tm4j-developers

[Tm4j-developers] New TM4J web site design proposal [Long]

[Florian G. H. <f.g...@gm...>]

Hello all,

as I'm sure most of you are aware, we (Thomas Bauer, to a major extent, and
Florian Haas, to a minor one) have put some thought into a possible
re-design of the TM4J project web site. We have completed some design drafts
and would greatly appreciate your comments.

OK, so we (plus Kal) thought about making the project web site design much
more Topic-Map-ish, so we could eventually use it for a Velocity- or
Cocoon-centered application. What we have for now are Photoshop dummies
(we're working on HTML versions), and please feel free to look at them at
http://tm4j.org/tmp/HP_DESIGN_9_WEB.JPG and
http://tm4j.org/tmp/HP_DESIGN_9FLORIAN_WEB.JPG (just two versions of the
same thing with different "topics"), and let us hear your thoughts.
Christoph Fröhlich has already provided some very valuable feedback in an
E-Mail to Kal, which we've attached to this message. Christoph, if you're
monitoring this list, we hope you don't mind our doing this. Please keep
telling us stuff like this, it's really more than helpful.

Some other issues that have already come up in informal discussion:
* Keep the "newsticker"? Or is it just a confusing attention-catcher?
* Keep the "search" box? It would certainly be nice to have a full-text
topic map search (or even TMQL, or Tolog), but how would we implement it?

Let's hope we get some good discussion going about this! :-)

Best regards,

Florian
Thomas


| >Envelope-to: ka...@on...
| >X-Sender: pt7...@po...
| >Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 13:17:26 +0200
| >To: ka...@te...
| >From: Christoph Fröhlich  <cf...@fo...>
| >Subject: Site Design
| >
[...]
| >What I can do for now is to make some suggestions for  the proposed site
| >design.
| >
| >
| >I like the "boxy" layout. It appears straight to me, with focus on the
| >content and no too much illustrative elements.
| >Furthermore, the designers know about proportions, setting fontsizes in
| >relation to each other etc.
| >So. Yes, I like it. Nevertheless, I have some suggestions
| >
| >1.
| >The typo "topic maps 4 java" with the shadow.
| >I think, that element doesn't tell you anything new. It provides
| just the
| >same info as the logo-like TM4J-Typo in the upper left corner,
| along with
| >the subline "Topic maps for Java". What makes it worse, is,  that the
| >shadow attracts the visitors attention. Visually it serves as the "first
| >read", while it provides absolute no info. It is a bit like a
| black hole,
| >where your visitors attention will get lost. The "first read" on
| that page
| >should be the name of the topic in focus, eg. "Florian G. Haas". So I
| >think you should dispose the typo and the shadow.
| >
| >
| >2.
| >Rearrange the boxes.
| >My understanding of the layout says: While the visitor is navigating
| >through the map the content of the three boxes "main information",
| >"navigation bar" and "abstract" changes with the topic in focus.
| Is that right?
| >The other three boxes show site-related info and do not change while
| >exploring the map.
| >i think you should arrange all boxes which display info from the
| map close
| >to each other and do not spread them all over the page
| >If you follow my argumentation in 1. and dispose shadow and
| typo, then you
| >will gain some space at the top of the page for the news and the
| search boxes.
| >
| >
| >3.
| >I miss  some "global navigation".
| >I think you should provide the visitors with some entrypoints to the map.
| >Perhaps something like "Projects", "Persons" etc.
| >While the content of the boxes "main", "navigatioN" and
| "abstract" changes
| >with every click, there should be some stable landmarks, which gives you
| >the chance to start over, after you got lost in the sea of knowledge.
| >
| >
| >
| >  Please kay, keep in mind, that i am not too comfortable with writing
| > english. If it is not possible to understand what I have
| written, please
| > feel free to ask.
| >
| >
| >Regards
| >
| >cf
| >
| >
|

Re: [Tm4j-developers] New TM4J web site design proposal [Long]

[Gerd M. <ge...@sm...>]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2002 00:25:04 +0100
"Florian G. Haas" <f.g...@gm...> wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> as I'm sure most of you are aware, we (Thomas Bauer, to a major extent, and
> Florian Haas, to a minor one) have put some thought into a possible
> re-design of the TM4J project web site. We have completed some design drafts
> and would greatly appreciate your comments.
> 
> OK, so we (plus Kal) thought about making the project web site design much
> more Topic-Map-ish, so we could eventually use it for a Velocity- or
> Cocoon-centered application. What we have for now are Photoshop dummies
> (we're working on HTML versions), and please feel free to look at them at
> http://tm4j.org/tmp/HP_DESIGN_9_WEB.JPG and
> http://tm4j.org/tmp/HP_DESIGN_9FLORIAN_WEB.JPG (just two versions of the
> same thing with different "topics"), and let us hear your thoughts.
> Christoph Fröhlich has already provided some very valuable feedback in an
> E-Mail to Kal, which we've attached to this message. Christoph, if you're
> monitoring this list, we hope you don't mind our doing this. Please keep
> telling us stuff like this, it's really more than helpful.
> 
> Some other issues that have already come up in informal discussion:
> * Keep the "newsticker"? Or is it just a confusing attention-catcher?
> * Keep the "search" box? It would certainly be nice to have a full-text
> topic map search (or even TMQL, or Tolog), but how would we implement it?
> 
> Let's hope we get some good discussion going about this! :-)

I like the overall design. It's frugal but very distinctive.

