Re: new Debian homepage: request for review
Hi,
On 10/7/19 10:56 PM, lange@debian.org wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> before starting the translations of the new homepage I like to ask for review
> from native speakers. Following pages in the new-homepage branch
> (git@salsa.debian.org:webmaster-team/webwml.git) needs to be reviewed:
>
> english/index.wml (complete rewrite)
> english/more.wml (new page)
> english/intro/why_debian.wml (I completely rewrote this page)
>
> You can see the new homepage at https://debian-newhomepage.larjona.net
> It would be nice to get some feedback.
Sorry if I'm late in the game ;) also: I'm not sure if that was a call
for feedback regarding localization or layout- I can only comment on the
latter.
But first of alle congrats to the new design, I think it looks a lot
nicer and welcoming than the old website! And please don't get
discouraged by some of the not so useful feedback! I know how much work
goes into designing a website ;)
Still, there are some minor issues that caught my eye (sorry if they
have already been brought up- I tried to follow the discussions but
there were too many mails):
* one thing that bothers me on a lot (but that hasn't even to do
directly with the new design, it also occurs on other Debian website)
are the margins and paddings of the main elements. This is somehow part
of the design specification thats documentend on
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianWebdesign. The #header has a padding on
the left of 52px to make place for the Debian logo and 10px on the
right. The main elements below follow these settings by using margins of
10 and 52 pixels. I think this makes the whole page look a bit askew,
because there is now a big gap on the left and a small gap on the right
of the content. I actually don't get why there even has to be a margin
at all- I think the website would look a lot cleaner by removing the
margins alltogether (that would mean making the padding in line 96 of
debian.css only on the left side and removing the margins of #content in
debian.css:84 and of #footer in debian.css:516).
* fonts: I think the #h1 elements should be the same font as on the rest
of the page and definitly not a serif typeface (startpage.css:122); The
headers are already uppercase, centered, bigger and bold- I think those
properties make them eyecatchie enough.
* hover animation: to me the text-transformation when hovering the
headers feels unsettling. When I move the mouse from one column to the
other, suddenly the column where I came from moves and pulls my eyes
back. Also changes in size have sideeffects (not only the already
reported bug that the horizontal scrollbar appears, but also the
vertical scrollbar changes the scrollbar size, because the website gains
height). And its an effect that only works on devices where you can
hover over elements, which isn't possible on most devices nowadays,
because they have touchscreens. (I think the website looks really good
on mobile btw!)
* hover animation2: when hovering over the icons in the two columns, the
text on the right of the icons moves. I'm not exactly sure, but I think
this is because they inherit a grey border from .column and in
.colum:hover that border gets then removed, which makes the icon element
a bit smaller and thus changes the position of the text. (I'm actually
not sure about the .column:hover effects).
* Some even minor thoughts:
+ Both columns have the same icon and title for the 'More...' link-
maybe the OS column 'More...' link should be titled 'Further infos' (and
then the 'Further' from the link description should probably be dropped)
and the 'More...' link on the community side could have another icon.
+ I think the RSS links don't fit in the design of the page, both
because the orange doesn't blend in with the rest of the colors of the
page and also because they are the only elements on the page that are
right-justified. I think its also too much distance from the elements
they are referring to. Also both RSS icons have different designs (blue
on orange vs. white on orange).
+ The calendar icons from the project news have a different design from
the icons in the first row (they have colors and shadows). Maybe it
makes sense to harmonize the icons (I know that the calender icons
aren't actually icons ;))
+ Is the 'Last modified' and 'Last Built' information used that often,
that is should be in the footer or is it maybe also enough to put it in
the HTML source as a comment?
+ I found myself wanting to click on 'The community' or 'The operating
system' and the pictures below. Maybe they should lead somewhere?
+ (I think the header should be replaced by the 'splash' element
everywhere ;)) )
I hope that was some helpful feedback- I am happy to send patches and/or
merge requests if needed, just let me know where I can help ;)
cheers,
Birger (bisco)
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