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View Full Version : DCemu branding and identity issues.



diceone
March 14th, 2007, 23:32
I was kind of noticing that as a whole the DCemu site mill is getting REALLY confusing and seems to be sort of suffering from a brand/identity/design inconsistency.

in one instance there is the old, big head little body DC controller forum stuff.
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/images/jnj/misc/logo.gif




..then there are the new site headers.
http://ps3-evolution.dcemu.co.uk/images/ps3_header_logo.gif




... and these things:
http://ps3-evolution.dcemu.co.uk/images/ps3_about_site.gif



and then there is the constant presence of the 64 icons.
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/images/ete64n.gif


then you get into all of this other stuff:
this thing is pretty horrific:
http://www.vg-network.com/logo/greenblack_background.gif


...and whatever this abomination is:
http://www.spelkontroll.se/images/orange_logo_272x73.gif

and then there is this the latest wordpress thing:
http://www.emulation64.com/images/newemu64logo.gif


probably the most easily solved issues you guys are having is the addition of these new pc-gaming.dcemu.co.uk headers and what not.

ok let's take a look:
http://dluxstudios.com/dcemu/psp_current.jpg
now this is a screenshot from a 1400x900 monitor running firefox.
what do we see?
1. a lot of ads, so many you dont see any content
2. a lot of network site navigation links
3. a leader board header with a single psp image centered in it.
4. another set of site nav links, in drop down menu form
5. more main nav site links, under the header
6. a left column of what seems to be useful links
7. a right side column for the user menu, thats basically empty.
8. in the center column we have google adsense dominating the space.
9. of course over that, another ad from success HK
10. under that... why more ADs!!!! and more links AWAY from where we just got to.

honestly, this is a nightmare.
I'm not trying to be insulting or rude.
I do consultation for Nike, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Converse, etc etc...
And consequentially I am an art director and designer.

I'm asked for these consultations, or I solicit them, to cut through the crap and to address serious usability issues in the visual design, brand and interactive media fields.

So this isn't being rude.
I'm just being straight to the point and as a user of the site have had more than my fair share of confusion finding and navigating the info here.

I'd like to open a dialog about it.
I'd like to improve on the site, or at least address the issues to make them known.

I just don't want to waste my time.

I have heaps of work to do and I want to come away with an even exchange and not some charity work.

So If you aren't open to it thats fine. I just wanted to give it you straight.
I'm down to grow this site.
But I need get something out of it beyond fan-boy worship on your forums.
plus I don't want to bark up the wrong tree, or possibly be addressing issues you are already solving.

the bottom line, I can help, as long as we are moving forward and solving these serious brand/design/usability issues.

kaffie
March 14th, 2007, 23:44
Wouldn't this have been better in a PM and/or better written?

t_j
March 14th, 2007, 23:44
Its freaking sinmple just cause your a dumb noob dosent mean the rest of us are!

diceone
March 15th, 2007, 00:07
Its freaking sinmple just cause your a dumb noob dosent mean the rest of us are!
this site isn't simple.
it has probably MILLIONS of pieces of info.
And now it has MANY sub property sites.

whenever a NEW user comes to a site, it is very important for them to be able to utilize the site as easily as an experienced visitor.

I have had 30 or so non mod-gamer friends come here and immediately jet. they thought it was a warez/virus/ad farm.

I'm writing this because people aren't getting the well rounded experience here outside of the forums.
this is just an initial topic started to create a discussion about said issues.
it is the design forum.

I have been coming to DCemu since about.... 2001/02 or omething? it was a while ago...
dcemu.co.uk was the only original url. I think.
I started to get into/checkout dreamcast mods, so I started coming here.
I returned here for some GBA sp info and when I saw them posting a lot of really good psp info after I got a psp I frequented quite a bit.

the site was smaller, and the site had a consistent look.
anyway...

This post is meant to be helpful, but establish a level of open inquiry.

There is no need to discuss the written "quality" of my post.
It's straight forward and voices my observations in a direct manner.

so unless you have some sort of intelligent site design related info in direct relation to this thread, please don't waste our time.

kaffie
March 15th, 2007, 00:14
Are you high?

diceone
March 15th, 2007, 00:20
I don't get it.
we are in the design forum.

This is chance to look at this stuff objectively and improve it.
What is the problem?

Kaiser
March 15th, 2007, 00:25
Well I understand where your coming from to a certain extent. The PSP site needs a bit of reorganizing, thats definatley obvious but as far as our graphics go, I don't see anything wrong with them. A lot of those logo's are simply different facets of our network and our host's network.

