Re: RFC: Website redesign

From: Sverre Rabbelier <alturin@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 14, 2008, 18:29 UTC
Message-ID: <bd6139dc0804141129h25c829e2i320f227594763d71@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <96F7571C-1D9D-4F0A-99F1-A2307DAB0374@wincent.com>

On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 7:03 PM, Wincent Colaiuta <win@wincent.com> wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

>  With all due respect, all of the designs you've posted look like _weblog_
> templates, and that doesn't seem appropriate to me for a software website.
> One of the things I most dislike about the weblog format is the fixed-width
> centre column and the large tracks of wasted space down the sides; although
> the official site is certainly "bare bones" (some would say "ugly") at the
> moment, at least the information density is high and there isn't any wasted
> space.

That is most probably due to that the templates googlepages offer are mostly aimed at such weblogs. I think the suggestions are not just for layout but also for color (which is very important, to me at least, when deciding whether a webpage is 'damn ugly' or 'quite nice').

Also I think that the main page should not contain more information than fits in one 'screen'. That is, there should be no scrollbar on 'sensible' (say, above 1024*768) resolutions. To me a site feels 'overfull' if it's mainpage has a scrolbarr. Instead, I think the mainpage should be a portal to other parts of the website, instead of... well... everything-crammed-on-one-page-so that.... so that what? What purpose does it serve to put all information, ungrouped, not easy to find, and as such chaotic, on one page?

Anyway... </rant>

Cheers,

Sverre Rabbelier