Layout / Appearance

[Sinzygy]

I have a couple questions concerning the layout of a game.

What do you suggest:
#1 A layout with no graphics at all (pure divs, css) or a really graphic-intensive layout (rollover-links, etc.) or a mixture from both (decent navigation-bar, but other stuff with css) or something I left out?

#2 A dark themed layout (black, grey, dark-red/blue) or a light themes layout (white, blue, green, yellow, etc.)?

#3 A 1 colum layout with the status- and navigationbar on top or a 2 column layout or a 3 colum layout?

#4 Fast loading speed versus appearance... what is better, what is more appealing to players?

#5 A simple easy to use layout or a more complicated but more complex layout?

Yeah, I'm working on a new layout at the moment. Any input is appreciated.

- Sinzygy

[Zeggy]

1. I think a layout with some graphics would be best. My game has no graphics and it looks really plain...

2. I prefer light-themed but I guess it's just preference. Some users like light, some like dark. Maybe you could give your users a choice of light or dark.

3. I used a one-column layout for my game's public area, and I think it looks fine. You could try this if you don't have many links. A two-column layout would be better if you want to show all the links and user stats as well. Maybe a top bar for some links and a side bar for stats, or the other way around.

4. I guess browser games are mostly played by kids... and when you look at their myspace profiles you know they aren't into fast loading speeds I really don't think they mind the loading times, but I would go for a fast loading speed myself.

5. I like simply.

but yeah, these are all just my preferences. You could give a choice to users to customize their layouts, then they are all happy

[beam]

1) I'd have to say the occasional graphic looks good, but image-heavy layouts have never been my favorite.

2) Light themes look better than dark themes, but they're a lot harder to make look nice. When done well they're great.

3) I like the plain old two-column layout.

4) Fast loading, definitely. Who wants to play a laggy game? Even putting up with KoL's lag is pretty aggravating.

5) Simple.

[ZadoAsh]

What ever you do, make sure you make links very clear so people can navigate. Then you can begin to add graphics to the site making the layout more game looking(you got to keep target age group in mind 13+ in most cases) 

So, make the layout with navigation in mind. Add graphics around it and create a simple yet effective layout

Never overwhelm your players with too many fancy moving crap. It will draw their attenstion those fancy areas and then they'll end up getting lost and confused

btw I'm not saying don't add animations and flash stuff... Just use them carefully if you do use them make them for the actual content of the game not for the layout, unless you make say a flash banner - that banner could do all the effects on page load, after that it doesn't repeat and if its still got an animation make sure it's good but not too distracting... you watch it once - after that it should just fall into the background

I hope that makes sense and hope it helps a little bit =]