firebird-website — Everything about Firebird's web site

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Mark R. <ma...@la...>]

I notice that some things are a bit off on 
http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/jdbc-driver/ might be causes by 
invalid/outdated use of classes in the html.

Can someone can me a hint how to fix this, or if there is no easy fix, 
fix it for me ;).

Mark
-- 
Mark Rotteveel

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

30.08.2016 14:35, Alexey Kovyazin wrote:
>
>> Looks fine to me. For the bold links I'd also try OpenSans Semibold.
>> Might look less heavy and more fresh.
>
> Check md186 again - is it better?
> Personally I like semibold.

Worth trying for the side menu as well.


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Jiří Č. <ji...@ci...>]

> > Personally I like semibold.
> 
> Me too, looks better.

Yes, it looks better.

-- 
Mgr. Jiří Činčura
Independent IT Specialist

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

30.08.2016 14:35, Alexey Kovyazin wrote:
>
>> Looks fine to me. For the bold links I'd also try OpenSans Semibold.
>> Might look less heavy and more fresh.
>
> Check md186 again - is it better?
> Personally I like semibold.

Me too, looks better.


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Alexey K. <ak...@ib...>]

Jiri,
>
> Looks fine to me. For the bold links I'd also try OpenSans Semibold. 
> Might look less heavy and more fresh.

Check md186 again - is it better?
Personally I like semibold.

Regards,
Alexey

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

30.08.2016 12:40, Dmitry Yemanov wrote:
>
>> Have a look now: size -1
>
> Looks good to me.

Correction: good for the top menu. But IMHO it looks bulky for left-side 
menu on level 2 pages.


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Alexey K. <ak...@ib...>]

> 30.08.2016 14:03, Jiří Činčura wrote:
>> showing search is like telling "Our navigation sucks.", not mentioning
>> average user can probably use Google.

This is Google custom search :)
> It's also funny that using the embedded site search returns
> cms.firebirdsql.org rather than www.firebirdsql.org ;-)

Bug, to be fixed.

Regards,
Alexey

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

30.08.2016 14:03, Jiří Činčura wrote:
>
> showing search is like telling "Our navigation sucks.", not mentioning
> average user can probably use Google.

It's also funny that using the embedded site search returns 
cms.firebirdsql.org rather than www.firebirdsql.org ;-)


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Alexey K. <ak...@ib...>]

Jiri,

 >Looks fine to me. For the bold links I'd also try OpenSans Semibold. 
Might look less heavy and more fresh.
Ok

 >I believe should be removed.

I am agree with your proposals.
However, now we are trying to do small changes, one at a time, to do not 
break something important during the redesign.
Changes in menu are really easy, all done from CMS, but changes in 
header is more sensitive.
It will be the next step.

Regards,
Alexey





> > Jiri, what's you opinion about current md186?
>
> Looks fine to me. For the bold links I'd also try OpenSans Semibold. 
> Might look less heavy and more fresh.
>
> Also the:
> I believe should be removed. For contact we already have a lot of 
> different links all over the place, site map is useless for average 
> user (if might be in the footer if really needed) and showing search 
> is like telling "Our navigation sucks.", not mentioning average user 
> can probably use Google.
> --
> Mgr. Jiří Činčura
> Independent IT Specialist
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Firebird-website mailing list
> Fir...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/firebird-website

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Jiří Č. <ji...@ci...>]

> Jiri, what's you opinion about current md186?

Looks fine to me. For the bold links I'd also try OpenSans Semibold.
Might look less heavy and more fresh.

Also the:
 
I believe should be removed. For contact we already have a lot of
different links all over the place, site map is useless for average user
(if might be in the footer if really needed) and showing search is like
telling "Our navigation sucks.", not mentioning average user can
probably use Google.
--
Mgr. Jiří Činčura
Independent IT Specialist

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Alexey K. <ak...@ib...>]

> Looks good to me.
> Dmitry


Jiri, what's you opinion about current md186?

Regards,
Alexey

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

30.08.2016 12:28, Alexey Kovyazin wrote:
>
> Have a look now: size -1

Looks good to me.


