Gentoo Foundation Website Redesign Contest -- the vote

Message

Nahor · Post by **Nahor** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:28 pm

I like Aaron Shi best too but I would prefer the top banner was not so dark/cold. It's a bit scary and depressing to arrive on a page with such colors.
Colors like the ones used in Charles-Andre Landemaine's gentech design or Derek Gerstmann's would be better IMHO.

In the "view handbook" section, the green on purple is not the happiest combination either. It's fine for the little arrows but not for text.

BlockFin · Post by **BlockFin** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:40 pm

Having actors on a page just screams commercialism, so I dropped gentech and gencorp immediately. Iris on Mirror was nice, but I thought it was a little too much like the current Gentoo page - which is fine, but not quite as good as Aaron Shi and Derek Gerstmann.

Chossing between Shi and Gerstmann is hard. For a while, my choice would have been Shi, because his design has a little something extra that I can't quite put my finger on. But after looking a little bit more and reading the posts on this thread, I now think I prefer Gerstmann because it has a clean, uncluttered look that, IMHO, is better for a project like Gentoo.

Koala Kid · Post by **Koala Kid** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:05 pm

Charles-Andre Landemaine - gencorp

second_exodous · Post by **second_exodous** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:07 pm

I voted 'Iris on Mirror', the other's looked too corporate. I liked them all though, I really liked the infinity symbol on 'Aaron Shi'. I don't know, I'm kinda getting sick of purple, I have ADD though and switch everything in my life around over and over again, so I need to take that into account.

Thanx,
Stan

frameRATE · Post by **frameRATE** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:16 pm

I agree, Iris's should be more purple..

emes · Post by **emes** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:28 pm

ditto with everyone else who voted for Shi but would have voted for Iris if the colors were more gentoo.

floam · Post by **floam** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:38 pm

I don't like Aaron's.

"HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING" Just reinforces the "ricer" appeal of Gentoo.

kcsnix · Post by **kcsnix** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:47 pm

I voted "Iris on Mirror" although I like some of the other designs too.

IMHO it's a simple well tested and fast layout, and it doesn't look too much "for sale". I trust the colors can be adjusted and that it's not the final design, anyway it still got my vote

Proteus · Post by **Proteus** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:50 pm

I can't see why Iris should have a better "community feel" than Aaron Shi's one. Personally, I like to have a "polished" look - both in my life as well as on the Internet.

Also, I cannot see how a "corporate look" would not be compatible with Gentoo - but that maybe because I have no prejudices about companies (small or big ones) like a lot of people seem to these days.

Additionally, a company can have a good website or it may have a bad one, the same goes for a community site. So I don't think you can identify a company's site just by the design of it.

And a good look does not mean that Gentoo has to change or give up its identity.

Even if Aaron Shi's design looks like a corporate design to you that might still be an advantage: Maybe there would be more companies using Gentoo based servers - managemant people could be convinced more easily when they like the site, too.

monkey89 · Post by **monkey89** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:04 am

Iris on mirror simply looks better to me. I'm a minimalist, and I can't stand sites that have large banner images like the others do. Don't remember the name, but the Apple-looking site is good - but it looks too much like apple. Iris is a much calmer theme, and either color is fine.

I don't think you shouldn't vote for Iris based on the color - something like that can easily be changed. Vote based on where things are and the general scheme of the site. Iris would be easy to navigate, not overboard and fast to load just like the current gentoo site, and, at least to me, more pleasing on the eyes.

cadaverus · Post by **cadaverus** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 1:16 am

Very nice styles well done all. For my part, creativity is lost =)

mrmodin · Post by **mrmodin** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:21 am

Aaron! Very nice.

zander76 · Post by **zander76** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:28 am

Although I've seen other posts in this thread claiming that Aaron's design is too corporate-looking, IMHO that's its best feature.

We need a design that transmits the stability devs strive to get out of Gentoo and its packages.

Also, it would be good for the main page to depart from the Slashdot-style news page for a change. News in the main page should never be allowed to be hanging there for more than two weeks, or it would give the impression that Gentoo is stalled.

