Thanks for the great reply, murb. On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 16:10:59 +0100, ":murb: [maarten brouwers]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > >I think the current state of the front page is displayed here: > >https://www.sc40.sfo.collab.net/ > > > >I must say that design is definitely not my cup of tea... but it's still > >a prototype, and hopefully it'll change a lot. The project team is doing > >a really good job on valid XHTML, CSS, accessibility and usability > >already as far as I'm concerned. > > > > > Maybe you could explain Miika better why it is /definitely/ not your cup > of tea? Because when I look at your design, I don't see /huge/ changes > in basic lay-out...
Ok, I will discuss this one first. First of all, as an outsider I find it a bit confusing at first. Since the OpenOffice.org 2.0 components are listed there just below the intro text, as a total stranger I would get the image that I have to get each and every component separately (since they are links and right there in the middle). Why are the components more important than the download button? What happens if I click on "New?", what does it mean? The first things I focus on that page is (1) the OOo 2.0 heading, (2) the components list and (3) the link "join us". In my proposal the download button (big and clear) occupies the space in the center, so the components list maybe (?) causes less confusion. I don't know about this, it's just my opinion. The project is the one that decides what is best. Also I still don't know what it meant by "Native Language". Is that a language switch for the website or a localized version of the software? If it means the software language, where do I access the good old http://fi.openoffice.org/? Visually I don't enjoy the orange buttons too much. You may already have plans to somehow make them look better or style them up a bit. To say it straight, they don't look professional. They need help. But not much. :) The bottom part of the page isn't the best one either. It's not bad actually, but it could be better. I don't know what you have planned, but I'm longing for some introduction to OpenOffice.org since (as a total stranger) I have never even heard of this project or this piece of software. Some sort of nice short introduction paragraph and a "Read more..." or similar link. There's so much empty space down there: that also makes the page look a little plain and empty. Yes, I know... not really necessary. But that's a proposal, right? :) Once again, I have no idea what you have really planned. I just came across this: http://website.openoffice.org/files/documents/28/2423/prototype_j1.png and thought that I should add the "New to..." stuff at the bottom, where it IMHO fits best. The homepage in general just somehow doesn't seem like the OpenOffice.org I have accustomed to. As I have said, it is definitely not bad, but it could be better. Visually, I mean. Of course you have to take a lot of other other aspects into account, usability being at the top of the list. On the other hand, the navigation mechanism and the whole top-left part of the website is wonderful. I haven't changed it at all that in my design proposals (I just re-coded it from scratch just for the fun of it ;) ). The "Download", "Support" and "About" are just where they need to be. > Of course is anyone allowed to create a new proposal for the website, > and we could continue doing this until the end of days. The question is > maybe do we want to continue to create prototypes and never get to a > working version which can finally replace the current homepage at > http://www.openoffice.org . There is a new version coming up, and it > would be really nice to combine the change of the home page with the > presentation of the final 2.0 version of OpenOffice.org Oh yes, I noticed that on the first day I read the mailing lists. You're in a bit of a hurry, and this website project has come a long way already. The reason I made my own version was just to try whether you need new design proposals or not. I was waiting for a positive feedback as much as "Sorry, we don't need any new designs here". The general thought was to maybe give ideas on how the homepage may be layed out and maybe how it could be made graphically more pleasing. The project can take something from my proposal, get new ideas/inspiration, steals bits of code... The response I received was this: On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 05:25:12 -0500, "Daniel Carrera" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Miikka Leskinen wrote: > > > http://safelyinrussia.com/tmp/miikka/ooowebsite/1.0/ > > I love it. It's fantastic. > > ... On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 16:10:59 +0100, ":murb: [maarten brouwers]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Nothing is unnegociatable with me, so I suggest that all of you tell me > what you're missing, where you're missing it, just like you already did. > Or what you would leave out of course. Based upon the current proposal > at sc40, unless of course people are too divided on this design, but > looking on Miika's design for instance, I can't see we need to compete > while we can collaborate. If you think we shouldn't base the discussion > on the current proposal, please say so, and please be so nice to tell me > why... Well, I thought it would have been a really bad start from me to being with everything I think is wrong with the project's current proposal. Instead, I decided to stay quiet and post my own proposal in peace and silence. ;) I wanted to stay in the background, as I did and as I'm doing right now, being an Observer and pending, which is just fine. You can take whatever you want from my design or you can as well ignore it. You are teh pr0ject. But now I have written enough. :) The proposal is there and the project's work goes on. You can ask me to fix it, improve it or leave it be. Regards, Miikka Leskinen (login name: miles_fin) --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