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Alexey K. <ak...@ib...>]

> Looks OK at the first glance, just a bit hard to compare due to 
> different sizes. 

Have a look now: size -1

Regards,
Alexey

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

30.08.2016 10:51, Alexey Kovyazin (ak) wrote:

> The question is not the size, but font - currently it is Arial, proposed
> Open Sans.

Looks OK at the first glance, just a bit hard to compare due to 
different sizes.


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Alexey K. (a. <ak...@ib...>]

The question is not the size, but font - currently it is Arial, proposed Open Sans.
Ill ask to reduce size for menu at md186.
--
Regards,
Alexey Kovyazin
IBSurgeon вторник, 30 августа 2016г., 10:44 +03:00 от Dmitry Yemanov  fir...@ya... :

>30.08.2016 10:20, Alexey Kovyazin wrote:
>>
>> Take a look at md186.dqteam.com, there were changes in the font for menu.
>> Is it better?
>
>I like the current (smaller) font better.
>
>
>Dmitry
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>_______________________________________________
>Firebird-website mailing list
>Fir...@li...
>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/firebird-website

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

30.08.2016 10:20, Alexey Kovyazin wrote:
>
> Take a look at md186.dqteam.com, there were changes in the font for menu.
> Is it better?

I like the current (smaller) font better.


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Alexey K. <ak...@ib...>]

> The current version looks better. Maybe a bit smaller font could be used
> for the news on the main page, but for all other pages the current font
> looks fine to me.

Ok.
Take a look at md186.dqteam.com, there were changes in the font for menu.
Is it better?

>
> I'd just suggest to remove the "Project News" title at the main page.
> With just a single information stream on the page it's pretty obvious
> that you look at the news.

Ok.

Regards,
Alexey

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

28.08.2016 10:18, Dmitry Yemanov wrote:
>
>> BTW the new bigger font looks ugly. Even untrained eye of me can
>> immediately spot the font size is not in par with other parts of the
>> size and the design looks like it's cracking. Not mentioning that it's
>> inconsistent thorough the site - sometimes the original smaller one pops
>> up.
>
> Agreed.

The current version looks better. Maybe a bit smaller font could be used 
for the news on the main page, but for all other pages the current font 
looks fine to me.

I'd just suggest to remove the "Project News" title at the main page. 
With just a single information stream on the page it's pretty obvious 
that you look at the news.


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Jiří Č. <ji...@ci...>]

> Can you send some links with examples?

http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/firebird-brand-faq/

-- 
Mgr. Jiří Činčura
Independent IT Specialist

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Alexey K. <ak...@ib...>]

Hi,
> BTW the new bigger font looks ugly. Even untrained eye of me can
> immediately spot the font size is not in par with other parts of the
> size and the design looks like it's cracking. Not mentioning that it's

Next week we will try OpenSans and other standard alternatives.
> inconsistent thorough the site - sometimes the original smaller one pops
> up.
Can you send some links with examples?

Regards,
Alexey

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

26.08.2016 11:56, Alexey Kovyazin wrote:
>
>> I think we need some horizontal bar on the top, between "You are here"
>> and the page contents. But not a tall one with tabs/pages like we had
>> before, rather a shorter one implemented as direct hyper-links to some
>> "hot" pages, e.g.:
>
>> Donate (*) | Issue Tracker | Roadmap | @ GitHub | etc
>
> Dmitry, I think we'd better make these links (+ Download) as top menu, and put the tree-view structure of the site to the detailed left menu on level 2 pages.

Donate should be on the main page, probably moved to the left side-bar 
between the banner and "Latest Releases".

As for others, let them be on the 2nd level.

>> In this case, page-level top banners "Contributing to Firebird" and
>> "Tracker" can be removed, together with "Latest Release" (I don't see
>> much sense in this one).
>
> I think that these banners should be removed anyway - they only pollute the attention and make navigation more complex.

Agreed.


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

28.08.2016 09:48, Jiří Činčura wrote:

> BTW the new bigger font looks ugly. Even untrained eye of me can
> immediately spot the font size is not in par with other parts of the
> size and the design looks like it's cracking. Not mentioning that it's
> inconsistent thorough the site - sometimes the original smaller one pops
> up.

