Re: Website pre-07/29 thoughts

[elzubeir at arabeyes dot org (Mohammed Elzubeir)]

On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 05:02:45PM -0700, Nadim Shaikli wrote:
> The template noted/highlighted below is,
> 
>   http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mmohamed131617/arabeyes/aesite2.htm
> 
>  1. too much space above banner

Agreed -- Youcef was looking into this.

>  2. banner needs to be nicer - not sure what those whale-fins are

The 'whale-fins' are obviously the first letter of our logo (3).. duh ;)
This should be number 12309123 not #2.

>  3. Navigation menu order needs to be,
>     Home, About, News, Projects, Resources, Documents, People and Contact us

Fully agreed. Told Youcef about this and he said he would rather wait
until we all agree on an order. He said something about me telling him
one order and then you coming up with a different one and didn't want to
get caught in the cross-fire ;) The above order is fine with me ;)

>     a. All others need to be nicely structured in the Quick-Links or
>        right menu somewhere.

The order that is currently in the Quick Links menu is not great but a
start. The idea is to lump the relevant ones together (in terms of the
potential audience. ie. developers, users, etc.)

>  4. too much space below the navigation bar

I think it's just right.

>  5. too much space between about blurb and first news

Probably right.

>  6. Regarding the right menu section
>     a. look at paidcontent.org (and others) and note how their
>        forms are wider and their right menu doesn't get resized as
>        ours does.  In short our right menu should not get resized.

No, I am 100% against fixed-width tables. All tables should be fully
resizable. We've been through this before.

>     b. in right menu too many green titles

Uhh.. isn't that the theme?

>        i. for projects - have one green and subsections are in the
>           template for each of the other types of projects

That could be a good idea -- could also lead to a rainbow of colors ;)
So, proceed with caution ;)

>     c. no space between green bar and first entry but an empty line
>        between last entry and next green bar - looks odd (not sure
>        what to do here)

Have no idea what you're talking about. 

>     d. links (all links) should either change color and/or (preferable)
>        show the underline form when mouse hover over them

Agreed.

>     e. as a suggestion - see what you can do about putting the login
>        and search on a single horizontal line instead of the right
>        menu (for grins)

Looks perfectly fine to me as is. 

>     f. possibly make the buttons smaller (saw some nice things where
>        people use arrows and such)

That's something for the bored.. do it when you have notice you are
picking your nose ;)

>     g. quick links needs to be better organized (middle bar looks odd)

Read above on the quick links organization.

>     h. Add "Join Us!" below Donate! in right menu

I would dare and say, the whole 'Support Us' thing should swap places
with 'Quick Links'. We are _not_ receiving donations right now, please
don't put it on such a high priority.

>     i. Add more space between last entry and the sf.net logo

Yeah that would be nice.

>  7. "Project updates for July 2003" should be renamed to something shorter
>     a. "Updates - July 2003"

Not necessarily.. just make it not look like it's rammed into that
space.

>     b. or use what you had before "July 2003 Project Updates"

I don't recall it ever being that. At least not in my version.

>  8. I like the templates green bar for the "More..." - bottom page, try
>      that out on the current live page

Agreed.

>  9. The original template had a black boarder around the banner and
>     navigation bar - kinda looked nice, gave it a beveled look

Not sure I'm a big fan of that 'feature'.

> 10. It would be nice if drawn horizontal lines could be align if possible
>     a. so on the front page the "Project updates for July 2003"
>        (should be renamed to "Updates - July 2003") that line below
>        it should line up with the first news article's horizontal line

That wouldn't be the case if we are following the above url as a
template more closely. Especially with regard to the project updates
part.. and simply having a line to separate major sections (ie. under
'Arabeyes News').

> 11. Todo page should possibly be TAB oriented with tabs that contain
>     your name be highlighted (if possible) with open to open all tabs
>     to see current view
> 

Youcef, as you can see, TABS are Nadim's obsession.. I don't really have
any strong feelings about them.. but I have a very strong feeling that
Nadim will continue to harass you about this till the last breath -- so
I do advice you to get him off your back and do it <g>


Phew.. that was a long email ;)

later
Mohammed Elzubeir