[ZWeb] The move goes on - NZO Design modifications

Thu, 16 May 2002 16:24:31 +0200

> >
> > I've spent several hours on nzo yesterday and today :
> >
> > You can see this 2 gif files :
> >
> > http://www.deckmyn.org/olivier/work/after.gif
> > http://www.deckmyn.org/olivier/work/before.gif
>
> Wow, it looks really good!  I'll spend some time trying to get it woven
> into CVS.

Ok. Thx paul.

> > (Notation : * : fix ; + : add ; - : remove ; o : still to do)
>
> Good notation.
>
> >  (*) css font sizes. It's back to "pt" notation. This is the only way to
get
> > a coherent website look.
>
> That's too bad.  Nearly all the docs I have read have encouraged people
> to switch to em as a relative point size.  While things look better on
> your browser, they look worse on mine (Mozilla under Linux on a big
screen).
>
> Perhaps we need to find a way to accomodate this better.

I've been working on this subject for months. It's the only "not bad"
solution i've found. I think one can not mix "nice design" with "scalable
fonts". It's only my point of view.

> >  (*) H1, H2, H3 have more usual sizes
> >  (*) CSS clean-up
> >  (*) #326699  color was replaced everywhere by #336699, which is
web-safe
> > and is the same color to my eyes.
>
> Fine.

$0.01 :)

> >  (*) Changed user bar a:hover color. I used a brown as the orange was
> > difficult to read with the gray background.
>
> Perhaps over should be an underline for the nav bar, user bar, and side
> bar (as well as the actions).

That was removed due to pressure some weeks ago :)

> >  (+) added bullets on side menu bar. One could use <LI> tag with a
bitmap in
> > the CSS. Last time I tried, it became weird, depending on browser. If
> > someone is candidate to make a try.
>
> Sidnei and I are experimenting with the use of CSS auto-generated
> content.  If you go to:
>
>    http://www.x3ng.com.br:8080/ZopeOrg/
>
> ...you can see the affect.  On the H1s (About Zope, Spotlight On, etc.)
> the bullet.gif (the four orange squares in front) aren't in the HTML.
> They are assigned in the CSS with h1: before and content:
> url('bullet.gif').  It will only work with IE and Moz, but its absence
> won't hurt other browsers.

This is exactly what I mean. I've done this in another project. I think
that's the way to go.

Next step is : http://www.glish.com/css/ (only css, no table, no layout in
html page)

> >  (+) added footer bar as it was on the mockup
> >  (*) slogan -> 10pt bold
> >  (-) Removed html, body, etc. blocks in local_html at root. I wonder why
> > it's here ? Is local_html technic the good way to play with ZPT ??
Should'nt
> > we prefer macro or something ?
>
> That's the way the CMF works.  It yanks the content out of the <body> tag.

Looks like it didn't work as we had two 'head', 'body', etc. tags in the
resulting web page !
Or I didn't understand your answer ?

> >  (-) Remove "[more...]" button on titles of "Announcement", "News", etc.
> > It's the same as left bar now (H1 is clickable). I also added a centered
> > "[more...]" link at bottom of section too. Code is much simpler now.
> >  (*) Re-organised "Top Ressources" section. Removed date (was not useful
> > here ???), added small sentence (today's top 5) and the ressources list
has
> > anoter format (minor changes)
>
> That whole right bar has been aching for some work.  Thanks!

You are welcome.

> >  (*) Did a full cleanup of code for news items. It's a much more usual
look
> > now. Made some modifications to css (#newsarea)
> >  (o) Have a look to actions_bar. As it was removed from html source,
I'll
> > wait until it's back
> >  (o) Please don't use <font> nor direct <xxx style=""> inside your HTML
code
> >      1/ Use a specifier css class or style or  id
> >      2/ If there is no css definition for your style, declare and use a
> > local css style (like in nzo Download section)
>
> Agreed.  I did it in a couple of places to avoid some conflicts with
> other people working on the stylesheets.  It's a bad practice, I should
> have cleaned up afterwards.
> >  (o) Suggestion : I would remove the word "location" in breadcrumb, and
> > would not display it at all on home page (would be only "Home" link).
Votes
>
> I put it in there because I thought other sites that used breadcrumbs
> did it.  Can you check the web design patterns site and see what it says?

It's here : http://www.welie.com/patterns/crumbs.html
This is not specified.

> It's ok if we decide to remove it.

+1.
Others : please vote.

> >  (o) local_css.css : I would like to remove specific parts of the css
from
> > main css file (and think about css of sitemap.html inside main css for
> > example), and have a simple acquisition system like for local_html.
>
> Sounds good.

Ok. Volunteers ?

> >  (o) I wonder if the "[more...]" gif file is a good idea ? If we use a
gif,
> > let's make it visual (an arrow, or something like
> > http://www.welie.com/patterns/images/tog-outgoinglinks.gif )
>
> If we keep it, I'm fine with using this image in place of [more...]
>
> Let's get some votes on whether to use an image, text, or nothing for
> [more...].

Another image : +1
Text : +1

> > I hope I didn't forgot to mention a modification.
> >
> > The site looks fine to me on IE6, Mozilla, NS4.
> > NS4 just don't have horizontal grey bars under sections names (I don't
think
> > it's a problem).
>
> The only major disagreement that I have is concerning the base font
choices.
>
> We might have to move to a system where we let people have a member
> stylesheet that is included first.

<snip>

> Although this is extra work, it might be less work than the holy war
> we'd engage in over font settings. :)

I think it's a good idea...but I would prefer to freeze features and have
something out soon !
We will have all the time we want after the launch, isn't it ?

> --Paul
>