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SEUL: Website design
NB. Before everybody complains about an HTML message,
it is deliberate. This promises to be quite long, and HTML means I can
improve the clarity with headings, etc. If you can't read HTML, then it's
in plain text at the top as well - I'm sure you can survive downloading
an extra few kb just this once. But please, if commenting, don't quote
the whole thing! And don't start a public flame war about HTML - if you
really can't live with it then complain to me personally, not to the list.
Hi everybody. In this message I'd like to outline my (partly incomplete)
ideas for the website design, and invite comments.
I am *not* aiming to discuss the technical methods by which this
is achieved. Most things are possible.
Obviously this stuff will not make it into tomorrow's release of the
site - that will look mostly like the old one but with (some) extra content.
This is medium term stuff.
Many of my ideas have come from www.annihilated.com
and www.gimp.org, so I suggest looking
at at least the latter before reading further.
Public site vs. Developers' site
As I have stated in the past, I propose having two separate sites. This
already exists in the version which luka has informed us will be going
live v. soon. There is a link on each pointing to the other.
Content
The idea is that the public site is for potential users of SEUL, *not*
for potential developers. It is somewhere to explain what the project
(and the product) is, and once the first release is out will be the first
port of call for somebody needing help with SEUL, with links to howtos,
and any support documentation produced by the project which is not included
with the distro.
The developers site is intended as a resource for developers. It will
contain 'getting started' FAQs for new recruits, as well as any other general
resources, and will have a section for each of the dev- groups
to put whatever is relevant to them in. I hope these will serve a number
of functions:
-
If dev groups need something reviewed, they can put it on the website and
allow people to comment on it, either within the group or announced to
the whole project.
-
If a group needs its members to be able to download a tool, or something
to test, they can do it through these pages. This may end up being particularly
relevant to the SEG.
-
It will allow members of other groups to see what's going on throughout
the project, and keep a sense of the project as a whole rather than just
their group. To this end I hope to set up a page containing the latest
updates from all the groups. This will need regular updates to be
any use, and as such needs a maintainer. It will also require corporation
from the groups to keep this guy (and/or the pub group) updated as to what
is happening in the other groups. I have already asked the leaders list
for each group to nominate a representative who has a task of keeping the
website maintainers up to date.
-
If a new developer is coming into the project, looking around these pages
should give him an idea of where he would like to help.
-
Any other uses of a website that turn up.
It has also been proposed that each group should submit a list of links
to relevant WWW pages, which will be listed on the site, probably on a
central links page. This is, i think, a good idea.
Navigation
The screen should be divided into a navbar on the left, and content on
the right. This navbar can automatically expand when a section is clicked
on. This is practical down two, and perhaps three levels. So for instance
we might have
Groups
---dev-help
-----some area of the dev-help site
Possibly for the third level, and certainly for any deeper, it will be
necessary to go to another navbar. This will have the effect of, for instance,
giving dev-help a 'sub-site', with it's own navbar and content, and possibly
an individual look, while still maintaining a coherent image across the
whole of the SEUL site.
My thoughts on how to do this are fairly vague. A possibility at present
is maintaining the same 'look and feel' but changing the colour scheme.
I'd be interested in comments and suggestions on this.
A mandatory item on the navbars of the subsites is a link to their
parent site.
Looks
I want to give a graphical look to the site, and to this end am currently
struggling with the batch scripting mode of GIMP (no GUI). if anybody knows
about this, please contact me!
It should be possible to automatically generate graphical headings,
etc.
One thing that would be nice is a logo for SEUL. If anybody has any
ideas, let me know - or better, let the group know and get them looked
at. It would be kinda nice to incorporate a penguin somewhere, but this
is not mandatory!!! What's needed is something versatile, that can be big
or small, and look good either bold or subtle. (ie big and small ;-))
The design of the content of the site (ie not the navbar) I propose
keeping roughly similar to what it is at present. The only change I envisage
is having graphical text for the headings. Also subheadings would be useful,
graphical or otherwise. But if anyone has ideas on what should be changed
then, again, discussion is what the mailing list is for.
So, ideas and comments please!
-Simon
--
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Simon Waldman email: swaldman@bigfoot.com
Surrey, England. swaldman@seul.org
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SEUL : Simple End-User Linux http://www.seul.org
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How did I know the B1 was an airplane? I thought it was
vitamins for the troops. -Ronald Reagan