On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 04:32:02 UTC, Kapps wrote:
> On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 02:18:16 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> I took the better part of today working on this: https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dlang.org/pull/780. See demo at http://erdani.com/d/.
>>
>> What do you all think? Is it an improvement over what we have now?
>>
>> I'd appreciate your help with reviewing and pulling this, and also with improving the colors (which I'm terrible at) and page tracking as mentioned in the pull request.
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Andrei
>
> While I like the idea of it, and the new menus in general, those gradients are honestly really not nice. Very demanding and looks rather out of place.
>
> Something like plain grey or black would be better, not a gradient and not something so pop-out like that red.

Oh, looks like it's different in Chrome vs Firefox. In Chrome it's a subtle red tint at the bottom, in Firefox it's an extremely bright red covering most of the button.

On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 04:44:56 UTC, Israel wrote:
> On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 02:18:16 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> I took the better part of today working on this: https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dlang.org/pull/780. See demo at http://erdani.com/d/.
>>
>> What do you all think? Is it an improvement over what we have now?
>>
>> I'd appreciate your help with reviewing and pulling this, and also with improving the colors (which I'm terrible at) and page tracking as mentioned in the pull request.
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Andrei
>
> Too much code, I know its what you want people to see but if the entire length of the website consists of giant blocks of code it just doesnt look as pleasing to the eyes...
>
> put all of that code and introduction to D into a subpage called "About"/"Intro to D". have it be the first subpage on the left column.
>
> The front page should be updated with new content like your tweets, forum posts, articles from other websites,reddit, etc.
>
> maybe under the documentation put a "Getting started" Tutorial?

I would also highly recommend advertising the patootie out of dub. Seriously, Dub is like the bright shining sapphire gem of Ds crown. Dub literally makes any other language look like crap.

On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 04:57:26 UTC, Kapps wrote:
> On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 04:32:02 UTC, Kapps wrote:
>> On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 02:18:16 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>> I took the better part of today working on this: https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dlang.org/pull/780. See demo at http://erdani.com/d/.
>>>
>>> What do you all think? Is it an improvement over what we have now?
>>>
>>> I'd appreciate your help with reviewing and pulling this, and also with improving the colors (which I'm terrible at) and page tracking as mentioned in the pull request.
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Andrei
>>
>> While I like the idea of it, and the new menus in general, those gradients are honestly really not nice. Very demanding and looks rather out of place.
>>
>> Something like plain grey or black would be better, not a gradient and not something so pop-out like that red.
>
> Oh, looks like it's different in Chrome vs Firefox. In Chrome it's a subtle red tint at the bottom, in Firefox it's an extremely bright red covering most of the button.

Looked at it in a webkit browser and you're right, I take back my first comment Andrei.
But it does seem messed up on Firefox.
https://i.imgur.com/FVb2Q6y.png

On 1/17/15 9:05 PM, Israel wrote:
> I would also highly recommend advertising the patootie out of dub.
> Seriously, Dub is like the bright shining sapphire gem of Ds crown. Dub
> literally makes any other language look like crap.

Good idea. Updated pull request and site. Thanks! -- Andrei

On 1/17/15 8:57 PM, Kapps wrote:
> Oh, looks like it's different in Chrome vs Firefox. In Chrome it's a
> subtle red tint at the bottom, in Firefox it's an extremely bright red
> covering most of the button.

Ugh. No idea where that comes from, but the original http://cssmenumaker.com/menu/modern-jquery-accordion-menu (with different colors) looks the same in both browsers.

Any experts in the house?


Andrei

On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 02:18:16 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> I took the better part of today working on this: https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dlang.org/pull/780. See demo at http://erdani.com/d/.
>
> What do you all think? Is it an improvement over what we have now?
>
> I'd appreciate your help with reviewing and pulling this, and also with improving the colors (which I'm terrible at) and page tracking as mentioned in the pull request.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andrei

Personally I don't like it, doesn't look like it matches with the rest of the site. But its totally awesome that something is getting done about the site because it does seem like its getting a little stale.

Personally what needs more attention is not the side menu, which I think is fine how it is now IMO, but the front page. It has way more code than what it should. Needs to be a good landing pad that advertises things like dub and visualD, and have quick downloads.

