fofredux-devel

[Fofredux-devel] Interface Design

[khaled A. A. <bro...@gm...>]

Hey everyone, was wondering if anyone has decided to actually sort out the
interface design of the application? I'd be more than willing to jump with
two feet into this and start sending out mockups that people can comment on=
.
Thoughts?

Khaled
www.brokenkode.com

Re: [Fofredux-devel] Interface Design

[Andrew T. <ajt...@hi...>]

Hi Khaled, I left a comment on your site. Maybe it didn't come through?

We definitely appreciate and welcome input for FoFRedux. I agree that
the interface is getting a little mucky as we add more features. And
our roadmap calls for more features that will need better placement,
layout, etc.

However, there are probably a couple things to keep in mind, and
should be laid out by the team for future design decisions. I
personally picked up FoF because 1) the code was easy to understand
and modify, 2) it had a simplified interface that allowed me to just
*read* my news rather than ogle the UI and 3) the UI runs on my
desktop, laptop, mobile phone, handheld devices, etc.

I don't know if this is the case for all the devs/users, and we should
start a discussion regarding this. There are already other feedreaders
out there that do the full-on Ajax with silver bars, etc. (e.g.
Gregarious, fitting name :). FoFRedux is part personal (and hopefully
soon multi-user) feedreader, but also an aggregator (ergo the 'Feed
On' part) to be used for providing feeds to weblogs, other users,
screensavers, etc. So it's also a server-based 'utility'.

Anyways, if anyone else wants to chime in, please do. And Khaled,
perhaps you can discuss some of your ideas before doing mockups, just
so we can all agree on the path we want FoFRedux to take.

Thanks for the interest!
Andrew

On 2/2/06, khaled Abou Alfa <bro...@gm...> wrote:
> Hey everyone, was wondering if anyone has decided to actually sort out th=
e
> interface design of the application? I'd be more than willing to jump wit=
h
> two feet into this and start sending out mockups that people can comment =
on.
> Thoughts?
>
> Khaled
> www.brokenkode.com
>


--
Andrew Turner
ajt...@hi...        42.4266N x 83.4931W
http://highearthorbit.com              Northville, Michigan, USA

Re: [Fofredux-devel] Interface Design

[khaled A. A. <bro...@gm...>]

Sorry Andrew, must have gotten inbetween the cracks (I've been getting
hammered by the spammers lately). I can definitely see where you're coming
from. Just thinking about this very briefly I don't think something like
this is a call for graphics and making it look pretty with loads of images.
I would try and make everything fit together in a logical order and would
only provide any sort of image if it was adding and contributing to the
usage of the thing.

This wouldn't be the first interface to a programme that I get down to
designing, as I'm currently involved with two others (one of which is
wordpress) and I can easily feed on the knownledge I've amassed from there.
Let me do a quick and ready sketch for everyone to have a look at (it won't
take long) to just put things in a slightly less haphazard fashion. Give it
a clear direction so to speak.

In terms of new features and whatnot I guess that will come out in the wash=
.
I'm just interested in using a feed aggregator that sits on my server that
looks and acts the part. I honestly believe that FOFR could become the
wordpress of aggregators and I'd honestly like it to look the part as well.

On 2/2/06, Andrew Turner <ajt...@hi...> wrote:
>
> Hi Khaled, I left a comment on your site. Maybe it didn't come through?
>
> We definitely appreciate and welcome input for FoFRedux. I agree that
> the interface is getting a little mucky as we add more features. And
> our roadmap calls for more features that will need better placement,
> layout, etc.
>
> However, there are probably a couple things to keep in mind, and
> should be laid out by the team for future design decisions. I
> personally picked up FoF because 1) the code was easy to understand
> and modify, 2) it had a simplified interface that allowed me to just
> *read* my news rather than ogle the UI and 3) the UI runs on my
> desktop, laptop, mobile phone, handheld devices, etc.
>
> I don't know if this is the case for all the devs/users, and we should
> start a discussion regarding this. There are already other feedreaders
> out there that do the full-on Ajax with silver bars, etc. (e.g.
> Gregarious, fitting name :). FoFRedux is part personal (and hopefully
> soon multi-user) feedreader, but also an aggregator (ergo the 'Feed
> On' part) to be used for providing feeds to weblogs, other users,
> screensavers, etc. So it's also a server-based 'utility'.
>
> Anyways, if anyone else wants to chime in, please do. And Khaled,
> perhaps you can discuss some of your ideas before doing mockups, just
> so we can all agree on the path we want FoFRedux to take.
>
> Thanks for the interest!
> Andrew
>
> On 2/2/06, khaled Abou Alfa <bro...@gm...> wrote:
> > Hey everyone, was wondering if anyone has decided to actually sort out
> the
> > interface design of the application? I'd be more than willing to jump
> with
> > two feet into this and start sending out mockups that people can commen=
t
> on.
> > Thoughts?
> >
> > Khaled
> > www.brokenkode.com
> >
>
>
> --
> Andrew Turner
> ajt...@hi...        42.4266N x 83.4931W
> http://highearthorbit.com              Northville, Michigan, USA
>

