Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 13:58:43 -0500 (CDT) From: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com> To: abletony84@gmail.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD's backwards webdesign / corporate identity Message-ID: <201204091858.q39Iwhh6090131@mail.r-bonomi.com> In-Reply-To: <CADnJ0kF5gt1Zx34pZk=aMj%2Bxy==VnFV6OhiSCTSfBhTx0XmrgQ@mail.gmail.com>
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Tony <abletony84@gmail.com> wrote: > > 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. > Whatever you do, make sure: 1) everything works _without_ javascript or relying on color distinctions or 'background images' -- a fair number of people force 'use my colors' rather than letting the server choose. (browsing multiple web-sites is a *lot* less painful on the eyes, when they _all_ display in color combinations *I* find pleasing. *GRIN* ) 2) Make sure *every* '<img >' tag has a "meaningful" "alt=' field. (if it is just a filler/spacer image, _still_ put an 'alt=" "' field on it. This explicitly declares that the image has 'no content') 3) Make sure everything passes the validator at http://validator.w3.org with -zero- complaints. 4) Make sure everything 'works' in 'lynx', the text-only browser. see <http://lynx.browser.org>/ 5) Make sure everything is usable in Firefox, with ALL SCRIPTING DISABLED, *and* then go to 'Tools->Options', the 'Content' tab, change the font size to say, 64 pt; Also click the 'colors' button and *UN-CHECK* the 'allow pages to chose their own colors' box, click 'ok' twice to dismiss the two pop-up windows, and make sure everything displays OK. 6) Try resizing the browser panel -- wide (side-to-side) and short (top- to-bottom), and narrow (side-to-side) and tall (top-to-bottom). Does it work _acceptably_ in a 640x480 window? (why not? There are users out there with VGA-only displays.) *IDEALLY* there should be no need for horizontal scrolling unless the window is -very- narrow (circa 15% of screen width or less). *IDEALLY* the content should expand to fill whatever width there is available (I have a display 1920 pixels wide, the current webpage =refuses= to use more than about 1/2 of it. Get this right, and you show you understand that HTML is -not- a 'page layout' language, That one is merely providing 'hints' for the browser to 'do with as it sees fit'. Web layout *is* a very different discipline from layout for the printed page. Once you have -that- 100% functional with no errors, -then-, and *only* *then* is is appropriate to add *optional* (for the user) 'enhancements' in addition to the basic functionality.
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