Hi Jesse, Speaking personally, I don't think that re-skinning the WE site is advisable at this stage and I agree with you -- we would definitely need a very good reason to change the skin and the funding to do it. We also need to be very sure that we are not creating unnecessary upstream maintenance dependencies with regards to future releases of MW. Also WMF have been doing amazing work on the usability project, progressively developing a new skin based on real research, testing and feedback. Its pretty impressive if you haven't had a chance to look at this yet.
While - Wikia have implemented a number of useful features -- there are aspects of the Wikia skin which, in my view, look as if they've been cobbled together and don't seem to form a coherent solution. My personal thoughts on the re-skinning question is: if it ain't broke don't fix it. That said, I think it would be worth the effort to analyse and think about the layout of our landing page. I frequently get feedback from new users that they find the home page confusing --- but that may be anecdotal. This in itself is not a trivial exercise and would need thorough investigation, straw dogs etc. However, I think this may be a more doable project. Anyway -- first things first. The logo. The WikiEducator community did not have any input into the design and development of the logo :-( and now that we're a large wiki project, I think that its important for community involvement and reflection on the logo -- it represents who we are. Who knows -- the community may be quite happy with the visual we currenlty use. Its worth exploring the pros, cons and looking at draft ideas for the future so we can take a collective decision. Cheers Wayne 2009/9/6 Jesse Groppi <[email protected]> > Wayne, > > Well, engineering WE's visual identity could be as involved as completely > rearranging all the elements of a page, in a complete separation from WMF's > monobook skin. This is usually referred to as "re-skinning" the wiki. > Wikia did this, I would imagine, in order to incorporate user interactions > that didn't fit in with monobook. Re-skinning is not something one can do > without having a separate copy of WE's version of MediaWiki to test. To me, > it seems so much of a hassle that one would need to have a very good reason > to change it. > > Do you think there will be a necessity for this sort of thing? > > Jesse > > > On 05/09/2009 17:33, Wayne Mackintosh wrote: > > Hi Jesse, > > Good question. The purpose of this discussion is restricted to the logo > and favicon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon ) largely to gauge > interest in the community and number of candidate submissions we receive. At > this point we'll need to think about constituting a workgroup to take the > design and decision of our logo forward. > > You're right -- visual identity is much more than just the logo - and > included all the other things you refer to, i.e. colour scheme, design of > the landing page, structure of the page, its relationship with usability, > conversion rates, and its relationship with style guidelines etc. > > WikiEducator will need to reflect and focus on its visual identity as a > package some time in the future -- but I suspect that this task is more > comprehensive and would need a separate work group for this purpose? > > Cheers > Wayne > > > 2009/9/6 Jesse Groppi <[email protected]> > >> I just want to clarify some things about the "visual identity" of the >> wiki. I'm definitely no expert, but I think that in web design terms this >> usually includes the logo, colour scheme, structure of the page, and can >> also include the methods in which a user interacts with the page. Is it >> this entire group of things that you're talking about? >> >> Jesse >> >> On 04/09/2009 21:54, Wayne Mackintosh wrote: >> >> Hi Everyone, >> >> As an independent project -- WikiEducator needs to develop a visual >> identity and new logo. As an open collaborative initiative we invite all >> WikiEducators around the world to join us in developing a new logo for >> WikiEducator. >> >> *History of the current logo* >> >> I did not put much thought or energy into the design of the logo currently >> used on the WikiEducator site. Back in April 2006, when WikiEducator was >> relocated to a hosted server funded by the Commonwealth of Learning, I had >> to supply a logo for the website. In the rush to get the server operational, >> we simply tweaked the visual identity of COL's 2003-2006 three-year plan >> (see: http://www.col.org/progServ/3YR/Pages/2003-2006-3YR.aspx ). This >> was back in the days when we had 12 registered accounts on WikiEducator -- >> now with over 10,000 users we have more minds to come up with a better idea >> ;-). >> >> We have come a long way since then. The strap line of "free eLearning >> content" does not even begin to describe the breadth and depth of the >> WikiEducator comunity or its projects. WE are also now far larger than the >> Commonwealth and a truly global project. The time has come to design and >> implement a new visual identity for WikiEducator! >> >> *Progress and plan to develop a new logo for WE* >> >> Back in June 2008 there was some discussion and thought about developing a >> new logo and our first candidate for a new logo has already been submitted >> by one of our community members, see: >> >> http://www.col.org/progServ/3YR/Pages/2003-2006-3YR.aspx >> >> 1) We invite all WikiEducator to table a candidate for our new visual >> identity by 30 September 2009. Just add your visual idea to the list of >> candidates on this page: >> >> http://wikieducator.org/WE-Logo , listing candidate 2, candidate 3 etc. >> >> 2) If you have no artistic ability like myself, please post your ideas and >> thoughts on the corresponding talk page: >> >> http://wikieducator.org/Talk:WE-Logo >> >> 3) We will invite feedback from professional graphic designers and post >> these to the site by 15 October 2009 >> >> 4) We will then ask the community to vote on their preferred logo >> candidate closing votes by 30 October 2009. >> >> 5) The OER Foundation will commission a professional graphic design >> artist to develop our new visual identity. >> >> Get your creative juices going -- and we look forward to reviewing >> candidates for the new Wikieducator logo. >> >> Cheers >> Wayne >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. >> Director, >> International Centre for Open Education, >> Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. >> Board of Directors, OER Foundation. >> Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org >> Mobile +64 21 2436 380 >> Skype: WGMNZ1 >> Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg >> >> >> >> >> > > > -- > Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. > Director, > International Centre for Open Education, > Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. > Board of Directors, OER Foundation. > Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org > Mobile +64 21 2436 380 > Skype: WGMNZ1 > Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg > > > > > > -- Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. Director, International Centre for Open Education, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. 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