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PTCBox.Me V.3 Updates (Read 9143 times)
SolidSnake
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PTCBox.Me V.3 Updates
12th Feb, 2016 at 2:00am
 
It's been a while now since I've been working on refreshing the looks of the "PTCBox.Me" sites.
Since it is a large scale project, I've worked on its parts separately to keep on progressing in a stable kind of way.

First up the new colors were decided.. a fresher blue-cyan that would not deviate much from our original colors.
Then the new logos were designed to match more of a "Box" like look paired with an even more cutting-edge looking font that could signature them perfectly.

Updating the forum's look was the first task to get completed with the new colors, logos and a small restructuring of its layout to a more responsive design for smaller resolutions.

I then begun working on the main site's look in a way that could host my new ideas that are yet to be implemented.
However I hit a few walls with my host that took a long time to break through, so instead I focused on the PTCBox.Me Ads page restructuring. So what we have now is a faster loading, lighter looking ads page, with much better responsiveness, less clutter and a layout that lets the viewer focus on the most important aspects of it and that means the advertisers' banners and text ads.

The most important part of the refreshed look is the removal of the Middle and Bottom banner spots, to improve the quality of the top ones by removing the overflow feeling that 16 banners gave before. Also now as the resolution of the viewer's screen gets smaller there is better content responsiveness, with the 2 columns of banners become 1 while maintaining their importance hierarchy (SpotR1 gets below SpotL1 but above SpotL2 so its value is not reduced).

The site announcements have been moved to the right sidebar as well as the payment options and a few other non-essential tools that will be added later, so that the whole sidebar gets the ability to become completely hidden in smaller resolutions and allow the user to only display them in case he desires to.

Updates have also been performed to the traffic stats table to make it more responsive to lower resolutions but also to the navigation buttons below the main banner area that were also redesigned.

The featured links are now located in the left sidebar along with the AdHitz square space on top which has always been attracting a lot of clicking activity from the visitors. This way the left sidebar and the main part of the page that holds the classic 468x60 banners will always be visible at any resolution that with a width of 560 pixels and above. Even lower resolution responsiveness would be possible if that 468x60 AdHitz space allowed us to resize it but based on their terms that's not an option, so we'll have to live with that.

Coming up next is the ad submission page that also needs rewriting and a few fixes and improvements in the Ad Manager to make it a more pleasant experience for the advertiser.

Then I'll finally deal with the home page. Smiley
Let me know what you think of the new looks and stay tuned for updates!  Smiley
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« Last Edit: 2nd Apr, 2016 at 9:44pm by SolidSnake »  
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SolidSnake
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Re: PTCBox.Me Ads V.3 Updates
Reply #1 - 12th Feb, 2016 at 2:01am
 
2016-04-02 Fresh Updates - Drupal Activated!


The new PTCBox.Me homepage has been polished up to a good standard and has finally been activated.
It's not low-resolution responsive yet but we'll get there on our next update..

Along with the new homepage the contact form has also been updated as well to match the new design.
It's also been reinforced with a much better captcha check.

Coming soon is a site reviewing area that will be developed on the same platform (Drupal) and you will be given access once it's ready.
Registrations are closed and will stay like that for a while longer but will be opened once the access rights have been securely set up and the site will be able to handle new users that will be allowed to write content).

The navigation menu on the Ads Page and the one on top of the forum have both been updated from their ancient looks to one that matches the new homepage and is actually responsive.

The low resolution responsiveness of the forum has been slightly improved and will now look better.
The logo will now move to the left, underneath the navigation menu when the resolution gets smaller.
If you notice anything weird looking please let me know. (Make sure you firstly clear your browser's cache with Ctrl + F).

The main site sections have now been united so there's no need for them to open in new tabs as navigation is straightforward enough everywhere.

There are many more areas to fix such as the ad submission page, the ad manager and the few screens in between the ordering process but once again... we'll get there. Smiley
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« Last Edit: 2nd Apr, 2016 at 10:32pm by SolidSnake »  
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SolidSnake
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Re: PTCBox.Me Ads V.3 Updates
Reply #2 - 12th Feb, 2016 at 2:08am
 
* Reserved post to hold further updates - Feel free to comment below *
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moneymarketing
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Re: PTCBox.Me Ads V.3 Updates
Reply #3 - 12th Feb, 2016 at 8:30am
 
The ad page looks good. I really like that scaling feature
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SolidSnake
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Re: PTCBox.Me Ads V.3 Updates
Reply #4 - 12th Feb, 2016 at 3:31pm
 
moneymarketing wrote on 12th Feb, 2016 at 8:30am:
The ad page looks good. I really like that scaling feature

With more and more people switching over to mobile devices it is somehow a must to be able to support lower resolutions these days..
It's surprising how few sites in the PTC industry actually invest in a responsive design, which also gives me a slight edge against competition.

