[www-redesign] Update: August 07, 2005

[Aaron Shi]

Hi all,
 
Time is becoming extra rare these days, so I'll make this quick.  
 
Concerns regarding long author list have been addressed with this new
update.  The author list is moved to the "Sidebar" along with the document
action buttons.  As a result, long author lists now display fine, but it is
not displayed when printed because it no longer follows the document "flow"
-- which is fine as it wouldn't make sense to have 25% of the page width
used by credits when printed anyway.  The authors are credited online where
the individual must've first visited before printing the page.  In the case
of a 1 document = 1 webpage type exclusively made for printing, then having
all the authors at the top would be fine...almost like a book.  
 
Are there any other ways to do this?  Throw out some ideas.  Someone
mentioned grouping the contributors under categories e.g. author, reviewer,
etc., and someone mentioned hiding it using scripts.  This is a common
practice these days with Javascript/CSS.  I did not do this as it concerns
credits and the default state is to hide the info, hence contributors are
not being given due credit when users disable their scripting capabilities.
I'd like to explore this avenue but don't want to waste time if most
disapproves the method.
 
 
By some pure luck (I had no idea this existed), I stumbled upon the test
server at http://wwwredesign.gentoo.org/
 
Looks like it's in progress, but I hope when it's done it'll look more like
the reference pages I provided. =D  
 
Quirks are common place when integration takes place, but in this case the
design appears to be completely *destroyed.*  At this point, integrators
shouldn't be changing the CSS or the basic HTML structure (except for quirk
squashing purposes).  I am no longer adding "features" either, just
addressing concerns in this mailing list.
 
With regards to moving the sitemap link in the upper right corner, I have to
voice some usability implications of removing it.  Just briefly, it is the
ONLY way to return to the root level of a *particular* Gentoo site (i.e.
packages.gentoo.org, forums.gentoo.org, etc. etc.).  It also indicates to
users what site they're on -- combined with the breadcrumbs they allow users
to navigate to the exact page without URL bar (i.e. in a magazine
screenshot) or when the print URL footer is cut off.  Clicking the Gentoo
logo will return you to www.gentoo.org, but not to the homepages of the
other "sites."  You could change the Gentoo logo to point to the homepages
of the other sites, but then it'll be inconsistent and this inconsistency is
not indicated to the user (i.e. the user doesn't know that the target page
has changed).  The rule of thumb is if the site's primary navigation is
horizontal then the sitemap should be listed in the footer of the page if
there isn't space in the horizontal nav; if the site's primary nav is
vertical, then sitemap should be listed as one of the lower items in the
vertical nav.  If the information flow up/down is structure well, the
sitemap is only secondary.  Information flow should not only be concerned
with people getting to places, but also getting back, knowing where they
are, knowing what to expect up/down the flow, and it should be "intuitive."
 
 
I'm not concerned about making the design work here and now, by definition
it'll already be obsolete by the time your read this.  My concern is making
sure this design works now and in the future, taking growth and
human/technological changes into account.
 
All in all, I think the test site is off to a good start, allowing you to
navigate many pages with a rough implementation of the design.
 
Another concern, please refrain from leaking work-in-progress to the general
public -- this practice has historically generated more problems than it
solves.  If the public needs to be updated, then planned and
Gentoo-coordinated updates are the way to go, i.e. someone put together a
package specifically for the purpose of a press release.
 
This ended up longer than I thought, but there you go.
 
Cheers,
Aaron
 
P.S. Michael, haven't heard from you in a while, hope all is well with you.
Are you working on the test server?...I can no longer access your DSL hosted
site.  Activity on the list has been nil for 2 months, we didn't move to a
new list did we?