Our Administrator DarkSaviour69 has been working his ass off reorganizing a few sites and I believe he has been successful in cleaning up their image.

http://xbox360.dcemu.co.uk/
http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/

I'd also recommend looking at our portal site.

DCemu is almost in a constant state of restructuring due to extremly fast growth so its normal to have the odd design flaw here and there.

pt9087
March 15th, 2007, 00:32
True... But does it really matter. This is a very well known site and a very good one.

diceone
March 15th, 2007, 00:34
I am NOT in ANYWAY trying to KNOCK what you guys have going on with the new color coded site properties.
I think that is the best thing to happen in months.

I know from firsthand experience how hard it is to take on a massive task like this.
I also know how hard it can be take criticism, constructive or not after putting in all that hard work.

So please don't mistake my effort here for anything other than genuine desire to be a contributor on a level that utilizes my professional level of skill.

I do also realize that a lot of the "logos" floating around are part of different properties.
I'm trying to tackle a lot of ground in one post and then hopefully part it out into attainable task sets.

I'd like to use a forum like this to post design screenshots and see what users think. but I'd like to do it collectively and know I'm not just humoring myself.

Kaiser
March 15th, 2007, 00:41
I am NOT in ANYWAY trying to KNOCK what you guys have going on with the new color coded site properties.
I think that is the best thing to happen in months.

I know from firsthand experience how hard it is to take on a massive task like this.
I also know how hard it can be take criticism, constructive or not after putting in all that hard work.

So please don't mistake my effort here for anything other than genuine desire to be a contributor on a level that utilizes my professional level of skill.

I do also realize that a lot of the "logos" floating around are part of different properties.
I'm trying to tackle a lot of ground in one post and then hopefully part it out into attainable task sets.

I'd like to use a forum like this to post design screenshots and see what users think. but I'd like to do it collectively and know I'm not just humoring myself.

PM an Admin by the name of souLLy (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/member.php?u=655) he's our resident web designer here and would be better to talk to on such matters. I'm sure you'd have some interesting discussion with him.

And don't worry, I'm not taking your input as an insult here. DCemu has never been against constructive criticism as long as its supported by information and presented in a civil manner. :D

diceone
March 15th, 2007, 00:50
as usual; Kaiser, with the smooth moves... thanks for the support.
I think it's great to see what people think in forums when its on topic and useful.

And the new portals are a lot cleaner with the ad's more well placed.
I'm glad that one 460w ad was moved into the header, like a mini leaderboard ad.

Out of the people I had stop by the forums, most of them commented on how outdated the girl holding a dreamcast controller looked.
the second most common remark about the forums was that the brand image did not reflect the modern diversity in the content of the forums.

While it is a familiar image, it does kind of scream "dreamcast forum" and not so much "lots of different consoles and platforms forums".

you guys have a hard time already with your domain name being dcemu.co.uk representing the potential diversity and immense usefulness of this site.
you guys ever talk about that?

If it's possible, I'd like to do some work here.
it does sound like you have a pretty full staff too though.
so, we'll see.

I thin I am just gonna make some screens and post them and we'll just see what happens.

Kaiser
March 15th, 2007, 01:08
Yeah a lot of the things you just mentioned are being worked on.

As for the mascot, well she came in much later, well after we established ourselves as a diverse site covering many consoles. She represents our sites roots by holding that DC controller.

bandit
March 15th, 2007, 01:22
I appreciate your criticism and none taken personally. Its always good to hear what users have to say. I do agree that the sub-sites are flooded with ads.

Although DCEmu hosts my site, I run and maintain my webpage. It has the same look to all other DCEmu sites. The color needs to change though since its the same as the Wii site. I'll get to that when I have the time. I would like to hear what you have to say.

I am also a full-time graphic artist in the real work field.

Junixx
March 15th, 2007, 01:39
I think it would be easier to find games and things if they were put into more specific categories, like as in homebrew apps and games, like the "Lua games" section is in the PSP section, It would be quite alot of work for some parts of DCEmu, but it might help

diceone
March 15th, 2007, 02:40
good stuff guys.

I appreciate your criticism and none taken personally. Its always good to hear what users have to say. I do agree that the sub-sites are flooded with ads.

Although DCEmu hosts my site, I run and maintain my webpage. It has the same look to all other DCEmu sites. The color needs to change though since its the same as the Wii site. I'll get to that when I have the time. I would like to hear what you have to say.