Agreed.


Dmitry

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Jiří Č. <ji...@ci...>]

BTW the new bigger font looks ugly. Even untrained eye of me can
immediately spot the font size is not in par with other parts of the
size and the design looks like it's cracking. Not mentioning that it's
inconsistent thorough the site - sometimes the original smaller one pops
up.

-- 
Mgr. Jiří Činčura
Independent IT Specialist

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Jiří Č. <ji...@ci...>]

On Fri, Aug 26, 2016, at 10:56, Alexey Kovyazin wrote:
> However, Documentation itself should be tweaked - the entrance page for
> Documentation looks confusing (even for me), so any suggestions
> specifically for Documentation are welcome (but let's start separate
> thread for it).

Agreed. The documentation is - for seasonal visitor - pretty confusing,
I think.

> This is more complex.
> If you can provide a good word to put Support, Community and Development
> under the single umbrella, please propose it.

I think Support is fine. Developers will find what they need eventually,
maybe even directly landing on Github, instead of our web. I think the
Support might look good for businesses looking mature product. Or
evaluating some. In Support the Community can be as well. At least the
help/support part.
 
To be fair I don't even know what I should expect in Community -
comunity of Firebird hackers?, users?, community help, community
resources, ???

> Now Join Firebird leads to Become a member of Foundation, there are
> several steps before money, so probably Donate and Join Firebird are
> different.
> Certainly we can try to implement Join Firebird in several visible
> places, and check what will be the conversions to the new members.

Simple PayPal button?

-- 
Mgr. Jiří Činčura
Independent IT Specialist

Re: [Firebird-website] Main page redesign

[Alexey K. <ak...@ib...>]

Hi Dmitry, Jiri,

I think we should seriously shrink the top menu and banners, and put in 
top menu only links which are really important for us - that we really 
want to be clicked, not just "good to have".

Other things should be accessed through search or extended left menu on 
level-2 pages.


> - i.e. About Firebird and Documentation could be under one link,

Jiri, I tend to agree that About Firebird is pretty useless, and it will be fine if logos and licenses will be under Documentation.

However, Documentation itself should be tweaked - the entrance page for Documentation looks confusing (even for me), so any suggestions specifically for Documentation are welcome (but let's start separate thread for it).


> similar with Support/Community/Development

This is more complex.
If you can provide a good word to put Support, Community and Development under the single umbrella, please propose it.


> - Case Studies are already in right panel

agree.
I must admit that case studies project occurred to be much more complex, since it is unbelievably difficult to convince end-users to fill out the template of case study. In the future we will change the focus to testimonials instead. It also requires separate thread to discuss.


>
>I think we need some horizontal bar on the top, between "You are here"
>and the page contents. But not a tall one with tabs/pages like we had
>before, rather a shorter one implemented as direct hyper-links to some
>"hot" pages, e.g.:

>Donate (*) | Issue Tracker | Roadmap | @ GitHub | etc

Dmitry, I think we'd better make these links (+ Download) as top menu, and put the tree-view structure of the site to the detailed left menu on level 2 pages.

> (*) I see "Join Firebird!" at the bottom, but given this is about
> collecting money it should rather be more visible and located at the top.

Now Join Firebird leads to Become a member of Foundation, there are several steps before money, so probably Donate and Join Firebird are different.
Certainly we can try to implement Join Firebird in several visible places, and check what will be the conversions to the new members.


>In this case, page-level top banners "Contributing to Firebird" and
>"Tracker" can be removed, together with "Latest Release" (I don't see
>much sense in this one).

I think that these banners should be removed anyway - they only pollute the attention and make navigation more complex.


Regards,
Alexey











Regards,
Alexey





> I would remove the whole "Contact Us/Site Map/Search" part. It's taking
> space for no IMO real value.
>
> The main navigation bar contains IMO too much links.
>    - i.e. About Firebird and Documentation could be under one link,
>    similar with Support/Community/Development
>    - Case Studies are already in right panel
>
> I really don't see "mobile" version. If something like that exists in
> 2016. I would rather like to see responsive design/layout.
>
> Are we talking only about the home page? Or other pages as well?
>