Over the years on this board, I have added my 2 cents whenever someone would ask a question about Las Vegas. So, when I had to quickly come up with an idea for a project for one of my courses at UNLV, I grabbed the first idea that came to mind;
A guide to Las Vegas!
The project took on a life of its own…I sort of went off the deep end. Heavy on graphics, with colors and a format that will make a professional website designer cringe …still, it was simply fun to create and now, three weeks later, I will let you decide on the results.
Allow me to present DMark’s Las Vegas, a highly-opinionated guide covering Casinos, Shows, Food, Sex, Cheap Thrills and other tidbits about Las Vegas: http://dmarkslasvegas.websiteofwebsites.com
Your (not so) Humble Opinions are greatly appreciated.
On one hand, the website is really unique (design wise, with the curtains and all), and really fits the “over-the-top” motif of Vegas quite well (and seems to be entirely intentional, as your main page points out).
On the other hand - I hate scrolling text against a static background, though I realize it was necessary for the effect you created. Again, cool effect, but the scrolling text looks cheap. Secondly, I hate enlarged multi-colored text. It should be black, or white, at standard net fonts, imo.
Honestly, I don’t know where I stand. It’s unique, but shares many similarities to other amateur sites. I’m just afraid it may turn people off because of said reasons.
I actually felt my skin tingle when I first read that and thought, “NO…Not again!!!”
(To those not in on this evil joke, I have vented my rage in the Pit about getting sites to work in both Firefox and IE).
Thanks, Dag…my blood pressure should be returning to normal in about an hour or so.
I agree, the red curtain being pulled away is a great theme for the site. Perhaps you could find a cleaner way to implement it? Maybe a curtain graphic with your narrative overlaid, that when you click pulls away to reveal the stage with the menu navigation?
Thanks Red Barchetta. Both you and XJETGIRLX are correct…my guess is that over time I will correct some of these things. I have done some “normal sites” that look quite nice and fit into the portfolio I am creating, but this site was started as kind of a joke and then I started just throwing in everything, including the kitschy sink, and pretty soon, I think I began to channel Liberace and things just sort of got out of control…
I think the layout of the site is great. I do have one comment, though. More of a nitpick than anything else, but in your ‘misc.’ section you say:
Last time I was in Vegas, the bartender at the main bar in the Sahara tried to make me pay for my drink because I was not betting max (5 quarters, I think) on every hand of video poker. He said it was casino policy. I told him I didn’t want the drink, cashed out, and walked away. About five minutes later, I walked over to the smaller bar at the other end of the casino and put in my five bucks, slowly played the minimum and got lots of free drinks with no complaints at all.
I don’t kow if it really is casino policy, and that’s the only time it’s ever happened in all my trips to Vegas, but I thought it might be worth pointing out.
It is a horrible design by conventional measures of course but it does have that certain something that ties in the theme and the information quite well. I like its personality. I can see it winning “site of the day” contests and being included on list of sites where unconventional approaches are applauded.
Your bartender was full of crap and trying to squeeze money out of you (a rarity in this town, really)…hell, they even give free drinks to people playing nickel machines (max bet 25 cents) so I don’t know where he pulled that story out of the hat…sounds like it was a slow night (which it usually is at the Sahara) and he just wanted to get some extra funds in the cash register to skim. And as you noted, the other bar didn’t give a rats ass how much you play…and that is the “unofficial official” policy of every casino in town.
Yeah, thanks ZipperJJ…from that other site you are referring to, I learned a few things along the way. First of all, I was designing that site on a relatively new computer with a wide screen that was set to an overly high resolution and thus everything looked like crap for other people when they looked at it on other monitors sizes and resolutions…and then I learned it was foolish to load up the beta version of IE7…didn’t realize it no longer reflected what the site looked like on IE6 versions. Trial and error…best teacher there is.
I like your site. Correction to make on Casinos page: you have “Suncoast” where it should be “South Coast” (with the space). The Suncoast is on Alta and Rampart, way west of the strip.
(So how long have you lived in Vegas, and have you ever called Vegas BBS systems during that pre-web era?)
Wow…that was a BIG oops on my part! Thank you Ambush Bug for pointing that out and I am going to change that error pronto!
I have lived here for almost eight years, but used to come here to visit (back when I lived in LA) about two or three times per year for many, many years. I was one of those tourists who got in the car, drove to the local Walmart on Flamingo/Pecos and went to other out of the way places. I remember reading about new 3 bedroom homes that cost under $100,000 and thought it was a scam, not realizing that was how cheap it used to be here back then! Then I wised up, bought a house and moved here.
Ah…BBS’s…way back when, I used to have my nice green monitor screen and actually paid money to be a member of a BBS in order to chat with people who probably lived two blocks away in LA…but I don’t recall ever chatting to anyone, or being on any BBS, in Las Vegas - then again, it was ages ago…why do you ask? Did a DMark hit on you? If so…I apologize and yes, I really do look like Brad Pitt…
