Suggestions

What I mean is something more like the scrying workshop’s main page. Clicking on the AH or the CR or even the trading post just feels so…lifeless. All there is basically buttons floating in blank space. Yes, the trading post has the faded-out artwork of the previous trading post, but it’s not very visible and it’s really only centered around the middle row leaving Tomo, Crim, Pinkerton and Galore floating in the white void. Some other pages have faded images too, but again they’re nearly lost in the background and generally small. By comparison, the scrying workshop has the Imp big and visible and the buttons themselves have those fun mechanical half-wheels at the top and bottom. There’s more life on the page and it’s just more pleasant to look at. It actually feels like somewhere in Sornieth vs the very stark, not-immersive feel of the empty white spaces.

Some suggestions for what the artwork could be:

• Auction House – a big building framing the three buttons which are doors like you’re entering different parts of the building.
• Trading Post – each button is framed by a sign or maybe even a bulletin board, maybe with some arrows, like you’re standing in the center of everything and reading a signpost on where to go
  ......Baldwin – subcategory because Baldwin suffers from the bland buttons too, unlike every other NPC. Just have Baldwin back talking like the rest of the NPCs are.
• Crossroads – this one is more difficult. I don’t want to say more signs because it could be confusing with the Trading Post. Maybe it would be fun to have Edgar (or Spitfire or Pearl) at the top or the bottom, giving you the options on which type of delivery?
• Festive Favors – either Joxar talking or maybe a trading table/cart that he uses.
• Dressing Room – this one could be so fun with like wardrobes or dressmaker dummies or anything other clothing/dressing paraphernalia.
• Game Database – maybe books representing what you’re looking through when you’re searching for the information?

Some buttons might have to be arranged to be vertical rather than horizontal, especially if an NPC is drawn in. Alternatively, the NPC’s could be placed below the buttons I suppose.

[edit for clarification/more detail]
The buttons themselves would not be affected besides possibly moving some to a vertical orientation rather than horizontal. The ones I see best working for this would be Baldwin, Crossroads, and Festive Favors. These would be set up like the Scrying Workshop with Baldwin, Edgar/Spitfire/Pearl, and Joxar off to the side. Maybe with a speech bubble indicating they're speaking the options. The others which don't use an NPC would be more like Swipp. There's artwork around the button like Swipp and co.'s dialogue with the wooden signs framing it. This would be the case for the Auction House, Trading Post, Game Database and Dressing Room.

Though gotta say giving the Game Database and Dressing Room an NPC dragon like the Scrying Workshop Imp would be awesome, but definitely not necessary. Imagine like a nerdy pearlcatcher holding a ton of books for the Game Database; it'd be so cute.
[end edit]

Personally, I also wouldn’t mind a larger bit of artwork for the Coli main page too. The half pillar is very stumpy and leaves all that space next to the top two buttons. But this one isn’t as much of a concern because at least there’s something that’s not faded.

I don’t play on mobile so I’m not sure how the pages look there and how/if adding artwork would affect it a lot. Since the scrying workshop already has an image I think it wouldn’t be too much of a problem? I’d love to hear from people who do use mobile though.

There’s been suggestions to bring back old trading post art but by doing new art in this manner it allows staff to have updated artwork they’re happy with and keep the uniformity of the buttons across pages while helping players feel more like they’re part of Sornieth. I know the artists are very busy with items/apparel/genes/breeds/etc. so this could be difficult to squeeze in (maybe after the new map is done?). Still, I think it’s important for the enjoyability of the site. One of the big draws is the wonderful artwork. It would be great to see it in other places too!

No support, really. Having the buttons drowned in artwork can make them nearly invisible, especially for someone with sensory processing problems.

Artwork elsewhere on the page is nice, but the actual buttons need to be obvious.

@Astariall I definitely understand buttons needing to be visible. I was thinking the buttons themselves would stay the same and the additional artwork would be like frames around them, not effecting the button in any other way.

I support this. I get tired of everything being so stale... so sterile. There's no life to the main pages we browse. They don't need to be over the top "in-yo-face" type of artwork, just something that isn't pure white, please.

This is an accessability issue. Boldly-colored, busy, high-contrast page designs are very bad for anyone with a condition that hampers visual processing. There are places like the Lair where I would like options for more decoration, but the subtle background images and neutral boxes that are already in use are a decent compromise everywhere else. Driving off players won't do anything good for FR.

[quote name="@Astariall" date="2020-01-18 10:34:01" ] This is an accessability issue. Boldly-colored, busy, high-contrast page designs are very bad for anyone with a condition that hampers visual processing. There are places like the Lair where I would like options for more decoration, but the subtle background images and neutral boxes that are already in use are a decent compromise everywhere else. Driving off players won't do anything good for FR. [/quote] Just curious - do you feel the scrying workshop main page has accessability issues? If so, what about it is difficult? Because, like I said in my main post, the scrying workshop is sort of the base I'm building off of with the other suggested page changes. Though I also use Swipp's layout as an example of what would be nice too (in the edited bit), so if there's accessability issues there too, could you help me understand what they would be?

[quote name="@Aterna" date="2020-01-17 22:27:26" ] I support this. I get tired of everything being so stale... so sterile. There's no life to the main pages we browse. They don't need to be over the top "in-yo-face" type of artwork, just something that isn't pure white, please. [/quote] Definitely feel the same about being tired of white nothingness. I was mindlessly clicking around just for something to do and the AH/CR/TP/etc were just depressing to look at, like I didn't want to stay there long. But at the scrying workshop, I just hung out and stared at the Imp even though I've seen them plenty of times before because it was[i] something.[/i]

@artemiswanderer The scrying workshop doesn't bother me because it IS the only page like it, but the whole design is extremely clautrophobic and oppressive, giving the impression that it's hard to breathe. If the entire site looked like that I wouldn't have joined up-- it would be barely playable at a site-wide scale.

You seem to be at the opposite end of the scale of visual responses-- to me the only "white nothingness" on the entire site is the dead space underneath the Hoard/Vault, which is dead space that isn't meant to be looked at anyway. But to me the entire site is very visually engaging without quite verging into "busy"-- it's the "just right" option in a Goldilocks scenario.

I'm not sure if I can explain more clearly, but the idea of the entire site being designed like the scrying workshop is seriously making my skin crawl. And I should note that my own visual issues are so minor they probably wouldn't even show up on a formal test!


Edit: forgot to compare Swipp's. Swipp's isn't as bad, but that catalogue button is freaking invisible.

@Astariall Thanks for explaining! ^^ The way we process visual stuff must be very different but I can understand how it might turn into an accessability issue in that case. tbh I'm not sure if there's anything that can be changed to help that since it just comes down to the different ways people process things. And of course there's never one solution that fits everyone. But again, thank you for helping me understand.

Though I do agree Swipp's catalog button could be a little more visible. But that was added later, while the background shelves around the dialogue was intentionally designed, so that's probably the issue there.