[DEV] Feathercoin Web Site Development & Artwork
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[quote name=“Entimp” post=“52799” timestamp=“1389918595”]
Can’t say I am game for any of those themes… for various reasons. Apart from the fact some of them look like my windows phone.
[/quote]Yeah, the metro one isn’t very appealing. That’s why we’re all excited about the dark themed one.
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Two main reasons.One… some of them are close to what was originally up… why reinvent it?
[/quote]Perhaps I don’t remember? Could you link us?
[quote]
Two… are you really up for coding a fully responsive site from scratch? All the css and writing a fresh set of php templates and a bespoke wordpress theme? Testing it with plugins like BBpress? Getting it to play well with whatever chatboard you decide on. Coding the CSS for the custom pages and then the doing the same for the blog. The list is endless.
[/quote]Dude, it’s HTML. Wordpress isn’t required for this, nor is PHP, or any plugins. The chatboard will be on a separate page, if it’s even kept. The CSS, if well designed, can be reused trivially when it comes time to design another page. I’m not sure why this has to be so complicated.
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Unless you are just redesigning the static html front page I think you may not know what kinda of effort this will take.
[/quote]I don’t understand. It looks like the front page to me. I didn’t see any other pages.
[quote]
If you are and do understand, all well and good.However I don’t have the time for such a project. I wish I did, but I don’t.
I’m not being a drama queen here, I just honestly feel that the bigger picture is not understood here at all.
[/quote]Well I hope that’s not the case. We’re redesigning the web site, which consists of a home page, a forum, and a set of tools. We’re starting with the home page, and deciding on a theme and color scheme. After that I believe we’re going to be making some technological selections regarding the forum, for which PHP and Wordpress is by no means a foregone conclusion, and once that’s done, styling it accordingly. I don’t see why this has to be so difficult. What am I missing?
[quote]
Finally apologies for my absence. I quit my job on Boxing Day and have been seeking something else since. Real life and all that drama…Happy New Year all round by the way, my first post here of 2014 ;)
[/quote]Well don’t be a stranger, and good luck on the job hunt!
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[quote name=“goodheads” post=“52793” timestamp=“1389916054”]
Does anyone think that the mining rig might be a little confusing for people not familiar with how cryptocurrencies work? It doesn’t say easy to use and friendly to me.It does, however, look very sexy. Perhaps that is enough haha. Just a thought.
[/quote]We talked about that, Sev, Kevlar and I. We think it would be good if we include rotating images from community projects such as Lizhi’s Scrypt ASIC miner and Netnerd’s coins.
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[quote name=“Entimp” post=“52799” timestamp=“1389918595”]
Can’t say I am game for any of those themes… for various reasons. Apart from the fact some of them look like my windows phone.Two main reasons.
One… some of them are close to what was originally up… why reinvent it?
Two… are you really up for coding a fully responsive site from scratch? All the css and writing a fresh set of php templates and a bespoke wordpress theme? Testing it with plugins like BBpress? Getting it to play well with whatever chatboard you decide on. Coding the CSS for the custom pages and then the doing the same for the blog. The list is endless.
Unless you are just redesigning the static html front page I think you may not know what kinda of effort this will take.
If you are and do understand, all well and good.
However I don’t have the time for such a project. I wish I did, but I don’t.
I’m not being a drama queen here, I just honestly feel that the bigger picture is not understood here at all.
Finally apologies for my absence. I quit my job on Boxing Day and have been seeking something else since. Real life and all that drama…
Happy New Year all round by the way, my first post here of 2014 ;)
[/quote]In many ways Sev’s design is similar to your initial theme hosted here for those who didn’t see it: [url=http://future.do/ftcreboot]http://future.do/ftcreboot[/url]
If there is a financial implication to make this work to bring both the Content Management that you introduced together with the design of Sev then I will find a way… somehow I will find a way. Because what’s important is the outcome.
You have both been invaluable to this process.
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I want Feathercoin to have a website that we can be proud of, a website that does us justice. I don’t care what it costs.
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[quote name=“chrisj” post=“52805” timestamp=“1389920575”]
[quote author=Entimp link=topic=6616.msg52799#msg52799 date=1389918595]
Can’t say I am game for any of those themes… for various reasons. Apart from the fact some of them look like my windows phone.Two main reasons.
One… some of them are close to what was originally up… why reinvent it?
Two… are you really up for coding a fully responsive site from scratch? All the css and writing a fresh set of php templates and a bespoke wordpress theme? Testing it with plugins like BBpress? Getting it to play well with whatever chatboard you decide on. Coding the CSS for the custom pages and then the doing the same for the blog. The list is endless.
