On Tue, 1 Apr 2008, Joost Verburg wrote:
to the URI. We do not need to restrict ourselve to one skin only.
We really should not have multiple designs for our web site. One
official skin is enough.
I don't see why not, especially as the current site has two slightly
different skins. You could of course argue that these are the same from a
point of view of appearance, they just offer different functionality and
readability.
However, in practie we'll probably only fully support one skin. As for
what design to use for the official web site, I can't say I've seen a
consensus (yet) of what design to use. I'm a "design illiterate", so
I'm just waiting for consensus to arrive, and saying that what we have
is "good enough".
As I understand it, the consensus is that the current design is much
better than before and that we will continue to improve it if we receive
more feedback / suggestions. Is that right Rex / Andrei?
The current design is a _huge_ improvement, and I really like the work
you (Joost) have done. However, this is all voluntary work and we may
develop what we like, so I think it's up to Rex/Andrei to decide if they'd
like to try to make a different design.
I don't see the need for hurrying either, I'd like to take the current
test site and turn into the live one shortly. Once that's done, it'll be
perfectly safe to try an alternative design on the previous test site.
-- appearance of wiki v.s. web site
Yes, they are different. But I think the design should still be somewhat
consistent.
In terms of colours and general appearance for sure, but in terms of page
layout I think they probably _have_ to be different. The web pages have
the following elements:
* Logotype
* top area (with just the page name and a login link)
* sidebar
* main area
The current wiki OTOH in addition has:
* Search field
* A more complicated sidebar
* Drop down list to go to a page
* A 'wiki trail' at the top (it should go into some separate area on the
page)
* A list of categories the page belongs to (should also go to a separate
area)
* A footer with various links in it
Other wiki skins use things that we may want as well:
* three column layout
* a little area that indicates _where_ in the wiki you currently are
I like this, see e.g. http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/BlueBerrySkin
* 'tab'-thingys for edit/view/print/etc, see e.g.
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/MonobookSkin
The list goes on, and there's plenty to look at here:
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Skins
However, I agree that we should not start changing the wiki before the web
pages have gone live, _and_ have been stable for a while. (I simply don't
have time for it).
Best regards
/Christian
--
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44 http://www.md.kth.se/~chr
