Aaagh! Re: [Clipart] new site design in progress

[Jonadab the Unsightly One]

Jon Phillips <jon at rejon.org> writes:

> Great, I affected most peoples changes, ie, links, flow, colors.

It's *much* better already.

I like the "share your vector graphics" highlight at the top, BTW.

> The colors on the sidebars are prollly reflecting a poorly
> calibrated monitor (non-lcd).  If really problem, will just change
> sidebar to be gray. The light gray was proving to have some contrast
> problems with the white links.

Well, I definitely liked it better at the lighter shade as depicted in
the screenshot, but I know I like lower contrasts than average, so if
other people were having trouble seeing it, I can accept that.  I'll
think some more about what color might be better, but it's not an easy
question.  Not just any color will look good with the blue *and* with
the colors in the logo *and* be a good background for white text.

> Ok..check the site and get me your constructive crits pleez...

I do think the left and right sidebars could maybe be combined on one
side.  It might make the toolbar too long, but I'd like to experiment
with it that way and see.  It might turn out okay, and if so it would
buy a considerable width improvement for the main content area.

I may play around tomorrow with other possibilities for the sidebar
color, and report back to the list if I come up with anything worth
considering.  I do think the current colour is less than ideal, but
off the top of my head I'm not sure what to put with the other colors
on the site.  I liked the color in the screenshot, but if it's too
light for the white text, then we'll have to do something different.

> possible shorter text ideas for the search bar would b nice...

Some possibilities:

  Get Clipart:   Browse   Packages   _____________________ Search
  Browse Clipart   Download Packages   ___________________ Search

We could maybe condense that further if we offered the packages from
the browse interface (either at the top, above the browse list, or
maybe as a Packages category), rather than on a separate download
page.  

The user experience I'd like to see eventually would involve clicking
one "Get Clipart" link on the main page and going to a page where
there are categories down the left (clicking any one of which will
browse images in that category) and in the middle a big prominent link
to download an installer of the latest release for the platform that
the user-agent string seems to indicate, with links below that for
other platforms, tarballs, older releases, and so on.

Quick ASCII-art rendering (set your mailreader's font to fixed-width)
(FooOS would be the OS we *think* the user is on, based on User-Agent):

 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | Get Clipart from the Open Clip Art Library:               +---------------+ |
 | +-----------------+                                       | Incoming Art: | |
 | | Categories:     |  Download the entire clipart library: | * bach_02.svg | |
 | | * unsorted      |                                       | * bach_01.svg | |
 | | + Animals       |  * Get the latest openclipart.org     | * foot_01.svg | |
 | | + Computer      |    installer for FooOS, 60 MB         | * man_07.svg  | |
 | | + Entertainment |    (Recommended):                     | * Older Stuff | |
 | | * Festive       |    * Download from the web (http)     +---------------+ |
 | | + Food          |    * Download via ftp                 | Contribute:   | |
 | | + Geographic    |    * Download using BitTorrent        | * Submit      | |
 | | * Gradients     |                                       |   Clipart     | |
 | | + Buildings     |  * Not using FooOS?  Click here       | * Join        | |
 | | * OCAL Logos    |    to see the list of installers      |   Discussion  | |
 | | + People        |    for other systems.                 | * Submit      | |
 | | + Plants        |                                       |   Screenshot  | |
 | | + Shapes        |  * Download as a .tar.gz archive      | * Review      | |
 | | + Signs         |                                       |   Incoming    | |
 | | + Tools         |  * Get an older release.              | * Report      | |
 | | + Transportation|                                       |   Problem     | |
 | +-----------------+                                       +---------------+ |
 |                                                           | Project Info: | |
 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

This is scrolled so the header and footer are not showing, and it
obviously doesn't flesh out all the detail, but you get the idea of
the basic user experience I'm thinking of here.

On a side note, which has little to do with the current redesign, I'd
ideally like to see the categories at the left in the browse interface
expand when entered, but the whole tree still show.  i.e., if the user
clicks on "Animals", I'd like to see it like this...

 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | Get Clipart from the Open Clip Art Library:               +---------------+ |
 | +-----------------+                                       | Incoming Art: | |
 | | Categories:     |  Browse Category: Animals             | * bach_02.svg | |
 | | * unsorted      |                                       | * bach_01.svg | |
 | | - Animals       |  [Thumbnail]         [Birds Folder]   | * foot_01.svg | |
 | |   * Birds       |  Author: Aki G.      Category: Birds  | * man_07.svg  | |
 | |   * Fish        |          Karlesson                    | * Older Stuff | |
 | |   * Bugs        |  Title: Scorpion                      +---------------+ |
 | |   * Mammals     |  Keywords: animal                     | Contribute:   | |
 | | + Computer      |                                       | * Submit      | |
 | | + Entertainment |  [Fish Folder]       [Bugs Folder]    |   Clipart     | |
 | | * Festive       |  Category: Fish      Category: Bugs   | * Join        | |
 | | + Food          |                                       |   Discussion  | |
 | | + Geographic    |  [Mammal Folder]                      | * Submit      | |
 | | * Gradients     |  Category:                            |   Screenshot  | |
 | | + Buildings     |  Mammals                              | * Review      | |
 | | * OCAL Logos    |                                       |   Incoming    | |
 | | + People        |                                       | * Report      | |
 | | + Plants        |                                       |   Problem     | |
 | | + Shapes        |                                       +---------------+ |
 | | + Signs         |                                       | Project Info: | |
 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

(For the folder images, I imagine an icon of a file folder with a
representative sample image from the category superimposed over it.)

This is not anything we're likely to get done right away, just
an idea to think about working toward in the future.

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