Unless you are just redesigning the static html front page I think you may not know what kinda of effort this will take.
If you are and do understand, all well and good.
However I don’t have the time for such a project. I wish I did, but I don’t.
I’m not being a drama queen here, I just honestly feel that the bigger picture is not understood here at all.
Finally apologies for my absence. I quit my job on Boxing Day and have been seeking something else since. Real life and all that drama…
Happy New Year all round by the way, my first post here of 2014 ;)
[/quote]In many ways Sev’s design is similar to your initial theme hosted here for those who didn’t see it: [url=http://future.do/ftcreboot]http://future.do/ftcreboot[/url]
If there is a financial implication to make this work to bring both the Content Management that you introduced together with the design of Sev then I will find a way… somehow I will find a way. Because what’s important is the outcome.
You have both been invaluable to this process.
[/quote]What’s similar is the information hierarchy and layout: Both have a graphic and menu first, followed by three bullet point blurbs. Both feature a vertical layout which exposes more information the further down they scroll.
What’s different about them is that Sev’s design is trying to go with less-is-more as an approach for information hiding, so as to not overwhelm the user with data. The menu is much more subtly placed and blends well with the rest of the content, the amount of information exposed is minimal (and lessening with each revision), and the layout is more open and not as boxed in, relying on icons more than text to convey meaning.
That, and the colors are in place which affords a discussion around feel and mood. Sev has taken your wireframe, and produced an actual mockup while eliminating a good deal of the problem areas in the process. I couldn’t be happier with the collaboration.
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To a certain extent, it only matters that this is an update to the old front page. The main port of call for our "information dispersal " effort in directing new users to appropriate sections. Just considering the elements involved has been useful.
I propose go with any of the new designs, ASAP. Each one has a possible positive element.
It should not be over complicated job to update the current front page as a first step. The procedure of who needs to do what and be informed and the technological details need to be documented better, if wider contributions are to be enabled.
I still don’t know which proposal is best and I have a feeling a more innovative design might evolve with more effort.
However, rapid deployment, of the best of this work, will even give us a chance to learn further, refine it based on real experience and how we can start to discus how we need to develop the back end.
In some ways just the novelty is good, it shows action and if we could develop a smooth process to tweak the basic template - guest designs could be offered say monthly say, like the news sheet …
Before the first update is either test or real life deployed I would like to see, the Statement of requirement double checked …
What were the agreed functions of the new front page?,
Does the proposed design full fill those functions?
I note it may fall short, that should not eliminate quick adoption, as that bug can be worked on once identified.
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[quote name=“Kevlar” post=“52811” timestamp=“1389921930”]
[quote author=chrisj link=topic=6616.msg52805#msg52805 date=1389920575]
[quote author=Entimp link=topic=6616.msg52799#msg52799 date=1389918595]
Can’t say I am game for any of those themes… for various reasons. Apart from the fact some of them look like my windows phone.Two main reasons.
One… some of them are close to what was originally up… why reinvent it?
Two… are you really up for coding a fully responsive site from scratch? All the css and writing a fresh set of php templates and a bespoke wordpress theme? Testing it with plugins like BBpress? Getting it to play well with whatever chatboard you decide on. Coding the CSS for the custom pages and then the doing the same for the blog. The list is endless.
Unless you are just redesigning the static html front page I think you may not know what kinda of effort this will take.
If you are and do understand, all well and good.
However I don’t have the time for such a project. I wish I did, but I don’t.
I’m not being a drama queen here, I just honestly feel that the bigger picture is not understood here at all.
Finally apologies for my absence. I quit my job on Boxing Day and have been seeking something else since. Real life and all that drama…
Happy New Year all round by the way, my first post here of 2014 ;)
[/quote]In many ways Sev’s design is similar to your initial theme hosted here for those who didn’t see it: [url=http://future.do/ftcreboot]http://future.do/ftcreboot[/url]
If there is a financial implication to make this work to bring both the Content Management that you introduced together with the design of Sev then I will find a way… somehow I will find a way. Because what’s important is the outcome.
You have both been invaluable to this process.
[/quote]What’s similar is the information hierarchy and layout: Both have a graphic and menu first, followed by three bullet point blurbs. Both feature a vertical layout which exposes more information the further down they scroll.
What’s different about them is that Sev’s design is trying to go with less-is-more as an approach for information hiding, so as to not overwhelm the user with data. The menu is much more subtly placed and blends well with the rest of the content, the amount of information exposed is minimal (and lessening with each revision), and the layout is more open and not as boxed in, relying on icons more than text to convey meaning.
