Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 18:55:07 +0200 From: Tony <abletony84@gmail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD's backwards webdesign / corporate identity Message-ID: <CADnJ0kF5gt1Zx34pZk=aMj%2Bxy==VnFV6OhiSCTSfBhTx0XmrgQ@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20120409150547.GA73820@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> References: <CADnJ0kHO%2B5dzNZdBCWjH=nmKK=WROUhm%2Bz0vAsn62cdFB3zzrA@mail.gmail.com> <20120409150547.GA73820@gizmo.acns.msu.edu>
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Hi all! Thanks everyone for all the feedback - it has been most helpful! Just to clarify, Siegel+Gale and the UK Design Council are just the places where I work. I should have taken them out of my signature to avoid confusion, my bad. I will start work on a major Rails-based<http://rubyonrails.org/screencasts/rails3>redesign for FreeBSD. I really liked Mikkel's suggestion of going back to the old design<http://web.archive.org/web/20030727123044/http://www2.freebsd.org/>and take it from there, so that's what I will be doing. It might take a couple of months though. Tony http://siegelgale.com/ <http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/>; http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/ On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 5:05 PM, Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> wrote: > On Sun, Apr 08, 2012 at 02:40:12PM +0200, Tony wrote: > > > Hello! > > > > As much as I love FreeBSD, I'm a bit alarmed by its webdesign / corporate > > identity. Since FreeBSD is the world's best OS, I believe it should have > a > > design that reflects this. A design that is so neutral and stripped of > any > > unnecessary details that the user's attention is directed straight on to > > the content as opposed to how the content looks. A design that you can > look > > at over and over without getting annoyed. > > > > Whereas there are a few small things I could see improved in the > FreeBSD website, generally, it is functional and does what it is > supposed to do; provide information about FreeBSD for people looking > for information. It is not there to be wallpaper for someones desktop. > > > The current design is an uneven mix of various styles, and seems more > > forced than well thought out. First you have the shiny Satanic > 3D-lookalike > > logo (yes, despite what y'all say, it's still Satanic) that might look > cool > > the first few times one looks at it. Now though it's more like "what the > > hell *is* that thing anyway"? (ref: Tres > > Logos< > http://www.amazon.com/Tres-Logos-Robert-Klanten/dp/3899552679/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332777820&sr=8-1 > > > > Don't see anything useful there. > As far as the sextoy logo, can't say that I like it, but Where is > anything better? > > > ) > > > > Then you have a surrounding layout trying to cater to that logo, but > fails > > miserably as it was made by programmers as opposed to people with an > actual > > education in design <http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/>. There is no > natural > > flow <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminar_flow>; and the whole thing > just > > comes off as corny <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=corny>; > - > > and this makes us all look bad. I also hear > > PostgreSQL<http://www.postgresql.org/>is planning to sue FreeBSD for > > stealing its design. > > The FreeBSD site heirarchy of information leading to further information > is a bit ragged in places, but show us something better. The Royal Academy > front page is not too bad of a website home page, but isn't really > appropriate to FreeBSD. > > FreeBSD is a serious working project, not some bling bling sales site. > > > > > I propose a new, supersimple look for FreeBSD based on > > Helvetica<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkoX0pEwSCw>. > > No devil logo, no bells and whistles, just straight forward "FreeBSD" - > the > > world's best operating system. So simple that hardly anything it will go > > out of fashion and need to be replaced, so simple that it'll remain as > > current now as it will be a hundred years from now. > > There was nothing there. The site didn't work. > > > > > "Perfection is achieved, not when there's nothing left to add, but when > > there's nothing left to take away." > > I looked at the URLs that you include and saw nothing that made > any sense relative to FreeBSD. > > The socalled 'design council' page made one of the cardinal errors > in web page design by making it a fixed width beyond the browser > window's size. It subverts browser reflow. I hate that. It > abuses the whole sysem and makes it hard for people so hav a desktop > layout the way they want/need. eg, it trashes the page. > > So, come up with some actually good design before you next barf > all over the list. Then, maybe someone will incorporate some > of the worthwhile ideas. > > ////jerry > > > > > Tony > > http://siegelgale.com/ <http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/>; > > http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/ > > _______________________________________________ > > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to " > freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >
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