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RITlug / ritlug.github.io

RITlug website
https://ritlug.com
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Redesign Summer 2018 #151

Closed ct-martin closed 6 years ago

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

(Fall 2018 prep)

desktop screenshot

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@Tjzabel could you block this until we fully discuss in eboard meeting?

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@jwflory random thought: we could solve both of those by putting in CampusGroups but that would also mean we should use it more

jwflory commented 6 years ago

@ct-martin I think it's better to establish our identity on the website. We need to use CampusGroups for some RIT functions, but we don't need to base our operations there.

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

Also, just fixed the footer links to use HTTPS

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@jwflory new idea for the columns - move "get involved" to the left one and make an "events" section (ImagineRIT, Maker Faire, etc.) that gets added to the right side. Thoughts?

jibby0 commented 6 years ago

Just putting my nitpick from the eboard meeting here: the Hello (RIT|World) on the front.

I feel we should consider how programming-centric we would like our site to be, so the club as a whole is more welcoming to non-programming majors and people.

Perhaps a more Linux-related blurb would be suitable, or a quote pertaining to the unity open source promotes.

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@jibby0 for the record here, we also looked at simpler variations but weren't happy with any of them (we tried: hello, hello RIT, hello world, hello RIT/world)

I'm going to add that since it's literally the biggest thing on the page and it's front, center, and top, it should still be some form of greeting. We're trying to drive engagement a lot this semester and I feel that this should try to show a welcoming attitude. I also don't think that's the place for quotes as that would be the opposite of the previous point of welcoming since it indicates that we have (some amount of) a shared ideology, which will likely turn some people away. The exception to that would a "can you do (everything) with Linux"-style thing, but I feel that should go somewhere else.

We could try a call-phrase like "hack the planet", which while not everyone would know the reference, still would have some degree of appeal to both newer and older members. The problem again with that though is that less-programming-centric majors might not understand the word "hack" properly. We should also remember that while our primary & target audience is students, we also get parents, administrators, and other people who view our site, and we'll have a particular issue if an administrator takes it badly (remember, we also put this on a screen at events like ImagineRIT and Maker Faire).

So while regex might not be understood, they should still get the idea of the greeting, but we also can't make it too, too oriented towards a younger, tech-savvy-ish audience. I do understand that it could end up slightly as gatekeeping if someone thinks they need to understand it to join.

My biggest concern is that it's big and it's the first thing that you'll see, so it should be welcoming and inviting. We could just use "RIT Linux Users Group" as something neutral if we decide we don't like the regex, but I also want to know how much we want to block the PR for this. I would be interested in dzho, Schneidy, or SJ's opinion on this, however, to my understanding they are all busy with life or work right now.

jibby0 commented 6 years ago

@ct-martin I agree, don't block on this. This is more of something to keep in mind as we pursue a more welcoming environment and finish wrapping things up this summer.

And I agree, the worst thing to come of reading this is "I don't understand regex,but kinda get what it's saying". There won't be any misconceptions or blatant ideology, which could be more troublesome.

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@jibby0 I agree that it'll be understood as a greeting, the other issue was potential gatekeeping. Since I agree that it's likely mundane, I'm going to put forward that we should not block on this now and I'll ping Schneidy end of this week, or next week, since he's busy right now and dzho is overseas.

I'm also seeing some other room for minor wording improvements (such as shortening the third line of the orange block), so I think if Flory's issue gets resolved (and no other arise) we should merge this and then open a new issue to discuss potential improvements at a broader scale since we now can change almost anything as I now know what's going on in the site and Bootstrap is a bit more flexible than MDL. Since Flory dislikes issues without a clear deliverable, I think we should set a time limit on it as an initial CFP for the new site as otherwise we'd end up with a lot of issues.

gen1e commented 6 years ago

@ct-martin I really like this. The one thing is that I would re-structure the Do category like this: 1) Get Involved 2) Talks 3) Projects 4) GitHub The big point is having Get Involved at the top because it's the least intimidating. I feel it would be more welcoming and friendly than projects.

