Re: SEUL: SEUL/edu prototype page

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

Ian Bicking wrote:
> 
> Hello, I'm afraid I've been rather quiet lately.  A bit antisocial,
> even...
> 
I feel that way myself sometimes (like yseterday).

> I've been working on an idea for the SEUL/edu mainpage for a while, but
> I keep feeling disatisfied with it.
> 
> It makes very heavy use of tables, which might cause it to render too
> slowly on older (or Mac) computers.  I wanted to use primary colors
> without making it too cartoon-ish, and after seeing an exhibit by
> Elsworth Kelly (one of those color-swatch modern artists) I came up
> with this.
> 
It strongly reminded me of Legos.  Here's a general question: do we want
the SEUL/edu website to stand on its own or to be integrated into the
overall SEUL look and feel?  In my messages about a SEUL/edu logo, I've
been saying that whatever we do should work for SEUL generally and be
extensible to work also for SEUL/edu, SEUL/pub, etc.  Along the same
lines, I think we might want to have a SEUL/edu website that fits our
needs but is clearly part of SEUL by its colors, logo, etc.  Of course,
the SEUL colors, logo, etc. aren't etched in stone at this time, so what
we do for SEUL/edu might be generalizable to SEUL.  But we have to be
careful not to assume that our audience is educators and kids and to
tilt our design so far towards that perceived audience that it's
inappropriate for the rest of SEUL.

I'd have to live with the page design for a while to see if I like it. 
At first glance, it confused me a bit with the number of links in each
section.  It may be an idea to have (for example) just links for HOWTOs
and Case Studies in the Documentation section with the descriptions of
each as they are now (just not hot links).  Then the HOWTO and Case
Studies links could go to a page that lists all the items in those
categories.  In the News section, I think it may be important to have at
least a one-line teaser of the most recent news item on the main page to
try to draw the casual reader into the actual News section.

-- 
Doug Loss                 The difference between the right word and
Data Network Coordinator  the almost right word is the difference
Bloomsburg University     between lightning and a lightning bug.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Mark Twain