Re: Comp.

[Ryan Muldoon <rpmuldoon students wisc edu>]

On 01 Feb 2001 22:35:42 -0600, Joakim Ziegler wrote:

> > 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.
> 
That sounds good.  I'm also still a proponent of each section having its
own variation of the color scheme...


> > 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.
> 
Good! ;-)  I was beginning to worry that it was a lost cause.

> >> 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).
> 
I completely agree here....I want to make sure that the site won't look
"stale" if it doesn't get updated every minute.
I'm big into making sites that are maintainable.....too many sections
that require lots of fresh content will just end up
stagnating.  BUT, I still think that we can use the gnotices icons on
the re-listing of articles on the main page.

> 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.
> 
That would be great.  I think a few people on this list are able to do
icons in his style as well....any takers?

> > 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'll see if I can come up with a decent suggestion for the other colors,
but I would definitely like to just see white
for the background.  it is clean, bright, and pretty much everything is
easy to read on it.

> > 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.
> 
I definitely understand the constraints.....but it does seem a little
odd to have the search bar dangling like that.
My guess is that it will look even weirder in subsections.


    --Ryan