected are the same background color.) On all rows, hovering over a link turns the text color white.

"Portal" would have things like a Featured Map (or something), "Sunken Treasure", etc.. The other links would be solely dedicated to displaying files based on the categorization the user is browsing. I didn't see a use for "Browse", as a well-implemented Search can take over its functionality while also providing more useful features.

BTW this can be accomplished using a DIV, a SPAN, four ULs, and good CSS -- in other words, minimal HTML. (I didn't draw the above concept. When it comes to website or web UI designs, my graphics editors are two wonderful little apps called "Notepad" and "Firefox".)

Here is the actual layout of maps' categories modified by myself (I striked the one I found to be wrong and added sub-categories for clarification), what do you think of it?


Suggested for Use Map Settings categories: Actually not doubled. Said that it was a placeholder for others.


Others:I am wondering what would be the difference between "Assault" and "Offense". I've made one by setting Micro and Impossible into Offense, but it was a guess. ;o

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 5 2010, 11:40 pm by DeVouReR. Reason: ...read.

You'd also need an "Others" Category, just in case new map categories come about in SC2
Also, it'd be great to have a "featured" category, where maps that are picked can be found. Maps should also be able to be categorized in different areas.

First of all, I'm glad that you're finally redoing the DLDB. Thank god!! In the advent of SC2, we really do need a robust DLDB that will cause people to actually utilize it. In fact, the DLDB should be the primary, if not one of the major components of SEN.

Here's a list of things that can be done to do this

• First of all, take a look at www.newgrounds.com. I think that site sets a great example of a website with an excellent and prolific design.
  
  
• The first obvious thing is its Front Page portal. Maps should be featured (front paged) via moderators, who would look at maps that have been rated highly, or have been called to attention. This gives members and others more incentive to create maps, and also makes it easy for newcomers to access the database.
  
  
• Auto-rating system! The way that the website is set up allows healthy competitiveness, and gives less work to moderators. Front page mods only need to look at the highest rated/downloaded maps of the week, and draw from it. If we're going to be lazy, the system can automatically upload the 5-10 highest rated/downloaded map of the week.
  
  
• Another key element of newgrounds' epic front page is that it is always updated. We probably do not need as much activity as newgrounds, however. As I said, a weekly update is already great. One idea I had in mind is that maps only get featured the week after they were uploaded. This makes sense, as maps which are posted later the week will still have a chance to gather ratings.
  
  
• The DLDB it self should be category based. It's actual, on screen design can be debated tho. As long as it's easy to access the categories, then it's fine. It'll be even better if each category has its own highest rated map.
  
  
• Make it so that users can easily find the link to the map thread in the forum
  

HELL yeah i kind of strayed off to talking about the Portal ... But, they're good ideas. The DLDB shouldn't be something of itself.. it should be integrated throughout the website.

I don't think the "recently" thing is bad. But maybe filter it so that only well rated maps crop up on the "recently" titled..
Also "recently commented/posted/anything else other than uploading the map" should be removed.

Could we import all maps from nibbitz with some kind of script? It'd be useful.
Having a partnership with the site could be neat too.

I'm in for a partnership and sharing files but yet it is not up to me. Would have to wait till (...if I would ever become one...) I am an admin

Shouldn't we get nibbitz's consent? Or is there something I'm missing here?

(If a partnership is formed, then rather than importing all their data (or vice versa), couldn't both sites just add AJAX-based APIs to the databases, effectively bridging the two? It would avoid having a lot of data duplicated across websites.)

I've got the founder of nibbits in MSN and we are talking about that very often, don't worry about that.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 9 2010, 11:59 am by DeVouReR.