Rockbox General > Announcements
Redesign of the www.rockbox.org front page
Zagor:
--- Quote from: linuxstb on April 22, 2009, 03:46:28 PM ---This style of site seems to have gained momentum, but I need to say that I don't like various aspects of it - overall I think it's trying to be too clever, and we should try to keep it simple.
--- End quote ---
I agree with several of your points. But I think most of these issues can be adjusted and tested on the actual site rather than in these sketches.
My plan is to get it up and running, and then keep adjusting it. Commit early, commit often. :-)
pixelma:
Some of my thoughts:
Pictures:
--- Quote from: macku on April 21, 2009, 12:37:18 PM ---@BdN3504: Nice work. Could you try to add small black/dark grey glow to players?
--- End quote ---
Is the origin of the pictures known? I just think that licensing should be clear before using them.
Was the idea to either show the default WPS or maybe the Rockbox boot splash on the players (BdN3504's don't)? And the OndioFM picture should also use a different display "background" colour than the Recorder ones because stock Ondios don't have a backlight at all (which is why I used a darker colour in the player's SVG for the manual and small pictures on the download pages). Backlight modded Ondios can use EL foils as backlight which is usually blueish (as shown in the commonly used Archos picture which is probably even the basis of this work), and in a newer sim and on the OndioBacklight wiki.
I see a danger that someone visiting the page the first time could think that Rockbox is only for the player he or she finds there at first, so I'd prefer if it was either cycling automatically or start with nothing
Players list:
Clickable - I would find it nicer (because quicker) if it could react on mouse over, no clicks. As linuxstb said it would also be more consistent. That also has a downside though that you probably load more data (more pictures) than you would when only clicking on certain things.
Some of the items could be combined, I think (e.g. the Iaudio "L" models probably don't need an extra picture, as they are the same as the non-L ones with a bigger battery, hence only slightly thicker).
I agree with bluebrother about the animation stuff.
Top bar menu:
Blends with browser chrome OK, things changed since yesterday.
I don't understand the bottom menu (it's redundant, as Zagor said).
Wiki:
I had the same points as already mentioned - I don't think it needs the "blob" at the bottom and could use some blue to not break too much with the main page (see my suggestion).
All in all:
The proposals look nice at first glance but to me they are a bit too busy with the four coloured zones and strong cuts between them - and all the gradients, shadows, differently looking links and menus. Of course, zones can help navigation if they are used for different things and one can quickly recognise that, otherwise they can easily make a page fall apart. I admit it's hard to find the right balance between them and don't have another suggestion at the moment see attachment.
It's a pity that the layout is "optimised" for a certain window width. Unfortunately it's a general trend (and a pet-hate of mine) but I think it really shouldn't be necessary that you already have to scroll horizontally at a window width below 980 pixels. Fixing the layout for smaller width will leave too much empty space in larger windows, so it would be really really great if it was at least a bit nicer to different resolutions... I know it's not easy to make it look good and keep it flexible but it is possible, the wikipedia front page is a good example in my eyes.
To me the 3 columns paragraph crams too much into one place, somehow leading to my impression that it is too small for the info it bears (sorry can't put it any better at the moment). Maybe 2, a little wider, columns would be enough which could also be a bit more flexible?
I also had the same thought about dropdown menus as linuxstb...
P.S. Attached are 2 quick mockups I did yesterday how I'd imagine a bit calmer: get rid of a few gradients and don't divide so hard between the zones, maybe there could be one gradient between the menu bar and the rest but that would have taken more time I just didn't want to invest for the mock-up. Also to be seen, yesterday's suggestion of mine what to do with the menu bar - change places with the orange part. You can also see that the sponsors links didn't show up for me, using Adblock Plus, after you said it was fixed (taken from the "Todo done" link). The wiki mock-up - without the "blob" and with the same colour scheme as the main page and add a small part of the orange line at the top (probably not needed with the new blue bar - I really like it better that the items are now text not graphics anymore).
j8048188:
here is a site for a perfectly proportioned width every time:
it also works with IE without turning on "quirk mode"
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/holy-grail-liquid-layout-no-quirks-mode
EDIT: He says that you can use his code for free, so I hope licensing will not be an issue.
EDIT 2: here are some other code examples by him:
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/ultimate-3-column-holy-grail-ems.htm
macku:
I send all layout files to Zagor and he will start slowly implementing it.
Creating flexible layout is *really* hard and I don't have any good experience with it. But if someone want to do it contact me or better Zagor.
My idea about missing players images.
How about another "art request" topic to create them?
Here is a background and here you can check missing players. Put player on background and post image inside topic. Remember to add small glow to player. And write inside topic with player image you want create (in case someone also want do it).
And Toshiba X is now S model so it is *missing* :)
PS: Like GodEater wrote:
--- Quote from: GodEater on April 02, 2009, 03:23:38 AM ---A web page design is not going to be 100% perfect for everyone
--- End quote ---
BdN3504:
--- Quote from: pixelma on April 22, 2009, 07:29:09 PM ---Is the origin of the pictures known? I just think that licensing should be clear before using them.
Was the idea to either show the default WPS or maybe the Rockbox boot splash on the players (BdN3504's don't)? And the OndioFM picture should also use a different display "background" colour than the Recorder ones because stock Ondios don't have a backlight at all (which is why I used a darker colour in the player's SVG for the manual and small pictures on the download pages)[...]
--- End quote ---
wrong screens for the ondio fm are used
as in this section of the manual then.
concerning the copyright, i already asked:
--- Quote from: BdN3504 on April 01, 2009, 09:40:26 AM ---i don't know if it's ok to depict an actual picture of a rockboxed player copyrightwise[...]
--- End quote ---
and got this answer:
--- Quote from: Zagor on April 01, 2009, 10:25:08 AM ---BdN3504: Depicting products on a web page is perfectly legal.
--- End quote ---
as for the different screens: i just looked at the pictures that have already been added and didn't see any consistency as to what was displayed. so i thought, i'd pick a screenshot from a random wps in the gallery, because the screens are easily accessible there and published under gpl. i tried to find screens in the manual, but i didn't come across them too easily so i went with a wps that pleased my eye from the gallery. if i think about it, it's probably best to take the default wps (meaning cabbie, not the ugly one), as that's what most people coming to the site to download rb will be seeing, when they first turn on their rockboxed device. i don't think showing the splash screen will give the users an impression of what their player actually looks after being rockboxed.
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