It would be nice to drop Flash animations from the big, dominant banner in the middle. That's just overkill and would be really a PITA to keep it fresh.

KingPunk · Post by **KingPunk** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:48 am

hayt wrote:First I was inclined towrds voting for Aaron Shi design but reading the postings made me vote for iris because of the community feel.

All designs are good and choice was hard.

the beauty of the open source idealogy, is thinking for yourslef.
im see you're a sterotype-basher

way to go! lol

biznatch · Post by **biznatch** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 3:12 am

Everything about Aaron Shi is great except the tacky reference to rocket fuel. I should simply read:

High performance computing
gentoo linux

brazentone · Post by **brazentone** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 4:15 am

biznatch wrote:Everything about Aaron Shi is great except the tacky reference to rocket fuel. I should simply read:

The "rocket fuel" quote is great! Granted it isn't strictly adherant to wall-street style professionalism, but it's still cute.
Think about it this way. It in no way misrepresents the product. It's true, rocket fuel is not required to use gentoo. Also, it balances out the graphic quite nicely, creating a visual path for the eye to follow from the main menu to the "learn more" link. This is even more important to a design than if a null comment should or shouldn't be there.

Well, with that said, I voted for gentech.

Goalie_Ca · Post by **Goalie_Ca** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 5:28 am

+1 Iris on Mirror. clean, efficient. gentoo.

Damn straight! I'm sure if it had "purple" it would win.
I don't like aaron's that much. If i wanted fancy and shiny i'd probably go for gentech.

I think iris has what it takes to be corporate, but its not like one of those tacky flashy websites either. quite profesional.

Cerement · Post by **Cerement** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 5:38 am

Voted for Aaron not so much for the slickness, but that it had the widest, most readable text column for the manual information and kept that part simple without overdoing the boxes/lines/shades ...

Dreugan · Post by **Dreugan** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 6:22 am

I vote for Charles-Andre Landemaine - gencorp
Looks simple easy to navigate and not heavy on the graphics to slow down load time.

foosh · Post by **foosh** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 6:39 am

Extremely impressed by the work of Aaron Shi. Very nice work on all five however!

Flamie · Post by **Flamie** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:29 am

I don't like images.
but I picked arons and that based only on how easy it'd be to find what I'm usually looking for.

the Iris one would've beat arons any day if it wasn't shaded so that it gets troublesome to read. the _design_ (placement, thoughts etc) of the Iris seems just as good as arons, but without tons of images.

the image someone else posted on this thread ( http://www.monio.de/iris_purple.png ) would definately have gotten my vote, no doubt.

to bad I can't re-vote and change back to Iris which I now would've wanted too :/

.coder · Post by **.coder** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:42 am

I personally voted for "Iris on Mirror", reasons why:

1. It is simple (not simplistic)
2. It is lite
3. It is fast
4. It is attractive
5. It is easy to adopt to

All reasons and features, Gentoo has.

Also, why everyone wants "Purple"? I think current color scheme (i.e. (light-) green) for "Iris on Mirror"'s design is the best. Reasons:

Psychologically, light-green associates with something lite, user-friendly, easy, something, that Gentoo has

That's all!

wendelbrooks · Post by **wendelbrooks** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:44 am

Iris on mirror would be perfect if it was in pink.

Rapsey · Post by **Rapsey** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 8:42 am

Definitely iris on mirror.
Making the gentoo homepage look corporate is not a good thing in my opinion. It might look a little snappier but it looses that community feel (feels alien). I even saw somwhere that users tend not to trust homepages that are overly graphical (corp. style pages).
Iris keeps the general layout of the current page (which is good) while making it look nicer.
Minimalistic realy is the way to go.

Post by **GurliGebis** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 9:18 am

wow, they are all great, voted Charles-Andre Landemaine - gentech, but they are all great

Gentoo Foundation Website Redesign Contest -- the vote

Gentoo Foundation Website Redesign Finalists

Aaron's design: corporate-looking == stable, serious

Aaron Shi

Re: Aaron Shi

Website Contest

Iris on Mirror