Template Critique - KH Character Application

Rodent King
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Over the last few weeks I've been slowly toiling away on an application template for my Kingdom Hearts site. I'm hoping to get some thoughts on how it's turned out so far. It's not the greatest thing in the world (especially compared to all you fantastic coders out there) but I think it's going well? It's been a while since I've done anything like this, so I used my old digirap template as a guide. While I'll take any and all criticism, I'm more looking for advice on how to improve the template. Making it more unique and less of the sorta generic-looking thing it is right now.

EDIT: Updated Using 's suggestions. I gotta say it definitely looks a lot better than it originally did so thank you!


FIRSTNAME LASTNAME

NICKNAMES ▸ nicknames here

GENDER ▸ gender here

HOMEWORLD ▸ homeworld here

SEXUALITY ▸ sexuality here

AGE ▸ age in letters here

PRONOUNS ▸ pronouns here

RACE ▸ race here

UNION ▸ union here



PERSONALITY

✔ Trait
✔ Trait
✔ Trait
✔ Trait
✔ Trait
✖ Trait
✖ Trait
✖ Trait
✖ Trait
✖ Trait


Personality can be a list of traits, a traditional two-paragraph description, or a combination of both. If you choose to go with a list of traits, while your positive and negatives aren't required to be even. You must have at least ten of them.


HISTORY

Character histories can be as long or as short as you'd like them to be. So long as a good grasp on your character's past can be gained. Should you opt to write an in-depth history that's several paragraphs long. It's recommended that you also add a bulletpoint summary of the history as well.


EXTRA-INFO

Anything that you don't feel was covered by the previous two sections can be placed here. Maybe some details about their appearance or their favorite foods. It's entirely up to you! This isn't required for acceptance, and should be deleted if not being used.


last edit on Nov 16, 2019 20:57:06 GMT by Mouse
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these are all based on my own personal preferences but:

- change the title name to like #eee or another very light gray. i don't think the faded yellow is really adding anything and nothing else in the app uses this color so it looks out of place. if you want to stick with a color, use #D5B034, the same yellow as the crowns.

- also remove the text shadow. similar to the first, the shadow isn't really used anywhere else on the app and so it looks out of place.

- add additional padding to the name.

- make padding even across the entire app. get rid of the blockquotes in the containers. you can use padding to achieve the same affect while maintaining equal padding on all sides. this will improve the look 500% or your money back.

- for where it says personality, history, extra info: add a style tag and include word-spacing: 20px or something similar. you'll need to change 'extra info' to a single word. but it'll add more space between the images and the text and look less claustrophobic.



other MORE personal stuff i would change:

- the border around the content itself i would remove. not the outside one, but the inner that surrounds history and stuff. it's not really adding anything (and the padding on it is uneven) and since your information is already contained in a box, it's easily separated from the rest of the app even without the border.

- add a larger margin to the bottom of the basic info stuff so they're not so clumped together.

- change the grays to be similar in shade together. i would change the 2b2b2b to either 222222 or 242424

- the border-radius isn't affecting the inside content, only the outer edge. you need to increase the number on it to be like 5px or 6px.

- add a bold tag to 'nicknames' and 'gender'.

TINY DETAIL

- you used autopx which might be a typo? you just need auto.
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Hi Mouse

You're off to a good start with this template because everything is neat and organized, so I'll just touch a bit on what I think can be improved! I also explained below why I think a certain way, etc. I hope you find this helpful. 

01. Firstly, you can consider changing the firstname/lastname title to a striking yellow to match with the crowns that flank the sides of the categories, because your template revolves around black, gray, and striking yellow. Using a gray color/white color can be counterintuitive in this case because white doesn't draw the reader's eyes, and since the rest of your text info are white in color, you want to make sure that the top title is the accent color since it frames the entire template.

02. Secondly, try making the soft gray border within the template uniform. The sides don't seem to be the same width as the top and bottom, and by making them uniform, it will give your template a more proportionate structure instead of a jagged feeling that something is off.

03. I recommend adding div boxes around your category headings (personality, history, extra info etc.). Since you have gray boxes to frame the information, putting the category headings without any boxes whatsoever actually makes it feel a bit odd since the spaces are already unevenly spaced between the top part of personality and the basic character info at the top.

04. Try increasing the padding spacing for the personality/history/extra info information boxes (gray ones) by two or even three times! Right now, the text are a bit too close to the edges, and the lack of white space makes it harder for the readers to process information since everything just feels a bit too closed in.

05. Add more yellow accents! Your template looks good and err on the minimalist side, but if you want to spice it up a bit, add a yellow left outline onto the boxes like so :


Anything that you don't feel was covered by the previous two sections can be placed here. Maybe some details about their appearance or their favorite foods. It's entirely up to you! This isn't required for acceptance, and should be deleted if not being used.


I added
border:1px solid #D5B034; to the div box. 

That way, things will look more striking and special without looking overboard.

06. Try for an overall increase in the padding. White space is very important! Try adding more padding to the overall black background of the template, the inside layer as well, and along with the text info. Your template looks fairly thin at the moment, but it's not because the width is actually small, but it's because the spaces between the template background and the text are too small and therefore can actually impact the pace and readability of which the information is being read. Think of making space as a kind of breather for the reader, the easier they find it to breathe when reading, the more pleasant looking at this will be for them.

I hope all this helps! If you need to clarify anything, feel free to ask. Good luck!

last edit on Nov 16, 2019 17:53:51 GMT by Mizo

Rodent King
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I hope it's okay that I tag you. I've actually come across an issue that I've been trying to solve for the last 30-45 minutes or so and just can't seem to.



For whatever reason, the personality boxes are slightly bigger than the boxes for history and extra info. I thought it might be because of the table I'm using for the traits but I removed that and its still bigger. Do you perhaps know why that might be and a way to fix it?

I know the answer is probably something simple but I just can't seem to figure it out.
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I hope it's okay that I tag you. I've actually come across an issue that I've been trying to solve for the last 30-45 minutes or so and just can't seem to.



For whatever reason, the personality boxes are slightly bigger than the boxes for history and extra info. I thought it might be because of the table I'm using for the traits but I removed that and its still bigger. Do you perhaps know why that might be and a way to fix it?

I know the answer is probably something simple but I just can't seem to figure it out.
You're missing closing divs for each main section, so it's grouping everything together and subtly making each section smaller.

Make sure there are three closing div tags after the description text for each section. You might have to delete extra closing tags afterwards, but switching between BBCode and Preview should display them for you.
Rodent King
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I've updated the original post with the edits I've made to the template. Just looking back at the original and comparing it to what's there now and the edited one is definitely better. I learned a lot about how to make any future templates I make more pleasing to the eye during this. Thank you guys for helping me it out, it really means a lot that you took the time to help.
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