<Admin> Voices: Future Tense - Move and Redesign

[Drashner1]

I would not recommend using the orion's arm site background for the voices/ future tense, mainly because it does not give enough space to the writing and images that would be shown in it- I think the old voices OA did a decent job in this respect.
http://www.voicesoa.net/

Based on what Trond has told us, we have a fair bit of latitude in what the new design can look like.

I also think the overall design isn't too attractive- especially the grey background.
http://www.orionsarm.com/page/445
I'm willing to give suggestions. I understand, however, that a task like that won't happen for a long while.

The grey background is intended to be less harsh on the eyes than a pure white background. For our longer EGs (and the sheer number of them) it works rather well. That said, we've used a white background for V:FT and could probably do so again if that is determined to work better

Suggests are certainly welcome! And the Board is currently looking to get a V:FT redo done fairly quickly if we can. So it might happen rather soon.

The improvements that could be made
-better background and more imagery. Yes, I will help with this.
If you want me to actually design a layout, that's possible. I'm not great at coding though.
-if there can be a submit stories button to the side, that'd be good.
"One notion: Perhaps we could set things up so the back issues are displayed in some sort of 'gallery' format similar to what we do with artwork or the thumb banners we use elsewhere on the site? That way, the cover of each issue could be displayed as the entry point to that issue."
agreed. or in list format off to the side.
"I'm thinking the actual story reading pages and such could essentially all fit in the same style sheet page, much like has been done here for this issue (but with the new style template of course). "

agreed

Trond has indicated that he can handle any coding that needs doing. He is mainly looking for sketches and ultimately a finalized set of images that can be incorporated into the new ezine. So mainly if we can develop a design, he can take it from there, both coding and setting up links and such.

I think strange horizons
http://www.strangehorizons.com/
has a nice, straightforward layout.

I like something like this for listing out back issues, but would like to do something more image intensive for a splash page and/or the 'current issue'. Or maybe make the current issue cover bigger with the back issues as thumbs running down the page?

Todd