But I agree with Christoph that the 'a topic map
engine for java' line in the header is to much. Also the shadow of 
'topic maps 4 java' is to heavy. Perhaps you should drop the 'topic maps for java'
from the TM4J logo and leave 'topic maps 4 java'.

The navgation bar doesn't stand out enough. So you have to search for at first.
I would suggest another background color for it and maybe we should also move it
to left side. 

Also I think the newsticker isn't necessary if we have the 'news' box.

I would also drop the 'optimized for explorer' hint. The site should work for
all browsers in the same quality.

Best Regards,
Gerd

______________________________________________________________________________
Gerd Mueller                                                  ge...@sm...     
SMB GmbH                                                http://www.smb-tec.com

Re: [Tm4j-developers] New TM4J web site design proposal [Long]

[Jack P. <jac...@th...>]

I think that "web sites as topic maps" is a great idea.  In fact, I've been=
=20
thinking about ways to break the entire XML Topic Maps book into a topic=20
map itself on the web.  These images give me some ideas.  Thanks.

Jack

At 11:55 AM 2/27/2002 +0100, Gerd Mueller wrote:
>On Wed, 27 Feb 2002 00:25:04 +0100
>"Florian G. Haas" <f.g...@gm...> wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
> >
> > as I'm sure most of you are aware, we (Thomas Bauer, to a major extent,=
 and
> > Florian Haas, to a minor one) have put some thought into a possible
> > re-design of the TM4J project web site. We have completed some design=20
> drafts
> > and would greatly appreciate your comments.
> >
> > OK, so we (plus Kal) thought about making the project web site design=
 much
> > more Topic-Map-ish, so we could eventually use it for a Velocity- or
> > Cocoon-centered application. What we have for now are Photoshop dummies
> > (we're working on HTML versions), and please feel free to look at them=
 at
> > http://tm4j.org/tmp/HP_DESIGN_9_WEB.JPG and
> > http://tm4j.org/tmp/HP_DESIGN_9FLORIAN_WEB.JPG (just two versions of the
> > same thing with different "topics"), and let us hear your thoughts.
> > Christoph Fr=F6hlich has already provided some very valuable feedback in=
 an
> > E-Mail to Kal, which we've attached to this message. Christoph, if=
 you're
> > monitoring this list, we hope you don't mind our doing this. Please keep
> > telling us stuff like this, it's really more than helpful.
> >
> > Some other issues that have already come up in informal discussion:
> > * Keep the "newsticker"? Or is it just a confusing attention-catcher?
> > * Keep the "search" box? It would certainly be nice to have a full-text
> > topic map search (or even TMQL, or Tolog), but how would we implement=
 it?
> >
> > Let's hope we get some good discussion going about this! :-)
>
>I like the overall design. It's frugal but very distinctive.
>
>But I agree with Christoph that the 'a topic map
>engine for java' line in the header is to much. Also the shadow of
>'topic maps 4 java' is to heavy. Perhaps you should drop the 'topic maps=20
>for java'
>from the TM4J logo and leave 'topic maps 4 java'.
>
>The navgation bar doesn't stand out enough. So you have to search for at=20
>first.
>I would suggest another background color for it and maybe we should also=20
>move it
>to left side.
>
>Also I think the newsticker isn't necessary if we have the 'news' box.
>
>I would also drop the 'optimized for explorer' hint. The site should work=
 for
>all browsers in the same quality.
>
>Best Regards,
>Gerd
>
>___________________________________________________________________________=
___
>Gerd=20
>Mueller                                                  ge...@sm...
>SMB GmbH                                               =
 http://www.smb-tec.com
>
>_______________________________________________
>Tm4j-developers mailing list
>Tm4...@li...
>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tm4j-developers

Re: [Tm4j-developers] New TM4J web site design proposal [Long]

[Kal A. <ka...@te...>]

At 00:25 27/02/2002 +0100, Florian G. Haas wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>as I'm sure most of you are aware, we (Thomas Bauer, to a major extent, and
>Florian Haas, to a minor one) have put some thought into a possible
>re-design of the TM4J project web site. We have completed some design=
 drafts
>and would greatly appreciate your comments.
>
>OK, so we (plus Kal) thought about making the project web site design much
>more Topic-Map-ish, so we could eventually use it for a Velocity- or
>Cocoon-centered application. What we have for now are Photoshop dummies
>(we're working on HTML versions), and please feel free to look at them at
>http://tm4j.org/tmp/HP_DESIGN_9_WEB.JPG and
>http://tm4j.org/tmp/HP_DESIGN_9FLORIAN_WEB.JPG (just two versions of the
>same thing with different "topics"), and let us hear your thoughts.
>Christoph Fr=F6hlich has already provided some very valuable feedback in an
>E-Mail to Kal, which we've attached to this message. Christoph, if you're
>monitoring this list, we hope you don't mind our doing this. Please keep
>telling us stuff like this, it's really more than helpful.
>
>Some other issues that have already come up in informal discussion:
>* Keep the "newsticker"? Or is it just a confusing attention-catcher?
>* Keep the "search" box? It would certainly be nice to have a full-text
>topic map search (or even TMQL, or Tolog), but how would we implement it?

Adding a search with Tolog would be a great feature for the "second stage"=
=20
of the website (once we get it hosted on a machine that supports a servlet=
=20
environment). But for now, perhaps the search should just make use of some=
=20
third-party indexing (e.g. search the site with Google/Lycos) - of course,=
=20
this has the disadvantage that the results will end up taking people away=20
from the website. Does anyone have any experience of setting up search on a=
=20
SourceForge-hosted site ?

Cheers,

Kal