Adding visual interest

[tgherzog]

Here's a quick section-by-section proposal for adding visual interest to the toolkit:

• OD in 60 Seconds: this section is very short, so let's not do anything beyond the existing pull quote, aside from perhaps re-positioning the pull quote.
• OD Essentials: Pull-quote possibilities for the "Examples" and "Uses" sections. I'm reluctant to add screen grabs or logos for any of the products under "uses" because it will mess up the layout and make for harder mgmt.
• Starting an OD Initiative: Pull-quote possibilities for "benefits" and "policies" sections. Some of the reports in the Benefits section (particularly the McKinsey report) have featured graphics, and it would be great to include thumbnails of these.
• Technology Options: Screen grabs of each vendor's product or product page (Logos would be nice, but I'm worried about the permissions issue).
• Demand & Engagement: Let's propose to think of an info-graphic or flow diagram of some sort to provide visual interest and complement the text.
• Supply & Quality: I'll try to convert the first two lists to tables to see if that improves things. There may be some pull-quote opportunities under "Data standards" and "More Guidance" sections
• ODRA: I'll look for a photo from one of the recent ODRA sections
• Technical Assistance: The first 5 bullets could make an interesting visual, so we might propose something there. In the meantime, I'll see if they look better as a table.

@lindaklinger - can you take responsibility for the sections involving pull quotes? You denote a pull quote by adding {: .pullquote :} after the quote itself. There must be a line break between the end of the pull quote and this piece of code. See the "60 seconds" section in the wiki for an example.

[tgherzog]

Ugh - I just converted some of the content to tables as described above, but the wiki uses a different Markdown engine than the toolkit, and it doesn't format tables the same way. They are turning out as gibberish in the wiki, but they look fine in the toolkit. Let's live with it for now since we're late in the project.

[lindaklinger]

When you have a chance, check the quote for Essentials and let me know what you think. As you know, "quotes" don't literally have to be quotes -- they can summarize key concepts.

[lindaklinger]

Inserted a similar "summarized concept" pull quote in Uses for your review. If you'd rather I go back to using the exact language from the text, let me know.

[tgherzog]

These are great: right approach.

[lindaklinger]

Finished pull quotes for four sections: Examples, Uses, Benefits, and Policies.

[lindaklinger]

In Supply, for the Data Standards subsection, I edited existing the intro statement into a pull quote that appears after the Data Standards subhead and before the Statistics entry; the quote summarizes the entries in Data Standards. Wrote new pull quote for Guidance, but the code won't let me place it where I want, which would be after the More Guidance subhead and before the Data Governance entry; that quote summarizes the entries in Guidance. Logically, both quotes should appear as I indicated -- before you start reading the entries -- but we'll have to see if that placement in the text will work well visually in the Web version.

[tgherzog]

I moved the pullquote under "More Guidance" to where I think you want it. You can see how it looks here.

Remember the dot (.) before pullquote, or the styling won't work: {: .pullquote :}

I see under "Data Standards," you converted an existing paragraph into a pull quote. Is that okay? Remember that pull quotes generally don't appear on smart phones and other small-screen devices. If the text is important for transitions or context, then it needs to appear both as "normal" text and as a pull quote.

[lindaklinger]

That's a good point. I edited that Data Standards line back into the intro text. I like how the More Guidance quote looks. But with your new "table," the colored bullets, and one pull quote, I don't think we need any more visuals -- this page may have a lot on it, but it's easy to read.

[tgherzog]

I added the graphic from the McKinsey report to Benefits. Looks sort of okay - I had to revert to ordinary paragraphs from bullets to make better use of space. I don't like how the graphic intrudes on the following paragraph, but the alternatives are to shrink the graphic to miniscule size, or have a big area of white space (and some gnarly HTML code to make that work). What do you think?

I also added a picture to the ODRA section. Not the most exciting, but for now the best I could find.

And with that I think we've harvested all the low-hanging fruit on this issue. Perhaps we can work on a flow diagram after we finish addressing the comments and launch it.

[lindaklinger]

Not sure why my earlier comment wasn't recorded... I had said that I liked the ODRA photo, and the placement of the McKinsey graphic does appear to address both paragraphs of text, not just the McKinsey report, so I'd suggest deleting it altogether, as the readability of this page would not suffer.

[lindaklinger]

For Demand, I wonder if you could use a simple figure that just uses text, such as a word cloud. The intro discusses the importance of involving a broad community of users, including several groups I hadn't thought of. We might use "community of users" as the largest feature, and include demand-side groups in the image, such as general public, media, labor unions, associations, NGOs, nonprofits, civic hackers, researchers, universities, etc.

[lindaklinger]

The bullets look good as a table. The rest of the page is a little dull, but because they're lists, I don't think there's much that can be done, except if you can insert screen grabs. On a related issue, shall I do a general edit on the existing text at this point before launching it? Or would you like to wait for feedback? There are a few rough edges that should be addressed.

[tgherzog]

I had said that I liked the ODRA photo, and the placement of the McKinsey graphic does appear to address both paragraphs of text, not just the McKinsey report, so I'd suggest deleting it altogether

I don't understand. Delete what?

The bullets look good as a table. The rest of the page is a little dull.

Which page are you talking about?

Shall I do a general edit on the existing text.

I'd rather not make text changes while people are reviewing it. Can you make changes (as "suggesitons") in the Google doc so that the edits are tracked?

[lindaklinger]

Sorry, I meant to say that the bullets were in Tech Assistance — that comment was more confusing than I intended. That page with your table looks good.

I wrote a comment responding to your comment on the McKinsey graphic, etc., over the weekend and it didn’t get saved. But I said I liked that ODRA photo, and I’d suggest deleting the McKinsey graphic in Benefits. And I agree — it’s better to just wait on any more edits until you get feedback. I also wrote a comment about a suggested graphic for the Demand section, so hopefully that was saved.

On Dec 8, 2014, at 11:21 AM, Tim Herzog notifications@github.com wrote:

I had said that I liked the ODRA photo, and the placement of the McKinsey graphic does appear to address both paragraphs of text, not just the McKinsey report, so I'd suggest deleting it altogether

I don't understand. Delete what?

The bullets look good as a table. The rest of the page is a little dull.

Which page are you talking about?

Shall I do a general edit on the existing text.

I'd rather not make text changes while people are reviewing it. Can you make changes (as "suggesitons") in the Google doc so that the edits are tracked?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/tgherzog/wbg-ogdtoolkit/issues/23#issuecomment-66140503.

[tgherzog]

Let's leave the McK graphic in for now and specifically ask for feedback on that from a few people. Amparo requested that one specifically, so I don't want to pull it until we let folks see it.

Sorry you're having problems with comments not saving. I think the safest way is to click the "View in Github" tickets to go to the website directly and use the comment form at the bottom. Then you can see the comments being saved. The other way -- replying to the email notifications -- you don't get that instant feedback. To be honest, I didn't even know you could post comments via email reply until just now :)

[tgherzog]

closing