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List:       kde-artists
Subject:    K-ARTIST:new artist.kde.org look & features
From:       "luciash d' being" <luci () sh ! ground ! cz>
Date:       2002-05-10 16:58:47
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hello kde artists and kde look&feel fans,

i've been working these days on some new ideas and re-designing of 
artist.kde.org site. 
as i already mentioned my idea of new web design was about maintaining some 
specific designing parts () of recent version homepage (erasers K logotype, 
textual logotype, colors, whose identify and represent kde artists site few 
years and look quite well in my opinion) and on other hand to add some new 
features, up-to-date look&feel, better design consistency, separation of 
layout from content, more usability and web standards compatibility.

first of all i want to mention we already received here "A little contribution 
:)" from antialias <vukman@dbmail.dk> at Sun, 7 Apr 2002 14:22:58 +0200 
(http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-artists&m=101818263503691&w=2) followed by "Re: 
new artist.kde.org design (Was: K-ARTIST:A little contribution :))" at Sat, 
13 Apr 2002 22:18:40 +0200 
(http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-artists&m=101872950002076&w=2) which 
unfortunatelly didn't fit my idea about how actually should look the new 
artist.kde.org default design.

a week or two ago i've received a "First try" (see the "zwobits_firsttry.jpg" 
attachment) by Matthias Grünler <mattsegruenler@web.de> (yes, he's that guy 
who volunteered in helping me to maintain the site ;)) and he wrote to it:

----------------------------
"Okay here's my first try to make a navigation bar, for artist.kde.org. I'm 
NOT 
very happy about it, it did not come out as it should.. and i think there 
should be much more details. I also had no idea for a logo of artist.kde.org, 
since now. 
What do you think, what should be made better?"
----------------------------

and i've replied:

----------------------------
"ok, as i already said it's all too gray and brings only cold technical 
feeling 
on me. my imagination was something more colorful in combination with gray, 
black and white in the steps of the today's index page what we were talking 
about already (i would like to maintain the erasers logotype and/or textual 
logo too, because it's something significal already for artist.kde.org even 
it was not so long updated)

> What do you think, what should be made better?

i think it grabs unnecessary too much space at the top (i know people which 
really hate to scroll down because of too tall header) and these fonts in 
menu are too big imho.

in fact i like the grey color but it has to be joined by some warm color too.
i was thinking if you could use something more detailed but still soft and 
decent (maybe some motive from your cool industrial photos) for upper left 
document corner background deco? at least i miss the bottom frame design 
too...

wish you good luck looking for your muse :)
(i've made something simple; a little remix of today's artist.kde.org. if you 
want some inspiration about what i mean i can send it to you)"
----------------------------

then i sended to him what i did (see the "homepage.png") and a little 
variation of it.
since then zwobits (matthias) didn't replied yet so i don't know if he liked 
it or not...

now back to my layout design ideas:
thanks to the possibility we can use php we have got a wide range of various 
layout, feature and usability enhancements. we can have even different site 
designs if anyone will be interested to contribute in future.
the default design should look almost the same in all browsers and still 
taking care of w3c (http://www.w3.org) validity so i choosed this solution:

- an optional "splash screen" (or "enter page" if you like) containing a bit 
modified "K erasers logotype" centered horizontally on orange (#ff8100) 
background
- for better usability and compatibility with nn4.xx the whole site should be 
done using frameset divided to simple main site navigation and logotype frame 
on the top, main content frame in the middle part of page and an optional 
(switchable) frame at the bottom containing some useful links or search field 
or whatever else (meant as a useful "little workspace")
- content would be included by web engine (realized in php) into main content 
template from separated plain text, html or xml files
- i decided the main content should be outputed as xhtml 1.0 transitional 
valid document with alternative possibility (realized through css 
visibility:hidden or keeping basic navigation on the bottom of each document) 
to navigate through the site without frames (non-frames enabled browsers)

and new and planned features (as we were talking with matthias about what 
would be cool):
- featured artwork on the main page and archive
- interviews with various kde artists and artwork contributors
- more news and ability to submit news for registered users
- simple chat box
- fulltext search

please, look at the attachments, preview screenshots of template test page 
i've made and opened in different browsers which will follow this mail, and 
then tell me what do you think about it, send your suggestions, tips, 
comments, etc...

thanks and greetings,
luci
-- 
:.. :.: ::: :
luciash [graun]d' being :.:::.::. ::.:::  :: ::    :  :.:.::
simply just an( )other web designer? :::::.::.:.:::.:::  :.: :
l u c i @ s h . g r o u n d . c z ::.:::..:::.::.::.::  :.  ::
c. p#one ++ 420 777 777 590 :::.::::..::.:::  ::    : :.: ::      
http://luci.skinbase.org ::.:::...:.: :  .::  ::.: ::   :::
:.. :.: ::: :

["zwobits_firsttry.jpg" (image/jpeg)]
["homepage.png" (image/png)]
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