I am also a full-time graphic artist in the real work field.
ok. cool, I'll check it out.
I also noticed that the apple/ipod/os x forums are under The Alternative Handheld & Retro Forums

apple / os X should be its own thing like PC.
I didn't even know there was mac stuff on here until I was just looking around and saw it in the mix.


I think it would be easier to find games and things if they were put into more specific categories, like as in homebrew apps and games, like the "Lua games" section is in the PSP section, It would be quite alot of work for some parts of DCEmu, but it might help
yeah i think there needs to be some usability assessments.

but like Kaiser said... a lot of growth = a lot of work.
so, as I was hoping, maybe this thread can begin to address issues and sort them out into attainable tasks.

t_j
March 15th, 2007, 04:30
Thats wierd why did some one give me +rep in this thread when i said a real rude thing? >< confusing!

Tetris999
March 15th, 2007, 06:47
very good points i agree with you 100%

b8a
March 15th, 2007, 10:34
I agree that this site has got some organizational/appearance issues, but things are generally getting much better, and if I'm not mistaken, there isn't a single person who works on this site full time.

When I first started coming here, this was the most confusing, bass-ackward site around. The only reason I kept coming back was because it generally had the most thorough, up-to-date news, decent load times, and a very decent community. Since then, the look has improved ten-fold, and they've been talking about further, more extensive updates for a long time now, so I have full confidence that they're both aware of and doing what they can to address the issues.

I have a few pet peeves related to the technical side of this site, but my current biggest issue with the site's appearance is that mascot gal. No offense to anyone, but she's just not drawn well and looks very cheesy. Really takes away from the otherwise professional graphics on some pages.

The ads are annoying, but (other then the google ads) at least they're relevant to the site content -- which is a lot more then can be said about most similar sites.

souLLy
March 15th, 2007, 10:58
Hey all, only just noticed this thread there's definitely some excellent points here, I think most of them we're semi-aware of anyway but it's a good opportunity to discuss them.

The new site designs (PSP, Wii, XBox360 etc.) are going to be transitioning in for most/all the sites soon. It's not perfect but it's miles better to how things used to be. The new layouts are also table-free, so they should load a lot faster than the old layouts. The sites can be a bit link/info heavy, but it's all to get rankings on sites like google (which is probably how you got here right, so it can't be all bad). Wraggster's our SEO expert so he can probably tell you more about that.

A lot of the ads our host has asked us to put on here and with the thousands of hits we get a day it's definitely a good deal. Rarely does the site ever slow down or stop working. I know there are some rules the site does break in terms of what you should and shouldn't do in web design, but I think most of them are forgivable with the pro-points of the site.

The site logo I completely agree with, I've sent a reply to your PM diceone, I took the liberty of looking at your portfolio weblink... I think you'd be able to come up with something great for this.

ExcruciationX
March 15th, 2007, 11:52
I 100% agree with diceone.

I think all of the sites need to go under a certain theme.

bandit
March 15th, 2007, 14:28
ok. cool, I'll check it out.
I also noticed that the apple/ipod/os x forums are under The Alternative Handheld & Retro Forums

apple / os X should be its own thing like PC.
I didn't even know there was mac stuff on here until I was just looking around and saw it in the mix.
Forgot to mention, anything having to do with links to other DCEmu Sites such as top navigation and on the bottom left side, I have no control over as they are scripts and are automatically loaded onto my site and only admin has control over.

diceone
March 16th, 2007, 02:07
The sites can be a bit link/info heavy, but it's all to get rankings on sites like google (which is probably how you got here right, so it can't be all bad). Wraggster's our SEO expert so he can probably tell you more about that.
Search engines don't give you credit for having 6 sets of links to the same stuff on a single domain on every single page.

There is a massive amount of redundancy in links to the "network sites", it's confusing and it appears to be the main nav of each section.

each section should have a unique and specific main nav tailored to it's content.

search engines rank by H1 title data, and other markers that indicate priority so they can determine relevance to the search request.

link rank is given by other sites outside of your domain that link to you.



A lot of the ads our host has asked us to put on here and with the thousands of hits we get a day it's definitely a good deal. Rarely does the site ever slow down or stop working.

your HOST is making you put ads up?
you guys don't have your own server?
are you guys tracking your ad links in google analytics?
mint?
mint and google analytics are the definitive combo solution for site stats.

I sincerely hope you guys have control over this site!?!

If anyone should be getting money it isn't your host!
hosting is cheap as crap!!!

WTF?!?


I have also noticed that there doesn't seem to be a "front page" where ALL the hot jazz is at.

Then from that page being able to jump to other specific sites via a feature story or from a broader main nav.

you guys have a site map??