Re: [libreoffice-design] Re: [libreoffice-website] Re: new features page ...

Hi Christoph, :-)

I'll give some answers here but, as I suggested in another thread, I
think we can talk about these problems better and more quickly by
holding a website team confcall over the next few days, and regularly
once a week for the next 3 or 4 weeks...

@all: Do you think this is a good idea?

@Christoph: if so, would you set up a Doodle poll or do you want me to?


On Sat, Jan 15, 2011 at 05:55, Christoph Noack <christoph@dogmatux.com> wrote:
> Of course! And since you refer to "empirically", that's a great example
> to document it in our upcoming wiki page (screenshot requirements).

Sure, OK. Like we said during the SC call, I'll let you put up an
initial page, and then I will get in there and contribute
ideas/content to that page.

> Then, all the l10n teams can benefit. Although we should think about how
> to do this with open-source tools (e.g. an image-magic script which can
> be written?)

Open Source tools are the ideal choice. But I find that *sometimes* I
seem to get better results from Photoshop for resizing things, in
terms of resulting file size and image quality.

> Since I've looked at the screenshots on the front page, I'd like to say
> that the documents look that much (much!) better than before ... also
> the Start Center (btw. not QuickStarter) looks better with some more
> space around (the first picture).

"Start Center"... good job you pointed that out... I'll remember.
Actually I deliberately enlarged the Start Center panel so that it
would stay properly readable at 400x300... you mean space around the
panel inside the window?

> But, only one picture doesn't fit that good - from the marketing's
> perspective. Since we try to establish "our" branding, the following
> picture is (although colorful) misleading how "we" look when installed.
> It might be mis-interpreted as Splashscreen [0], so you mind to remove
> it? Sorry to bother you with that :-\

I'm not able to figure out which image you're referring to... I use
Chrome, and use the "Awesome Screenshot" add-on, which lets me take
screenshots and annotate them.... I recommend it for this kind of
discussion. (Are attachments allowed on the design and website lists?)

> If we finally have some time to take a deep breath (a few weeks maybe?),
> I'd like to discuss the chosen theme. It seems a bit different to those
> that are "default", and (although it looks great on the computer), the
> dark title bars are a bit "visually heavy" and don't match to the
> LibreOffice branding (draft) [1].

Personally, I'm pretty happy with what has resulted from Nikash'
template and Ivan's work. It still needs a bit of tweaking and
finishing in places, but I feel it looks simple, clean and
conservative, yet up to date with modern design and tastes.

But this is a conversation that's basically between you and Ivan,
although I'll be looking with interest at the final results.

> > Apart from that, we can format the layout the way you want it
> > (preferably without breaking out of the theme styles).
>
> I put up a small graphic to show how a structure might look like - would
> be great if Ivan could have a look at that, too. I think a subtle border
> (gray) would help to overcome screenshot snippets problems.
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/O-PELAb4LD61S9RPTFIW8Q?feat=directlink
>
> Don't be scared by the colors, this is what we (UX people) use to
> highlight elements within other pictures or draw structures. Of course,
> the color theme of the website applies here.

I think it looks good, but I wonder if we can achieve what you seem to
be thinking of here... the problem is that we're dealing with dialog
boxes of *different* sizes, some of which can be done under
Ubuntu/Linux but some of which intrinsically should be screenshot
under Windows because of the specific content matter.

But we can certainly put the screenshots on the left, in column form?
In any case, I suggest we talk about this during a confcall? Also, I
won't have time to get to this before mid-week (~ 20th) due to other
work...

> @ Michael: The OOo features page seems a bit messy, since the pictures
> have different width - there is no harmony. Moreover, the whole page
> looks like to win the "most headers" award ;-)
>
> David, might the structure above work with the site?

See my comment above, but I will certainly see how I can work your
suggestions into the content layout, for sure.

@MICHAEL: OK, on second thoughts, can you please do me any screenshots
you're able to provide? (Windows and any other OS)
But maybe try to avoid fancy one-off effects that break with the basic
visual design of the site?

Either mail them to me or insert them in the New Features page
yourself and then give me a heads up to go behind you and clean up.
TIA if so. ;-)

> Last thing: Could you please keep the "New Features" (New Highlights) in
> one place - currently it appears under "Download - New Features", and
> "Features - New Features". Clicking on the latter "jumps" between
> different categories - without the user's intention.

That was a special request from Michael Meeks! So, Michael?


> I hope some of the stuff helps a bit - although I'm unable to do the
> feature selection stuff (sorry!)

We'll try to get something that pleases everyone, but I must admit
that it seems logical to me that the devs should have biggest say in
what features to highlight before others in the New Features page...?

Anyway, thanks for the ideas. I'll certainly try to take account of
them. And I'll be hoping to talk more about them during a confcall.
;-)

David Nelson

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