By the way. Shouldn't it be Simplicity, Meets power? Rather than Simplicity, Meet power.
I'm not an english geek but I don't really understand that.. On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 7:36 AM, Wil Sinclair <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > That's a known ie7 issue that we hope to have solved later this week. > > > > Thanks for reporting it, tho! > > ,Wil > > > > *From:* Alan Wagstaff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > *Sent:* Monday, April 07, 2008 12:20 PM > > *To:* fw-general@lists.zend.com > *Subject:* Re: [fw-general] And a big thanks to Varien for the new site > design! > > > > Since we are on the subject of the new site (which I love by the way) and > the 3 blocks, I have a problem that I've been meaning to mention for a while > now. > > > > When the page is loading, the "Make the Choice", "Get Started" and "Give > Back" headers appear fine: > > > > http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/citalan/zf-site/loading.png > > > > But once the page is loaded, the text grows and overlaps: > > > > http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/citalan/zf-site/complete.png > > > > Haven't noticed it anywhere else on the site, just on the homepage there. > Running IE7 on Vista with a 1280 x 800 resolution. > > > > Alan > > > > On 07/04/2008, *Wil Sinclair* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > OK, I'm the one to blame for the 3 color-coded sections. J And most of > those dorky taglines. Of course, I make absolutely no claims of > non-dorkiness. :D > > I don't see 'Make the Choice' as challenging, but do you have a > suggestion? BTW, this box is supposed to be for decision makers. The center > one is for developers, and the right one is targeted at contributors. > > CodeIgniter's site is definitely good. But I wouldn't green-light > something like this for ZF because I think there is far too much text for a > front page and is extremely developer centric. > > Site conception and color-differentiated boxes were originally proposed by > me. I can assure you that I haven't seen the current opensuse.org site. > BTW, that horizontal, 3-box format is very popular right now. I have seen > the current version of the RoR site: http://www.rubyonrails.org/. It's 4 > items, but you get the idea. J Sometimes designs become popular because > they work well; I believe that's the case here, but it's pretty subjective. > > I'm glad you like the inside pages. We tried to keep them strictly > content-driven. We may add the occasional icon to liven up the text a bit. > > I really don't like the phpdoctrine.org site for several reasons, but I > don't want to make this discussion to turn in to a list of criticisms of > other people's sites. ;) > > CakePHP's site isn't my favorite, but it seems relatively effective to me. > > Please keep in mind that we are also addressing decision makers with > technical skills all across the board. I've said it before, and I'll say it > again: the Zend Framework project is great for large corporate sites and > enterprise applications. In fact, among PHP frameworks, I think these are > some of our sweet spots. Decision makers want to see our case studies and > what services we offer. We have been careful to wear the commercial side of > the project on our sleeves- even on the old site from long before I joined > the project. Ultimately, we hope ZF works as well for enterprise customers > as it does for one developer's personal or hobby site. > > Could it be that some of this criticism might be directed at the fact that > our site isn't designed for just developers? Maybe we took on too much by > trying to address 3 stakeholders with the same design. Please don't take my > answers as deflections of your comments- I'm taking this all as feedback. > The fact is that we'll never have a site that everyone likes. J > > > > ,Wil > > > > *From:* Karl Katzke [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > *Sent:* Monday, April 07, 2008 10:32 AM > *To:* Wil Sinclair > *Cc:* fw-general@lists.zend.com > > > *Subject:* Re: [fw-general] And a big thanks to Varien for the new site > design! > > > > Wil, > > I'm not a big fan of the new site's homepage either. Let me try and > explain why, from both a design perspective and a usability perspective. > > On the front page, everything is cartoony and oversized. The icons are > big, the fonts are far too big, the ZF logo (which is normally rather slick) > is big and embossed, the "MAKE THE CHOICE" is the biggest and first thing > you see. Those are challenge words, not welcoming words. The color scheme > clashes and calls your attention to too many things at once. There are far > too many choices on the front page for anyone to find where they should get > started. The subheadings under "Make the choice / get started / give back" > are dorky and un-necessary. How do you know what feels good to me? ;) > > Compare this to CodeIgniter's site: http://codeigniter.com/ ... the color > scheme is bright in areas where it wants to call your attention. The first > thing you read is a description of what CodeIgniter is, the second is a > welcome message. The icons are understated and are small enough to not > clash. You can scan the site easily and figure out where you need to go. > > On top of all the other sins we have unoriginality; the "Make the choice, > get started, and give back" tricolor scheme seems to have been stolen > directly from OpenSuse.org, which does it far better... they only give you > three choices until you've decided if you're there to download, there for > information, or there to contribute to the software factory. (I realize > they're not the same exact colors, but that's the first thing I thought when > I saw the blue top with the orange and green.) > > On the other hand, the inside pages are nice. I like the use of a block > serif font. I like the tabbed menu. I like the organized layout. The font > size is readable. > > We take the good with the bad, but I have a feeling that Code Igniter's > website and websites like phpdoctrine.org should be used as examples. > Those sites are well-organized and appeal to both decision makers and > developers. Then again, it's not like the competition's stiff -- CakePHP's > site has many of the same sins we do, and Symfony's site looks like garbage. > > > -K > > On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 12:17 PM, Wil Sinclair <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I gotta say- it's awesome that we have a forum where we can agree, > disagree, and generally figure out every way we can make the project > better. > OK, here's my take on the front page: > '1.5' will represent all the 1.5 releases; in my experience this is > common for less detailed pages. It really is meant to call out that > we've moved on from the 1.0 branch. > Keep in mind, this page may simply not be for you. It is dominated by > formatting and is meant to put the best face on ZF to new decision > makers, developers, and contributors. We've tried to make the other > pages more content driven, but it is safe to assume most of the content > on the main site PHP site will be more or less introductory. The tools > (wiki, IT, etc.) we have and will continue to keep as effective as > possible for our active users/contributors. > Ultimately, you haven't yet convinced me that the front page is not > effective at what it sets out to do. For example, having a prominent > download button makes it easy for everyone to download the project and > get started, which is exactly what we want new users to do. > Do you have more feedback on the site that might help us improve it? We > will be adding more improvements over the next few weeks as we get it to > a state we can be happy with until the next big update. > > Thanks! > ,Wil > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: thurting [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 12:39 AM > > To: fw-general@lists.zend.com > > Subject: Re: [fw-general] And a big thanks to Varien for the new site > > design! > > > > > > I'm going to have to disagree here. The front page is an atrocity. > > The > > download header dominates, the logo is out of control, and it is > > incredibly > > hard to scan the page for information. Also, the project is on > version > > 1.5.1 now. You need to update the .jpg because that is where this > > pivotal > > and dynamic information is displayed. > > > > > > Amr Mostafa wrote: > > > > > > Thanks for making us look like rock stars, Varien! ;-) > > > > > > On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 9:28 PM, Wil Sinclair <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > >> . . .and that's what I wish I would have remembered to say in the > > 1.5 > > >> announcement. :/ Seriously, they did an excellent job on the > design; > > we > > >> asked them to take the ZF site to a completely new level, and I > > think > > >> most people would agree they did just that. This is one BIG way > that > > >> they give back to the ZF project. Thanks SO much, guys. > > >> > > >> ,Wil > > >> > > > > > > > > > > -- > > View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/And-a-big-thanks- > > to-Varien-for-the-new-site-design%21-tp16105849p16535205.html > > Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > > > > >
