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Re: TxP.com home page
rightyright.
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Re: TxP.com home page
aarplane,
I’m using the 960 to design from. Its outstanding. I didn’t adhere to it precisely as I am presently aiming for a broad brush kind of wireframe, and will hone in at a later point.
Would you be willing to remove the image from your blockquote? Its a bit redundant. I know that’s fussy, but its a bit overkill for a blockquote :)
Now watch, someone’s going to ask me to remove my image too :)))
- I am Squared Eye and I
am launchinghave launched Pattern Tap
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Re: TxP.com home page
What’s the purpose of the gigantic Hicks Design block below the top navigation?
And what is the “blog title” block for on the left side?
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#79 2008-08-29 16:10:50
- redbot
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- Registered: 2006-02-14
- Posts: 1,410
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Re: TxP.com home page
Ruud,
- The Hicks Design block shoots rockets and has flames coming out of it. :) JK, its a place to feature high profile sites and examples of what can be done. It would need visual attention getting design and a strong quote. In looking at the other CMS sites out there, people seem to be strongly motivated by what they can do visually as well as functionally. A visual example of what you can do functionally is extremely powerful. Also, its a slideshow. Perhaps it could have indicators of pages (ie pagination of some kind), but I simply wanted to convey that its a large promotional space.
- The blog title would be the most recent blog entry from the Textpattern blog. It shows that the developers are vibrant, and at work, and that Textpattern is alive and well, promoting trust and authority.
:)
M
Last edited by squaredeye (2008-08-29 17:23:55)
- I am Squared Eye and I
am launchinghave launched Pattern Tap
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Re: TxP.com home page
squaredeye wrote:
It shows that the developers are vibrant, and at work, and that Textpattern is alive and well, promoting trust and authority.
Umm, well. And how would we fake that?
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Re: TxP.com home page
lol. By having other people write the blogs duh!
- I am Squared Eye and I
am launchinghave launched Pattern Tap
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Re: TxP.com home page
Okeydokey. Good idea. I use this principle at the very moment to collect the content for this very site. Might work in the future, too. But, hush!
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Re: TxP.com home page
I’d swap download and the blog entry (download is more important).. it’s also in the menu at the top (is the duplication intentional?)
Last edited by ruud (2008-08-29 17:42:41)
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Re: TxP.com home page
ruud wrote:
I’d swap download and the blog entry (download is more important)..
alternate perspective – leaving the download in the corner makes it more obvious than in the middle. fwiw
Last edited by maverick (2008-08-29 17:50:59)
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Re: TxP.com home page
Putting my opinions about what is good, bad or indifferent aside, I must say this is not what I expected, Matthew. At the beginning of this thread, I attempted to gather the various views together in one place and I thought all these views would be taken into consideration. However, I fail to see how this has been done. For example, there were a several comments about just tweaking the design rather than a complete redesign or using something based on the default template or keeping it stark and simple. I don’t see these ideas in your wireframe. Have I misunderstood?
What I see are yet more individual ideas to add to the melting pot rather than something created by the community. Fair enough, you have not stated your views before. Your wireframe is your way of doing that, imho. But it does not seem to me to reflect what the community wants. Andreas’s seems nearer, imho.
Neither includes the integrated header and nav either. In Matthew’s case, this would push the Download button out of sight. In both cases, it appears there would be two logos and two menus and the relationship/positions of these is not shown. They are both wireframes but I thought there was enough raw material available to make them a little more precise.
I understand you wanting to make the home page show txp as being lively and vibrant, Matthew. But you are the only one to come up with the concept, so again it does not reflect the views of the community. Of course, now the concept is revealed perhaps others agree with it and want it. If so, recent comments from the forum will show activity but recent dev weblog articles will always show the opposite because they are devs who develop rather than talk about it. Perhaps latest commits instead? Or delete and make room for some excellent copy that Destry has written here.
The image/video/slideshow area. It seemed to be agreed my most that some way of showcasing great sites should be prominent, so I think your way is a reflection of community wishes there. I hope the first thing a visitor sees, however, is NOT bold letters with Jon Hicks or anyone else’s name or a site which is not Textpattern.com!
Dozy P My attempt at music
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Re: TxP.com home page
I hope the first thing a visitor sees, however, is NOT bold letters with Jon Hicks or anyone else’s name or a site which is not Textpattern.com!
Yo, it’s a dummy text aka our beloved lorem ipsum :P Ofcourse it’s going to be slogans, slideshows and other goodies etc.
Something to think:
- Will the page be as good with out flash/Javascript?
- If there is a lot of animation, will it be too slow for those slow oldie internet connections?
squaredeye wrote:
This is a wireframe with boxes to help think about hierarchy.
Yep, nonetheless, it looks good. It atleast brings the page to 21th century :P – and resembles other CMS sites.
Last edited by Gocom (2008-08-30 07:51:34)
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Re: TxP.com home page
You know what Thought did? Followed a muck cart and thought it was a wedding.
I think I’ve had a good idea – so watch out! It’s an idea only. This is NOT my suggestion of what should be. Use it, abuse it or lose it but I hope you might be able to use some of it. If not, there’s nothing lost. I don’t want to start conflict or tread on anybody’s toes. I think it is an improvement but am quite prepared for it to be completely ignored. And before you think I’m mad, here’s my lame excuse to get me off the hook :-) I use Ubuntu and still haven’t got used to Gimp. My version of Paint Shop Pro crashes with fonts in Ubuntu, so it’s hassle, so that’s why this png is very rough!
