[wiki] Wiki Progression

datorhaexa · 2010-11-29 22:49:55

Ok, I see. By “navigation” you mean that uppermost line that would be sort-of intra-sites navigation, I presume? I think I’ve missed the rationale behind bringing the external links up, but I suspect that they are harder to spot bottom-left on the main site. If those are up as a ribbon on top of all, I’d give them a different.. slightly different background to distinguish them from the main internal site navigation. Will try to have make a small mockup tomorrow — pictures are better than words. Hopefully, this will bring more ideas to the table.

thebombsite · 2010-11-29 23:45:57

Yes Ralitza. The navigation at the very top of the page. The idea is to come up with something that can be used on all sites, keeping the same design, but not interfering with the design of the site itself. A bit of a quandary because on the one hand it needs to be visible but on the other hand it shouldn’t over-power the site or make it top-heavy. So keep that in mind when you are designing.

Once we have settled on a design there are other considerations that need to be sorted out. First, the sidebar links on the textpattern.com site can become truly “external”. That is to say they will point to sites outside the network such as TXP Tips, We Love TXP and the book etc.

Second is the clash of having a “Docs” link in both the network navigation and the textpattern.com navigation. I have discussed certain changes with Wet but they rely on all the FAQs being moved over to TextBook where they belong then moving a couple of things around in textpattern.com.

So it’s one of those jobs where two or three things need to happen at roughly the same time. Plus of course both TextBook and the Resources site are currently getting major overhauls.

Timing is everything with this one. Fun, fun, fun. ;)

Bloke · 2010-11-30 00:16:08

Personally, I’d prefer to lose the main nav buttons as they are on .com and textgarden and build them into the flow of the site. For example Destry’s .org mockup (ignore the 3-column design if thats not your thang, just consider the sentiment).

At the moment in the .org redesign we have main nav items similar to the ones on textpattern.com that say things like “Plugin search”, “Plugins by category”, “Plugins by author”, “Featured plugins”, “Login or register” and so on. What I’m considering is to remove those big buttons and use the big-button idea as the masthead to allow you to jump between .org, .com, the wiki, textgarden, the forum, weblog, etc.

Note in the mockup screenie above that the functions that those buttons used to perform have been redistributed in context elsewhere on the page; e.g. put in the sidebar or on the ‘Login’ line, which you can see is echoed on the wiki mockup too. The .com and Textgarden sites don’t necessarily need those lines as login lines but could use them as status info (heck, if we could find the owner of the twitter feed and get it working again, it could go there).

I realise that this is a big change and is far easier for .org and the wiki as we have a potentially clean slate to work on. Not sure how it would fit with Textgarden and .com but I’m sure it could be chiselled into shape somehow. Then, as you say Stuart, the other links about the place become true external links, and the top of the sidebar becomes the navigation jumpoff point.

Once the FAQs are moved to Textbook or some other place (let’s face it, they’re not much use as locked documents, and there are sooooooo many of them, often with outdated info, as to be pretty useless) and the masthead concept is decided, there are even fewer ‘main nav links’ on .com so the ones that are left (pretty much just “Features” and “About”) could probably be redistributed fairly easily to sidebars or even ditched/relegated to the footer (at least the ‘About’ could).

If I could get myself organised I’d go and do something like this on the new .org as a testbed and see if it worked from a workflow perspective. At least with something concrete to demonstrate, we could decide if it was the way to go or not, iron out the kinks and then move things forward a site at a time to a common masthead so it gives a more cohesive view of the TXP universe!

As I mentioned elsewhere today, my helper Elves are galivanting off with Santa to prepare for Christmas so I’m short staffed and don’t have the required skillset to do it myself (well, I do but it’ll take me 16 times longer than someone more versed in CSS and HTML).

Last edited by Bloke (2010-11-30 00:17:11)

maruchan · 2010-11-30 00:41:09

BTW, changing the Search form width to 210px seems to fix the displaced-go-button problem in Chrome.

thebombsite · 2010-11-30 01:18:22

You aren’t really convincing me Stef. :(

We have 2 sites already in existence so whatever we do needs to be delicate. What you think of Textgarden is by the by but the current textpattern.com design is by far the best it has ever been and is well liked by many a visitor and I’m not going to mess it up. As far as the main nav blocks are concerned I only see the possibility of one of them disappearing, Docs, once the FAQ thing has been decided upon. It may well be that it can be replaced or the remaining blocks can simply be widened.

As far as Destry’s mock-ups are concerned they have, in my opinion, certain design flaws.

The first is that the “blue block” is actually a part of the site, containing the search and the tag-line or whatever we decide to put in there, yet it has been separated from the site. It should be below the network nav not above it. When people visit a site they expect the top nav to take them somewhere within the site not somewhere else. I think it will be confusing. You are making the network nav the primary and relegating what should be primary to the sidebar. I don’t think that is good practice.

Second, the network nav does not need a “Blog” entry. It is a primary block on the Textpattern site and there is a link to Textpattern in the network nav. It’s simply doubling up.

The third problem is that neither Textpattern nor Textgarden need that extra “yellowish” bar. TextBook and maybe Resources have a use for it but it has no place on the other 2 sites. That is another reason for moving the network links above the blue line.

The fourth problem is what happened to the logo? I love the logos on textpattern and textgarden and I can’t see why you can’t have logos made up for textbook and resources. What I am seeing in the mock-ups is so disjointed.