Re: [Fofredux-devel] Interface Design

[Katie B. <ka...@ho...>]

On Thu, Feb 02, 2006 at 01:18:13PM -0500, Andrew Turner wrote:
> We definitely appreciate and welcome input for FoFRedux. I agree that
> the interface is getting a little mucky as we add more features. And
> our roadmap calls for more features that will need better placement,
> layout, etc.

One of the weblogs I read had a post earlier this week asking for a
feed reader recommendation: http://joeshaw.org/2006/02/13/378
I was one of several respondents, and naturally I suggested
FoFRedux.

Today there's an update wherein the author describes his experiences
trying out each of the suggestions: http://joeshaw.org/2006/02/17/379

Here's what he had to say about FoFRedux:
"FoF Redux - I didn't even try this. It has the scariest [link to
http://fofredux.sourceforge.net/images/ViewFrames.jpg]
user-interface I've ever seen in a feed reader. I'm a tech guy,
I'm a hacker, but these days I just don't want to deal with
complicated software anymore."

I'm sharing this here not to try to drum up a campaign to change
this guy's mind about FoFRedux, but rather to show what a potential
user thinks when he sees our user interface.  It's that bad.

-- 
Katie Bechtold         http://hoteldetective.org/

Re: [Fofredux-devel] Interface Design

[Andrew T. (nilspace) <nil...@us...>]

Thanks for the info Katie - perhaps my screenshot with "A Christmas
Gory" also gives an icky feeling. :) I'll get a more happy/better
looking screenshot.

But this is a very good point. Hopefully Khaled comes up with some
nice design ideas.

What about "themeability". Of course, it's all CSS and *hopefully*
XHTML compliant (though I haven't checked), so themeability is "free".
We should just come up with some examples, etc.

But That doesn't address the overall navigation button/links which are
growing rather large and scary looking. Gregarious uses tabs in the
sidebar for selecting b/w Feed/Tags/Categories,. and generic top-line
button bars.

How much do we want to pull from other newsreaders? Any other
suggestions? Bueller? :)

Andrew

On 2/17/06, Katie Bechtold <ka...@ho...> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 02, 2006 at 01:18:13PM -0500, Andrew Turner wrote:
> > We definitely appreciate and welcome input for FoFRedux. I agree that
> > the interface is getting a little mucky as we add more features. And
> > our roadmap calls for more features that will need better placement,
> > layout, etc.
>
> One of the weblogs I read had a post earlier this week asking for a
> feed reader recommendation: http://joeshaw.org/2006/02/13/378
> I was one of several respondents, and naturally I suggested
> FoFRedux.
>
> Today there's an update wherein the author describes his experiences
> trying out each of the suggestions: http://joeshaw.org/2006/02/17/379
>
> Here's what he had to say about FoFRedux:
> "FoF Redux - I didn't even try this. It has the scariest [link to
> http://fofredux.sourceforge.net/images/ViewFrames.jpg]
> user-interface I've ever seen in a feed reader. I'm a tech guy,
> I'm a hacker, but these days I just don't want to deal with
> complicated software anymore."
>
> I'm sharing this here not to try to drum up a campaign to change
> this guy's mind about FoFRedux, but rather to show what a potential
> user thinks when he sees our user interface.  It's that bad.
>
> --
> Katie Bechtold         http://hoteldetective.org/
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log fi=
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> _______________________________________________
> Fofredux-devel mailing list
> Fof...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fofredux-devel
>


--
Andrew Turner
ajt...@hi...        42.4266N x 83.4931W
http://highearthorbit.com              Northville, Michigan, USA

Re: [Fofredux-devel] Interface Design

[khaled A. A. <bro...@gm...>]

I have a lot of faith in this project. I can seriously seeing it being the
ultimate feedreader. Open source is the future and it's all going to be dow=
n
to collaborative effort. From my part I just intend to make things look
nicer. Make things look more functional to use, more intuative. I'm actuall=
y
working on this this weekend so everyone should have a clue about where I'm
coming from by the end of the weekend.

