Tom Chance wrote: > On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:50:04 +0000, Tom Hughes <t...@compton.nu> wrote: >> OJ W wrote: >>> and how come sidebars on the map can be opened by: >>> >>> * clicking on one of the "external links" (map key) >>> * selecting a map layer (data viewer) >>> * selecting a tab (export) >>> * submitting a form (search) >> Because those are the things which need them? > > Well that's fine, but it's coming at the home page from a coder's point of > view rather than a user's. I think it's fair to say that, from a usability > standpoint, the OSM home page is pretty terrible. There's very little > consistency, and language/graphics are often far from obvious. > > Clicking on the 'view' tab or the slightly cryptic 'permalink' text at the > bottom right to get a URL to share with friends? Couldn't be more obvious! > > We can learn a lot from CloudMade's map homepage - > http://maps.cloudmade.com > > Not that I have the time to do much about this, and I'm terrible with JS, > but it's not enough to dismiss OJW's and others' concerns as though they're > unfounded!
Tell me where I dismissed anything. I bet you can't, can you? There's a reason for that - I didn't dismiss anything. All I did was answer his question. I never said it was a good reason, though I personally don't think that the sidebar is a particularly major problem compared to many other things on the home page. Than again I'm just a programmer so what would I know about all these high falutin design things. Equally "permalink" is a fairly standard name for that concept now, even though (originally at least) it clearly wasn't something that most people could be expected to know. I would also point out that the site was never intended as a do everything end user mapping site like google maps, as that was never the aim of the project. The aim of the project was to create and provide data for other people to use to create flash end user sites. All of which is besides the point as I will be the first person to admit that I am completely and utterly useless designer, so if we have anybody that wants to help out with improving such things then I'm sure we'd all be very glad to hear from them. The only thing I ask is that any media/marketing types try to avoid overloading my buzzword filter too much. I really don't need to have any more synergies leveraged thank you. Tom -- Tom Hughes (t...@compton.nu) http://www.compton.nu/ _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
