My analysis and conclusion about the current two drafts

[Datschge at gmx.de]

Please note that I'm only writing about the site appearance drafts and  
not about stuff related to the internal structure Christoph etc. mentioned. 
 
 
First Sebastian's 2 sided menu design currently (as for 20.10.02) shown  
at http://www.kde.org/testing/ 
 
Pros: 
-> It makes a clear distinction between navigation on/related to the  
current site (left menu) and additional links to other sites of the KDE  
family (right menu). 
-> Potentially visitors will quickly feel familiar within other KDE  
sites when all KDE related sites keep the right menu consistent like  
proposed in this design. 
-> Since we (when you read this) read from left to right, the left menu  
get the visitors attention first. Since that menu contains links to  
related topics of that very site visitors won't feel lost and are more  
likely to find what they are looking for (supposed that the link  
labeling and grouping is done logically for him, of course). 
-> By using a light blue color scheme for all menu parts Sebastian 
effectively brings the visitor's focus to the content (being 
black/white) while still offering many ways for visitors to find more 
related informations. (Contrast shouldn't increased due to exactly that 
adavantage. I'd instead offer an alternative high contrast version of 
the site, something Sebastian noted at the very ) 
-> Putting the search box in the center is a wise decision as well: not 
only does that avoid irritations if it were included in the left (local 
site) or right (KDE family) menu, it also offers a quick mean for 
visitors who are locing for something specific but can find it right 
away. Having it in the center ensures that visitors will see it and give 
it a try when needed. 
-> Sebastian's design looks compact and well balanced in all 
resolutions, menues are not too long, and the content's width in high 
resolutions is still readable due to the menues on both sides. 
-> The left menu, which is the important menu since it represents the  
site's local navigation, will show up in any resolution and whatever  
width the actual content has. 
 
Issues: 
-> When links are hovered their text gets bold and thus changes its used  
space which doesn't look professional and can potentially change the  
site's proportions. Underlining them or inverting both their text and  
background color would solve this. 
-> The search text should be in light blue like all menu text (adding  
'color: #36c;' to line 53 in main.css fixes that) and the search box  
should be fixed in its width so it doesn't get slim and changes its  
appearance at lower resolutions. This will also give more room for the  
content. 
-> The right menu could disappear behind the right window border of the  
browser if content is big and browser window size/screen resolution  
small. But I don't think that this possibility is a real issue with this 
design since the right menu is intended to be the same on all sites of  
the KDE family; visitors ideally look there once and after that only  
when they want, so no unecessary scrolling would be involved. (When  
adding 'width="390"' to line 138 the search box will be fixed and the  
resulting design shows all content minus the right menu when maximized  
in 640x480, maximizing it in 800x600 shows everything. I can attache  
screenshots showing that on request.) 
 
 
Now Neil and Jaseone's modified version of Sebastians design, one side  
menu on the right, currently (as for 20.10.02) shown at  
http://usability.kde.org/newdesign/ 
 
Pros: 
-> Since the only menu is on the right all menu links are next to the  
scroll bar and thus easy to reach. 
 
Issues: 
-> The first line is rather crowded and thus may look ugly for some  
people (like me). 
-> No clear distinction between the menu and the actual content due to  
usage of blue and underlining in both of them and that not even only for  
links. 
-> No clear distinction in the menu which links are local links related  
to the site and which are leading to other sites of the KDE family. 
-> No clear usage for the search box (what will be searched at all?). 
-> Additionally the whole page gets cut off by the left browser window  
border even in screen resolutions over 1024x768 due to the bad size of  
the text field. 
-> The menu as well as the search box are basically invisible for  
visitors due to its placement on the right (which is unusual). Focus is  
solely on the content, which makes it possibile that the visitor won't  
look at the menu and try a search at all when the page's content doesn't  
give what he was looking for. 
-> Even worse the menu might get completely obscured when the content  
needs more width than the brower window gives. 
-> The menu is far too long. Maximizing the window in a screen  
resolution of 640x480 already gives a blank space of three pages with  
given content. And the amount of wasted space is increasing in higher  
resolutions while the text gets broader. which does not only look bad  
but also makes the text in the content more unreadable overall. 
-> The menu being so long and not split in a "related" and a "KDE  
family" part makes it harder for visitors to notice similarities in menu  
designs even though there might actually be a consistent part at the  
bottom of it. 
 
 
Conclusion: 
I'm voting for Sebastian's design since it gives a better and more  
professional impression, is more logically structured and is thus much  
more useable. I honestly have to say I'm kind of embarassed that some  
people from the "usability" list - which I follow since quite some time  
and to which I intend to contribute to in the future - can mistake an  
easy-reachable-menu hack approach as a perfect site design. Sebastian's  
effort is - also usability-wise - superior in so many regards that it  
would be very sad if the final design for KDE sites will turn out worse  
due to imo doubtful compromises. 
 
 
Thank you very much for your attention. 
Datschge 
 
 
PS: I want to thank Sebastian very much for his new site design and  
especially for starting the discussion about finally giving KDE.org the  
much needed re-design. At kdelook.org he got an imo deserved  
overwhelming support. When I first looked at the kde-www archive I was  
very surprised to see that he didn't even get CC'ed about the discussion  
on this list... 
 
PPS: Neil Stevens wrote "I don't care about polls. KDE never has been,  
and never will be, democratically run when it comes to deciding  
technical merit." 
It's about a usability and look related merits though, and those polls  
are done by users. Additionally, users at kdelook.org need to register  
to be able to post and vote so no duplicate votes are possible. And  
whatever else you want to add to that topic, I doubt the community of  
KDE fans at kdelook.org will like what you wrote here about  
disrespecting their opinions just because they happen to speak them out  
where Sebastian's design was posted first and not here on kde-www. 

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