I’ve posted an idea for the integrated menu here. My reasons and caveats are as follows:
- One is for txp.com, the other for textbook
- This example doesn’t take up much real estate on the screen
- Putting the inter-site nav, local nav and You Are Here all together ensures consistency across sites, is scanned quicker than if nav is spread about, will be less noisy than if nav is spread about (when graphics are sorted)
- The tabs help ensure it is instantly recognised, as does the yellow band and txp font.
- The tabs need changing to provide more contrast and to ensure people know exactly that the lower part of the nav belongs to which part of the upper nav
- I am suggesting that admin tabs need to change – the tabs here should match those in admin, so they have to be right
- The tabs font should be a bit bigger
- The Download Textpattern button should probably use Sackers Gothic
- The Carver gif can go in the footer with links to txp community sites like Textgarden
Dozy P My attempt at music
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Re: TxP.com home page
I was just about to hit the submit button on my email to you, Matthieu, and thought maybe I’d check the boards first. Glad I did, and glad we opened this up. I have some comments which I’ll post first, followed by a wireframe that combines your start with my thoughts on the content to demonstrate things a bit better.
First I want to say, nice job. I like the grid approach, and I like your initial ideas of space.
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Re: TxP.com home page
A link to Txp wireframe 2
Explanation:
1) I guess the whole main nav thing is still up in the air. I’m in favor of something integrated, meaning it includes links for “Docs” (wiki), “Forum”, “Extension” (plugins)…like demonstrated for the wiki and for the forum… and for the sake of not being too long probably less of a need for Demos, Showcase and Contact, which are all things that can be sufficiently advertised on the home page anyway (or footer for things like Contact).
2) There should be a text block for the intro/elevator pitch. It’s short, sets the expectation for everything else and thus needs to be one of the first things people see (meaning at the top). There’s also the accessibility thing of reaching the intro copy quickly by keyboard so up top is best in this respect too if that’s something people care about here (should be). The pitch is composed of two parts, an opening beginning with “Michaelangelo…” and the body of the pitch itself. Although they don’t necessarily have to be in the same block, they do need to be close together. I kind of prefer the left box version where the two pieces of the pitch are together and styled differently.
3) I like the slideshow idea, but I think a full width block is overkill (consumes too much space), and I also think this location should be for Demos and not showcase examples. It’s arguable which should have the prominant position, Demos of Textpattern backoffice or Showcase of actual sites (I’m assuming that’s the idea of the Hicks Desing stuff), but I think there’s a stronger case for having Demos in the prominant position, and here’s why: If I was in the market for a CMS, before I would care about the pretty sites it could create (because I’m already skilled in standards design and would expect it to do that anyway), I want insight on the look-and-feel to get an idea if I even want to bother downloading it. So show me some backoffice demos and sell me on the ease of use and functionality. If I like what I see, then I might like to go see what other people have done, by looking down at the showcase underneath. I think a slightly different nav mechanism would be appropriate for demos too, like numbers to suggest following demos in a workflow-like order.
4) Like ruud, I was confused by the Hicks Design implication, whether it’s a showcase item, quotation, both… As for the showcase, I think it’s important it is not just a bunch of nice looking sites from celebrity people with no real structure otherwise. I’m not suggesting that’s your motivation here, I just want to make sure we’re keeping a thumb on the target audience and reasons why they might be looking at the site, and thus how that might impact the design. We’re pitching Textpattern to be a great tool for designers (not solely, but that’s a big part of it). As designers who need a tool for building client sites, we (you and me being real examples of the target audience) need more information about the kinds of sites it can do as opposed to who else uses Textpattern. Jon is a celebrity name, no doubt, and having his site in a “Portfolios” category, as well using a Hicks quote in the quotations (next point), would be a smart thing to do, but I think the Txp Showcase needs to be categorized (e-commerce, portfolios, communities…) and we need to have showcase examples in each one. A showcase presented this way would be powerful and convincing, and would go a long way in demonstrating Txp is more than just a blog engine. All we need is 2 or 3 examples in each category and the showcase would stand on its own legs. Each category would ideally be accessible via a link from the showcase block.
4) Going back to Hicks Design stuff. I love the idea of designer quotations, and maybe there’s a block for those where they change automatically as a user comes and goes from the main page. I’ve put it down at the bottom for now, next to the download button.
5) I think the blog content is a reasonable idea, but I think it should be limited to just a short list of blog article titles (3 to 5 max), and perhaps including author and date. I did not reflect them in my wireframe, but could be added.
6) I don’t think forum content should appear at all on the .com home page. There’s no assurance that all forum posts will be suitable for home page presentation. A link to the forum in the main navigation is all that should be needed.
Again, my wireframe there is not to indicate a better layout, but to give more thinking to the layout in context to the communication it’s supposed to be doing and how that might be effectively presented. I think if we could just get this masthead thing finalized that would be a good thing in a next iteration.
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EDITS: Forgot to mention a couple of things:
I kind of like the idea of a spot for Txp Pros for hire. Not necessarily worded like that but the concept is not bad. EE does this and it’s not too obtrusive in my opinion. If you needed another block for balance in the grid or something, that might be something to consider.
I didn’t really talk about why I played-down the features in the home page. Honestly, I don’t think you need to list features on the home page. Give a teaser to the fact features are a plenty and for various needs and then link to the full-blown features list page where you can talk up a storm or a soft zephyr.
Also, I meant to say keep the slideshow mechanism, but use it on the showcase main page, rather than the home page (focus being on demos instead).
Last edited by Destry (2008-09-01 15:37:51)
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