On Nov 11, 2009, at 4:53 PM, Daniel Stenberg wrote:

> On Wed, 11 Nov 2009, G. T. Stresen-Reuter wrote:
>
>>> I'd be nothing but happy to see a team like that created. I just
>>> don't have high hopes that you will find a lot of people
>>> interested enough.
>>
>> Uh, maybe the group could be you and me? The thing is, I'd hate to
>> put work into it and not have it get used. I'm sure you know how
>> that feels!
>
> Oh sure, we can certainly start out like that and hopefully more
> people can join along the way.

Ok, here is my initial list of questions I ask anyone interested in a
new design for their web site:

1. What emotions do you want to elicit from your site visitors? What
is the primary emotional response you want them to have?

Some examples of emotions include "optimism", astonishment (good or
bad), surprise (again, can be good or bad), contentment, relief, etc.
There is a somewhat universal relationship between colors and
emotions. Knowing what emotional responses you hope to elicit will
tell us what colors to use.

2. What "attitude" do you wish the page to have?

Sample attitudes include confident, serious, clear-minded, humorous,
etc. The attitude helps us determine the organization of the elements
on the page, white space, fonts, and a few other "structural"
graphical elements.

3. What are 3 web sites (from any field) whose design you like?

4. Are there any web sites similar to your own whose designs you like
(and that wouldn't be upset if we used some elements as a basis for
this new design)?

That should be enough to get us started. When you've answered these
questions I'll do my best to put together 1 or more designs. Then
we'll go through 1 or 2 rounds of tweaks to get the design just right.
Once we have a final design, we'll study the existing content
organization (using information architecture analysis) and see if we
can possibly improve it before applying the new design.

Keep in mind that part of the design process will include things like
making sure the site is easily (and accurately) consumed by search
engines, is accessible to non-sighted (or partially sighted) people,
and is legible via non-graphical web browsers (yes, some people still
use them).

I may have missed something. Like I said, design is not my primary
line of work (I do more programming in PHP) but I have had some
experience with it so I may be able to improve on the existing design.

I look forward to hearing from you (and anyone else who reads this and
wants to participate).

Sincerely,

Ted Stresen-Reuter
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Received on 2009-11-11