PROTOTYPE FOR WEBSITE: I wanted to implement the ideas we have discussed till now and create a simple prototype so that we can "see and discuss" the changes required. This will mete out any inconsistencies or any misinterpretation of requirements . I am not sure if there is a location on an apache server which i could use to publish a prototype and then incrementally make changes to the prototype. If somebody can propose a way this could be done, then that would be "at the top of my priority list". Some questions regarding this: -- Where do I get the source code of the website from, One way is to simply download the whole website by doing File > Save As from the browser. Is this the best way, or is there a more hassle free way of doing it (like checking out from svn) -- Is the website fully static or can we make it more dynamic, i.e. is there any support for a programming language on the server (I doubt). Can we use a little javascript apart from CSS and XHTML
ACCESSIBILITY: I would also want to make sure that this website is accessible. I recently had a visually impaired student who gave me a lot of insights into accessibility. I am sure I can use his services to critique the prototype to add accessibility features to it. Look here for more details http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php. Also, I would like to slowly incorporate accessibility into OpenEJB and any of its tools (swing, eclipse, CLI or web based admin consoles) USABILITY: www.usability.gov has some very nice recommendations on website usability. I am using that as a reference (not fully, depends on how much time I have to read it) for our website. Its not much of a reading and they have nice small PDF's with examples and screenshots on improving usability of a web application Please keep in mind though that I am not a website designer and my artistic abilities are "very limited" :), so all your suggestions are extremely valuable. Keep em coming !! On 7/4/07, Karan Malhi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I wonder what our site would look like if we trimmed out some excess > purple (still have some) Would look good. > and used rounder shapes instead of squares. Personally, I prefer squares > We might push the pepper up into a solid purple circle, I am unable to visualize this. You mean just the Pepper in the logo would have a circle around it? I think the logo is pretty good right now , "red hot pepper" is cool. > a light purple shaded bar extending across the top with top nav items in pill > shaped ovals I had other thoughts about Top Nav. I would thinking of keeping the Nav items at one place, i.e. to the left. However, the top Nav's would appear once the user starts digging deep. For example , if the user clicked on User Guide, then the User Guide page could have its own top Nav. This way we can keep the home page simple and clean. The only thing I would like to see on the top right of the page is the links to RSS Feeds and News > then the left nav sections on a white background with > regular black text and light purple (or regular purple) bars with > rounded left corner as the section titles. Totally agree. > > On the note about nav links, I really like the links Karan proposes. > We could actually expand that "EJB 3.0 spec" to be a place to learn > about EJB 3.0. We could have a list of all annotations and what they > do, a page that shows the xml tree, definitely something that > explains the defaults and overriding, and we could link our examples > from there too. Awesome. Very cool idea. We need examples in there, tons of examples. But, examples should not be made randomly, we need to decide on the format of each example so that the look and feel is the same. So, if somebody wants to propose a template for what an example would look like, then please submit it, otherwise I will submit one template. The point is, I would like to see more template based editing so that the site is consistent. > > -David > > > On 7/3/07, Manu George <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> I mean the links as well as the layout if you feel i makes sense:). > >> Probably we can use the Geronimo site as a template as it is pretty > >> well done. > >> > >> Regards > >> Manu > >> > >> On 7/4/07, Karan Malhi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > Great, > >> > > >> > Keep the suggestions coming. One thing I would like to clarify > >> though, > >> > when you mean structure, do you mean the site layout , or do you > >> mean > >> > the navigation links have to be the same as other sites.. > >> > > >> > On 7/3/07, Manu George <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > > I agree with Mohammad. A similar structure to the other Apache > >> > > projects makes it easier for users familiar with other Apache > >> projects > >> > > to navigate the OpenEJB site. We can have our own color scheme > >> for > >> > > differntiating our project > >> > > > >> > > On 7/3/07, Mohammad Nour El-Din <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > > > Good sections Karan :), the only thing I want to mention, > >> why not to follow > >> > > > what some of the Apache projects do like the http:// > >> maven.apache.org, > >> > > > http://activemq.apache.org/ , http://geronimo.apache.org/ , > >> to follow the > >> > > > structure of their web-sites only, which I think they are > >> similar, and we > >> > > > can have our own colors taken from OpenEJB's logo, I mean > >> Red and Black > >> > > > might be the main colors in our site. > >> > > > > >> > > > On 7/3/07, Karan Malhi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > > > > > >> > > > > > As for the color scheme, what changes did you have in mind? > >> > > > > > Something to freshen up the site might not be bad. > >> > > > > Simple black text with white background. My experience > >> with users > >> > > > > (students) has been that if the site is technical, less > >> colors and > >> > > > > clutter is defintely helpful. Some little icons here an > >> there to > >> > > > > emphasize various sections would not be a bad idea. > >> Overall the feel > >> > > > > should be that a simple glance at the page should tell the > >> user about > >> > > > > the major sections in the site. > >> > > > > > >> > > > > Ok here is what I am thinking about Navigation, (I am > >> thinking as I am > >> > > > > writing this email, so this definitely could get revised ) > >> > > > > > >> > > > > + About OpenEJB > >> > > > > - What is OpenEJB? > >> > > > > - Features > >> > > > > - FAQ > >> > > > > - Getting Support > >> > > > > - Release Notes > >> > > > > - Known Issues > >> > > > > > >> > > > > + Downloads > >> > > > > - Binary > >> > > > > - Source > >> > > > > -Javadocs > >> > > > > > >> > > > > + Documentation > >> > > > > + Users > >> > > > > - Getting started > >> > > > > - Users Guide > >> > > > > + Developers > >> > > > > - Getting started > >> > > > > - Developers Guide > >> > > > > - Javadocs > >> > > > > - EJB 3.0 Spec > >> > > > > - Wiki > >> > > > > > >> > > > > > >> > > > > + IDE Integration > >> > > > > + Users > >> > > > > - Eclipse > >> > > > > - IDEA > >> > > > > - Netbeans > >> > > > > + Developers > >> > > > > - Eclipse > >> > > > > - IDEA > >> > > > > - Netbeans > >> > > > > > >> > > > > + Community > >> > > > > - How to contribute > >> > > > > - Repository > >> > > > > - Issue Tracking > >> > > > > - IRC > >> > > > > - The Team > >> > > > > > >> > > > > Your suggestions would be invaluable here. Lets strongly > >> critique it, > >> > > > > argue about it, whatever it takes to make it simple and > >> beautiful :) > >> > > > > > >> > > > > > -David > >> > > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> > > > > > >> > > > > > >> > > > > -- > >> > > > > Karan Singh Malhi > >> > > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > -- > >> > > > Thanks > >> > > > - Mohammad Nour > >> > > > > >> > > > >> > > >> > > >> > -- > >> > Karan Singh Malhi > >> > > >> > > > > > > -- > > Karan Singh Malhi > > > > -- Karan Singh Malhi
-- Karan Singh Malhi
