Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related New Symbols on the Archive

Hi there, Archive Powers that Be:
The change in symbols from the pentagons to the letters is interesting and clearly understandable, but it reads like a word or two words. Topeka, Kansas. I'm kidding here, but maybe you need a version that begins with "A". "Toe Peekie". I used to say that to my kids when they wore holes in the socks.
I'm afraid I'm going to chuckle every time I read the Archive now. Not that that's a bad thing. I just thought I'd mention it to you.
regards
Artemis

LOL, it does look like Topeka! Which is kind of a fun coincidence for this fandom.

I actually like the letters much more than the colored shapes. Those were so bright that I found they distracted from the story listings. So I can live with Topeka if those shapes are the alternative.

Kathy

OK, it looks ridiculous. Third time's the charm ... maybe.

I actually thought the second format looked pretty swish. I'm not sure about this new one - it looks a little bland and there's no indication that the circles actually do anything to encourage someone to click on them - which I thought the previous ones did nicely.

LabRat

I agree with LabRat. Plus, the second version gives one an idea of which button does what. With the first system, you had to remember either the colour coding or the position of the symbol you desired, or else you had to hover over each symbol to refresh your memory. The third take doesn't even give you the colour coding crutch.

Would it be too much trouble to go back to the second version and rearrange the symbols to be in alphabetical order? or could the symbols be made larger and contain the full file extension instead of just the initial letters thereof?

Whatever the outcome, thanks to all who have spent so much time in building and maintaining the archive!

Joy,
Lynn

But the new buttons do something cool when you hover over them. (At least on the Firefox 4 and IE 8 that I used for testing.) I found a neat CSS trick.

Lauren

Yeah, that is cool Lauren. But I agree it is bland. It's like "what are these blue blobs about?" But then it is nicely explained when you hover. I actually understood Topek better and like the diamonds better. But hey, you all have gone to great effort to make it nice and it is functional. Could the blobs be colored differently like before? Or put topek in alphabetical order, then we won't make words out of it.
I know, it's like finding the perfect little black dress and we'll all have different opinions.
Anyway, thanks for all your hard work.
regards
Artemis

OK, fourth go ... thoughts? Thanks for the comments, guys. I defy anyone to think about peeking toes this time.

Lauren

Hi Lauren!

I did follow this but wasn't able to respond before now, so it's a bit outdated...

/adds humble opinion/
The hover-icons were fun, but they had one big draw back. They weren't discoverable. Neither were the shields, but at least, there you had color. Anyway, those of us using a mobile browser, or a tablet, too, I think, usually lack a mouse cursor so getting to the hover effect is sort of impossible.

I think the icons with text work just fine now, but what I would have suggested before, would have been icons based on the official application icons. Of course, with txt, that's hard. the e-book icons are not that widely known and even open office... So, yeah, those text-icons we now have rock

Michael

Fourth time's the charm! These look a lot easier and more intuitive to use than the earlier versions. Thanks!

Joy,
Lynn

Awesome solution!

Artemis

Does what it says on the tin.

LabRat

I missed the middle attempts, but I concur that the final product is fantastic. Lauren, as always, you are a gem!

Kathy

I agree and think the fourth time was the charm

Thanks for your hard work

Thank you guys for the support! With your input and the button-making tool at cooltext.com, we have some friendlier buttons.

Lauren