Ivan, hi---see below...
Ivan M wrote:
Hello all, [CC'd to the UX list, whose input would be appreciated too]
A while ago I posted a mockup [1] to show some possible improvements
that could be made to the OOo website, many of which were in response
to user's feedback [2].
Now, you can see those proposed changes and many more live on
test.openoffice.org!
(see http://test.openoffice.org/servlets/ProjectIssues to see how the
new changes would look on project pages)
Please add your thoughts, especially if you find something odd.
Ideally, please respond to each of the changes (which are listed
below), with a comment or a +1 if you like it/agree, and a -1 if you
don't. There are no drastic changes - just lots of fine-tuning.
It'd be great to get these updates live before OOo 3 launches. Once
they have been decided upon, I'll write up the style guide for the
website [3].
I have tested this in IE 6, Firefox 3, Opera 9.5 and Safari 3 (Win XP)
and everything worked as expected. Since the the HTML is untouched
(with the exception of the homepage action statements) and changes to
the CSS are minor, there should be no major problems.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The updates, in order of notability, are:
* Homepage icons have been replaced with much nicer Galaxy equivalents
(many thanks to Stella for making these!) [4]. Which icon do you
prefer for the community/join action statement (I want to join
OpenOffice.org)?
nice +1
* The key words in the action statements are a lighter color than the
rest of the action statement text. Action statements' text is also
more colorful on rollover
also nice +1
* New, vertically-flexible, proportional width (24%) #campaign style
(uses the same HTML as before). A seagull graphic would limit
horizontal text space and increase the vertical space required for
announcements - what do you think?
hmmm...well I kind of LIKE the seagull element personally, although
these plain boxes do have merit also. I don't see the "campaign boxes"
as being so many or so involved that we should omit the seagull. They're
just "teasers".
* Homepage features a new download button (please endure through the
javascript messages - not sure why it's doing that, since it uses the
same .js file as the homepage... and the JS will probably be changed
soon anyway)
You're using download2.js which is probably some test DL js... :)
* Tabs are visually more distinctive; it is now easier to distinguish
between unselected, mouse-over and active (selected) tabs
yes, a nice touch as well! +!
* Minitabs CSS has been simplified considerably, and the bug involving
the blinking pointer 'showing through' has disappeared (at least, on
my computer - to test this, please click inside the search box, then
hover over the Log In tab - can you see the pointer from the search
box (which has the focus) showing through intermittently as it
blinks?)
The minitabs (Search, Change Language, Log In) should now be more
accessible - they have high-contrast background colors for when
background images are disabled (see
http://www.patentpending.co.nz/images/openoffice/minitabs-hicontrast.png)
- however Konqueror does not show background images on form fields so
all Konqueror users will see high contrast text fields and buttons in
minitabs.
For even greater accessibility, could someone with access to the HTML
add "for" values to each label specifying which form field they
represent? (this would include the search text field being given an
alt attribute as it has no label).
* Mouse-over effect on #navcol links (left-hand side project menu),
for all 3 different ways that these have been implemented throughout
the website (see website.openoffice.org, ui.openoffice.org, and
test.openoffice.org/project_discuss.html to see all 3 semantic
variations). This makes the CSS a little more tricky to read, but
offers much greater consistency.
* Gradient background on #navcol headers (e.g. Project Tools, Search,
How do I...) and navcol wrappers (fades down to white,
semi-transparent 2 gulls motif from the OOo logo at the bottom-right)
* New a:hover style for standard links in #bodycol. What do you think
about adding an a:visited style, and what would be a good color?
Green? Orange? Another blue?
* #navcol no longer has a small 2px white left margin
* Spacing of text, lists, etc improved for #rightcol (appears under My
Pages) and #startpage
* 15px page margin for text is enforced on #navcol headings and #breadcrumbs
* Minor re-arranging of CSS to make it more straightforward
ALL in all, some VERY NICE enhancements! Great job and thanks!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Minor changes that have already been implemented but not announced:
* Removed top-margin from <h2>, as many pages use it as the first
heading and it was creating unnecessary whitespace.
* Reduced the number of 'highlighted' (background color + top and
bottom borders) items in mailing list/issuezilla
* Made body & #content background color white, which will override the
browser's default background color if it's set to anything other than
white
* A few small but notable improvements to print.css, with regard to
the positioner, and fonts (now sans-serif instead of serif)
-----------------------------------------------------------
I believe these changes address the majority of comments and enhance
the design. Now, over to you!
Regards,
Ivan.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[1] -
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/w/images/6/6e/Website-refresh-mockup.png
[2] - http://website.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=dev&msgNo=9778
[3] - http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Website/Style_Guide
[4] - http://ui.openoffice.org/VisualDesign/OOo_Web_icons.html
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