By mesca on

Hi,

Here is my new Drupal website : http://corporatehackers.com.
Feedback ?

Regards,

M.

Comments

sami_k’s picture

sami_k commented

It renders very slowly under Firefox, I would get rid of the layering you did on top of the background...

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Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented

I have a modest computer (P4M 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM) and find that even scrolling is slow on my computer. The H2/node titles as images are a nice touch, however, your page is resource intensive. (Did you by chance model your title->image based on the WP plugin?)

mesca’s picture

mesca commented

The main page is not really heavy. However, it could be slow for two reasons:

- Fixed background
- H2 images

The images are generated dynamically, through JavaScript and PHP. I didn't use the WP plugin (BTW what is it?), but DTR from alistapart (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/dynatext/).
I first tried sIFR (http://www.mikeindustries.com/sifr/) but ran into troubles with float elements in Gecko.

There is a cache coming with DTR, but if it's slow, I think it is because of the JavaScript, which runs on the client's side. I first considered to put the page into a buffer while loading and doing the dynamic replacement thing on the server's side, but 1) it wouldn't fit with Drupal cache system and 2) it breaks accessibility, which is very important IMHO.

Maybe I should make a "low-fi" version with no fixed-background and no text replacement ?

gtoddv’s picture

gtoddv commented

I just visited and it looks great. Yes its not the fastest render (firefox), but I think it was worth the (very) minor wait. Great work and good idea for a site.

Gunny-1’s picture

Gunny-1 commented

Languages block can be positioned somewhere in the top right corner of the theme.

eldarin’s picture

eldarin commented

It does look nice, but so does the pretty similar design at www.simplebits.com too ...

:-)

Dan Cederholm is the CSS guru on Internet,
so I think many would find your design very Simplebits.com-looking.

Perhaps not a prime candidate for www.copyscape.com or injuryboard.com,
but still many woud think it instills the same design impression.

Some sites complain about it, like equinewebdesign.com and the more infamous www.urban75.com/rip_off.html from the award-winning designer at Urban75.

So perhaps it would be wise to lay a design a little farther from very well-known sites, or perhaps try something completely different.

Try to check out www.alistapart.com, CSS Zen garden and perhaps www.levitated.net for some inspiration and techniques. If you go all out you coud take a look at yugop.com, or the ARS Eletronica and multi-award winning www.milla.de.

A lot of the famous design companies are hosted by the californian webhosters www.mediatemple.com, like Group 94 e.g.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

So, attracted by your comments I went and looked.

I don't see the similiarityies you do. Corporate Hackers seems like it used Friends Electric as the base template and did a decent job of making it it's own.

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Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented

I think he is mainly refering to the background, one is darker then the other, but aside from that, it is the same background.

kalin_s’s picture

kalin_s commented

I'm not a professional, but it sounds ridiculous to me. No offense.

As far as the design is concerned - maybe the language block should really go at top.
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Working on a bilingual mini-portal - www.archeologic.net

Brian@brianpuccio.net’s picture

Brian@brianpuccio.net commented

Hey, I was just suggesting. I think its the fact that not only is it amosaic, but its the exact same pattern in the mosaic. Open one site in one tab and the other site in another tab and switch back and forth.

That being said, I don't think he ripped off the simplebits design, I just think he uses a darkened version of the simplebits background.

eldarin’s picture

eldarin commented

That was my point, it's the same pattern with darker and lighter spots all matching - even though the luminosity was changed (or similar effect in Photoshop). Coupled with the centered design - which is pretty normal in a lot of design and centered menus, albeit different, made me immediately think of Dan Cederholm's design.

If one considers the whole "design impression" that the page instills in the beholder - it immediately strikes one as the same as Simplebits.

Fixing the background tiling makes the browsers repaint every scrolling move instead of simply "blitting" parts of the viewport in their scrolling - which makes it slower in Firefox than in IE.

Designers and others always "borrow" and get inspired or learn from each other - but I think it's pretty subjective where the limit goes on what can be considered a "rip-off". The main elements with the background makes me immediately think they're "pretty similar". Then, when one central piece of the design and identity of a site obviously is almost a straight copy-save-upload (with a little Photoshop tweaking inbetween), it sort of sticks out like a sore thumb.

I too go through every bit of interesting CSS code to try and learn the latest hacks, as well as reverse-engineering SWFs ... :-)

Good work on the corporatehackers logo and overall atmosphere with typeface choices as well.
There is another site for giving critques on logos and creative design - pretty good too: www.creativebits.org/critique - a Drupal-based site nonetheless.

A possible suggestion would be to create a similar effect with 0101010 binary patterns - sort of a Matrix-like effect - but with the similar color palettes so that the design looked the same. Another idea for a similar background would be electrical circuit board patterns - PCBs with SMD tracks. Perhaps with a TRON-like highlighting effect. Well, those two would likewise instill the "bit-hacking association" of the bit-boxes from Simplebits.

mesca’s picture

mesca commented

Eldarin,

Thanks for your advices. I swear my intention was not to make a simplebits-like design!
But you're right: I should change the background, even if I don't really consider to have stolen Dan's work (this kind of pattern is well known).

Considering your final suggestion, won't I have problems with the MPAA if I follow you idea ;-) ?

mesca’s picture

mesca commented

Yep, it's based on Friends Electric. The only thing I borrowed was the background tiles, I admit.

conann’s picture

conann commented

Very nice looking theme! Squares are so easy to make I would just do your own version of the simplebits background, rather then borrow thiers.

Conánn

mesca’s picture

mesca commented

Thanks for your comment Conann,

The real challenge was about a full i18n website, which is not really easy with the out-of-the-box i18n module (especially for the menus). It requires some custom hacks.
There is still one bug I can't figure how to solve: the security news link (which is an aggregator alias) which doesn't expand... If someone have hints about this...

Lam0r’s picture

Lam0r commented

nice template, I dont like the layers either since it makes the site slow in firefox. Also I like the idea of using server-side fonts but you are just runing drupals search engine friendliness which is one of its strong points. You can however use url_paths to still benefit a bit from the search engine friendliness.

conann’s picture

conann commented

I don't think replaced fonts like this affect search friendliness as they are taken care of with javascript like sfir it replaces the .title text with an dynamic image for browsers that support it, other browsers such as search engines still get plain text.
Conánn