proposal for kdevelop.org new website design

[Sam S.]

On 12/4/09, Alexander Dymo <alexander.dymo at gmail.com> wrote:
> п'ятниця, 04-гру-2009 10:09:01 Niko Sams ви написали:
>> My opinion on this: Use JS to improve user experience, but provide a
>>  working HTML-only fallback (that might be not as pretty).
>> In the case of the language selector it could be a pretty JS dropdown,
>> and a link
>> to a langauge-selection-page for non-JS users.
>
> Exactly! Or a pure html combobox (aka "select").

Okay, I agree, it shouldn't be hard to have an HTML-only fallback, so
I am now also in favour of having a pretty dropdown-menu with language
flags and names, instead of lots of flags in plain sight.

On 12/4/09, Alexander Dymo <alexander.dymo at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'll reply here so that the answer won't get lost. I very much like the last
> design (tabless one).
>
> In this design the page doesn't look busy

I guess this desgin (now called "Variation d)" does have it's merits...
I now don't want to go back to having 18 flags and 7 tabs in that
header anymore, either. However, we can't just remove all those links
and not put them anywhere else (they were there in the first place
because at least some of the are important, for details see the
explanatory graphics I've uploaded), so I've updated that mockup to
show those links integrated into the left navigation panel. (resulting
in a new "About" section in that menu)

I've also uploaded two new mockups (again, too
http://smls75.sqweebs.com/kdevelop%20website%20design%20proposal/)
which a much less crowded header than the original proposal, but still
showing "Download"/"Features"/"Screenshots" links up there. (I
personally like them better than d).)

> Also, the main reason I don't like tabs is this:
> tabs imply that there's a selected tab at any moment which is not the case
> because many pages don't have a tab.
>[...]
> PS: maybe if those topmost links are styled not as tabs, they'd fit better.
> But I don't know until I see the alternative design :)

Maybe you guys are a little biased from being GUI application
developers ;-) - from my experience, in the world of webpages tab-like
links do not necessarily have to be interpreted that way. A webpage is
not a widget with multiple views, it's a collection of multiple pages.
And links get you from one page to another. Now if some links are
styled like little signs that stick out from underneath a horizontal
line, so what... the can still be just links.

However, if this really bothers you: how else would you style those
links? The current tab-like appearence makes them look very well
integrated into the surrounding design of the webpage.