SV: [Phpwebsite-developers] Defining and implementing designstandards in phpWebSite

[<po...@mi...>]

Wendall, I will put my comments on top of yours, since I agree with you,
Matt, Mike, Shaun and Ken (this is becoming highly complicated).

First of all I would like to say, that I appreciate the positive =
response. I
have been a bit nerves before announcing my article, mainly because I =
did
not want to hurt any feelings. I know the team is working hard with a =
great
amount of passion.

Like Matt stated, many of the examples I have used, are from older =
modules.
I know that the team has come a long way since then. I have been =
sneaking
into the CVS repository from time to time, and the new code is looking =
very
impressive. Matt, I am looking forward to the demo=85

A couple of thoughts:

Lists
-------------------
> Maybe a default message advising the user that there are no items
> available for view currently. This leads into another subject, but it
> might be nice to have a nice list of canned English phrases for use.
> This would come in handy for me. I am sure for those who English isn't
> their first language, a list of standardized phrases would be useful =
as
> well.

I like the idea of default messages. It will bring down the amount of
phrases needed to be translated, and it will ensure, that the same
formulation is uses in every module. I have seen many duplicated =
phrases,
translating phpWebSite version 0.1.0. This could easily be avoided =
having a
default amount of phrases for use.

In my article I forgot to mention, that I think the team should consider =
a
standard for showing error-, warning-, information and debug messages. =
Some
of the messages might be default messages, like the "empty list" =
message.
Other messages may depend entirely on the module. In each case, there =
should
be a default location for the message, i.e. implemented via a {MESSAGE}
variable.

Titles
-------------------
I think the tabbed navigation design Matt has described will solve many =
of
the problems I have mentioned in my article. The new design could be =
styled
in numerous ways, if the html is carefully prepared. My first thought =
was to
replace the Content and Administration titles by icons, aligning them
vertically to the left. I think Red Hat or Mandrake has a control panel
looking something like that.

Input
-------------------
> I think that some sample forms should be put together to illustrate
> some real life examples.

I think this is a great idea. If someone could produce a couple of =
realistic
input forms and publish them, we (the phpWebSite community) could try to
come up with some examples for the interface. I am not a designer, but I
will give it a try.
This brings me to another subject. Right now this thread is the center =
for
our discussion. Months ago it was in another thread. I have an article =
on my
site related to our discussion, and rck has another article on his site,
with advices on "what to do" and "what not to do" in concern of styling
phpWebSite.
It is becoming rather fragmented, and I think we need a single place, =
where
we can continue the discussion, collect the ideas, with bits and pieces =
of
code, screenshots and examples. I think it is very important, that we =
split
up our discussion in categories (titles, input, lists etc.), not =
necessarily
in those categories I have used in my article.

Another thing about input forms. It would be nice, if the cursor was
automatically placed in the first input field, as long as it is not a
dropdown (I hate dropdowns because they interferes with page scrolling =
and
my mouse wheel). Anyway, this is just a "nice to have" thing. It could
easily be accomplished with a standard JavaScript function, called =
onload.

- Michael Rasmussen (TechElephant)