PokeDS

[shadowfiles]

So I started this Pokemon fansite called PokeDS, which I'm trying to start gearing towards providing unique or just well-made programmed content as well as written articles for visitors. The site is still largely in development, but it does have a few things that are done enough for you guys to look at, so I figure it couldn't hurt to share.

For example, we have:

- Pokedex - The Pokemon data pages are actually made, but the portal page isn't very impressive because I'm still figuring out what I want to put on there and how it will be formatted.
- Pokemon Faceoff - This is a PHP game where you vote on your favorite Pokemon in matches. There are leaderboards and all that.
- Original Artwork - Just a place for my own Pokemon stock art project that I started on a whim.
- Moveset Type Effectiveness Viewer - This is super old and it's one of the first PHP things I ever programmed, but I fully intend on making a revamped and much more in-depth version of this in the future. In addition to other calculators. I plan to program lots of calculators for anything Pokemon-related I can possibly think of on PokeDS.

So yeah, check it out if you want, and feel free to give me suggestions on anything I could improve. In particular, calculator suggestions and maybe suggestions on improvements to the Pokedex (I tried to design it to be easy to use, but obviously I am biased by virtue of being the designer).

Thanks!
~ Tiff

 

[LightningRevolver]

I've seen it. I think you should change the colors to a darker scheme. It hurts myt eyes.

 

[abrar14]

I've seen it. I think you should change the colors to a darker scheme. It hurts myt eyes.

I second this

Anyway it's a nice site

 

[shadowfiles]

Ahh man, the colors were never eye-hurting to me, and I never got complaints on it before, so I didn't realize they might be eye-hurtingly light to some people! Thanks for letting me know; I really appreciate it.

My partner, Xavier, was planning on making a retheme of the site for a styleswitcher sometime soon, so maybe what he comes up with might suit you guys' tastes better? Otherwise, I can certainly try playing around with colors and stuff. -nods-

Edit: Just to make it easier for me to make a better color scheme, is there anything in particular you guys find eyehurting? Like, is it mostly the banner, the light blue backgrounds used behind headers and stuff, or whatever? Is it the blue background color behind the container or the color of the text? Is it just a few color tweaks needed or does this really call for a new color scheme to fix?

 

[ArteMagica]

I didn't find the theme to be eye-hurting. O,o; Might just be me then.

I do like your site. It's just in comparison to how it looked in the past, I had a bit of trouble navigating to content. At a glance I see the resources you mentioned, but it was hard for me to realize that "channels" meant written content. It's not a big problem though.

It is a cool site. I have seen it around for a while. :3

 

[shadowfiles]

Yeah, I agree with you. When I redesigned the site, I had some ideas for how I wanted the navigation to work, but it didn't quite turn out like it was in my head and stuff. XD

I've been thinking of working on doing a complete overhaul of the organization of the site and redesigning, in particular, the channel pages, and the site main page.

Also I'll probably remove the search bar in favor of more navigation links because the search bar really isn't very useful, and more users don't use it.

Thanks for posting! I appreciate it!

 

[Skydra]

Its light enough to not be hard on my eyes. A dark style would be useful, though.

 

[shadowfiles]

Thanks, Skydra. I'm thinking the theme is largely a matter of preference for colors though it is definitely on the lighter side of color schemes. I tried tweaking the background color very slightly to see if that helped any though I don't know how much of a difference a shade or two of blue makes here.

I'll probably make some alternate themes sometime. I do sort of miss the super colorfulness of our old layout haha and like options. As my brother once said before, the site layout right now I think looks rather sleepy. -nods-

Anyways! New feature. I made a damage calculator: http://pokeds.com/calculators/damage.php

It's not done yet because I still need to implement abilities and items that affect damage and a few extra options, but I tried to make this one pretty neat and clean? I think I'm gonna go on a calculator spree soon haha, so if any of your guys have suggestions on calculators you'd like to see, feel free to let me know. (I want to get basic ones like an IV calculator out of the way first then try to make more comprehensive/unique calculators more in the vein of the Moveset Type Effectiveness Viewer. )

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Hey, nice site! Pokedex is clearly inspired by veekun but it looks good.

The colours a great IMO, they are pastel-ly so not hard on the eyes at all. (Ironically light text on dark backgrounds is harder to read for 90% of people.)

 

[shadowfiles]

Ahh man, dude, you're the owner of the Pokemon Database, right? I am honored you posted as I've always been fond of how your pokedex was laid out.

And yeah haha, the Pokedex is very heavily inspired by Veekun's though I plan on playing with it a bit more.

And thanks on the color scheme. I had heard before that black text on white is more readable, so I try to stick with that, and I think I have a personal preference for lighter colors, so the site turned out pretty pastel. XD

I'll probably still end up making a styleswitcher in the future maybe since I guess it can't hurt to appeal to differing tastes and designing themes is kinda fun. XD

Edit: Hey guys! I ended up going ahead and making a styleswitcher out of spur of the moment inspiration ( I was planning on working on more features first haha. ) But yeah, I didn't go so much darker as more colorful/less sleepy this time. The colors are still light ish as color schemes go, but they should be more robust now I think? Hopefully it's an improvement for you guys! I may make more styles later anyways.

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Thanks, glad you like my site

Good work on the style switcher, I love the new theme even more! It's really clean and easy to read.

 

[shadowfiles]

Thanks, RichUncleSkeleton!

I'm pretty glad that this thread helped me come to have a healthy level of dissatisfaction with the current layout since there's always ways to improve. ^_^

Anyways, I've been working on the site a lot more lately, but I made an update just now that I thought some of you guys might enjoy. I added a secret base maker!

http://pokeds.com/calculators/secret-base.php

Unfortunately, I don't currently have a way for you to save bases you make with this, but you can prt sc for now until I do. Enjoy!

 

[jstinftw!]

Nice! This is a really cool site; very helpful.

Thanks for making this!

 

[shadowfiles]

Hey thanks, dude! I've been meaning to check out your podcast since I keep seeing your thread when I go to check this forums, and it looks like you put a lot of work into it, but I never seem to get around to it. XD

 

[Bobrocket]

Not bad!
The navbar at the top of the main page (not sure if it's on others, they wouldn't load) seems a bit jittery on the transition when you scroll down, Bootstrap has a nice solution for that (it's on github)

Otherwise, looking good! not the best on my iPad, but better than most of the websites I've seen!

Good luck!

 

[shadowfiles]

Hey, thanks! I never really thought about he jitteryness on the navbar links, but I can definitely see what you mean now. I can certainly look into a solution to improve the feel of that sometime when I get the chance.

And yeah, I've always been behind the curve on portable devices like smartphones and tablets, so I'm not the best at optimizing my websites for them. I definitely want to get better in that regard.

 

[Bobrocket]

Hey, thanks! I never really thought about he jitteryness on the navbar links, but I can definitely see what you mean now. I can certainly look into a solution to improve the feel of that sometime when I get the chance.

And yeah, I've always been behind the curve on portable devices like smartphones and tablets, so I'm not the best at optimizing my websites for them. I definitely want to get better in that regard.

My websites are always compact and simple enough to not need any mobile version, so I have no experience with them really. I suppose it'd be bigger buttons/text, no? Possibly less content too to prevent long page load times. Should be able to detect mobile devices through some javascript, I saw a tutorial on it but forgot the link.