From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1EeHgx-0001pd-38 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 21 Nov 2005 19:51:07 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.5/8.13.5) with SMTP id jALJotxs031584; Mon, 21 Nov 2005 19:50:55 GMT Received: from host143.ipowerweb.com (host143.ipowerweb.com [66.235.193.71]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.5/8.13.5) with SMTP id jALJorW1001471 for ; Mon, 21 Nov 2005 19:50:54 GMT Received: (qmail 87838 invoked from network); 21 Nov 2005 20:48:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO zim.mushroomblue.org) (71.39.113.14) by host143.ipowerweb.com with SMTP; 21 Nov 2005 20:48:28 -0000 Subject: Re: [www-redesign] status of http://wwwredesign.gentoo.org From: mushroomblue To: www-redesign@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <438174BD.9060100@gentoo.org> References: <438174BD.9060100@gentoo.org> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 12:47:28 -0700 Message-Id: <1132602448.1851.52.camel@zim.mushroomblue.org> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: www-redesign@gentoo.org Reply-to: www-redesign@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.4.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-DCC-ipwdcc-1-Metrics: host143.ipowerweb.com 208; Body=1 Fuz1=1 Fuz2=1 X-Archives-Salt: 1c4396c9-a9dd-4e67-ba0c-c097811ce68f X-Archives-Hash: 3801e1781d294d665c4e39db943b6bbf hi there. I've been lurking for ages, but decided to comment when this was considered the near-final design. I'm not going to be very organized, but here goes: when comparing the wwwredesign site to Aaron Shi's design ( http://www.aaronshi.com/gentoo/mainindex.html ), it's apparent that someone didn't get the subtle color shifts and alignment. the reason the advertisements are put on a light grey background is to separate them from the actual content of the site, thus ensuring that the reader's eyes are directed accordingly. without the background, the pages just don't seem to flow correctly. I'm more apt to read the "We produce Gentoo Linux" (which is an amazingly useless block of text, IMO) and go straight to the "Colo that box under your desk" ad, and then read the rest of the ads before even going back to "What's New". another small tweak that'd dramatically increase the flow of the site would be to use Aaron's color scheme for the date and updater on the front page. the person updating is less important than the date of the update... unless you're going to include planet.gentoo.org on the main page. this is why the date is given a prominent color and position, and the name is given a more subtle font, and softer color. in fact, the use of the small grey gradient for the first entry immediately blocks off the large whitespace on the left side of the page, and forces the reader to start at "what's new", and move down the page correctly. Might want to use the "light purple background for news topics" instead of the horizontal line between updates. both work, but the separation of updates with a highlighted topic is an immediate visual cue, and looks less tacky. the fonts on the "cubes of content" (for lack of a better term) just below the logo on the page are too large. the cube with the "donate" content should be aligned with the space for advertising (again, what Aaron Shi did). if at all possible, add a tint of purple to the "make a donation" button, just so it doesn't stand out so much. Hmm. why are those aforementioned "cubes" on some pages, and not on others? "About", "Get Gentoo", and "Docs" have them, but the rest do not. very jarring when simply clicking through the links. are they really needed on pages that aren't the index? should the be on every main section, if just because they're supposed to be conveying vital information to the reader? there might actually be too much content (or just too large a default font) on the front page. unless you don't really like the Documentation, Resources, and Community sections at the bottom of the page. nobody will scroll down that far, unless it catches their eye. the three sections are centered, which is better than on Aaron Shi's site, but the fonts are far too large. The gap between the section title (Documentation) and the items within the section (Install Docs, etc) have a big gap between them. seriously, most of these things are small oversights, but make HUGE differences in aesthetics. Another thing, that big useless block of text above "what's new" needs to be removed. it's not a description of the distribution, it's a mission statement. mission statements are stupid. you want to make cool stuff. we get it. explain what gentoo is. take a cue from debian.org, and explain. if not, move it to the "About" page, where it belongs. Speaking of the About page, why is there a huge 40K image there that could easily be put into text? it's not a poster, unless you're using a very small screen resolution. it's a crappy image, using the old gentoo logo (in the caption balloon), takes up way too much space on the page, and just isn't cute enough to include for any reason outside nostalgia. most of these things are really small problems, but they make a MAJOR difference on the look of the site. if someone fixes the fonts, and adds the subtle parts of Aaron's design back to the site, it'll look like the site Gentoo deserves. -- www-redesign@gentoo.org mailing list