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My Continuing Quest To Make RS4.0 *Bayooootiful* …

By: Martin Knight (Diary)  |  December 17th, 2008 at 06:01 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Well, I’ve made a few alterations, taking the need to make the “Action Alert” graphic/link prominent and displayed on every page … so I put it in/on the header in one variant – the one below. I’m going to be honest and say I prefer this design for its fidelity to the original design of RS (1.0 and 2.0) way back when. I tend to like the familiar. Furthermore, as Brian said, the header not extending all the way over the sidebars (IMO) serves to highlight the star of the show, the blogs’ content.

I’ve also altered the header of RedHot to make it more distinct.

With the “Get Local” feature, I’ve decided to add it to the main menu and rename it simply “Select State”. I’m conceiving it (probably because I’m not the one who’s going to code it) as an active JavaScript-y menu type thing that, for example, shows the state flag whenever the state’s name is highlighted. Of course, a more sensible (but a lot less sexier) approach would be to just have a drop down menu revealed on mouse-over or click, but where’s the fun in that?

This one below pays homage to absentee’s cool modification of my original here – the header extends across the full width and the “Action Alert” is in the sidebar – same deal as above with the “Get Local” feature.

As usual, all criticisms welcome.

And thanks for indulging me.

Get Alerts

COMMENTS

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  • NightTwister

    But too busy for my tastes. I still prefer the current layout.

    I will say I like the “Select State” pulldown.

    • http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/ Brian Simpson

      It really does push more of the content into a visible part of the page on first load.

      The drop down box for Get Local/Select State is neat, but I do think I prefer that icon in the masthead to the Action Alert. Having no image editing skills of my own, I wonder if it would look too cluttered having both images in the masthead (maybe as a modification of option #2 on this diary)

      • Martin Knight

        I think having it on the main menu not only makes it prominent (people’s eyes are drawn to main menus), it also signifies it as being an important part of the site’s structure.

        That said, it could stand to be made even more prominent. Just haven’t figured out how to make it so and then make it fit.

        • itrytobenice

          I like the look of it.

          (and I wish ‘smaller size larger size’ was applicable to font size. I’m too old for this little bitty print.

          • http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/ Brian Simpson

            I know this trick works on Firefox and I think it works on Internet Explorer.

            Hit Ctrl and the + key. The font size will increase.
            To decrease font size hit ctrl and -.

          • itrytobenice

            Thanks.

          • $peciallist

            np

      • bs

        That big masthead is a lot of wasted real estate. The problem right now is that you have to scroll to see much of value on first page load. 1440×900 laptop screens have become a norm, and on that size display, you see almost nothing when you load the page. Something must be done to improve the amount of useful info that appears immediately.

  • mbecker908

    and just making them drop downs. Leave one column for ads (gotta pay the piper) and for a login block, make Redhot, Comments, Recommended Diaries and Member Diaries all drop downs.

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      In the coming months that needs to be our community focus, after all, because the 2010 election is the next battle. That election will be fought in 435 local districts and 35 or so states. It won’t be fought nationally.

    • woodsman

      It seems a little “busy” on the right side. Or, allow dynamic side bars that a user can specify for their personal tastes.

      Myself, I prefer the larger masthead as it actually shows “Red States”.

    • Martin Knight

      Could tinker around with it later on and see.

      • mbecker908

        Plus an “admin box” with whatever in it. That would be at the top with the ads under it.

        Then, add drop down thingys for Redhot, Member Diaries and for Recommended Diaries (although that could stay at the top in the right col I suppose). Bottom line, with whatever gets put in the far right col, cut the cols to one and make the text area wider by one.

        • Flagstaff

          Did you all get training at Microsoft? They also love to “improve” what is already working. (^;^)

          Seems to me that unless something is being overlooked and therefore unused, there is no need to change it. Or add functionality if it’s needed. But constantly changing the format for aesthetic purposes only just makes it harder to use, not easier.

          Dark red type on white is easier to read than blue on a light blue or cream background, but by expanding my page and magnifying the type, I can read the current words just fine.

          IMHO, the cleaner and less cluttered the better. And ambiguous tags and titles should be banished.

          I’d like to be able to easily go to other writers’ diaries from the front page. I always want to be able to see quickly if blackhedd has added some new information. I’d call that a functional improvement.

