Dev site - [url]http://welovebrew.kerplunc.com/[/url]
Basic idea is a social network based around rating brews - originally just alcohols, but really any substance works, from water to heroine in theory. But mostly alcohol based, as the whole site is 'themed' as such. Home page has a live feed, yadda yadda, imagine corkd.com but with beer/vodka/anything goes.
A while back I was posting a lot about the development, when I was pushing it fast (before moving to Canada for 6 months), everyone was giving good feedback, and on the serverside I was learning huge amounts about SQL code and so on, which was cutting queries from 30+ a page to 3 in places.
However, we've reached the point where we (Kerplunc) can either finish the site, and launch it, see how it goes, or stop. We've got to work out if the idea is strong enough. Originally we believed so, but I'm personally beginning to have some doubts, although I can imagine it working nicely as well. Promotion will, of course, play a major part in the potential growth of the site.
So, fellow facepunch web-devs, what do you think; I'd appreciate your thoughts, thanks!
I've always admired the simplicity behind Kerplunc, as I myself am a huge advocate for minimal design with quality content. However, the concept itself will need a major overhaul if you're going to promote this seriously. Obvious design revamps aside, there are a few things I'd personally like to see:
[LIST]
[*]More pictures of the product (I see a gallery option)
[*]More information; how is it made? What are the exact ingredients?
[*]What kind of taste does it have? Is it somewhat bitter, how strong is it?
[*]Links for purchasing (both local and foreign)
[*]Pinned reviews, either by usefulness rating or site position
[*]Less emphasis on the user, more on the product
[/LIST]
The social concept is good, though strict moderation would be needed to keep things in check. I really have no interest in reading a review by a 14 year old kid who tried some beer when his parents were gone. Are there other brew rating sites out there? If so, how popular are they? How much time are you willing to invest in the project?
Solid idea and I'd like to see it through, though I'd be more interested in seeing ResourcePile reach its full potential -- more on that later.
[QUOTE=Mallow;20075301]I've always admired the simplicity behind Kerplunc, as I myself am a huge advocate for minimal design with quality content. However, the concept itself will need a major overhaul if you're going to promote this seriously. Obvious design revamps aside, there are a few things I'd personally like to see:
[LIST]
[*]More pictures of the product (I see a gallery option)
[*]More information; how is it made? What are the exact ingredients?
[*]What kind of taste does it have? Is it somewhat bitter, how strong is it?
[*]Links for purchasing (both local and foreign)
[*]Pinned reviews, either by usefulness rating or site position
[*]Less emphasis on the user, more on the product
[/LIST]
The social concept is good, though strict moderation would be needed to keep things in check. I really have no interest in reading a review by a 14 year old kid who tried some beer when his parents were gone. Are there other brew rating sites out there? If so, how popular are they? How much time are you willing to invest in the project?
Solid idea and I'd like to see it through, though I'd be more interested in seeing ResourcePile reach its full potential -- more on that later.[/QUOTE]
Wow, awesome list. I totally see your point, this isn't meant to be "another social network", it's meant to be a review service for brew. So comments are not comments, but directly reviews, which have their own ratings, like a normal review website.
If you check out the main test brew ([url]http://welovebrew.kerplunc.com/brew/Test_Brew[/url]), you can see the gallery in action, that's the only brew I've properly setup.
Ingredients, purchase links and 'flavors', I love all of these ideas.
What design tweaks/major changes would you make, I'm interested to know?
Also, Resource Pile, I'd love to hear your ideas on that as well, perhaps PM me? Thanks!
[QUOTE='-[ Fizzadar ]-;20075403']
What design tweaks/major changes would you make, I'm interested to know?
[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.tnvacation.com/[/url]
If I were browsing WeLoveBrew (let's assume the site is out of beta and in full swing), I'd want it to have the proper feeling. The TN Vacation site achieves precisely that; if you've ever been to Tennessee, you can relate. It feels like I'm headed to the mountains with my old backpack and fly rod.
The Brew site should strive to do the same. It needs to be user friendly, but the graphics and content should resemble a brewery. Visual cues that make the user really want to explore the site. Liquid renders, old kegs, packaging, taps, appropriate content borders and dividers, subtle grunge gradients, etc. Committing to such a design project would obviously be giving the site a green light, so settling for anything less would be nothing more than a waste of time; I want to [I]taste[/I] the content of this website.
I'm curious, what language are you using here, Ruby?
[quote=hexxeh;20079631]i'm curious, what language are you using here, ruby?[/quote]
php :)
[editline]04:46PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=compwhiziitothemax;20080122][url]http://welovebrew.kerplunc.com/brew/I_have_aids[/url][/QUOTE]
So? It's a test site...
I found it funny
It looks nice and professional. It'd be a shame to stop now.
[QUOTE='-[ Fizzadar ]-;20081987']php :)[/QUOTE]
Cool. Well, it looks very professional and well made, so congrats on that.
I think the background doesn't fit the rest of the page, but that's just me?
[del][url]http://welovebrew.kerplunc.com/user/diaz[/url]
the background stops repeating down[/del]
I refresh and it's fixed. :downs:
[QUOTE=ddrl46;20083019]I think the background doesn't fit the rest of the page, but that's just me?[/QUOTE]
Agreed, the whole design needs a lot of work.
I'm really impressed with the design and function of the site.
The entire simple but sleek look is amazing.
Oh, I remember seeing the design before. Nice idea and nice site.
Nice site.
Pitty I don't have access to most forms of booze. :saddowns:
Your use of padding is really awkward, or at least so it seems to me. I think your padding just fucks over the layout a bit. Again, maybe it's just me. But the layout definitely needs a lot of work.
For example, you have the long Latest Brew thing which has info about all of the stuff that goes on, is Latest Brews and New Members really necessary? I think you should make the global news thing a little shorter, and put it alongside Latest Brews (and remove New Members, maybe put some statistics near the footer links or whatever). Thus, the user can form a general idea of what is going on in the site, but doesn't have to search to find the latest brews, which he may very well be interested in.
In the news thing, you have icons that indicate what type of news item each one is. This is a great idea but you should really align them to the left rather than to the right, because:
1. the current position stretches news items (not the div, but the total width of the content inside of it eg. what the user cares about) unnecessarily in an apparent effort to fill up each row. you don't need to do this, aim for simplicity.
2. by positioning them to the left the user can more easily identify the type of news item, because the distance between the item and the icon is shorter. it's more efficient and intuitive.
Both the Featured Brew div and the links at the bottom (near the footer) are great and they look nice as well.
The logo needs a little more left padding, and in the Search for brew thing the text isn't in the middle of the button. Haven't you already tried to put it in the middle, a while ago? lol.
Also, "Looks like you need to join the brew lovers, or maybe you are one and need to login!" is redundant, as you already have the huge REGISTER OR LOGIN BITCH thing.
In the search results page, put the filters at the top, not on the side. Make the filters align horizontally with the search box, eg. above the actual results. You could also put them in a collapsible div with a button to expand it, like Google's image search.
Make the text in the input boxes visible even if you don't mouseover them. It's a good idea, but you can make it go from like #333 to black or something instead of almost fucking white to black, it gives you the feeling that the box is disabled.
The BrewBrowser thing is nice.
Don't let my huge list of suggestions imply that you haven't done an awesome job with the site, because you have.
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