DrunkDuck and Astronomy

I've used a site in the past called DrunkDuck to host some comics I did a while back but only now have I realised how cluttered everything really is.

DrunkDuck (http://www.drunkduck.com/) is a webcomic community where users can upload comics in a series and discuss/critique them with other users. The problem is, the site's GUI is confronting and cluttered. The homepage is full of links to different comics, advertisements and news, completely alienating the new user. There's a large box for new user registration on the right but for some reason they've used barely 1/3rd of it with information and a link.

Hovering over thumbnails for comics in the Browse page causes a large javascript speech bubble to popup above other content, ala eBay, in true Web 2.0 convention. I have expressed my dislike of these before, but thankfully DrunkDuck's popups aren't quite as annoying as they could be.

Another problem with the site is the style itself. Everything is very bland and there is not a lot of contrast or separation between different content areas, making all images and links seem as if they've just been thrown onto a blank page. Even the forums are bland and boxy (and not in the stylistic way of Delicious) and have links that are way too small for their containers.

Overall, DrunkDuck gets the job done, but I believe it needs a major GUI overhaul or two before I can begin to use the site without getting a headache.


I am still working on the style of the educational software and writing the content. I'm thinking of structuring the software like this:

First page: Introduction
This page will introduce the user to the software and tell them how to use the navigation bar.

Second page: Goals
This page will showcase what the software is intended to achieve.

Third page: Planets
This page will feature an interactive solar system where people can hover over planets and moons and learn more about each. Upon clicking on a celestial body the user can see further information about it and compare each of their gravity in a simulation which features an animation of a man in a space suit jumping

Fourth page: Transportation
This page will feature a video which can be controlled using a slider bar and play/pause buttons and will teach people more about the history of my sci-fi universe i've created in addition to vehicles and ships that have been used over the fictional years.

Fifth page: Quiz
This page will basically just be a 5-10 question quiz (randomly selecting from a bank of questions) where users are tested their knowledge of Astronomy and this fictional universe from the information provided.

So far the style of my software is looking like this:

http://taraxanoid.com/flash/guiSpace.swf

The main content screen is a little buggy in that, but I quite like the background and overlay scheme I have going at the moment.

In terms of content, I've been getting a lot of information from NASA fact sheets at: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/
Which are useful for finding out gravity, redius, mass and other information on planets and moons.