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#13 2005-08-13 00:29:04
- Mary
- Sock Enthusiast
- Registered: 2004-06-27
- Posts: 6,236
Re: Txp Admin Facelift
Well, I hadn’t actually changed anything of the original design of the tabs or admin layout, since I quite like the idea of what they look like now, I just found the top ones’ shadows a little harsh. All I did was traced the original gifs, then styled them a bit.
> “…somehow they seem a touch less legible now…”
I only just noticed that the kerning of the original is wider, which can make a world of difference. I don’t like the sideways text either. What if we simply changed the text’s orientation, like
T
E
X
T
? And increase the text size (only these three tabs have the text within the image itself)?
> “…and the gap between them & the textarea seems a little more noticeable…”
Agreed. I wanted to remove it altogether, but that’s caused by the table’s cellpadding="3", and I didn’t want to monkey with the layout… yet.
We should be careful here, as frankly, although tables should be avoided, I think they are still appropriate for some forms and for layout in cases of doing it with divs and CSS being less usable. I do think we can weed the table count down a bit though.
“Unfortunately, on my mac anyway, the shadow delineations all but disappear, making the file-tab visual met’phor kind of, well, nonexistent.”
Well, that sucks. Tabs that are not tabs…
> “…uses a much more readable font…”
Agreed. Again that’s CSS, which I hadn’t considered yet.
I really like the top tabs of a few versions back of Philippe’s Textpattern Restyled (their shape, and the text’s size and boldness, not so much the colour). Once the tabs got flipped around I didn’t like it as much, and then losing the sub-tabs was confusing.
Taking all this in, I’ll try again.
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
There’s no need to take any notice of what we say Mary. You’re a god now. ;)
Stuart
In a Time of Universal Deceit
Telling the Truth is Revolutionary.
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#15 2005-08-13 03:17:40
- Boogenstein
- Member
- From: Wausau, Wisconsin, USA.
- Registered: 2004-03-28
- Posts: 56
Re: Txp Admin Facelift
OMG! Mary got named! Congrats Dudette!
“Keep a straight face and you’ll be laughing!”
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#16 2005-08-13 04:36:08
- jeffkono
- New Member
- Registered: 2004-05-26
- Posts: 7
Re: Txp Admin Facelift
> mary wrote:
>I don’t like the sideways text either. What if we simply changed the text’s orientation, like
>
>T
>E
>X
>T
>
>? And increase the text size (only these three tabs have the text within the image itself)?
I’ve always been told vertically oriented text is harder to read than text turned sideways, because the vertical orientation breaks the normal flow of reading, one character after another (in western languages, at least). Thus, our brain has to read T, then E, then X and finally T, and wrap it together to recognize TEXT. With “normal” text, the interpretation is faster, because the string of characters is recognized as a whole word, even if it’s turned sideways.
And with the whole localization/i18n effort for Txp, wouldn’t it be more adequate to have actual text instead of images, so these tabs can be localized too? Which would mean, of course, the tabs going horizontal.
Just my 2c. And a half.
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
The existing admin interface is one of the main reasons I use TXP in the first place. Changing the look on an individual basis is okay, but I’d be against a release-wide redesign.
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#18 2005-08-15 18:16:39
- andjules
- Member
- From: toronto
- Registered: 2004-10-20
- Posts: 44
Re: Txp Admin Facelift
my 2¢:
but I’d be against a release-wide redesign
I’d be against an ill-conceived, noisy or overly-slick update, but while the current one is good, there is room for some improvement of usability
although tables should be avoided, I think they are still appropriate for some forms and for layout
I think so too, but i am a fan of using smart CSS to control the tables – which in the end might allow for eliminating the offending space
I’m even less a fan of vertically sequence letters, so i’d stick with the text rotation on the vertical tabs, but just use the best pixel font you can find
have you seen this one ?
I like it too, although subtly it the second level navigation is not as clearly connected (visually) to the top level active tab
as to the quickpik solution, great for experts; beginners tend to have trouble with dynamic pop menus (although the straight-down variant is the easies) – I’d recommend having a simpler choice for lower-privilege contributors…
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#19 2005-08-15 22:49:58
- Mary
- Sock Enthusiast
- Registered: 2004-06-27
- Posts: 6,236
Re: Txp Admin Facelift
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
That’s an improvement Mary (once I worked out the little symbols in place of the tabs!).
On a related note, but not to do with your re-design – is there any reason why the new, built in drop-down list (top right) doesn’t open a window long enough use without scrolling?
I would have thought even low-res screens would have the space, and having to scroll for the lower items removes most of the advantage of the drop down over the tabs…
Cheers
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
That looks much better Mary. I happen to use Philippe’s re-style. Really like the colours but if your new design were to become standard I would use it instead.
Stuart
In a Time of Universal Deceit
Telling the Truth is Revolutionary.
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
I think these look nice, but I still like the current design best. The orginal look is small, unobtrusive, functional. Most of these new ones are kind of like “Mac OS goes to PowerPoint” or something.
As far as changes in the official release, my advice is: treat the TXP interface like a founding document and tread carefully :)
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Re: Txp Admin Facelift
i like your version very much mary, seems to be much easier to find your way around it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~| monolinea.com | pixilate.com | istockphoto.com/kemie |~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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#24 2005-08-16 14:32:47
- EddieG5
- Member
- From: Georgia
- Registered: 2004-03-03
- Posts: 96
Re: Txp Admin Facelift
I think they are nice also and love having options … but I think the original is still the best for the default. It is elegant, simple and the first thing that attracted me to TXP.
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