Re: [boost] New boost webpage

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-08-08 06:59:19

Beth Jacobson <bethj_at_[hidden]> writes:

> Marcin Kalicinski wrote:
>> There is a fairly estabilished standard on how links should look in
>> "professional" sites. This is either "normally underlined" text in
>> different colour, or nonunderlined text in different colour that
>> changes colour when pointed by mouse. Microsoft.com, google.com,
>> ibm.com, yahoo.com, amazon.com, nytimes.com, you name it, all stick
>> to it. Deviating from that makes me say it looks non professional
>> enough for boost.
>> 
>> 
>>>>Additionally, I'd rather have links in boxes on the right have the
>>>>same style as links in the text.
>
> If I might add my two cents, I agree with the above. I like the look
> of the page a lot, but the link style is confusing and
> counter-intuitive.  This makes it a poor introduction to the Boost
> Libraries. One of the things that has impressed me the most in using
> the libraries is how intuitive they are. It's also a marketing issue
> since "intuitive" translates to lower training costs. It would be
> nice if that quality were suggested by the design of the website.

I hate to say it, but these criticisms are starting to ring true for
me as well :( 

I still think of wikipedia.org as a prime example of a site design
that works and looks good without any special help on my part.  I
wonder if we shouldn't use something much more like that?

> How about using the same blue as the headings for both linked text and 
> menu items? The menu headings could be switched to black to maintain the 
> color contrast between the menu headings and items. Both text and menu 
> links could be underlined on mouseover. I also agree with someone above 
> who said that the menu headers shouldn't change on mouseover. The change 
> says "link" to users and should be avoided unless that's what it really 
> means.

Beth, your proposals sound interesting... but they'd be a whole lot
easier to evaluate if you'd just make up the page or CSS stuff
required and post it where we can all get a look at it.

> Finally, and much less important. it might be nice to have a
> different link color for visited links, at least in the text and
> perhaps for the menu as well. Especially for someone exploring the
> libraries for the first time, it's nice to have a visual cue to tell
> you where you've already been.

It looks to me as though wikipedia does that, but it so subtle that I
can barely see the change.  At least it probably won't upset those
people who *hate* the changing link color effect ;-)

>> Also, on my machine mouse cursor briefly changes to hourglass when
>> moving on the link.  It looks like it was flickering.
>
> That could be solved by preloading the image with javascript. I noticed 
> there's no js on the page and assume that was by design, but maybe an 
> exception could be made in this case, since there'd be no added penalty 
> for people without js. They'd just be subject to the same 
> hourglass/flickering they've got already.

Care to contribute the code to do that?

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com