That, and the colors are in place which affords a discussion around feel and mood. Sev has taken your wireframe, and produced an actual mockup while eliminating a good deal of the problem areas in the process. I couldn’t be happier with the collaboration.
[/quote]I agree with this.
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Hey guys, I’ve been somewhat afk for the last few days and this will continue over the next week. In the process of moving to a new house. Just got promoted at work too.
With that said, I trust the direction that everyone is steering the new site.
Keep it up =^-^=
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Not sure if it’s been mentioned but IMO the front page shouldn’t just serve as a static source of information, not everyone will delve into a forum to find the latest news and having read through the recent newsletters and announcements they really deserve some sort of pride of place on the front page as it helps the community seem very active at a glance. Perhaps using a blogging tool, to produce an RSS feed whereby you can provide a digest on the front page and also update a facebook page using the RSS via RSS Graffiti for Facebook? :)
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[quote name=“Calem” post=“52861” timestamp=“1389947953”]
Hey guys, I’ve been somewhat afk for the last few days and this will continue over the next week. In the process of moving to a new house. Just got promoted at work too.With that said, I trust the direction that everyone is steering the new site.
Keep it up =^-^=
[/quote]Woop congrats Calem!
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I like the dark theme the best, it’s fantastic! The others are nice, but a bit too facebooky for me.
I do have some input, it’s rather more on the content.
* First of all… does it have to be the market price that’s displayed? What about having the price of the latest sold item from the Feathercoin Market. Maybe pairing it with the category the item was listed under. e.g. Price: 20FTC / Books, click on Books and it takes you to the Feathercoin book store.
I know the $$ signs are important to reach out to new people, as that’s what the majority is interested in. Maybe it could alternate between the two. Pinning it to the USD is what every other coin does, having a different or multiple approach towards the question of value is healthy.
* Why Feathercoin.
I suggest that this could be split in two. 1 where it answers the question to “whyâ€, 2 the technical side of it.
IMO focusing on the nitty-gritty of the technical aspect of it all isn’t that important. Once somebody starts to use FTC or any other alt currency, things like the blockchain becomes more clear.
Like all these giveaways and what not. It more or less circulates within the inner circle of people who are already interested in stuff like this. I’d like to see small steps towards expanding that circle.
Again, I like a different approach. And now with the FeatherTipper it makes it so much easier.Things I’d like to see answered under “why?â€:
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Because it gives the individual a choice. No longer does paper money have to be something that’s constrained upon you.
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How Feathercoin and FeatherTipper can benefit you.
Everybody can now “sell†their work through twitter. The possibilities are endless of how that gets defined.
I do see something like: When somebody registers on the site/forum they have an option to categorize their profile and a link to their own portfolio/site. So a photographer can state Photo.
From the main site, a button (Featherfriends?) directs visitors to a list of artists, film-makers and musicians who accepts FTC tips.It could eventually be something fun, once a month we could have a top 3 list of forum members favourite stuff.
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fjærmynt, some really good points.
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Given this some more thought.
The illusion I had was we wanted something future proof… for example giving Chris a platform for his newsletters and a possible blog. This means filtering that information out to the front page in snippets. Content rich. A menu item to render the content by user or category too… for examples ChrisJ’s blog to be taken to said content. This would also allow for any other member to create content and be hosted on the site by category or user.
This would also facilitate sections for guides and merchant resources. Imagination is the limiting factor here.
I was also under the illusion that we needed a stronger framework to make use of other tools that are available now. Take the ‘Local Map’ for example. We could have that up and running and in days we had the right framework, with auto submission and themed with the site. But we had to create a bespoke one off page, faff around trying to bridge the user database with an external single html page and then create a brand new menu with the bootstrap css base. We then rely on 3 separate handlers to mail out submissions to community members to manually add, edit or remove entries.
It was what we needed then… it was created and deployed.
But! Do you want to go down this route again? The framework I have deployed has all the nuts and bolts you require to have the above fully automated. No need of an API hack to get user details, have the process completed with no member wading through submission emails, have the theme change automatically when the site theme does in the future, add new functions as required…
What will the next idea bring to the website… are we really going to do this all over again? and again?
You see I get the idea that we are getting closer to designing a front page design and leaving it simple at that.
Have you considered theming the Forums? The Blog? Custom Page Articles? The Local Page? Contact Pages? Chat Box?
Speaking of Forums, has anyone considered how you are going to cross this bridge? Not only from a theme/inclusion point of view? There are 3 options in my opinion. 1- Keep the existing forum but re-skin it. 2- Use a new forum and archive the old one. 3- Use a new forum and import all the current users and content in to it.
