Talk:Test/Main Page/Design with tabs

Comments welcome

How does this design look on your screen? The tab technology seems to more or less work (it was misbehaving before since it was inside another table), and this is derived using SMW, so while there are still a few rough edges, we have quite a lot of flexibility as regards content. I'm not very up to speed on current web design, but let us know what you think.Robin (talk) 17:28, 19 October 2014 (IST)

Wishlist

1. Twitter tab has a huge border
2. Tab image aspect ratios are not identical
3. "New" tab currently broken
4. Image tab could include several images
5. Video tab could include several videos
6. Talk tab is missing metadata (tricky to get round as it is currently programmed)
7. Tabs have no tooltips
8. Instead of icons, the actual images and/or logos could be used
9. A small "W" could link to corresponding Wikipedia page
10. Other metadata (constitutes? type?) could be displayed
11. Some of the older content e.g. Template:main-panel-tabstrip-with-icon might benefit from a reworking

Initial impressions

I really do like the overall approach. A few observations/suggestions:

Cosmetic

1. Icons holders need to be same size - especially depth.
2. Video and image icons to swap
3. The icon 'bar' probably need to be centred because, on narrower screens (reduce window width on any screen to see) the icons wrap and the left justified and other effects become ugly.

   Initial attempts to do just this have failed (by breaking the tabs). It may be possible, but with identical square icons this effect doesn't manifest, I think. Robin (talk) 15:42, 20 October 2014 (IST)

4. The Twitter feed can easily be made both wider and deeper. Also, maybe it too could sit alongside another Iframe - a Reddit feed for example since I often push stuff there and wee get a lot of traffic in return.

   See the source for how simply it is coded. So either as a separate tab or together. Robin (talk) 15:42, 20 October 2014 (IST)

Substantive

1. For varying visual interest it might be best to have another 3 frame row (similar to the current 'visitors, 'Contributors','Most wanted info' frames - which themselves need a re-think as and when) containing current image, current video and maybe list of the 10 or so most visited pages in the middle. Currently the page stats are turned off. We can either turn them on or pull the most visited stats from the Piwik database. Since it would be best to have 'most popular during a defined period - say last 24-48 hours, week or month - the Piwik approach mights be best. Needs researching. The remaining Icon selector bar could then go either above or below it.

--Peter P (talk) 07:50, 20 October 2014 (IST)

This is currently designed for editors rather than browsers. A "what's hot" is a good idea, as is some move visual appeal.

Template:main-subheader needs a serious rethink - it has prime position to point to some fairly uninteresting content (e.g. Most_Wanted_Information and Anonymous_Uploads_Received - neither of which has been touched for months). Maybe it could be replaced by a row which targets browsers rather than editors? Robin (talk) 15:42, 20 October 2014 (IST)

Robin (talk) 15:42, 20 October 2014 (IST)

Call for more feedback

I've just added a couple more fields of information. How else can this be improved...? Maybe some attention to Template:main-superheader, Template:main-header or Template:main-subheader? Robin (talk) 09:02, 18 November 2014 (GMT)

Pretty impressive Robin and ultra-intuitive once you've clicked a couple of icons. Very nice. I think priority for the header sections should be Template:main-subheader. Maybe one box each for Main page videos, images and Twitter feed or some other way of getting to them with another click. --Peter P (talk) 12:35, 18 November 2014 (GMT)

Oops forget about the pics, video and Twitter - already effectively there. I'm happy for it to go as-is and to consider the header sections separately. --Peter P (talk) 12:38, 18 November 2014 (GMT)