These are review notes as derived from a consulting gig with Jared Urbanek of UrbanekDesign wherein he helps me to work out a variety of web design issues related to the Elthos RPG Web Application. I will bullet point the key points of our discussion. The original video can be found here: Review Session of the Elthos Website with Jared Erbanek 

RULES BOOK POINTS

• Cover Page - have the compass hover over the background
  
• Give the Elthos words a richer more golden color - resemble the compass gold - graduated gold
  
• The cover looks a little faded due to the gray veins. Put veins on their own layer, make the veins a little darker.
  
• bring compass to the forefront and give a drop shadow.
  
• keep the cracked lines on the compass itself to give it look of a little cracked and aged.
  
• None of the words or symbols should be obscured to the point where they can't be seen clearly.
  
• Cosmo-background boarder and parchment looks great. Dirt layer filter covers over some words. Use Photoshop Marquee > feather to help with that.
  
• P.32 - Tables need work (we know).
  
• Font is great - and size is great.
  
• P.46-7 - the all white background causes the font color to look faded. Up contrast.
  
• Introduction - paints good description of what the purpose of the site is. Create concise blurb set from the points in the introduction. These blurbs can be used in the website introduction.
  

WEB APPLICATION REVIEW

• Introduction Screen - click image keeps auto-bots from signing onto the site.
  
• Design of the backface card (cosmological compass) looks great.
  
• Needs instructions and a blurb about what the site is about.
  
• Should be a full image of the compass (remove "Elthos" replace with "Mythos Machine")
  
• Remove Banner at the top.
  
• Dropbox front page could be the 2nd Information / Explanation page design.
  
• Home Page Marketing Blurb: "Your World Anywhere"
  
• Only use the compass itself and make it fill the home page.
  
• Don't go into all details on the first page - just provide enough to draw the person into the site.
  
• "Experimental" makes the site sound unfinished (Work in Progress).
  
• No need to use the word "Experimental" on the home page.
  
• "Mystery Factor" is fun, but not profit-oriented.
  
• The Home Page (Intro) could have just one blurb that invites people to click into the site.
  
• If the compass is not the integral focal point of the system then using it as the intro image may be very misleading to the user. Whatever the image is should be the central focal point of the system.
  
• The compass images might be able to incorporate multi-genre imagery rather than zodiac.
  
• Make sure to program the system to allow the GM to phase out the Cosmological Aspect per world.
  
• All imagery should be consistent with the PDF and Tarot Card.
  
• Don't bother creating a whole set of different themes with images because the effort involved to do so would be prohibitive and expensive.
  
• Inner Web - Mythos Machine - Application - Imagination Style - Abrams Fantasy Artwork
  
• Outer Web - Informational / Technical - Tarot Deck Imagery
  
• Main Navigation should be buttons - sub forms can be hyper-links
  
• Flyouts can be used for unessential information.
  
• Smoother transitions using ajax is a good idea because oddities can alarm a use - Worth of the Site. Especially important in the Freemium Version - better to have subset of things without the postback issues. People could fear that something is not working, or there are bugs - that's not worth $. The free trial would be better off avoiding those issues. Once they purchase and things shift it is probably manageable as an update further down the road.
  
• One Theme for overall style would give you more room to move things to the right and shift things so everything fits on one screen.
  
• Responsive Design - Small Devices - Having an mobile app that does some functions and the main website for desktop is not a bad idea because the amount of information you are dealing with is not necessarily adaptable to small screen devices.
  
• Image of Clouds & Gears for the Mythos Machine.
  
• Pages ...
  
  
  
  • Home Page
    
  • Introduction Explanation
    
  • Special Features & Detailed Information
    
  • Signup & Subscribe
    
  • Contact
    
  • About - About the Developer (Elthos Company) - Other Products (Books, etc)
    
  
  

PHILOSOPHIC POINTS

• Elthos World is only one world within the Mythos Machine.
  
• Elthos World needs to be separated from the Elthos RPG.
  
• The Elthos Cosmology is genre-oriented.
  
• Allowing users to turn off the Alignment System solves the problem of the use of the Cosmology System.
  
• Alignment is the one thing that ties all worlds together.
  
• How can the device (compass) represent the entire Mythos Machine?
  
• If less than 25% of the GMs keep the Cosmology then it's ok to use the Compass as is.
  
• Blurb: "Freedom to create your own Worlds"
  
• Allow the compass to expand but keep the galaxy image behind it.
  

Video: Design and Marketing Discussion - Themes 

Pick 1 Theme that is the embodiment of THE Mythos Machine. The Mythos Machine is the planning and staging area... you are not in the world yet. People can be immersed in the Mythos Machine as its own creation device from which worlds are propagated and then entered... You only enter the world once you start playing the world. So one theme that embodies the Mythos Machine would be fine. And save a lot of time and effort.
2014

Video: Subscription Pricing Model