[Scummvm-devel] Fancy pantsy javascript for the downloads page
Max Horn
max at quendi.de
Sun Jun 28 18:03:07 CEST 2009
Hi,
some remarks on the current download page on <http://fredrik_w.users.sourceforge.net/downloads/
> (and some of them apply to the old one, too -- but since I hope
we'll move to the new one soon, I am basing my suggestions on that ;).
And despite my criticism below, I really like the new page a lot, and
it's getting better each time I look at it :).
* Somebody wrote earlier that people are now used to (un)folding
things on websites. I disagree. *Geeks* are used to that, I know
plenty of people who certainly are not. Ideally, we'd have access to
test users who could test the site for us and gave us feedback on
useabillity; since we don't have that, I think we should at least try
to make it as simple as possible to recognize that something can be
clicked to uncover extra data. That means adding visual clues, like
the "Click to expand/collapse" links.
One idea for extra an extra visual cue that many people are familiar
with is adding a disclosure triangle to the left of the collapsable
sections (see here for an image of what I mean: <http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Disclosure_triangle
>).
That way, it is immediately clear whether there is something to expand
or not
Because for the subsections (Like "0.13.0 tools", my personal feeling
is that I would *not* immediately get that I can further expand this
section. In fact my first reaction upon expanding "Freeware games"
was, "huh, are all the entries missing?". It took me a moment to
realize that these visually totally different subcategories are in
fact also expandable thingies, like the main categories.
Thus, i think they need a unifying visual hint that makes it
immediately apparent that there is more information. yes, there is a
text "click to expand", but it is in grey and on the far right, quite
a distance on my screen to the actual category. I think this is not a
good way to display all this. Hm.
* I dislike the current mouseover effect -- at least for the
subsections (like "0.13.0 tools" etc.). Because it removes the line in
the section. I find this extremely irritating when mousing over a list
of collapsed sections.
* Rename "Subversion Builds" to e.g. "Daily builds", "Nightly builds",
"development builds", anything that average joe has at least a remote
chance to understand.
* The "warning" listed there should maybe be bigger and more intrusive.
* In the same section, "Subversion Instructions" should not be in the
list of downloads. Instead, it should be a paragraph at the very end,
after "Additional daily builds...". I.e. after that, add a new
paragraph like:
"If you wish to retrieve the latest code to compile it yourself,
follow the <a...>subversion instructions here </a>."
* Under "Libraries", please show both subcategories expanded - in
fact, just remove the ability to compact them. They are both very
short lists, no need to further hid them.
Cheers,
Max
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