[FusionAdmin] The New Layout -- Mockup

[Will Farrington]

On Mon, 2007-07-23 at 18:59 -0400, Alyssa Hung wrote:
> As with Guillaume, I think the reflections look a bit strange from where 
> they are, but I think that the look may be improved if we move line to 
> which the tabs are attached to under the links (instead of above).

This concern has been forwarded.

> I'd also much, much prefer a base colour other than blue. If the logo
> we 
> select for the artwork contest turns out to feature a main colour
> other 
> than blue, then that criticism would be about more than my personal 
> taste. ;)

It is requisite that we remember that this is a universal theme and the
mockup is only in regards to the compiz.org main page - which will
feature a blue theme such that complements the Compiz logo. The Compiz
Fusion page will similarly feature a palette specifically designed to
fit its logo (while still maintaining the same actual theme).

> One of the ideas I liked from RYX's design is that he  had the same
> base 
> colour (dark or light grey, depending on the colour scheme) for all 
> pages, but different highlight colours for each section. It makes it 
> very easy to know, at a glance, what section one is in. Especially if
> a 
> link from one section links to a page in another section.

The idea with this theme is much the same, such that whites and grays
will be the basis for each page, but each page will use different colors
as highlights et al.

> Aside from my gripes about colour, I wish to congratulate you on 
> succeeding in a truly fluid layout! :D I've seen too many pages that, 
> despite the "fluid" layout they were supposed to have, exhibited 
> artifacts such as elements overlapping other elements if the browser 
> window is shrunk down to what I consider a comfortable size. The
> current 
> proposed design doesn't have such problems until it's _really_ small.
> ^_^

That's good to hear.

> Also, while playing with the fluid layout, I stumbled across this:
> http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j239/Deciare/opencompositing-org/?action=view&current=screenshot1-1.png
> 
> Notice how the word "Fusion" wraps into the reflection? I think it'd
> be 
> kind of interesting to have reflections that include text, but not 
> exactly the same text as the tab's caption. Instead, the text could
> be 
> (tiny) fine print that very briefly describes what can be found in
> each 
> section. That text would show only when the link was hovered.

> For example, the reflection for the Documentation link might be 
> captioned "FAQ, plugins, setup". The caption for Community might be 
> "forums, scripts, themes". The last line would fade partially into
> the 
> white of the reflection, making it look as though the rest of the
> list 
> is trailing into the distance. Here's a mockup of what I mean:
> 
> http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j239/Deciare/opencompositing-org/tabs-mockup.png
> (^Also a shameless plug about less blue, more other colours. :P)
> 
> I also think that h1, h2, etc. may be coloured the same as the tabs
> for 
> their respective sections. It's a lot like the way ccsm currently
> uses 
> the the system highlight colour for its headers along the left.

This concern has also been forwarded along with the mockup. =)

> Also, why are there borders to the left and right? If I have a window 
> decorator theme with extremely thin or no borders, then the in-page 
> borders look a bit out of place...

/me shrugs.

I particularly didn't really notice - but it might be due to me using
the gwd default theme instead of Emerald or other.

> I love the fade-to-grey effect at the bottom of the page, and wish
> that 
> it would always be visible even when my window isn't tall enough to
> show 
> it. The copyright stuff could go onto the very last line of the 
> completely-faded-to-grey instead of a separate colour bar at the
> bottom 
> of the page.

I happen to agree. Perhaps just simple black text at the bottom of the
gradient?

> Sorry if any of that sounded like nitpicking... Because I'm sure some
> of 
> it was. :P
> 
> 
> ~Alyssa

Feedback is good.