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

Random thought to self: add arrows to the boxes to indicate they can be clicked

jwflory commented 6 years ago

@jwflory new idea for the columns - move "get involved" to the left one and make an "events" section (ImagineRIT, Maker Faire, etc.) that gets added to the right side. Thoughts?

I would still like to see the mailing list added – in a first pass, I didn't notice it was missing.

Just putting my nitpick from the eboard meeting here: the Hello (RIT|World) on the front.

@jibby0 for the record here, we also looked at simpler variations but weren't happy with any of them (we tried: hello, hello RIT, hello world, hello RIT/world)

When looking closer, I noticed we didn't expand the acronym on the home page. I think it is better to be explicit with RIT Linux Users Group, since RITlug wouldn't be intuitive for a first-time viewer or someone outside of RIT. I think it's important to expand the acronym somewhere on the home page.

The big point is having Get Involved at the top because it's the least intimidating. I feel it would be more welcoming and friendly than projects.

I agree with @gen1e that the Do category should list Get Involved first.

+1!

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@jrtechs The footer already has a light grey background (in which case maybe a darker one?), and from when I was playing with it I wasn't fond of a horizontal line since there's already a visual border from the bottom of the "latest announcement" (or whatever the page content is). I'm going to put that in he same category as "Hello (RIT|World)" for a new ticket after this gets merged.

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@jwflory I noticed that (the acronym) last night but wasn't completely happy with how it looked when it was fully written out; I'll play with it some more in this next round of changes.

Tjzabel commented 6 years ago

Ah, I suppose it's time I also add in my own review.

First Impressions

I like it! The updates you have been doing to the website these past few months have been great! I appreciate you taking the website project upon yourself. I love the color scheme and how the top header is not black any more.

Possible Changes

Footer

I agree with @jrtechs that the footer could definitely be a darker color, and separate from the main section. I would like to move away from the standard blue links as well, so maybe have a darker grey with white-ish links?

Hello RIT|World

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I totally understand having this wording on our page. On the other hand, I don't think it's a great placement or phrasing as the largest text on the screen. I would personally like for the wording to be less programming related, and more of a generic page. Maybe just have "RIT Linux Users Group" as the text? This is a hard one to handle.

Do

For the "Do" section, I'm thinking the order should be a little different. My thoughts are: Get Involved, Talks, Projects, GitHub.

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@RITlug/eboard-current @gen1e: Made requested changes (& a couple design tweaks). Please let me know what you think and/or if I missed anything. Also, desktop screenshot is properly 1080p this time and sorry the mobile one look really big.

localhost_4000_ 1080p

localhost_4000_ pixel 2

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

Also, I shortened the orange block sentences, please let me know what you think of them.

Tjzabel commented 6 years ago

@ct-martin I love the update! I have one last super nit-picky thing in the footer. Under RIT, the www.rit is a little odd. I think we should change that to either RIT Website or the full www.rit.edu

Other than that, this looks ready to ship in my eyes. Great work!

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@Tjzabel: it does have the .edu :P I agree that "RIT Website" would look better though

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@jwflory will do for both. Was trying to keep different things separate for commits with how much I was changing

gen1e commented 6 years ago

@ct-martin Looks good to me

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@Tjzabel changed links to "University Website," "GCCIS College of Computing," & "CampusGroups" since the RIT label on all of them was redundant. At some point we should figure out how to put GCCIS there with its proper name while not going across so many lines.

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

@jwflory I won't reliably have time to rewrite the git history probably until I get back in fall. To not block on me so this can be merged, would you rather I do "Merge & Squash" down to one commit or keep the entire history?

ct-martin commented 6 years ago

Managed to figure out my question. @jwflory if this looks ok to you could you merge?

jwflory commented 6 years ago

@ct-martin Excellent, this is perfect. Thanks for rebasing. Merging it in now! :clapper: