On Nov 19, 2009, at 9:48 PM, Daniel Stenberg wrote:

> On Wed, 11 Nov 2009, G. T. Stresen-Reuter wrote:
>
>> 1. What emotions do you want to elicit from your site visitors?
>> What is the primary emotional response you want them to have?
>>
>> Some examples of emotions include "optimism", astonishment (good or
>> bad), surprise (again, can be good or bad), contentment, relief,
>> etc. There is a somewhat universal relationship between colors and
>> emotions. Knowing what emotional responses you hope to elicit will
>> tell us what colors to use.
>
> That of course could be a subject to debate among readers of the
> site, while I primarily is the producer or author of it and not an
> actual visitor.
>
> I think I want it to give a feeling of reliability, solidness,
> correctness and possibly a bit boring. It should be easy to read.

Sounds like a bank, only without the small type ;-) Seriously, I
completely understand and in cases like this, typical colors would be
white, silver, blue, some transparency (like a thick, heavy glass
table with a stainless steel base). I'm seeing thin black (or dark
gray, blue) lines (frequently called "rules") as design elements. This
is similar to what you currently have (funny how that works) but maybe
missing an artist's touch.

>> 2. What "attitude" do you wish the page to have?
>>
>> Sample attitudes include confident, serious, clear-minded,
>> humorous, etc. The attitude helps us determine the organization of
>> the elements on the page, white space, fonts, and a few other
>> "structural" graphical elements.
>
> Confident and serious. This is solid and functional software that
> works as designed and documented. There are no surprises.

Rock solid navigation and content layout. Again, what you already have
is pretty consistent.

>
>> 3. What are 3 web sites (from any field) whose design you like?
>
> I can't answer that. I don't really think about designs and I don't
> really know what similar sites I would compare with that I like.

I see that www.webasyst.net advertises on every page and in all
honestly, I really like their layout: very consistent, to the point
approach, a minimum of graphics but enough to punctuate "dead" spaces
and help the eye distinguish between content, navigation, and other
page elements.

>> 4. Are there any web sites similar to your own whose designs you
>> like (and that wouldn't be upset if we used some elements as a
>> basis for this new design)?
>
> I don't know of any.

No worries. The real of point of this question is to produce something
the "client" (you) would like by basing it on something they've
already said they like.

> My primary concerns in the web site when it comes to how visitors
> perceive it, is that it should be easy to find the info you seek, as
> info (manuals) and downloads are two primary reasons visitors come
> to the site. It is a techy site for techy visitors and it needs to
> be made in a way that's easy to extend and alter.

I know what you mean. Too much "Hollywood" can turn technical people
off and communicate the wrong message about the project.

> This project is soon to turn 12 years old. During these 12 years
> there have been little to no interest from other people to help out
> with the web site, thus I am and have been the primary editor and
> "designer". I have no hopes that this will change drastically
> anytime soon and thus I will be the primary/only editor even when/if
> the web site is redesigned. Of course, there's the possibility that
> people don't contribute due to the way I've made the current site...
>
> Another very important thing to consider: we have lots of content on
> the site which is generated/converted from other sources (using
> makefiles and external scripts/tools) and they need to blend in
> properly. Most of the docs and examples on the site are made like
> that.

Nearly all the projects I've ever worked on in my 13 years of doing
this have been "redesigns" in which the client hasn't wanted to lose
any of the existing content. I wouldn't expect this project to be any
different...

The organization of the content (the information architecture) is
pretty good as it is and short of a complete re-branding of the
project I think you are connecting with your intended audience in the
intended way.

The only things that I think contribute to a mixed (clouded or
suboptimal) message, or perhaps communicates a level of
professionalism inferior to, and undeserving of the project, are the
following (these are mostly details, mind you):

- There is a lack of alignment among "header" elements. They should
all be either aligned top, middle, or bottom but right now the Google
ads and the Haxx add are slightly misaligned. A lack of attention to
detail subconsciously lowers a site visitor's confidence.

- The lack of contrast in the hues of blue (navigation background, h2
text, TH elements, and all A element text) muddies the page. I like,
and understand the use of default blue for links, but I think choosing
a different hue of blue for the navigation background and the h2
elements would help direct the eye as it scans the page.

- The use of boxes and borders lose their value when they are over
used. The alternative is to add "white space" and consider the use of
larger and smaller font sizes to add visual contrast. This is probably
the single most complex design issue to fix as you have a variety of
"elements" on each page (advertising, navigation, related navigation,
page meta content, and the content itself, which is further broken
down by boxes and borders). Unfortunately, I don't have a quick fix
for this...

- Although copy editing is beyond the scope of the work I am
considering doing, it crosses my mind that the general presentation on
the main page could (maybe) be improved, or maybe just improve the
presentation of the existing content... hard to say for sure...

There are other issues that could be addressed as well, but I'm
running short on time so I think that perhaps starting by addressing
the issues above would get the site pointed in the right direction.

Like I said before, when things calm down a bit and our littlest one
starts day care I may be able to spend time on this. In the meantime,
I think this back and forth should be useful should anyone else want
to pick this up and run with it.

Sincerely,

Ted Stresen-Reuter

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Received on 2009-11-20