[Haskell-cafe] Design for 2010.2.x series Haskell Platform site

[Christopher Done]

On 17 July 2010 13:37, Andrew Coppin <andrewcoppin at btinternet.com> wrote:
> Thomas Schilling wrote:
>> Haters gonna hate.
> Well, I don't *hate* it. It just looks a little muddy, that's all. I tend to
> go for bright primary colours. But, as you say, each to their own...
> The actual layout isn't bad. A bit tall-and-thin, but otherwise OK.
>> The new wiki will have a user preference to switch back to the default
>> monobook style.  You can always do that if you want.  It doesn't work
>> fully, yet, but that's on my ToDo list.
> Heh, well, maybe if we make half a dozen styles, there will be at least one
> that everyone is happy with. ;-)

Hi Andy, thanks for the kind words. Whether we like the default theme
or not right now, I still think it's important that the first thing a
newbie sees makes a good impression. The fact that you can change the
default theme to something else is irrelevant. Personally I agree it's
a bit Ubuntu without the modernness, it's more Age of Empires/CIV,
we-do-archeology-with-our-italics-serif-font (I find it a chore to
read, can't imagine what people who aren't native to the Latin
character would think), and the Haskell logo is oddly placed so that
it looks more like an advertisement, search should always be on the
right hand side, navigation should really be on the left, putting on
the right is iffy. I do like the orange links. But also if we liked
it, regardless, we should do user testing (checkout Don't Make Me
Think, Rocket Surgery Made Easy).

Sadly nobody has the time nor inclination to do proper web development
and actually test designs and get feedback, so I suppose we're working
with the time we've got. At least with theme support, we can write a
load of themes, and then perhaps do a vote on what people think makes
the best impression as a default. That seems most efficient and fair.
I'll certainly make a couple.

Hats off to Thomas for implementing a more friendly theme.