On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 2:15 AM, Owen Winkler <epit...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/10/2010 8:05 AM, Colin wrote: > >> I agree, too much real estate is given up to themes that aren't in use >> rather than the theme we're interested in customising so I've whipped >> up this (attached) mockup (I quickly hacked admin/themes.php to do >> most of this with a little Firebug trickery for the screenshot). >> > > First, thanks a bunch for rolling on this. It looks good. Indeed, this looks very good. And I see how screenshots are probably the most important property to display for inactive themes. > > > Notes about my mockup and some of my thoughts: >> >> 1. The theme description is probably ignored by most people; they're >> more interested in what the theme looks like (hence the thumbnail) >> than any of the fancy words that accompany it. Accordingly, I've >> removed it completely from the active theme and put it into the >> thumbnail's "title" tag (so it's visible if you hover over it) for the >> inactive themes. >> > > I agree. And putting it in the title tag seems alright, although my brain > immediately thought of some including some javascript to do a Netflix-like > flyout of the description and license (omitted via your point #2). See this > screenshot: > > http://screencast.com/t/ZTE0ZDJhMz I think that a JS flyout (or "popup" if you will) would actually look better. One important note about these elements is that, triggering them wrongfully can make them very annoying very quickly. For example, netflix avoids that by adding some delay before displaying it. I would lean towards triggering only by clicking the thumbnail. I should also mention that I think activating the theme when the thumbnail is clicked might be a bit confusing to users. We should avoid having actions made on more than one element trigger the same result. <snip> > > Of course, there's always the option of introducing a "Preview" button >> next to the "Activate" button to do the preview function instead, or >> add a hook so a plugin can offer this feature (if the hook doesn't >> exist - I've not checked). >> > > The technical details of implementing this aside, it seems like something > people ask for a decent amount. > > My suggestion would be to have the preview button, and activating the > preview button would switch the theme for *that user's session*. Session > messages would indicate how to switch back or cancel the preview. Like Colin, having this one can be of huge benefit to site admins when intending to change the theme. I would use this button to preview my entire site, browse around, do testing..etc, while my readers (there are 5 of them!) are not affected by any hidden issue that the theme can have. > > > 4. I think the active theme's configuration tabs should be expanded >> and cover a much larger area by default so users can quickly and >> easily get to them. I also think it might be a good idea to switch to >> a fade out/in, just slide down or no animation at all when switching >> config tabs. The current slide up/down animation, whilst consistent >> with the similar buttons used on the post page, is a bit slow and can >> be shakey and juddery (is that even a word?) on some browsers. It >> doesn't feel smooth. >> > > I agree that the configuration for the current theme should be expended. I > am growing more and more of the opinion that they should not be in tabs at > all, and should simply be in separate, already expanded sections running > down the page. I would support that. Ideally, admins don't configure the active themes much often, and they tend to switch themes much less often. I see no problem having the config screen divided into sections rather than tabs, even though doing so would definitely expand the config section to more than one screen. -- Ali B./dmondark http://awhitebox.com -- To post to this group, send email to habari-dev@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to habari-dev-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/habari-dev
