Re: Comp.

[Joakim Ziegler <joakim ximian com>]

On Thu, Feb 01, 2001 at 08:07:40PM -0500, Ryan Muldoon wrote:
> On 31 Jan 2001 02:50:48 -0600, Joakim Ziegler wrote:

>> This is basically the front page. The subpages would get subnavigation in the
>> bar on the left, where the quick links are now, and the logo would shrink on
>> the subpages as well. It needs some more graphics, but I didn't find much
>> that was terribly relevant, so I talked to Tuomas about getting some new
>> icons for the site as soon as he has some time. I was thinking about at least
>> one icon per section (in the top bar).> 

> I initially didn't like the way you had sections across the top, but the
> more I think about it, the more I like the idea.  I think that is an
> effective method to keep navigation clean.  The only bad part is that
> the quick links aren't across sections.....but most likely people would
> only use them from the front page anyway.  The one suggestion that I
> would make is that we clearly mark which section the user is in, even
> though it should be obvious by the content.  Since we don't have nested
> navigation, I think it is important to make it obvious where on the site
> the user is.

Yeah, I agree. There are several ways to do this, my favourite might be a
colored background block on the current section in the navbar, to highlight it.


> On the subject of Quick Links, I continue to be an advocate of a
> "project of the week" or "get involved" link of some kind....I still
> contend that it is pretty important to try and make it easy for people
> to find a little project to do if they have some downtime.

Yes, I like this idea too. The list of Quick Links on my comp are mostly an
example, just whatever I came up with off the top of my head when I was
typing in some text.


>> As usual, nothing finished, but I've tried to combine what I've seen as the
>> best aspects of the stuff that's been posted here up to now. The stuff in the
>> main content area is the most preliminary, as I've focused on the framework
>> and navigation stuff first of all.

> The recent software part might work nicely if it were right-aligned,
> giving some whitespace between it and the recent news.  I also like the
> idea of having sections for news articles, with an icon for each
> section, ala slashdot.  That might make the page look less
> text-heavy/dull.

Yes. Basically, the stuff in the main content area is placeholder stuff. I'm
not sure what will end up there in the end (although I think the thought
that's been on several other comps, that we'll have lots of features and up
to the minute content, while nice, isn't something we should count on).

But yes, some graphics would be nice. As I mentioned in my mail, I've asked
Tuomas if he has time to come up with some new original graphics for the new
site, and he would see if he could fit it into his rather busy schedule.


> Also, the light grey background seems a bit drab....white might be a
> little nicer.  Actually, I am not really all that fond of any of the
> colors.....Some of the other colors on your color cube seem like they
> may be more appropriate choices.

The (very) light grey was mainly chosen so it would be possible to do
highlights on it (there's a very slight bevel along the top and lefthand
side, for instance). It might be that white will work better, though. As for
the other colors, I found it difficult to use that many different ones, and
the cream and red seemed to work well with the logo and so on.


> I like the prominent placing of the search bar....but I wonder if it
> could/should be placed on the same row as other things (like
> left-aligning the sections, and having the search on the right).  If
> anything, it makes for less pretty html, and adds a little length to the
> page.

Yeah, the width of the page was my main reason for putting it below. The page
should ideally scale to 640x480, and the navbar will be hard to wrap with the
design in that comp.

-- 
Joakim Ziegler - Ximian web monkey - joakim ximian com - Radagast IRC
  FIX sysop - free software coder - FIDEL & Conglomerate developer
         http://www.avmaria.com/ - http://www.ximian.com/