[tech] New website proposal (Or: How to beat a dead horse)

[James Cox]

I like the layout, pretty much!

My only complaints are the Steam-alike colour scheme, and the abuse of
tabs-as-links across the top (unless you do intend for them to be
ajaxy/iframe based tabs.)

~Coxy

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 12:53 AM, Luke Williams <shmookey at ucc.asn.au> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I've been working on a new design and back-end for the UCC website based on
> the complaints I've heard about the current one and suggestions I've heard
> for future ones.
>
> Here's my pitch: design-wise, it drops the rapidly-aging header graphic from
> the old website and provides a range of quick-access links in the header -
> users shouldn't have to 'dig around' on the site to find something. On the
> back-end I'm using ikiwiki backed onto git: it's fast and stable (because it
> generates static html) and because it uses a conventional revision-control
> system, you can check out the sources and edit it in whichever editor you
> like. For quick updates, you can also edit in browser. Of course, it brings
> all the well-understood power of a wiki to the site too, and has a design
> created from scratch with free software.
>
> What I haven't addressed yet are the domain-specific issues: content and
> structure. I present to you my proposal for a new UCC site structure (which
> is really not that different from the old one) as a wiki page on the site in
> development itself: http://ucc.asn.au/ver2/sitemap/
>
> Note that this is a design only and most of the links don't work and header
> doesn't reflect the currently selected page. The 'edit' link does work and
> presently uses OpenID and local ikiwiki accounts for authentication.
>
> Feedback from IRC has been mostly positive, the most common complaint being
> about the design: that the text is too small. I haven't used a desktop in
> two months, so I'm not in much of a position to comment, but minor cosmetic
> changes aside - do you think this new design, structure and backend will
> work for a replacement UCC website?
>
> I'm not sure how reliable (read: existent) my internet access is going to be
> in the next few days as I rough it on cheap transport through southern
> Thailand, so I might not be able to reply/defend my choices/throw a hissyfit
> and threaten to leave the club as quickly as you're used to in discussions
> like this. So: have at it, tell me what you like and what you don't like -
> check out the sources if you'd like to have a play around (they're on
> mussel:/usr/local/git/ucc-site) and let's see if we can get the ball rolling
> on an update to the website again!
>
> Luke
>
>
>