The idea is just to put things in a particular order and give fofredux it's
own distinct look (I'll say that currently I'm playing around with light
blue/green grey and pink as the colours of choice). You'll see where I'm
coming from soon. It's not going taking what we've got now to the next
level. I've got enough ideas.

As for themability, I'm all up for it, just want to make sure that fofredux
has it's own look that is the norm, that people can come to and judge from
day one before I jumping into changing it. It's going to happen for sure,
but for the average user they're going to be looking for something that
looks the part from the word go.

Effectively once the interface is done we won't really have to be dealing
with people talking about the interface..ever, at least that's the plan
anyway.


On 2/17/06, Andrew Turner (nilspace) <nil...@us...> wrote=
:
>
> Thanks for the info Katie - perhaps my screenshot with "A Christmas
> Gory" also gives an icky feeling. :) I'll get a more happy/better
> looking screenshot.
>
> But this is a very good point. Hopefully Khaled comes up with some
> nice design ideas.
>
> What about "themeability". Of course, it's all CSS and *hopefully*
> XHTML compliant (though I haven't checked), so themeability is "free".
> We should just come up with some examples, etc.
>
> But That doesn't address the overall navigation button/links which are
> growing rather large and scary looking. Gregarious uses tabs in the
> sidebar for selecting b/w Feed/Tags/Categories,. and generic top-line
> button bars.
>
> How much do we want to pull from other newsreaders? Any other
> suggestions? Bueller? :)
>
> Andrew
>
> On 2/17/06, Katie Bechtold <ka...@ho...> wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 02, 2006 at 01:18:13PM -0500, Andrew Turner wrote:
> > > We definitely appreciate and welcome input for FoFRedux. I agree that
> > > the interface is getting a little mucky as we add more features. And
> > > our roadmap calls for more features that will need better placement,
> > > layout, etc.
> >
> > One of the weblogs I read had a post earlier this week asking for a
> > feed reader recommendation: http://joeshaw.org/2006/02/13/378
> > I was one of several respondents, and naturally I suggested
> > FoFRedux.
> >
> > Today there's an update wherein the author describes his experiences
> > trying out each of the suggestions: http://joeshaw.org/2006/02/17/379
> >
> > Here's what he had to say about FoFRedux:
> > "FoF Redux - I didn't even try this. It has the scariest [link to
> > http://fofredux.sourceforge.net/images/ViewFrames.jpg]
> > user-interface I've ever seen in a feed reader. I'm a tech guy,
> > I'm a hacker, but these days I just don't want to deal with
> > complicated software anymore."
> >
> > I'm sharing this here not to try to drum up a campaign to change
> > this guy's mind about FoFRedux, but rather to show what a potential
> > user thinks when he sees our user interface.  It's that bad.
> >
> > --
> > Katie Bechtold         http://hoteldetective.org/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------
> > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log
> files
> > for problems?  Stop!  Download the new AJAX search engine that makes
> > searching your log files as easy as surfing the  web.  DOWNLOAD SPLUNK!
> > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=3Dlnk&kid=3D103432&bid=3D230486&dat=
=3D121642
> > _______________________________________________
> > Fofredux-devel mailing list
> > Fof...@li...
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fofredux-devel
> >
>
>
> --
> Andrew Turner
> ajt...@hi...        42.4266N x 83.4931W
> http://highearthorbit.com              Northville, Michigan, USA
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log
> files
> for problems?  Stop!  Download the new AJAX search engine that makes
> searching your log files as easy as surfing the  web.  DOWNLOAD SPLUNK!
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> _______________________________________________
> Fofredux-devel mailing list
> Fof...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fofredux-devel
>