Also, what happened to the site redesign that was a big topic of talk a few months back? It seems to have faded out of talk and I haven't really seen any thing done about it.

On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 07:11:27 UTC, Tofu Ninja wrote:

I think the color and theme of the sub-menus looks a lot better than the colors of the outer-menu. With the harsh red boarder, the outer-menu looks like a red tron grid to me.

On 1/17/15 11:16 PM, Tofu Ninja wrote:
> On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 07:11:27 UTC, Tofu Ninja wrote:
>
> I think the color and theme of the sub-menus looks a lot better than the
> colors of the outer-menu. With the harsh red boarder, the outer-menu
> looks like a red tron grid to me.

Yah, I took the design at http://cssmenumaker.com/menu/modern-jquery-accordion-menu and changed a couple of colors essentially at random.

I noticed several others have mentioned that the colors could be improved. Who can please try to do something about them?


Andrei

On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 04:44:56 UTC, Israel wrote:
> On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 02:18:16 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> I took the better part of today working on this: https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dlang.org/pull/780. See demo at http://erdani.com/d/.
>>
>> What do you all think? Is it an improvement over what we have now?
>>
>> I'd appreciate your help with reviewing and pulling this, and also with improving the colors (which I'm terrible at) and page tracking as mentioned in the pull request.
>>

I'm no designer, but I do have some comments. Without consistency it just looks a bunch of parts rather than a singular thing. Some elements have gradients, some don't. Some elements have round corners, some don't. Elements with borders use different widths, some have none. In regards to borders, we engineering types (maybe it's just me) tend to put boxes around stuff to represent discrete units when basic design concepts, like proximity and contrast, may be better suited for the task. I just took a quick pass at it in the browser:
Original: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/114394/D-site/current.png
Cleanup: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/114394/D-site/001.png
Cleanup w/o bg: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/114394/D-site/002.png

Think "consistency and subtlety". Good design generally goes unnoticed.

>
> Too much code, I know its what you want people to see but if the entire length of the website consists of giant blocks of code it just doesnt look as pleasing to the eyes...
>
> put all of that code and introduction to D into a subpage called "About"/"Intro to D". have it be the first subpage on the left column.
>
> The front page should be updated with new content like your tweets, forum posts, articles from other websites,reddit, etc.
>
> maybe under the documentation put a "Getting started" Tutorial?

I agree, from a new user perspective all the code might seem like a bit much. It might be a good to have short blurb about "Why D?" or "What is D?" or something. I also like the idea of highlighting some key projects, particularly ones with broad appeal (dub and VisualD come to mind). I would recommend keeping things like blog posts, tweets, etc. out of the the main content (on the side or bottom is fine). External sources usually make no sense to a new user, or are generic press pieces which are unnecessary because the person is already on the site.

-Dave

On 1/17/15 11:42 PM, DaveG wrote:
> On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 04:44:56 UTC, Israel wrote:
>> On Sunday, 18 January 2015 at 02:18:16 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>> I took the better part of today working on this:
>>> https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dlang.org/pull/780. See
>>> demo at http://erdani.com/d/.
>>>
>>> What do you all think? Is it an improvement over what we have now?
>>>
>>> I'd appreciate your help with reviewing and pulling this, and also
>>> with improving the colors (which I'm terrible at) and page tracking
>>> as mentioned in the pull request.
>>>
>
> I'm no designer, but I do have some comments. Without consistency it
> just looks a bunch of parts rather than a singular thing. Some elements
> have gradients, some don't. Some elements have round corners, some
> don't. Elements with borders use different widths, some have none. In
> regards to borders, we engineering types (maybe it's just me) tend to
> put boxes around stuff to represent discrete units when basic design
> concepts, like proximity and contrast, may be better suited for the
> task. I just took a quick pass at it in the browser:
> Original: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/114394/D-site/current.png
> Cleanup: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/114394/D-site/001.png
> Cleanup w/o bg: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/114394/D-site/002.png
>
> Think "consistency and subtlety". Good design generally goes unnoticed.

Looking good. Could you please do a pull request after mine gets in? Thanks! -- Andrei