          • Flagstaff

            I should have said “ambiguous or unclear tags.” An example is the “edit” button on the profile page. Since nothing appears with the profile except one’s registration date, and a list of comment links, it isn’t obvious that that particular edit button allows edit access to the entire profile. It’s logically obvious (after all, what else would it do?), but it’s not intuitively obvious.

            And the comment by bs above pinted out to me why aesthetics are important. My screen happens to be 20″ wide, so I have a different perspective than the laptop user would have.

          • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

            the ?Get More? theme?. just a slightly bigger box than “Get Local” to add “Personal” and “Specific”…

            ????????????????

            GET LOCAL
            [pick State pull-down]

            GET PERSONAL
            [pick RS Diarist] limit to peeps with at least 5,10? Diaries (to avoid Trolls)

            GET SPECIFIC
            [pic RS Category name]

            ????????????????-

        • Martin Knight

          … but I’ll muck around with it and see.

          Watch this space.

          • woodsman

            mbecker is describing the 3or 4 areas would collapse. This is similar to the drop-down menus.

            I see this as 3 or 4 vertical text boxes sitting on top of each other like links. Click one link and that section expands below the text link. If another text link is clicked, then that section expands and the prior one collapses back into itself.

            Perhaps something like this… http://www.interspire.com/content/articles/10/1/Building-An-Expanding-DHTML-Menu-With-CSS-and-JavaScript

          • Martin Knight

            But I’m not so sure completely hiding the content until clicked open is a good idea.

            The titles of diaries and comments draw people, kinda like newspaper headlines, which is why I went with a limited number of entries being shown (to draw the visitor) with the “more” link at the bottom of the boxes giving the visitor the option of seeing more recommended diaries, RedHot, member diaries, comments, etc.

            That said, it may be an option worth exploring – given that it leaves more space for advertising and stuff. And it could (like I think is Becker wants) make it possible for just one sidebar column.

            I’ll do some experimenting and see.

          • woodsman

            on what mbecker was describing. I’m simply trying to add some insight into what I think he meant. But then, I’m sure you know what happens when we “assume” things, heh?

            Perhaps there might be more appropriate content to place into this type of functionality also. And leave other, more important topics on permanent display.

            The other thing I might like to see is where the site auto-sizes for the users screen resolution. I’m using a 24″ monitor and it seems like a waste of real estate.

          • mbecker908

            Why not just run it through a project and blast it against the whole wall! Holy cow.

            Actually, your assumptions worked out really well. If you get shot it won’t be for this.

          • woodsman

            for reading large spread sheets and looking at CAD drawings, etc. I use a laptop for portability and the big monitor so I don’t have to get nose prints on the screen!

            PS. I did think about the projector, but the bulbs are too expensive. :)

          • RetNAV

            Got a 22″ Samsung myself – and it’s a lot easier on my bad eyes. I hardly ever have to CTRL+ anymore to enlarge the type.

            Bad thing about flat screen monitors though, cat can’t hang out on top of it when it’s chilly.

          • izoneguy

            We need 30″ monitors!!!!

            I use a 24″ & 30″ for editing video.
            Then I check it on my 52″ LCD.

          • mbecker908

            Right now RS is set up in a three column format.

            Col 1 is where the diaries go and is about 60% of the screen. Col 2 & 3 are each about 20% of the screen.

            Col 2 currently is “Get Local”, “Action Alert”, “Premium Ad” box, “Comments”, ads.

            Col 3 is Recommended Diaries, Redhot, RS by email, Member Diaries, Subscribe, Recent Jobs.

            I’m saying that you could use the 3rd Col for Admin & advertising. Maybe put an “Admin” box at the top with links to login, Get Local, Action Alert, RS by email, Subscribe & Recent Jobs. Below that you could put a box with fewer “Diaries” for draw. (You’d want at least enough space for your entries & mine :-) ) Ads would go below the “Draw” section.

            The “Diaries” section would then account for about 80% of screen space and the Admin/Advertising would account for about 20%.

            The longer boxes with all of the Recommended Diaries and Current Member Diaries would drop down from a tab.

            Some other features you might want to consider would be special tabs for your diaries and mine. Oh, and a picture of Franz in the header bar.

