Redesign of OpenMW.com

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lgromanowski
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Redesign of OpenMW.com

Post by lgromanowski »

chewit wrote: I think since Nico has left, there has been a big push to get OpenMW back on track for 2011. I think where area a member of the team needs to be assigned to do is improve the home page and usefulness of the website.

I dont see much point having a main website and then a wiki, I think we should keep with the wiki and just have a tidy up. Focus most of our effots on the homepage, since there is the front of OpenMW.

And we need a logo!!!
Zini wrote: I wasn't aware that we have a website along the wiki. There was one, but IIRC it was abandoned long ago. Having a logo would be nice.
chewit wrote: No thats fine, I was clarifying that a wiki would be sufficient, since it works pretty well at the moment. It just needs some work, thats all.
sir_herrbatka wrote: hmmm... If you ask me we should also change main page of wiki. Mailing list should not appear there, faq is doubled, categories are bit off, history should be updated...

I think that it would be good to make more clear sections: News, Introduction, Developer's information and docs, the rest.

Add more videos (and pictures), wikipage for every milestone...
Star-Demon wrote:
sir_herrbatka wrote:hmmm... If you ask me we should also change main page of wiki. Mailing list should not appear there, faq is doubled, categories are bit off, history should be updated...

I think that it would be good to make more clear sections: News, Introduction, Developer's information and docs, the rest.

Add more videos (and pictures), wikipage for every milestone...
I agree. Personally, I was waiting for reorganization of the project to bear some solid changes before I wanted to touch all that. I'd like to see something way more simplified, with links to major or often-changing pages, but nothing has come yet. Good to think of how it will look now, though.
Vance987 wrote: My opinion, I like dungeon hack's layout. Showing the public who is currently working on what, general monthly updates, hardcore categorized forums..... We need more popularity on this project to equal more motivation to the developers and more people willing to help out.
Star-Demon wrote:
Vance987 wrote:My opinion, I like dungeon hack's layout. Showing the public who is currently working on what, general monthly updates, hardcore categorized forums..... We need more popularity on this project to equal more motivation to the developers and more people willing to help out.
That's the problem I've been describing elsewhere - I mean, how do we make the project worthy of being popular?

If you want developer motivation, it starts inside here, and with our own work and behaviors. It's not because we don't have enough cheering fans.

"What makes this project worth volunteered time?" This is an important question - it's not a comfortable one to answer because it concerns our all of our personal interests and personal behavior, as well as the current work that's been put in.
Lordrea wrote: I was sent a logo a long, long, looooong time ago.

I appear to have lost it. *Ahem.*

If someone wants to slap an appropriate one up here I'll add it to the wiki.
chewit wrote: Just quickly do some moving around of the wiki home page, still have worked to do on it.

Tell me what you think.

This screenshot was taken in preview mode.
Zini wrote: I like it. Mostly. But three boxes in a row might look a bit cramped when viewed on the smaller monitor or with a non-maximized window.
chewit wrote: Yeh, i need to work out a way to set equal percentage for each of those three boxes.

Plus, I dont think you can get a smaller monitor than what that screenshot was taken off, its 1024x600, a netbook screen.
Lordrea wrote: Yeah, no longer worried about designing for a 800x* size screen these days.

Might be worth moving the "more" section below the other two. Otherwise, you should be able to specify a percentage width on the TD tag if you're doing the page in HTML.
chewit wrote: Your right, looks far better.

Want to implement it, and then work with it from there???
Lordrea wrote: Sounds/looks good.

Also: Table widths at 100%. Nice, even-widthed boxes/outlines, no matter how short/wide the content is. Would look a bit nicer (on More Links and Other Resources).
chewit wrote: Has now been implemented!
Lordrea wrote:Also: Table widths at 100%. Nice, even-widthed boxes/outlines, no matter how short/wide the content is. Would look a bit nicer (on More Links and Other Resources).
Sorry, not sure what you mean, those tables are at 100% already. Well, you can see the code and improve it :D
Lordrea wrote:
chewit wrote:Has now been implemented!
Lordrea wrote:Also: Table widths at 100%. Nice, even-widthed boxes/outlines, no matter how short/wide the content is. Would look a bit nicer (on More Links and Other Resources).
Sorry, not sure what you mean, those tables are at 100% already. Well, you can see the code and improve it :D
Edited.

See how the two bottom sections extend to be nice and even with the edge of the page content area? That's what I had meant, a width="100%" applied to the table (all the columns can add up to 100%, but that doesn't matter if the table itself is set to be dynamic rather than specified).
chewit wrote: Opinions on new Downloads and News boxes on the homepage???
raevol wrote: Screwing around with the wiki page because I am bored, feel free to take some ideas from this, or completely disregard. ;)
Lordrea wrote:
raevol wrote:Screwing around with the wiki page because I am bored, feel free to take some ideas from this, or completely disregard. ;)
Quite a bit of wasted space, and the contributions banner is ZOMG-level big. And it's pretty tall.

