Member Feedback on the Org Redesign

[xnamkcor]

"It's too blank!"

Yeah, it is blank. Most things in progress are.

You want an example of what can be done with a blank canvas? Okay. Let me start with this little Photoshop-based mockup that AisuzuZwei did:

Quoted Image converted to link:
http://i.imgur.com/6XnSc.jpg

This is actually pretty similar to existing video info pages on the site (see e.g. http://beta.a-m-v.org/videos/85uutbxhpmse5tikiu4z1n6dr), but with two additions: positioning of download links and the commenting/recommendation setup. That plus some discussion with CodeZTM morphed into https://github.com/amvorg-underground/c ... nt-7629510.

"You keep dragging this example out!"

I keep dragging this one example out because it's all I have to go on right now. Ileia has sent me a bunch of images, too, but I haven't actually done anything with them yet, since I'm working on infrastructure at the moment.

Point is: You don't need to code things to help out. What I do ask, however, is that you be willing to take the time to elaborate your ideas, preferably in a concrete medium. I'm not a mind reader, and I'm not going to try to infer what you're talking about from a few sentences in a noisy forum thread. Paper and pencil and Photoshop are good because they're easy to use and can produce many iterations of designs very quickly. Issue trackers are good because they kill the noise and link discussion to product.

Are we doing design or functionality? You want us to draw some functionality and scan them into photoshop?

[Radical_Yue]

Are we doing design or functionality? You want us to draw some functionality and scan them into photoshop?

Functionality comes first, however since people can't get past the whole "it looks blank" bit, it almost requires some examples to be made to prove that eventually cool things will happen with it.

It's rather easy to see why IFFTU is getting upset when he's trying to concentrate on one aspect while everyone is getting upset over something that hasn't really even been considered yet. Bring up your suggestions for what you're like to see, but ripping apart the shell of a beta isn't getting us anywhere.

[EvaFan]

Like I said before, most of us who know nothing of programing or internet design will probably have to wait till something mostly finished is presented to really have any idea of what to say but thanks for caring about our(my) opinion atleast. My only REAL concern at this point is to make our new homepage more inviting and alot less complex which seems to be getting done (not sure about the inviting aspect without more design on it though). So all I have to say is carry on and keep up the great work .

[Radical_Yue]

Like I said before, most of us who know nothing of programing or internet design will probably have to wait till something mostly finished is presented to really have any idea of what to say but thanks for caring about our(my) opinion atleast. My only REAL concern at this point is to make our new homepage more inviting and alot less complex which seems to be getting done (not sure about the inviting aspect without more design on it though). So all I have to say is carry on and keep up the great work .

Once we get basic functionality out of the way, then it will be rather fun to decide how it will all look. In the meantime, if anyone has suggestions about how they want it to work, I want to once more point them towards https://github.com/amvorg-underground/catalog/issues

Again, this is not for how you think it should look, but how you think it should work. Even if you know nothing about programming, some suggestions with examples could go a long way and it never hurts to try to put your two cents in. As you can see Code threw some really awesome ideas about reworking the opinion system in there and I know Ileia has thrown David quite a few examples by citing different websites such as AMVNews.ru, Youtube, etc.... and even without knowing how to code, they've both been able to provide some neato suggestions!

[xnamkcor]

Could we add a dropdown box to the searchbar so we could search my a specific attribute straight from the main page?

[Zarxrax]

Well, I think it definitely looks like an improvement on what we have now. I like how its starting to shape up.
One thing I would have to say is that I don't like some critical features like "new video" being stuck at the bottom of the page. If its planned for this stuff to be discoverable in some other way, I think that's perfectly fine, but if it were to only be available down there, then I imagine that most new users would never find anything.

[ngsilver]

I know I brought the issue up originally in the IRC channel but figured I'd create an issue for it now that I've gotten around to doing so.

Basically, setting up an API to allow contest databases to link into the orgs database. Allowing entrants to be able to auto-populate their video info from the org listings. This would also allow the entry to be linked to the org entry, and perhaps could allow for some cross talk between the two systems, depending on how it is defined. Anyone want to add in on features or what not, please do.

[I Fight For The Users]

Are we doing design or functionality? You want us to draw some functionality and scan them into photoshop?

You assume a dichotomy that doesn't exist.

[irriadin]

Could we add a dropdown box to the searchbar so we could search my a specific attribute straight from the main page?

An AJAX autocomplete for the search would be nice. As far as different attributes... a popular CMS for torrent tracker communities (Gazelle) typically has six search boxes each with a different parameter, but I'm "so-so" on that design choice so far as effective layout is concerned.

I don't have much to add to thoughts about the current functional design that hasn't been said already. I'm very much in favor of reducing clutter and keeping the amount of pages to a minimum, so I think this is a good start.

[xnamkcor]

Are we doing design or functionality? You want us to draw some functionality and scan them into photoshop?

You assume a dichotomy that doesn't exist.

If there is no dichotomy, then we can just suggest anything?