Louis Suarez-Potts wrote: <--snip-->
I think Matthew's page mostly accomplishes these things. But I also have some critiques.
* Design:
* Overall-- this design is basically a 3 col layout, with much of the footer verbiage we curently have removed. Given the treatement of the right hand col items, it looks less cluttered. But is it as useful from the outset...more below
* Center: There is a large gap in the center of the page. Will it be
filled with an icon for 2.0? I presume so. If so, I am sure it will work
to focus the eye. For now, the eye gets lost. I don't know whether to
look at the left navbar, or right; and then I see the big grey footer
and get confused.
* Solution: even after an icon for 2.0, besides the download one, the footer should be moved down, so that it maintains the margin framing the central portion.
I personally find the Download area too large for the overall design, but that's just me I guess.
* Right column menus. The appeal of minimizing the menus is strong but
making them collapsible is, I believe, not the right solution. If we
really want to reduce clutter, we should, as we once did, remove "coming
events" & "media attention" and place them on a separate page.
Deepankar's newletter is expanding all the time, and he and I have been
working on making the newslists (OOo in the news, basically) more
comprehensive.
And here we have a philosphical discussion about the value of including BOTH right and left menus. I'm almost beginning to think maybe this IS too confusing. Many many sites do this but, yes, it is chaotic.It limits the amount of useful information that can be displayed in the main section really, as well.
I also quesiotn the "expansion" appraoch. As a user of any site, The less I have to do to get at the information I'm seeking, the better. The collapsing menus (perhaps) remove clutter at the expense of time.
Also, we REALLY need to put 'About Us' on the forefront again. It establishes legitimacy in my opinon, it tells people who we are.
By moving these things ("coming events" [or just "events"] and "media
attention"), we free up some more room for what users, judging from
website statistics, want: Product information. Right now, on Matthew's
page, that section is no longer present, which is odd; it is one of the
most popular directories in the project. Instead we have Features,
Screenshots, Product comparison, all of which are great. But let's say
we put the Product directory back, & cal lit "General Information."
One could further move out 'For developers', as it is redundant with "Development" tab above. The Guidelines, and to-dos are in Development already. Licenses has to stay uncollapsed on the page but should be moved to the left.
What we would then have is the Resources menu with its elements, and the Product menu. The right column would thus logically be the area for Product.
The left column would have on the homepage, the General links...
But why is Download also there? I would guess it's there because the
concern is that people won't see the big icon in the center (and they
won't, or won't know what to do; that was our experience before when we
had the huge icon in the center) and won't see the tab... but one could
go on. I would remove the Download entry from the left navbar.
I like the Report a Bug. :-) and have mixed feelings about What's
new... That's because it's not really about What's new. Calling it
"Articles, blogs, newsletter" is long, but more precise.
I would also have, as we do now, Contributing work and Donating funds. When we first put the Donation element oin the current site up, Jacqueline pointed out it is more effective to just say, Donate Funds--not to leave it vague. I think it is so; we seem to get lots of mail from people interested in donating.
Guidelines is a surprisingly popular destination, and so it presents an
interesting problem. Is there a compeling reason to have it on the
homepage? Why not linked from About Us?
Which takes us to that last part: Where is the About Us page linked from? It seems to have been removed from the page. Given that it summarizes the project, leadership, and structure, that would seem to be a mistake. One could clarify the language, and reduce the duplication with the Introduction, which is what people are sent to after the Registration survey, but it needs to be referenced from the homepage.
* Minor points: Colors: I llike the light blue :-) I can't say the
same for the green, as it has the odd quality of not holding the eye,
though it be pleasing to it.
I actually LIKE the green and find it refreshing. :)
Plain would be better, or, as they teach
you in art and classes, something red to catch the eye, say just a title, border, etc.
Cheers,
Louis
I agree with most of Louis's comments. And again, I don't know what font you've spec'd out but it doesn't render well on my system. When I get a chance in the next day or so hopefully, I'll take a look at your style sheets.
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-- ====================================================================== Kay Schenk
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream." -- Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens]
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