ArtInvolved.com - New community site

[Hyra]

Hey hey,

as of today I declare the initial launch of ArtInvolved.com a fact.
I'm hoping some of you could review the site and feed me back some comments on what you think of it.

In short:
ArtInvolved is a community site where you can upload your artworks. For each unique view or comment you receive points which you can then turn in for rewards which enhance your ArtInvolved Experience.

http://www.artinvolved.com

 

[Mike]

The logo, Favicon and main site build is pretty neat. The backdrop leaves me puzzled, though. What's the relevance of grass to art? Granted, with an art community, that hosts multiple pieces of different art, it's difficult to pick any one matching backdrop. My suggestion would be to turn this valuable piece of real estate into a piece of artwork itself and change this "gallery" piece ever so often.
Great idea with the points/slot system. The categories are well picked as well. However, try to avoid empty categories but provide at least 2 entries in each category. Even if it's stock images for the start, it's better than not showing any momentum at all.

I'm guessing it's all custom coded? If so, it looks like a great job, with the exception of the questionable backdrop.

IB

 

[Hyra]

Hey Mike,

thanks a lot. Valuable suggestions in there. I've been getting a lot of comments on the background-drop at the top now. It got to the point where I'm trying hard to come up with an alternative as it looks quite "empty" without it.

The empty browse categories is unfortunately quite unavoidable as i'm simply lacking content at the moment. This could be fixed by faking artworks by putting in stock art, but this is very pricey (as i want to keep things legal) and kind of defeats the purpose of the community sense.

The idea of 2 entries per category makes sense. I think i'll make the browse page check for the amount of artworks in each specific category and then either enable or disable that category. Though visitors would maybe have to see the categories to know there's more out there. I'll give it some thought.

It's all custom coded indeed. The building of a custom engine for it took most of the time, but was well worth it as it allows for quick alterations and additions (which is necessary for the rewards).

Again, thanks for the feedback.

 

[Kadenz]

I like the design alot. However, there's always room for improvement.
I like the search box, once i was able to find it. You may want to make the search box a little more obvious; maybe some pre-inserted text (eg. "Search Terms...")
I would recommend not resizing the images in the "Random Toprated" box, they become pixelated and hard to look at.

 

[Hyra]

Good points.

Im actually in the progress of relayouting the header-bit, allowing for a wider searchbox at a more obvious spot. Prefilling is a good idea, will do so.

And the thumbs, my bad. I resize the cropped images on upload which is the size of the "artist profile" thumbs. Will make 2 variants, to allow for less pixely thumbs. Problem is, with the cropped thumbs users will almost always define an area to small to "blow up".

Anyway, thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated