Timothy and all, John and the team had to really hold me back from going overboard with eye candy on this new skin (often kicking and screaming). I started with a really graphically rich customization of the DC Database wiki (just because Superman colours are really easy and fun to work with) just to get all my ideas together and then worked backwards to arrive at the baseline v3 skin. Extending the idea of monobook - the new skin is a clean foundation to build upon, without having to undo a lot of styling when customizing the Quartz skin.
As we get closer to the launch, I'll put together some mockups of some of the new styling possibilities. -Christian On Dec 23, 2007, at 2:40 PM, Timothy J. Crowell wrote: > The skin looks good, but not as much eye candy as Quartz, perhaps > image headers and footers like in DanTMan's mockup (a few other things > from DanTMan's mockup would be nice). Can't wait to try it out! > > -Timothy > > On Dec 22, 2007 12:14 AM, DanTMan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> Aww... and I was working on a mockup... >> >> Actually, by CSS I wasn't meaning hovering. I was meaning a list >> style >> sidebar (With a little extra coloring for the subareas) which was >> static and >> usable without any hovering at all. Then convert the sub areas into >> a Hover >> menu with JS. That way those with JS get the nice hover, and those >> without >> get a normal styled list instead of having a menu they absolutely >> cannot >> access. >> >> As for the visuals... How about a compromise. >> Make the skin markup and color based so that it's easy to style as >> you >> want. But still do the markup and backend css, in a way that those >> of us >> willing to go the extra mile to use the structural images can >> easily add >> those into the css and have them work. (Instead of the hard and >> unreliable >> hacks people use to style things in Monobook) >> ie: Monobook evolution, with enough flexibility to use extra >> graphics. >> >> Well anyways... This is what I had finished with the mockup so >> far... I >> think I'm just missing the top Article_bars curve in the search >> bar: (Don't >> mind some of the graphical faults like Toughpigs name and the text, >> it's >> just hard to alter background colors sometimes when things aren't >> separated >> into objects; T_T Oh ya, I accidentally have a cut part of the logo >> text in >> the middle of the page from a mistake, just ignore that; and the >> content is >> cut off because I'm reusing some of my old Animepedia screenshots >> to do the >> mockup and I have a higher screen res) >> >> >> ~Daniel Friesen(Dantman) of: >> -The Gaiapedia (http://gaia.wikia.com) >> -Wikia ACG on Wikia.com (http://wikia.com/wiki/Wikia_ACG) >> -and Wiki-Tools.com (http://wiki-tools.com) >> Christian Williams wrote: >> >> Hey DanTMan, >> >> As always, thanks for taking the time to digest this stuff and >> compose your >> initial feedback. Driving the design were two major factors: >> reducing the >> size of the sidebar and creating a skin that feels like an >> evolution of >> monobook. To meet the "monobook evolution" design goal, and to make >> the skin >> far easier to customize than Quartz, V3 uses far less accent and >> structural >> images. >> >> The navigation is customizable via a MediaWiki article, using >> bulleted list >> markup: >> *Muppet Wiki >> *Muppet Characters >> **Kermit the Frog >> **Miss Piggy >> **Other Characters >> ***Gonzo >> ***Animal >> etc. >> >> I just put the finishing CSS touches on the navigation menu this >> week for >> users without JS. It looks and works really nice. In fact, we even >> experimented with a CSS-only version of the navigation menu, but it >> was >> completely unforgiving if your mouse slipped off one of the child >> menus even >> for a split second. In the end, the menu is rendered with YUI for the >> JS-having folks. >> >> -Christian >> >> >> On Dec 21, 2007, at 8:35 PM, DanTMan wrote: >> >> >> *sigh* Bu-bye nice quartz look... I kinda liked a bit of the V2 >> quartz... (T_T And goodbye Quartz Switch setup... I'm going to have >> to >> rewrite the way the buttons are put in and styled) >> How about integration of the styled look of quartz with the >> monobook/quartz(V3) layout. >> >> Here are some of my ideas: >> * Returning the curved header to the skin: >> ** Could try raising that logo area a bit higher (It looks even more >> space consuming than in V2). >> ** Rather than on the right, the curve could be on the left and be >> used >> to make the logo part of the top bar. >> *** This would also provide the extra benefit of a flat background so >> that transparent logos don't end up unreadable because of gradients >> in >> the real bg). >> *** If people still wanted the logo to show up against the background >> all they'd need to do is remove/not-include the header image, as >> the top >> bar would use the current markup based background displayed. In >> that way >> both of the liked versions are kept available. >> * The curved look to some areas of the skin: >> ** The Article_bars type image could actually be returned to the >> top of >> the Article area. It should work with that mockup without causing >> issues >> in reading. >> ** The previous suggestions I made on how to reintegrate the bottom >> Article_bars into the V2 Quartz Article area could also apply to >> the V3 >> skin. >> ** The Search bar at the top of the sidebar could be given the >> Article_bars style to. >> ** A curve (Not really the article bars style) could be added to the >> very bottom of the Sidebar (The related communities box, or if that's >> not always it, the bottom box could always be given a .last css >> class) >> *** Overall, rather than giving the sidebar boxes each curves, this >> would give the entire sidebar a more unified curve to it. >> >> Primarily, I think the outcry against Quartz with people wanting >> Monobook was layout, not style. It should be possible to integrate >> the >> monobook layout, with a bit of the fancy styling of quartz. >> >> Though I do have a thought about that bar at the bottom of the page >> with >> the repeat spotlight ads. >> >> You ever seen one of those sites with a list which rolled from >> right-to-left with a bunch of affiliate buttons to a bunch of topsite >> lists. >> Rather than something ugly of course... >> How about letting us list, (In a MW message) a number of wikia >> which are >> similar/related/affiliated with the wikia you're on. And inside >> that box >> at the bottom, they'll roll from right-to-left. Basically it'll be a >> logo image with a link to the wiki. >> >> Also, the sidebar is nice. Looks like we're using a custom MediaWiki >> message to create that one? >> I could make a suggestion... >> Just for the users without JS. This time could we add in a little >> extra >> css styling to style it nicely with CSS, then turn it into a hover >> menu >> with JS after so we know that we're not going to make it unusable to >> those without JS. >> >> ~Daniel Friesen(Dantman) of: >> -The Gaiapedia (http://gaia.wikia.com) >> -Wikia ACG on Wikia.com (http://wikia.com/wiki/Wikia_ACG) >> -and Wiki-Tools.com (http://wiki-tools.com) >> >> JohnQ wrote: >> >> I hate it when that happens. :) Screenshots attached. >> >> >> Hi everyone, >> >> I have what may be an early "Winter holidays" present for many of >> you... >> >> We've been working on a new look for Wikia based on both the positive >> and negative feedback we've gotten on the V1 and V2 skins. We know >> the effort it takes for you to adjust to these skins but we think >> we've hit the right balance based on all the feedback. To recap, the >> biggest criticisms we received were: >> >> * don't push the article too far down the page (V1) >> * the right-hand sidebar is too wide (V1/V2) >> * we want something more like Monobook (V1/V2) >> >> With that input, we built a V3 that we believe addresses your >> concerns while still including the things that will help us grow the >> site: >> >> * a left-hand sidebar >> * a wider article space >> * more like Monobook >> * incorporate the features from V2 that are working >> * browsing behavior via top content and the more prominent >> search box are up (V2). >> * search suggest is useful for visitors (~30% of all searches >> use it... on some wikis 70%). >> * we still believe giving the community more visibility is the >> right thing to do. >> >> In doing this, however, we had to make one big trade-off. The only >> way to reduce the width of the right sidebar was to remove our best >> performing ad size (some of the ad networks will only buy that size). >> So... we need you to understand that the box ad format is good for >> the long-term health of Wikia and, while taking it off 99.99% of >> pages, we don't want to get rid of it entirely but rather only show >> it on the main page of each wiki since that one page still gets a >> decent amount of traffic. This is shown as a "featured media" box on >> one of the mockups. >> >> I'm including some mockups that show you what we've been working on. >> In addition, there's a new forum topic on it here: >> http://inside.wikia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=141 >> >> Thanks, >> John Q. >> ______________________________________ >> Wikia-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikia-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l >> >> >> >> ________________________________ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikia-l mailing list >> >> [email protected] >> http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikia-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Wikia-l mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l > _______________________________________________ Wikia-l mailing list [email protected] http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l