I have sourced a strong forum, one that ties into the WP framework, will match the skin of the whole site and allow us to attempt to export all the users and current content in to it. This ultimately boils down to Bush in giving the nod to move in this direction… Personally I think this is the route to go, if a decent translation/export of data can be achieved.
I’m just concerned we are getting wrapped up in designing the front page and not looking at the big picture.
From the current situation and reading this thread…
My suggestion is to use the current theme… and custom edit the front page to achieve the chosen theme. With some Jquery and CSS I think it can be achieved.
I’m proactive to what we want as a community. The current theme is strong with ability to edit all aspects. Want to change the colours then use a wysiwig editor in the back end to do so. Want to remove the slider click the button that turns it off. Want to remove the top menu on the front page then it can be done.
If we can decide on the front page theme from the examples in this thread I can attempt to theme the whole site to those colours and create a custom front page to match it as closely as possible with Jquery and CSS.
Bottom line is this… we have a incredibly strong site, ignore the theme, use your imagination and create it in the framework that is there.
The other option is wasting a minimum of 1k to achieve the same results.
My few pennies worth.
Peace n Love.
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The first step in getting the job done is deciding what the job is. Which is why I created the functional specification. It is much easier to be creative if you know what people need.
Long term flexibility can be taken into account if we know how that might be acheive. It is completely amazing and enlightening to start to hear everyone thought patern. Especially as a technical scientist with an interest in art, but no training.
It has been an eye opener to me to learn the current state and capability of web tools without having to do hours of research.
Thank you, Thank you, thank you…
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These were the High level requirements for the project, perhaps now is a good time to re read them and add any comments? They are in the perceived order of priority.
Updating of the front page is a quick fix that covers 80% of Feathercoins immediate urgent requirements / web site bug fixes. It is as a major step forward for little effort and a chance for all to contribute, even the less technical. Particularly, reducing the strain on moderators by being clearer.
[b]Feathercoin Website Development v3 - Statement of Requirements.
[/b]
1. Control development and enhancement of Feathercoin Web Site and Forum
2. Encourage and facilitate member input to the website development3. Facilitate member Technical development of Wallet and Feathercoind
4. Support Feathercoin Mining and Mining pools
5. Develop and implement methods of maximise members to operation of the forum, if possible, automatically.
With the least necessity for moderation. -
Sorry to drag this back to the design, but the most friendly way to implement mobile and tablet suitable websites is with a scalable ‘responsive’ design, it results in a page which feels familiar regardless of which device you browse via.
I stumbled upon this example the other day [url=http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/]http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/[/url]. To see what I mean, if you restore the window out of maximise mode and drag the window frame to reduce the width of the page you can see how it will work on narrower devices. In this example the page adjusts to suit, when an element is too small to be used effectively it’s dropped in favour of a condensed version.
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Re: [url=http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/.]http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/.[/url]
I don’t like the colour! Orange? so 1966.
Is it a Wordpress theme?
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[quote name=“wrapper0feather” post=“52973” timestamp=“1389978289”]
Re: [url=http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/.]http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/.[/url]I don’t like the colour! Orange? so 1966.
Is it a Wordpress theme?
[/quote]Haha, I’m not keen on the colour either, but it’s a good example of a website being ‘responsive’ to get around the need for separate mobile and tablet versions of the website.
I don’t think it will be wordpress Lancaster Uni will be using, but there are many examples of responsive wordpress designs. That way, you can feed more information to the people who have room for the clutter, whilst still looking minimal and clean.
*edit* A wordpress example, [url=http://demo.athemes.com/hiero/]http://demo.athemes.com/hiero/[/url]
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So what art work are we going with?
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[quote name=“Entimp” post=“52978” timestamp=“1389979826”]
So what art work are we going with?
[/quote]In response to your earlier post, I very much want to bring Sev’s design (if we are agreeable) together with the power of your WP theme that you installed. This is going to have to cost money, producing anything of quality will and I think we deserve it.
The problem with overloading the home page with content is that it actually hides the content because people don’t stick around and read it. The front page needs to be focussed. People don’t come to yoru website through the front door anymore, they come in via Twitter and Google etc. So their first experience may often be a forum post or a blog entry.
The overall design theme will be applied across the website at large and the social media once we are happy with it.
Things like the local map will be put under tools. As I said Sev is making variations on this design to see how it would work across the site on the forum etc.
I am up for hard work, I want a site we can be proud of and that does us justice.
