Re: website++: newbie comments

[Ben Coman <be...@aurema.com>]

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
des1
- no good, dislike the inverse title text on the dark blue bar 

des 2
+ nice pastels
+ "Welcome" title bar highlighted is good.
- needs vertical stripe separating from body

des 3v1
- in a large window, the white body surrounded by blue in rest of window
blocky.
  could this blue be restricted to just the xml.apache.org>home
horizontal bar
+ xml.apache.org has good positioning and size

des 3v2
- don't put navigation bar on right. 
  - in small window, navigation can disappear from view
  - breaks cognitive model most people have got used to (sorry for R->L
readers)

OTHER RESPONSES
>is there a firm requirement to have all projects listed in the 
>side bar of the page? That list has to be really confusing to people 
>visiting for the first time.

as an xml.apache.org newbie, having subheadings in the navbar would be a
great help, 
but keep all the projects there also, as this provides a structural
overview and retains the existing slingle-click to the projects.
hopefully there is enough room

> Try using a two row horizontal navigation menu instead.

i notice that the current http://xml.apache.org/xerces-j/index.html has
a different navigation sidebar to http://xml.apache.org/.  This might an
argument in favour of having a horizontal navbar, and leave the sidebar
for the subproject navigation.

The first level could be the project subheadings: Parser, XSL-T
Processor, Publishing, Services, Database, Graphics, Security, and
Home/Overview/Intro.
(if that is too wide, perhaps the first level could be two line,
separated from the second level by colour)

the second level would be the actual projects.  Hopefully the second
level would be updated by mouse-overs on the first level, rather than
having to do a page update.

The following could be combined in the second level for
Home/Overview/Intro
> Main Headings:
>     Home  Projects  Distribution Info  Getting Involved   People  Contact Info
> Home:
>     Home  News  Mission  Guidelines


> How about framesets to avoid "complex tables"? 
augh!! please please please don't!!! :)


Also, was it meant to resize to window size? it seems to stay a static
width in Redhat Linux 7.1 Netscape 4.77.

Lastly, just a randon musing...
On the existing site, where the subtitle says "Xerces: XML parsers in
Java and C++ (plus Perl and COM)", it could perhaps instead say
something like "Parsers > Xerces (Java, C++, Perl, COM)", showing
explicitly where this project fits in the structure, and matching the
"xml.apache.ord>Home" marker at the top.

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