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hi there. I've been lurking for ages, but decided to comment when this |
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was considered the near-final design. I'm not going to be very |
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organized, but here goes: |
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|
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when comparing the wwwredesign site to Aaron Shi's design |
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( http://www.aaronshi.com/gentoo/mainindex.html ), it's apparent that |
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someone didn't get the subtle color shifts and alignment. the reason the |
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advertisements are put on a light grey background is to separate them |
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from the actual content of the site, thus ensuring that the reader's |
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eyes are directed accordingly. without the background, the pages just |
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don't seem to flow correctly. I'm more apt to read the "We produce |
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Gentoo Linux" (which is an amazingly useless block of text, IMO) and go |
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straight to the "Colo that box under your desk" ad, and then read the |
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rest of the ads before even going back to "What's New". |
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|
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another small tweak that'd dramatically increase the flow of the site |
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would be to use Aaron's color scheme for the date and updater on the |
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front page. the person updating is less important than the date of the |
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update... unless you're going to include planet.gentoo.org on the main |
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page. this is why the date is given a prominent color and position, and |
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the name is given a more subtle font, and softer color. in fact, the use |
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of the small grey gradient for the first entry immediately blocks off |
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the large whitespace on the left side of the page, and forces the reader |
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to start at "what's new", and move down the page correctly. |
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|
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Might want to use the "light purple background for news topics" instead |
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of the horizontal line between updates. both work, but the separation of |
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updates with a highlighted topic is an immediate visual cue, and looks |
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less tacky. |
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|
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the fonts on the "cubes of content" (for lack of a better term) just |
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below the logo on the page are too large. the cube with the "donate" |
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content should be aligned with the space for advertising (again, what |
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Aaron Shi did). if at all possible, add a tint of purple to the "make a |
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donation" button, just so it doesn't stand out so much. |
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|
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Hmm. why are those aforementioned "cubes" on some pages, and not on |
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others? "About", "Get Gentoo", and "Docs" have them, but the rest do |
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not. very jarring when simply clicking through the links. are they |
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really needed on pages that aren't the index? should the be on every |
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main section, if just because they're supposed to be conveying vital |
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information to the reader? |
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|
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there might actually be too much content (or just too large a default |
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font) on the front page. unless you don't really like the Documentation, |
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Resources, and Community sections at the bottom of the page. nobody will |
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scroll down that far, unless it catches their eye. the three sections |
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are centered, which is better than on Aaron Shi's site, but the fonts |
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are far too large. The gap between the section title (Documentation) and |
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the items within the section (Install Docs, etc) have a big gap between |
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them. seriously, most of these things are small oversights, but make |
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HUGE differences in aesthetics. |
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|
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Another thing, that big useless block of text above "what's new" needs |
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to be removed. it's not a description of the distribution, it's a |
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mission statement. mission statements are stupid. you want to make cool |
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stuff. we get it. explain what gentoo is. take a cue from debian.org, |
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and explain. if not, move it to the "About" page, where it belongs. |
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|
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Speaking of the About page, why is there a huge 40K image there that |
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could easily be put into text? it's not a poster, unless you're using a |
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very small screen resolution. it's a crappy image, using the old gentoo |
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logo (in the caption balloon), takes up way too much space on the page, |
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and just isn't cute enough to include for any reason outside nostalgia. |
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|
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most of these things are really small problems, but they make a MAJOR |
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difference on the look of the site. if someone fixes the fonts, and adds |
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the subtle parts of Aaron's design back to the site, it'll look like the |
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site Gentoo deserves. |
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-- |
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www-redesign@g.o mailing list |