Wikipedia talk:Main Page/Temp
mav - what do you think about the new separation between writing tips and pages about the project? I also think that the first paragraph reads a bit forced (probably because it's been revised so many times), but I realize this needs to be handled very carefully, so I'll get some sleep before trying to improve it :-) --Eloquence 21:51 Oct 30, 2002 (UTC)
- I like it. The list was getting long and needed to be broken-up. You did so using a logical break. Good work! Lets see what others have to say before we make any changes though. --mav
Well, this is how I would do it. You can revert if necessary, since it's in the history. I'm least sure about section 3. Perhaps we shouldn't feature any category scheme there, but just list a bunch of them (with short explanations after dashes, as I've done with links in the other sections); the "classic" subject scheme would then be moved to a separate page and just be listed first here. — Toby 13:39 Nov 3, 2002 (UTC)
Hi Toby, I liked the old version better -- I think the explanations are unnecessary (we shold think of self-descriptive link names) and the bullet format makes the page too long (and the layout inconsistent). --Eloquence 22:41 Nov 16, 2002 (UTC)
Hmm, as usual I like my version better :-). In the current one there are 12 headlines, which is far too much for the headlines to be useful as a navigation/orientation guide (in addition, the non-english / background / list headings are awfully redundant). By having a different width for the two groups of links we imply a different meaning and do not need the "Browse"/"About" headlines. --Eloquence
- Perhaps. But I'm the type of person who goes nuts if one of my pictures is not level on the wall. The page has a visual elegance at 50/50 when the 60/40 just bugs the hell out of me. --mav
- Eloquence said: By having a different width for the two groups of links we imply a different meaning and do not need the "Browse"/"About" headlines. I agree. They work better two ways: (a) by using layout to communicate the two seperate sections rather than words (the page has too many words already), they help make the page more simple, intuitive and obvious, and (b) (Mav to the contrary) they are better balanced visually. Using the default view (with the control panel whatsit on the left), a 50/50 column split is unbalanced in any case, and if you have to be unbalanced, it's always better to be clearly unbalanced, rather than have that "almost symetrical but something isn't quite right" look. Tannin 09:54 Jan 2, 2003 (UTC)
- Balance is problematic from a design perspective because it takes away natural visual clues. Take a look at Jakob Nielsen's useit.com as a bad example. He has also split up the page into two 50/50 parts. This means the viewer has no visual guide to distinguish the different sections of the site. When I try to visualize the page in my mind, I always forget which side was the "permanent content" and which side was the "news" one because they are not sufficiently distinct (the headlines are terrible, too). If we do the 50/50 thing on Wikipedia, the reader will have to resort to headlines to figure out the difference between the two sides. And these sides *are* very different in their function. --Eloquence
- That's a good example. (useit.com) The colours help, but you can't really get a good appearance with a 50/50 split using left-alligned text. The visual weight of the text makes the left side of each column "heavier", the right side wants to "float up" in the reader's eye. This conflicts with the strict symmetry of two equal-width columns, and it's that dissonance that makes it look unpleasant. Tannin
- OK - let me try something. --mav
- IMO the page is more plain now. But is probably is more usable. One thing that still bugs me about the 60/40 set-up is the list of languages overshoots the regular category section of the table. This will only get worse as new languages are added. --mav
Do we want the "In the news" stuff etc. bold? IMHO making it bold distracts much needed attention from the "Welcome to Wikipedia" paragraph. --Eloquence
- Either way is fine with me. --mav
Not sure why you are doing all this, but I don't like the two columns bit. Try reading it with a window that is sub-VGA (ie not VGA full screen) (ie less than 640 pixels wide) - It's horrid. It may be boring, but I don't see anything wrong with the existing page. -- SGBailey 10:06 Jan 2, 2003 (UTC)
- Everything is horrid in sub-VGA. You have to draw the line somewhere. Tannin
On my browser, the subject headings are now too big, the old size was better. Also the current events titles overwhelm the items listed. Italic was better here. -- SGBailey 10:11 Jan 2, 2003 (UTC)
- Either bold or in a box with heading. Just italic is confusing. Smaller heads are good though. Tannin
By the way, did you know the list of other languages in the right column does not include some from the page footer! -- SGBailey 10:09 Jan 2, 2003 (UTC)