I got rid of the dead space under the ads today. I had to rework a bunch of elements to make it work correctly but it looks much nicer now. I really hate IE, I’m trying to make the menu degrade more gracefully when you increase the font size or make the window small but IE isn’t cooperating. I have it working in every single browser except that one. Did I mention that I hate IE?
ps. Internet Explorer sucks
I implemented the search today. The search box is back on the right hand side, it uses google.com to search all *.gentoo.org domains. This includes the forums, planet, documentation and dev space among others. The donate button was moved back to the ads column because of this.
There are a few other minor changes as well. Link colors have been made more consistant: purple on white for content areas and white on purple in the menu bar. All links turn green on :hover. These color combinations pass the color-blind test, look really good and are consistant. All links except the grey menu bar are now underlined to be in-line with accessibility standards (the grey bar is an exception made for aesthetic reasons).
The content area and ads column still need to be fixed. Currently they are in a table (I was testing it out in attempt to not use an absolute position css tag and it didn’t do very well) and I need to put it back into divs.
I’m trying to maximize the space in the purple boxes on the front page (this only appears on the front page). Those boxes are supposed to be used as advertisements promoting Gentoo. I just redid “Interact” and I still need some ideas for “Manage” and “Optimize”. I want at least two links in all four of those boxes. They should convey a feeling of empowerment and community. Suggestions?
The top level menu (main, planet, forums, etc…) had an issue. The green arrow designates which site you are on. If you are on planet.gentoo.org then PLANET would be first in line with the green arrow. I spaced the first word out more to make it more obvious. The link colors were changed to white with green hover to be consistant with the site-wide color scheme and also to pass the color blind test.
print icon was moved to the right and an email to the docs-team icon added.
There were a bunch of small details that were ironed out so the entire site is really looking very polished and professional and it’s really coming together now. I’ve gotten lots of great feedback from the community that really helped, thanks everybody.
One bit of feedback is still lingering. The new logo is being questioned and many people have voiced a desire to put it to a vote. Aaron Shi has agreed to make an alternate version and the project leads have consented to the Gentoo Developers voting in the normal fashion on which one will become the new Official Gentoo Logo.
Aaron is presently in school taking his exams so don’t expect to see the alternate version until after the $HOLIDAY. Once Aaron submits it I’ll post it to the list and give everyone a chance to review it before we vote.