| A5chow, yo. |
| Village Legend |
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Joined: November 1st, 2004, 11:27 am Posts: 12,395 Location: United States
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*Original topic has been lost. This is a re-post/duplicate. Stay tuned for the third installment, coming soon!*
Introducing the new and improved: RuneVillage 2.0!
RuneVillage 2.0 will be the website's massive and revolutionary overhaul. It combines a simplistic design, user-friendly features, and easy browsing to maximize one's playing experience.
What will be new?
- A complete overhaul and organization of the menus, allowing us to display more items without sacrificing easy browsing
- An update and improvement of our standards in graphics, guides, and database items
- The ability for registered users to customize certain areas
- New multimedia and tools to improve the playing experience of RuneScape
- And many more to come...
Today, we've released our second entry of the Developmental Diary for RV 2. This entry describes our overall progress and focuses on the thought processes that go behind designing the pages of our new website. Last time, we released thumbnail images of our mock-ups. Since then, we've been able to complete and finalize the designs of a lot of guides and indexes, and we decided to make some of them available for public viewing.
Please enjoy this second installment of our Development Diary!
Quests Index
By Jackstick
We have made some changes to the quest index to make it briefer yet more informative about each quest.
The new Quest Index layout will give you all of the basic information about the quest: Quest Name, Members/Free-To-Play, Quest Points, Difficulty, Length, and Rating (or, how fun we deem the quest to be). You will be able to reorganize the quest index table to show the hardest/easiest quests first, the quests with the best rating, those with the most quest points, etc. The table will use images for the rating levels in the new quest index instead of the single-letter rating system that we currently use. The Difficulty and Length level will be based on the actual difficulties and lengths that Jagex has in their quest guides. The Rating level will depend on those submitted by our users.
You may have noticed two buttons above the Quest Index table. The first button leads to the Quest Planner; a tool that you can use to keep track of your quests, check which quests you can do, plan for future quests, etc. The second button is for the Quest Series page. The Quest Series page will give you all the information you need about a quest series (Example: Plague City). It's pretty simple, and we hope you will find it useful.
Skills Index
By Donut Juice
The Skills Index has received a significant update. In fact, it’s not even comparable to the original. Fear not; while it has been updated greatly, we’ve retained the simplistic, yet powerful interface you’re used to.
Before this, we simply offered a list of skills. Now, we offer a beautiful layout complimented by stunning graphics and more features. So, instead of the list, it has been replaced by buttons with the skill icon and description, giving you a visual image and description to clarify the skill. Plus, we've provided an advanced search feature.
We’ve also added a “Further Help” section that allows just that - further help. If you require any further information, we can offer links to other areas of the site that may answer your questions.
Individual Skill Guide Index
By Donut Juice
We’ve updated the index of the skill itself. Taking a leaf from the Knowledge Base, we’ve realized that in some of the larger, more comprehensive guides, we can't throw it all on one page in order to supply you with the best information possible.
Our solution? An index! Upon clicking on the skill you wish to receive information about, you’ll be brought to another index breaking down the skill into its fundamental aspects. Some include “The Basics”, “FAQ”, “Training and Tactics”, “Quests”, etc. These are dynamic and will change with each guide you click on. (Example: Slayer may have a section on “Slayer Masters” while Agility may have a section on “Agility Courses”. Naturally, you won't find any "Agility Masters" or "Slayer Courses.")
Like the Skills Index, the index for the actual skill has the similar button index, so the layout is consistent across the site.
These indexes are similar to what we offered with our Table of Contents, but now it’s more organized and easier to access. Each aspect of the Table of Contents now has its own button in the index that brings you to its page upon clicking, instead of being jumped half way down in a mile-long page.
Like the skills index, it has a Further Help section as well as an advanced search feature, combined with updated graphics
All in all, they’ve received a significant update, but we’re confident that the layout changes will be easy to learn and will greatly improve your browsing experience.
By Jackstick
If you go look at our current Items Database page, you'll see that it's not very impressive. All of the items are thrown into one page, and there is only one search option. The table is hard to follow, and it looks very boring. The new Items Database will be nothing like that.
The main page will be a sort of index page with a nice banner, an introduction, and a much better search function. Instead of listing every single item on the first page, the main page will only show the top ten most-searched-for items, and if your item is not on that list then you will have the option to browse through all of the items in the database, or use the search function. You can search the entire items database, or you can be more specific by searching for an item's name, quest-relation, and its examine text. There is also an option to search for items that begin with a certain letter.
The Items Database table is a great improvement from the old one. The table shows a picture of the item, the item name, whether or not it is a members/tradeable/quest item, and the item's price (assuming that it can be traded/bought). You will be able to re-organize the table to display the items alphabetically/reverse-alphabetically, by members/f2p, tradability, quest, and by price. The interactive table, coupled with the search function, will make item-searching a lot easier than it is on our current items database.
Q: Alright, this is great, but when will I be able to access the site and use it personally?
A: We're getting closer to that magical day, but we still have some things we need to tidy up. It's not far off, but we want to avoid potential disappointment.
Q: Are you improving things at the cost of simplicity?
A: Definitely not. Things will stay simplistic, but with more advanced features. If anything it will be easier, more simplistic, and with an improved user-friendliness. There's nothing but improvement this time around.
Q: Can I join the Website Team?
A: Thanks for your interest! At the moment, we don't require assistance in creation of ideas and concepts, but if you have experience in coding, please contact Glodenox. The need for additional coders is over - Glodenox
Q: Why can't you tell us everything you're doing?
A: We want to keep a sense of secrecy, for our own protection. We need an impressive release that surprises everyone, and we don't want other people to catch onto our ideas and steal them before we can implement them. The wait is long, but it will be worth it.
Q: Is every aspect of the site going to be updated?
A: Eventually, yes. You definitely won't see any sign of the grey-on-red (or whatever that color is) we have now, but not every aspect of the site will be brand new and polished right away. We plan to release updates to the site after the release, so it won't slow down the release itself. (Think, RV 2.1, for example.) Almost all the main, popular aspects of the site will be updated completely for the launch.
Q: I have another question!
A: Please post it on this thread.
Leaders
A5chow - The Project Manager
Organizes and manages individual projects and the overall progress of RV 2.0.
Jackstick - Head of Graphic Designing
Leads graphic designers.
Glodenox - Head of Programming and Coding
In charge of programming, coding, and the technical side of the website.
The Web Developing Team
Web developers develop and process ideas, concepts, and suggestions. They are our thinking tank.
Blackmage172 - Web Developer
Dark Paladin - Web Developer
Dragoncrusher1 - Web Developer
Elanthiel - Web Developer
Goten - Web Developer
head cheff - Web Developer
Jackstick - Web Developer
Jaron - Web Developer
Rocky Martin - Web Developer
Gamestar - On leave
Donut Juice - On leave
The Programming Team
The programmers are our engineers. They code and program the ever-so important features for our website.
Glodenox - Head of Programming and Coding
demonviper16 - Programmer
Dragoncrusher1 - Programmer
John - Programmer
Nathan - Programmer
The Graphics Team
Our graphic designers create and design the amazing graphics you'll see on our website.
Jackstick - Head of Graphic Designing
Goten - Graphic Designer
Sarah - Graphic Designer
Steely Mallon - Graphic Designer
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