Re: new website: initial comments

[Tim McNamara]

On Jun 23, 2009, at 6:55 PM, Graham Percival wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 08:52:08AM -0500, Tim McNamara wrote:
> > On Jun 23, 2009, at 7:11 AM, David Stocker wrote:
> >
> > >   2. On the documentation page, maybe it would be better to choose a
> > >      wording other than "Normal Users" for the second section of
> > >      documentation links. This might imply that "Beginning Users"  
> > > are
> > >      somehow /abnormal/. Maybe "Regular Users" or "Experienced  
> > > Users"
> > >      would be a better choice.
> >
> > How about "New Users," "Intermediate Users" and "Expert Users?"
>
> I've split this into Intro, Frequent use, Infrequent use; a new
> version will probably be online in 4-8 hours, so let me know what
> you think of that version.

I'll take a peek when it's up.

> > I hate cluttered web pages (and hence I don't like most web pages-  
> > few
> > Web site designers seem to have much knowledge about visual  
> > perception
> > and lots of knowledge about JavaScript, and so they play to their
> > strength) so I like the nice clean look proposed here.
>
> This "clean look" is (deliberately) enforced by our choice of
> languages: I write the content in texinfo (the language our
> manuals are created in), and Patrick write a CSS file to change
> the presentation of that content.

Sounds like a good choice.

> > Color coding also makes it easier for the eye to follow- beginning  
> > user
> > information in Color 1, intermediate user information in Color 2,  
> > expert
> > user information in Color 3.  This could simply be done by  
> > changing the
> > colors behind the navigation bar at the top of the page to reflect  
> > the
> > skill level for that page.
>
> ... however, due to our choice of technical setup, altering the
> navigation bar would be extremely tricky.  Sorry.  I agree this
> could be a nice feature, but I can't see it being worth the
> trouble to make it work.  The system is designed for a clean,
> uniform presentation -- especially in the navigation.  Making
> special cases like this would be a huge pain.

Understood.

> > On the "Learning Manual" page on my computer, the second  
> > navigation bar
> > (starting with "(main)") wraps to a second line and covers part of  
> > the
> > first line of the text.  The wrapped part contains "Other  
> > Documentation"
> > and "Other Versions."
>
> We'll certainly be working on issues like this, but not for the
> next few days -- we want to get the overall structure in place
> first.

Yes.

> > Text should scale appropriately if the user chooses to override font
> > size, like I do with my middle aged eyes on a 12" laptop screen.
>
> This shouldn't be a problem; doesn't it work?

Oh, sorry to be confusing.  That was a general comment about Web  
sites and not specifically about the new one.  Your comment in  
another post about web sites trying to force a specific resolution  
already indicates you're ahead of my thinking on this.

> > If we see layout problems with specific computers, browsers, etc.,  
> > maybe
> > it would be helpful to send screenshots to a single point person to
> > provide demonstration of the problem.  Who will this person be?
>
> Probably Patrick, if nobody else wants to help with the design.
> Wait a few days; let's see if we get more volunteers.  :)

OK.