Overall not sure what I think about that version.
raevol wrote:
Lordrea wrote:Quite a bit of wasted space, and the contributions banner is ZOMG-level big. And it's pretty tall.
Yea, the idea is that the news pane is a lot taller. Because we want there to be a lot of awesome news. Though I suppose more than, say, 10 news items is probably overkill. Yet again if those news items were more verbose the space for them would make more sense.

Also the tallness of the contributions panel compensates for the lack of width in the current version? Could easily make it shorter, but was the idea to have it very visible?

I admit there's also wasted space in the Development box, though I would posit that that whole box should be more concise... perhaps even a link to a separate "Development" page where things could be managed differently?
pogzy wrote: The roadmap list the dev tasks quite well, but the project includes many other type of tasks: wiki, testing, mod integration, music, etc.

Why not including the obviouses part of these tasks not directly related to dev in the roadmap. There could be volonteers that do great job that could boost the project with no single line of code, the wiki work is essential.

Is there someweher a list of the tasks needed to have an amazing wiki with only valuable informations?

We should not rely only on devs to make this vision reach the 1.0 and above, we should try to attract any tallented volunteers that want to help.
Zini wrote: I am not sure, what you mean with mod integration and music. We are doing none of those.
Testing is mostly done by the people who can build (i.e. usually developers) and the general public after a release. We may require more elaborate testing procedures once more gameplay features are implemented, but that is sufficiently far into the future, that I haven't given it any thought yet.

I agree though, that the wiki could use some improvements. Making a task list for it is probably a good idea. However I suggest creating a separate page. The roadmap page is large and complex enough.

Edit: Apart from the wiki we still have much gameplay research to do. There is a formulae page, but its barely more than a start. A lot more work needs to go into this. Actually, a lot of work should go into this soon, because we are not too far away from getting serious with gameplay implementation.
pogzy wrote: He, he, I mean nothing at all, just to see if you jump right away on your keyboard to put me back on track :twisted: joke...

Music: if musicians compose things for OpenMW, it could be nice not to reject them as it is post v1.0 stuff, I think so for any other post v1.00 stuff, I agree we should focuss on the v1.0 path, but stay opened mind too.

Seriously, I think that all tasks should remain on the same page, just add a table wiki stuf, and put line by line in the next release if volunteers get to be known, not related to dev work is IMHO as important as dev stuff, because it is how the project looks from the outside, that is how we can get new devs...

If the roadmap page is too heavy, sb has to redesign it, but we should keep a single entrance for all tasks at a glimpse.

sorry for my English, it is not my mother tongue
Hircine wrote: the criticisms i have about your English are:

"just add a table wiki stuf" i do not understand what you are saying.
please elaborate.

and you use too many commas. long sentence is long.

other than that your English is pretty damn good.

btw Zini, I would like to be assigned to get the formulas
sir_herrbatka wrote:
I would like to be assigned to get the formulas
Just do it and the glory will be yours. ;-)
Hircine wrote:
sir_herrbatka wrote:
I would like to be assigned to get the formulas
Just do it and the glory will be yours. ;-)
YEAHHHHHHHHH

Glory! :D
pogzy wrote:
"just add a table wiki stuf" i do not understand what you are saying.
please elaborate.
Sorry, in fact I was thinking : add a table "wiki' in the section Other Tasks.

Quite as I just did
Zini wrote:
btw Zini, I would like to be assigned to get the formulas
What we need next are the formulae regarding walking and running. How is the speed influenced by attribute, carried weight and magic effects? How is walking and running changing fatigue? How fast fatigue regenerates when not running? Is that depending on attributes/skills/magic effects too?
Will require a lot of experimenting.
ap0 wrote: I'd like to try to accord the style of the wiki to the forum.
Could an admin give the the right to edit this page : http://openmw.com/wiki/index.php?title= ... Common.css ?
Zini wrote: Discussion about the movement research continues here: <FIXME - OLD LINK> viewtopic.php?f=14&t=298
pogzy wrote: Hi,

I hope ap0 will have ASAP the access to the css file of the wiki, the wiki look and feel is ... not that good!
Hircine wrote: what would be awesome as a change to the wiki, is that it is displayed less like a wiki and more like a normal website. but with the obvious editing like a wiki.

some nice css and modifications to how the main page of the wiki is displayed
would work wonders on the eyes and people would be less inclined to leave.

a current status of the engine would be cool(in a big click me button). to show that
"this is what we have done, this is what you can do in it"

a big click me button for the forum and downloads would be cool as well.
pvdk wrote: I've had a look at some Mediawiki skins to see what's possible and one thing we would have to decide for a new skin is where the navigation is positioned:
- vertically on the left (just as it is now)
- horizontally
- in a drop-down menu

Some good-looking examples of such skins can be found here:
http://paulgu.com/wiki/Mediawiki_Skins

I hope we find someone who is good with these things, I really would like a new wiki look.
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