Do you get the impression that I don’t like them?

Bloke · 2010-11-30 02:02:07

thebombsite wrote:

You aren’t really convincing me Stef. :(

All fair points. I don’t know the first thing about good design so I don’t really have a leg to stand on.

The search bar/tagline thing being part of the site makes sense. That’s what they do (mostly…) on Joomla Joomla Joomla. If you click around on a lot of the stuff along the top, the masthead stays roughly the same across the top and the search bar is below it. Then, as on Textgarden, they have secondary nav for that particular part of the site underneath. A nice logical flow, as you say.

Perhaps the thing that’s doing my head in is that the .com / textgarden design is so balanced as it is that adding the bar above makes it seem top-heavy. Perhaps there’s something we can do here to retain the big buttons but make the network area less intrusive. I dunno. Clutching at straws, me. EDIT: I see you’ve neatened it up in the latest revision. I’ll shut up; it looks fine.

Oh, and the blog link doesn’t have to be part of the masthead as it’s only relevant to .com. I have no problem with fewer links. You’ve already dropped it and it’s great.

I did actually make a logo for the Resources site in the same vein as the ones on .com/Textgarden. But it looked so similar to the other sites that I got confused which site I was on, like Els!

~~As I say, somewhere there’s a happy medium. Just not sure we’ve quite found it yet.~~ If you’re convinced with the network bar as you have it on Textgarden then I’ll bow to your design expertise and simply steal your code :-)

Errr, so can I steal your code now please?

Last edited by Bloke (2010-11-30 02:08:36)

jstubbs · 2010-11-30 02:34:06

Just wondering – is TXP Tips going to be added to the network links?

hcgtv · 2010-11-30 03:01:49

On the the top nav, may I make a suggestion?

When we worked out the top navigation menu while I was working with Nucleus CMS, we decided that the top nav should be hosted at the main .com site. Every other site would just include it into their scheme, that way the top nav would be consistent throughout the sites, and the main site controlled it.

With this kind of scheme, I could use it on TxPlanet, rather than trying to re-invent the wheel on my own. On TxPlanet, I link to every resource that Textpattern has and much more, but I’m not going to remove my links if they are duplicated in the top nav. Which is the talk that I’m hearing here.

The top nav, what we decided was for quick access to the network of sites, irregardless of where it’s shown, it would be the same. Akin to a toolbar on the top of your browser let’s say, it remains consistent throughout, no matter how many tabs you have opened.

The styling, well we didn’t really quip about that, it was more about using it as a tool, rather than a decoration.

hcgtv · 2010-11-30 03:51:01

jstubbs wrote:

Just wondering – is TXP Tips going to be added to the network links?

There’s no reason the top nav couldn’t have a drop down list of related sites let’s say, inclusion into this exclusive club could be dependent on the fact that you’re including the official top nav at your own site and your site meets approval.

You see, it’s simple, I link to TXP Tips at TxPlanet, though there’s no reciprocal link at TXP Tips to TxPlanet. I’m not asking for one, but I think as we build all these sites in support of Textpattern, we should all get equal placement in the grand scheme of things.

TXP Mag & TXPQ are sites that at one time were active, We Love TXP seems to be in hiatus since August of this year, yet I still link to all of them. Give people incentives to keep on updating their sites, you’ll be surprised what may happen.

maverick · 2010-11-30 04:51:26

hcgtv wrote:

You see, it’s simple, I link to TXP Tips at TxPlanet, though there’s no reciprocal link at TXP Tips to TxPlanet. I’m not asking for one, but I think as we build all these sites in support of Textpattern, we should all get equal placement in the grand scheme of things.

I completely agree with the value of being intentional in communicating the breadth of the Txp community, and promoting the excellent resources that have been developed.

So long as it is done in a way that avoids developing a cheesy feel of a “web ring”. ;-)

(for clarity – I’m not implying that the current sites or proposed linking feel like a web ring)

Last edited by maverick (2010-11-30 04:52:54)

datorhaexa · 2010-11-30 09:45:57

Hope I’m not too late with this. Here’s what I had in mind

I was wondering what are the use stats for the search? Not sure it needs to be where it is now, depending on importance and use.

I also like Desry’s ideas of cleanup but I’m not sure how this will tie up with the main txp site.

thebombsite · 2010-11-30 18:24:10

I have no idea of the search use stats Ralitza but I can see where you are going with this. I believe a search facility is needed even if it is little used. It doesn’t take up much space and is satisfying to those who do use it. On top of that the blue block is also a good place to include a tag-line, similar to the way it currently displays on Textgarden. What those tag-lines should be is something to think about. I have added a light background to the network bar and removed the midget Txp logo so thank you for uploading your design ideas.

I have also added a drop-down for those sites which are not part of the, for want of a better word, “official” network. Next decision is which sites should be in there?

I shall probably still “tweak” design aspects of the bar so keep your eyes open.

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#25 2010-11-29 22:49:55

Re: [wiki] Wiki Progression

#26 2010-11-29 23:45:57

Re: [wiki] Wiki Progression

#27 2010-11-30 00:16:08

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#28 2010-11-30 00:41:09

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#29 2010-11-30 01:18:22

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#30 2010-11-30 02:02:07

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#31 2010-11-30 02:34:06

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#32 2010-11-30 03:01:49

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#35 2010-11-30 09:45:57

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#36 2010-11-30 18:24:10

Re: [wiki] Wiki Progression

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