            One other nice feature would be to float the tab bar at the top of the page, keep it there as the page scrolls. That way for us really lazy people we wouldn’t have to pop back to the top of the page to look at other stuff, we could tab from anywhere down the Diary column.

    • zuiko

      Have a few different tabs that can be displayed on the right. That would eliminate the need for one of the columns. That would probably be better than dropdowns from a usability standpoint.

  • $peciallist

    :)

  • Jim Tomasik

    anywhere. I mean the ones I wrote earlier today.

    How can we keep up a good ruckus if we can’t find out who we were ruckussssing with before we got off work and drove home.

    One more thing…

    Whats up with the thing to the left that says:

    Your Thoughts:
    (smaller size Larger size)

    I mean, exactly what size thoughts do you prefer?

    Disclaimer:

    This comment may be a BUI incident and is currently under investigation by the cyber police. No animals was harmed in the mistyping of this comment.

    • Flagstaff

      a list of your recent comments.

  • davo119

    give “User not found” result

    • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

      I really do. One thing we adopted with RS3/4 is a terribly ugly design.

      • Martin Knight

        I blush …

      • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

        …reasonable people can disagree.

        I think some tweaking would make the current site just right. Like the recoloring on the comment form, for example.

        I just couldn’t ever get around to it before. We worked on those tweaks to RS 3 but then all my time went into keeping it online…

        • Martin Knight

          I know NightTwister likes the current theme … but I think he’s the only one.

          • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

            I think we’re going to have a slow, deliberate process of discussion and innovation, rather than a rushed, forced either/or decision making process.

          • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

            that you would have something against the Poll-ish…

            end lame humor ;-)

          • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

            That’s why I disabled the Kowalski button.

          • Kowalski

            Oh, the stories we could tell.

            In truth, I know that Neil doesn’t hate the Polish, he just doesn’t want them to overstate their case ;) .

          • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

            probably shouldn’t go this way… but once the lame humor starts it’s hard to stop it…

          • Kowalski

            Did you ever hear the one about the Polish astronomers?

            You know, those guys who designed a spacecraft to visit the sun and take measurements?

            In a press conference before their visit, they defended their scientific venture and deflected all of the criticism:

            “Yes, but won’t it be horribly expensive, when Poland has other things to spend the money on?”

            “Of course, but as a matter of national pride, it will make Poland the equal of any nation in the world.”

            “What do you expect to achieve during this mission in terms of science?”

            We will take the most accurate measurements of the sun’s radiation that have ever been possible, and will also directly measure the chemistry and physics of the sun at a level never before attempted. We will measure the radiation being emitted across the widest range of the spectrum, and do so directly. This should help to solve the debate about global warming.”

            “Do you worry about the temperature? How has the spacecraft been constructed to withstand the terrible cold of space and the blistering heat of the sun?”

            This is where we are one step ahead. We plan to go at night.

            …..

            I can tell this joke, and I can laugh at it also.

          • Martin Knight

            As far as I’m concerned, a new theme (if there would be a new theme) can take as long as necessary. Priority is getting all the parts working.

          • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

            Well, I think none of us want to keep the site exactly as-is.

            I have a list of changes I’d like to make to this design, that I worked on 6 months ago.

            So that poll would be moot, heh.

          • Martin Knight

            :-)

          • NightTwister

            I know he has several votes… ;-)

    • E Pluribus Unum

      I am *frequently* not found….

  • zuiko

    I like it. I think it is a big improvement over the current design. But what is the width of that layout? It looks significantly wider than the current one. I think it would probably be safe to exceed 1024 width but I wouldn’t go over 1280 at this point.

    Hopefully there are plans to make the main content area resize to take up all the available space. If you are running at 1900 pixels wide, for example, about half the space is empty right now.

  • gclaghorn

    I read somewhere that rounded corners are more visually appealing in website design than hard edges.

    Something to think about.

    • zuiko

      They look much less clean and I would rather not load the extra graphics.

      • George Claghorn

        Simple css:

        .class{
              -moz-corner-radius:5px;
        }

        Can also be done via light javascript.

  • George Claghorn

    If you send me the image files, I can try to put together a live demo/sample for you in HTML.