billiards.colostate.edu - NEW LOOK!!!

dr_dave · Apr 12, 2019

I just launched a new version of my billiards.colostate.edu website. It is now mobile friendly, the user interface is much better with a menu system and improved search capabilities, and the content is much better organized and presented throughout.

Please check it out and let me know what you think. This has been a huge project for me. That's why I haven't been putting out YouTube videos lately.

Enjoy,
Dave

hang-the-9 · Apr 12, 2019

The icons / links are very spread out, lots of blank white space on home page.

dr_dave · Apr 12, 2019

hang-the-9 said:
The icons / links are very spread out, lots of blank white space on home page.

Some of it is difficult to avoid, and some of it is intentional based on input I got from some graphic designers. Like you, I also prefer denser content.

If you want dense content, check out the menu system and the FAQ Encyclopedia pages.

Thanks for the input,
Dave

BRussell · Apr 12, 2019

Looks nice. I'm curious what CSU thinks about it - have they ever frowned on what they might see as a personal/business site, or have they supported it because it's work-related, or do they just not care?

metallicane · Apr 12, 2019

Very cool.

bbb · Apr 12, 2019

looks great
seems very user friendly

dr_dave · Apr 12, 2019

BRussell said:
Looks nice.

Thank you. It probably wasn't worth the amount of time and effort I put into it, but maybe I'll think differently in the future (after the sting of the hard work wears off).

BRussell said:
I'm curious what CSU thinks about it - have they ever frowned on what they might see as a personal/business site, or have they supported it because it's work-related, or do they just not care?

Everything on the site is free and most of the content is considered educational resources. I do have links to my commercial stuff (along with links to many other commercial sites), but since that stuff is located on non-university .com and .org servers, it is not considered a problem. Only the technical proof analysis (TP) stuff is directly related to my university "work," but the university supports the sharing of knowledge and content.

Regards,
Dave

dr_dave · Apr 12, 2019

metallicane said:
Very cool.

Thank you!

dr_dave · Apr 12, 2019

bbb said:
looks great
seems very user friendly

Thank you.

With the site now being mobile friendly, hopefully the people who surf primarily on a smart phone will now be able to use the site without being annoyed.

Regards,
Dave

kevoka · Apr 12, 2019

Whoa boy. Asking for UI feedback is always fun, especially with the complicated information architecture required for this topic.

Limited looking at it so far, but the responsive elements are working well.

Side note:

To see if I could find something from the past, I went looking the past competition of the serve of the object ball off a bank.

Could not find it. I assume it has been removed unfortunately. This was a little gem even though the competition was concluded.

hang-the-9 · Apr 12, 2019

dr_dave said:
Some of it is difficult to avoid, and some of it is intentional based on input I got from some graphic designers. Like you, I also prefer denser content.

If you want dense content, check out the menu system and the FAQ Encyclopedia pages.

Thanks for the input,
Dave

It was just hard to take in the different links without moving eyes around the page and get to the links was a lot of mouse movement. I am talking about the space between the lower buttons/links.

They can be mushed together a bit more to form a nice triangle of links.

BRussell · Apr 12, 2019

hang-the-9 said:
It was just hard to take in the different links without moving eyes around the page and get to the links was a lot of mouse movement. I am talking about the space between the lower buttons/links

View attachment 517617

Yeah I think that’s the adaptive design doing its adapting to your computer display. It looks really good on mobile now, but stretched out on computer.

I’m looking at it on an iPad, and it looks perfect. Really good on a phone too. But on my large screen office computer display, it looks stretched.

dr_dave · Apr 12, 2019

kevoka said:
To see if I could find something from the past, I went looking the past competition of the serve of the object ball off a bank.

Could not find it. I assume it has been removed unfortunately. This was a little gem even though the competition was concluded.

No content has been removed; although, some things have been moved.

The bank bending stuff is still in the same place (under FAQ, bank, bend). Here's the direct URL:

billiards.colostate.edu/faq/bank-kick/bending/

That page has a link to the bank bend challenge.

Regards,
Dave

dr_dave · Apr 12, 2019

hang-the-9 said:
It was just hard to take in the different links without moving eyes around the page and get to the links was a lot of mouse movement. I am talking about the space between the lower buttons/links.

They can be mushed together a bit more to form a nice triangle of links.