Remember that "prime real estate" we've talked about in the past.. responsiveness helps that stay "prime real estate" even at lower resolutions. Smiley
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moneymarketing
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Re: PTCBox.Me Ads V.3 Updates
Reply #5 - 12th Feb, 2016 at 5:41pm
 
SolidSnake wrote on 12th Feb, 2016 at 3:31pm:
With more and more people switching over to mobile devices it is somehow a must to be able to support lower resolutions these days..
It's surprising how few sites in the PTC industry actually invest in a responsive design, which also gives me a slight edge against competition.

Remember that "prime real estate" we've talked about in the past.. responsiveness helps that stay "prime real estate" even at lower resolutions. Smiley


So an idea might be that you give people the option to have a 125x125 banner either as the banner or as an option. I think your page can detect when you are on mobile so you can have it switch the banners to 125 size or to a mobile page that has 125 banners that you can resize to fit the entire mobile window
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SolidSnake
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Re: PTCBox.Me Ads V.3 Updates
Reply #6 - 12th Feb, 2016 at 7:58pm
 
moneymarketing wrote on 12th Feb, 2016 at 5:41pm:
So an idea might be that you give people the option to have a 125x125 banner either as the banner or as an option. I think your page can detect when you are on mobile so you can have it switch the banners to 125 size or to a mobile page that has 125 banners that you can resize to fit the entire mobile window

Hmm.. that could be much much harder to implement as it would have to be a completely different system and responsive design for 125x125 banners.. Cheesy

The idea behind responsive design is that it's screen resolution based and able to adapt.. It's not actually based on the device detected.. It is supposed to work at any resolution large or small with one simple layout that breaks and fits the frames at the best possible way to always look good and be functional at the same time. Besides.. there are Full HD phones out there right now so some devices can simply load the desktop layout.. why force them to something less than a full website view? Smiley

Basically people can purchase 468x60 banners directly on my site.. In case they prefer 125x125 they can get that on the top left of my page through adhitz. There is a pack there available though people don't pick that.. I have sold more than 10 times the 468x60 adhitz banner that lies at the bottom of the page at the price of $6 but never the 125x125 that is at the best possible location @ $12.. which kinda makes me wonder if people understand that it's a better option.. Undecided
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« Last Edit: 12th Feb, 2016 at 8:05pm by SolidSnake »  
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moneymarketing
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Re: PTCBox.Me Ads V.3 Updates
Reply #7 - 12th Feb, 2016 at 8:40pm
 
The reason I thought of that is because the 125 banner would show up a lot better on a phone than a 468 banner. You could fill half the phone screen with a 125 banner but the 468 would only take about the top 5% of the screen and be a lot smaller relatively speaking unless the phone was turned sideways. Even then it might only take 10% to 20% of the screen
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« Last Edit: 13th Feb, 2016 at 2:42am by moneymarketing »  

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SolidSnake
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Re: PTCBox.Me Ads V.3 Updates
Reply #8 - 13th Feb, 2016 at 3:06am
 
moneymarketing wrote on 12th Feb, 2016 at 8:40pm:
The reason I thought if that is because the 125 banner would show up a lot better on a phone than a 468 banner. You could fill half the phone screen with a 125 banner but the 468 would only take about the top 5% of the screen and be a lot smaller relatively speaking unless the phone was turned sideways. Even then it might only take 10% to 20% of the screen

Obviously it's easier to have a site only with 125x125 banners.. they are easier to group and fit..
However it seems people (and site banner creators) tend to love the 468x60 standard.. sometimes sites do not even provide any decent square ones as referring tools..
It's not a bad idea.. but I wonder how many people would actually agree with us..
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SolidSnake
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Re: PTCBox.Me V.3 Updates
Reply #9 - 2nd Apr, 2016 at 10:20pm
 
Well, I've been sick in bed this whole week, but today that I got better I got down to coding again (like an addict lol) and performed a few polishes here and there...

You may have noticed weird things appearing here and there throughout the day but now it all seems to be functional again. Smiley

I hope you like the new design as much as I do..

The full updates list is at the second post, so feel free to scroll up or click Back to top to get there.

There's still much more to be developed and like always the best is yet to come.. Wink
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« Last Edit: 2nd Apr, 2016 at 10:35pm by SolidSnake »  
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