I recommend trying things out, to find the hidden easter eggs and so on, to get used to the new functionality.
[Tested in Firefox 2-3, Safari 4, Google Chrome 4, Opera 9-10, Internet Explorer 7-8]

But to truly understand the design, I think a more extensive portrayal of the design process is in order.

In August 2009, I was working on a design for an online store of digital photos, based on the idea of a memory box. For one iteration of the design in question, I had the idea of scanning a paper file and using it to convey the idea of a file containing the photos. This idea was set aside for the project in question, because it did not perfectly fit the idea, but the design felt very well done (and I put some effort into it).
I therefore decided to slightly alter the design, and use it for my own website.

This “Arpia File” design boiled down to showing pages on documents linked to a file on a desk. See the design in action on the Arpia File design demo.
While working on this design, I realised that it did not fit the idea of science-fiction, so I attempted to make a specific page for the ARPIA2 plug-in, more “technical” through the use of a “blue prototype paper” pattern (click on “Game” on the Arpia File design demo).
I was somewhat pleased with it, and had the idea then of making a different page for the “Novels” section, closer to the idea of novels, creating an “old paper” effect (click on “Novels” on the Arpia File design demo).

Still, the Arpia File design didn’t feel right, not for my website.
I then had another idea, inspired by my last touches to the Arpia File design: to create a book-like experience, through the use of a “multiple column” layout.
This was the “Arpia Book” design, on which I poured yet more time and resources, making it look like an old book, with classical typography.
Getting this effect to work on CSS3-capable browsers, such as Firefox, Safari and Chrome, was easy. Getting it to work on Opera and, worst of all, Internet Explorer, was a true challenge. See the design in action on this webpage.
Once I had worked on it for some time, my enthusiasm was yet again damped by the realisation that it did not fit the website. I adored the layout, but most people visiting Arpia.be itself do so for the ARPIA2 plug-in and the iTunesque Mac themes. Why present them with an old book?

The latest version of this website is an attempt to reconcile the feel of a book with the science-fiction (and therefore more modern) setting of the Arpia universe.
It tries to look like a tablet, and with the constant rumours about an Apple tablet about to change the computing landscape, I hope the “Arpia Tablet” design brings an appropriate look to Arpia.be for 2010.

Of course, I’m sure it will undergo refinements as the year progresses.
And if you want to have a hand in that, just let me know what doesn’t work, what should be changed, what you like, what you don’t. After all, without feedback, a design is not worth anything!

PS: about being able to click beyond the last page, that is unfortunately a limitation of the design. Why not take a look at what it leads to?

It had become bad to the point where in IE6 and Firefox, I seemed to systematically get an error when trying to access the ARPIA2 and iTunesque pages. Why on earth they worked fine in Safari and Opera, I do not know.

Anyway, as I saw the quality of OVH’s service decrease, I entered into contact with ICDSoft, a company with servers in Germany, the USA and Hong Kong, and whose reputation seems excellent.

In a moment of frustration, I finally decided to make the move. Hopefully all problems should be over. Let me know if you experience anything weird!

Edit: sometimes I feel so stupid. I forgot to check all caching systems. *hits himself on the head*

I’m afraid all access to the forum will be cut until I can fix this.
SFA’ers and ARPIA2′ers, I would suggest finding temporary shelter back on the EV Nova boards. Or you can use this post or the ARPIA2 page to discuss your woes.

I must admit I’ve been somewhat startled by some of these statistics.

First, Arpia.be has been faring relatively well on Alexa these past few months. It’s currently the 46,845th most visited website in Belgium, for example, which I find highly surprising, and is (gasps) among the “top 500,000″ in the USA. For a website that’s come from nowhere with nearly no promotion on my part, I think it’s quite a feat. Especially given that while Droides.info, the webboards for law students at my university, has a rank of 23,518 in Belgium, its global ranking is nearly twice that of Arpia.be.

ARPIA2 has been downloaded over 14000 times (in its various formats – “Full” or “Lite”, and updates) since it came out in December 2006, and is by far the clear winner in terms of bandwidth, accounting for over 250 GB of traffic since it was released.

My lecture notes for the first term of the first year of the Master’s Degree in Law at UCLouvain have been downloaded over 4000 times, and those of the second term have, so far, been downloaded over 2000 times.

On average, every day of the week, there are 200-250 visits of the EV Nova Walkthroughs, a number which doubles every day of the weekend, making the walkthroughs the most viewed item per day on this website (and rightly so) and the most commonly used way to find Arpia.be through Google.

The iTunesque page has been viewed over 4000 times, and the most popular iTunesque variant is the “SPL – Aquaffic – Curved pills” one, with over 1300 downloads. Interestingly, the second most popular iTunesque download is the “glyphs” package, with nearly 700 downloads.

Perhaps the most interesting figure of the past few months is that in under a month, there were nearly 500 views of my Social Security law compilation (mentioned on the aforementioned UCLouvain page), after I sent an e-mail to the first year Master students telling them that it was now available online (while there were only 300 views of the update to this compilation, despite the fact that the links were given at the same time).

There you go. I’m sure you feel much smarter now, and somewhat more proud for being among those who read the meaningless banter that I write on this part of the website. I know I feel that way!

To whomever reads this, all positive & negative criticism is welcome (as long as it is constructive).