View attachment 517617

Thank you for being specific. I can see your point now. On a large screen with a big browser window, the front page does look quite spread out. I'll try to work on this some, but only if I can keep the layout good for smaller windows and devices.

Thanks again,
Dave

hang-the-9 · Apr 12, 2019

dr_dave said:
Thank you for being specific. I can see your point now. On a large screen with a big browser window, the front page does look quite spread out. I'll try to work on this some, but only if I can keep the layout good for smaller windows and devices.

Thanks again,
Dave

You can have the web page query the device and browser type and load a different page or layout to match the screen. More work of-course but more "professional" design I guess.
Screen is a 1080 resolution FYI, but I also have a 4k screen at home. Curious as to how that would look.

Of course us pool players are used to whatever so it's still good LOL

dr_dave · Apr 12, 2019

hang-the-9 said:
You can have the web page query the device and browser type and load a different page or layout to match the screen.

My website already is "responsive" to devices and windows of different sizes. If it wasn't, it would not display very well on a tablet or a phone (but it does). On a PC with a large browser window, the website displays stuff as horizontally as possible, but this is limited by the layout of each page and each element on each page.

Thanks again for the input and suggestions,
Dave

Dan_B · Apr 13, 2019

Not sure, I think it was the Mr. Bond fellow, rest his soul, that was talking about
something that had a link too or it was an image of a story way back, early 1900,
1920's it seemed, of a well known player where the game of 4-ball was for a short time
this players sweet spot, a champion.

Sounded like it played like 14.1 but with 4 balls because the story told of count a of
100 - 200 range seemed like. It peak my interest because of the title "4-ball" for a game.

Well, there's that old version, wish I had made a note of it now, then there's the new
version. I'm optimistic that the old reference of 4-ball and the new diabolical 4-ball
versions will make the grade for a line in your glossary. If your ever doing a road trip
along I-40 going east, please check in. :smile:

overall on the website; all worked fine, good balance from page to page, even went into
the weeds, source view - - - it's amazing what it takes to get the results, a finished query.

Bob Jewett · Apr 13, 2019

Not related to the web site, but....

Dan_B said:
... the game of 4-ball was for a short time
this players sweet spot, a champion. Sounded like it played like 14.1 but with 4 balls because the story told of count a of 100 - 200 range seemed like. ...

Four ball was a carom game with four balls on the table. It is still played in some countries. You get from 1 to 10 points per shot depending on the specific game rules. There was also a game with four balls played on a table with pockets, played like English Billiards, and called American Four Ball. I think it hasn't been played for over 100 years.

dr_dave · Apr 13, 2019

Dan_B said:
Not sure, I think it was the Mr. Bond fellow, rest his soul, that was talking about something that had a link too or it was an image of a story way back, early 1900, 1920's it seemed, of a well known player where the game of 4-ball was for a short time this players sweet spot, a champion.

Sounded like it played like 14.1 but with 4 balls because the story told of count a of
100 - 200 range seemed like. It peak my interest because of the title "4-ball" for a game.

Well, there's that old version, wish I had made a note of it now, then there's the new
version. I'm optimistic that the old reference of 4-ball and the new diabolical 4-ball
versions will make the grade for a line in your glossary. If your ever doing a road trip
along I-40 going east, please check in. :smile:

Thanks for the info and for the "check-in" offer.

Dan_B said:
overall on the website; all worked fine, good balance from page to page, even went into the weeds, source view - - - it's amazing what it takes to get the results, a finished query.

Thanks for checking it out. Most of the code is generated by WordPress, but my past HTML/CSS coding experience came in handy at times.

Regards,
Dave

dr_dave · Apr 13, 2019

Bob Jewett said:
Four ball was a carom game with four balls on the table. It is still played in some countries. You get from 1 to 10 points per shot depending on the specific game rules. There was also a game with four balls played on a table with pockets, played like English Billiards, and called American Four Ball. I think it hasn't been played for over 100 years.

Thanks for the info Bob.

This is what I added to the glossary after a little research online (mostly the Wikipedia 4-ball page, which includes many rule and scoring variations):

4-ball: a carom game with two CBs and two OBs, where you must strike your designated CB and make contact with two (1 point) or three (2 points) of the other balls to score.

Catch you later,
Dave

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