Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot CSS Redesign Contest Update
A few weeks back I announced that Slashdot was throwing open its design to the readers. An individual will win a Laptop, and hopefully we'll all
win a Slashdot design that looks good. My Journal
Entries have chronicled dozens of entries since the contest began, commenting
on many of them. Today I share with you 3 of my favorites. These aren't
necessarily "Finalists" but I think these are some of the strongest
entries. First up is Michael Johnson's design,
second is Jason Porritt's entry, and third is a
design from Peter
Lada. The contest will end around the middle of next week. Entries can be
sent to redesign at CmdrTaco.net. Read my journal for extensive
commentary on the many entries, to see what stuff has been working and what
stuff hasn't.
They all have their strong points, but Michael Johnson's design currently has some weirdness going on in Firefox 1.5.0.3 with the page footer showing up halfway thorugh the page at the tail of the right side boxes. Little weird in IE6 as well. Other than that, they look good.
Sehr geehrter Toilettenbenutzer!
So far, it looks like the prize for having a good design is a severe slashdotting of your server...
Of the three, I'm really partial to Jason's design. It captures all the elements of Slashdot, looks clean, has everything well separated, AND it works without error across the browsers I've tried. I'm rooting for it to win.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Great job, Slashdot manages to slashdot three slashdots in one go!
The perfect sig is a lot like silence, only louder
Since it's the only one that didn't meltdown in seconds after being posted. If you're going to make a slashdot site - might as well be slashdot proof.
This is beyond just having a new stylesheet, but I think it would be pretty simple: can we get the year in the date for posts? Occasionally, I'll go through /.'s archives, or come up with something in Google, and oftentimes I have no idea how current that story is. I dunno-- maybe this is just a preference setting. Anyone know how to turn this on?
For those of us that don't have perfect vision. All three designs have very small fonts. When I actually make the fonts big enough to read the formatting does not hold up.
CmdrTaco , Use the Poll to get User Opinion - If you really want it,that is.
Why does yahoo do this
I like Michael Johnson's too, but ukasz Topa's design is just as cool (and fairly similar).
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Respect the viewer's choice of standard font size, kids. Leave body text at 100%. The only thing that should be smaller is the fine print.
It's css, if the slashdot site is made properly you could just include alternative css files for all of these themes and let the users choose.
If most of this is hardcoded(I havn't checked), then the upgrade for web standards was pointless and whoever did it missed the point.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
The other two are slashdotted, so I'll just talk about this one.
First impression: My God, this is cutesy. (And I mean that in a bad way.) Too many rounded corners, and the light green on the dark green looks off somehow.
As others have noted, making the font big enough to read screws up the layout. Most notably the posted by name and date disappear completely.
There are little right-facing triangles next to the "from the X department" lines and the headline only stories. The collapsible menus have downward-facing triangles on them. My first expectation is that clicking on the triangles will trigger the collapse/expand function and turn the triangles so they face down when collapsed and to the right when expanded. This is not at all what they do. If you have an image to signal an action, you shouldn't reuse the same image as a static pretty thing.
Good things: The font is nice if too small on the default. I like the sensible blocks of color with lines for the menu.
All three of these are valiant attempts at a Slashdot redesign. What hinders them is the Slashdot Coliseo wordmark and the goddamn stupid fucking green colour.
Which I gotta put on you, Taco. When clients do that to me (I am a graphic designer by trade), I know what I am getting into, which is a client who has nonsensical, nostalgic attachment to elements that simply do not work. That stuff doesn't typically end up in my portfolio.
Why don't you create a sub-category (for kicks at least) where the designers get free reign. You might be pleasantly surprised.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
http://doodlebit.com/slashdot2//
I am still waiting for the Chuck Norris version though... :p
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
I'm not going to bash any of the designs. I think they're all very clean and clear. But I can bet that Taco picked them because they were basically Slashdot with some slight drop-shadows and some fades here and there. So, overall, they're kind of bland. Like your Grandma tells you she wants suggestions for new candy in her dried, crusty candy bowl and instead of getting something you like she gets the same thing, only wrapped so it doesn't dry as quickly.
Disclaimer: I design.
As such, I know it's not that these guys have no creativity. I am putting the blame on the client. Taco asked for little more than a fresh coat of paint on the site, and that's what he got. It would be nice if he was less constrictive and opened himself up to other ideas besides something that automatically constricted the contestants to have results almost exactly like the site you're looking at right now.
I also can't fault people for choosing the design simply because it's what a lot of other sites look like nowadays. But in a couple of years, when the whole "Web 2.0 Soft Gradients" thing loses its sheen, the site is going to look dated yet again.
I do think the finalists all have a strong, clear foundation on spacing and placement so the designs aren't bad. They're just not enough of a change.
(Take my criticism with a grain of salt as I haven't submitted anything).
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
I thought from the original announcement that we were getting a redesign. If the "top 3" so far are the leading candidates for the final change, we get a few minor updates but overall a big yawn for a "new and improved" version with about as much change as the latest laundry soap.
Johnson's design is visually appealing, but has a major, and I say major flaw. Every designer knows that the eye tends to be captured by curved lines, and that is routinely exploited to draw the attention of the observer towards the product. Johnson's design has some fluid curved lines that draw the eye towards the top left corner, where there is absolutely nothing! The eye then wanders off the page, giving to the page an unpleasant "void" feeling. The attention level drops, and the viewer then instinctively moves on, looking for another, more interesting page.
I like his design best of the three. It's stylish while retaining the feel of the original.
I think his design looks the best, but I like the collapsible containers that the other two have. In fact, I like them a LOT. If Mike's had the collapsibles I'd vote for him, otherwise I like Jasons. Peter's is just too green and flat. Sorry Peter!
Maybe there's something I don't understand, but why can't they ALL be winners? Why can't /. (and other websites, for that matter) have a "skinnable" interface that lets the user choose how they want the content displayed? Drop down? Another page to set a cookie to the css file? There are many ways to do it technically. I'd even think that an "upload-your-own-CSS" feature would be nice (since you can't set cookies cross-site).
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
I think the headlines should also be the links to the stories (same as "read more"), as they are so much bigger and easier to target for clicking.
Yesterday was the time to do it right. Are we having a REVOLUTION yet?
Use the minimum font size setting in firefox.
BTW This is not meant as a "stop whining and do this other thing" answer. This is a "thank goodness the web is readable again" sanity stop-gap measure.
Running your site against a validator won't help if you're using IE6, because if your code is correctly written, it won't work :P Anyway there is no substitute for testing, period. You must test in every browser you care about, starting with the one about which you care most. However, I admit that I develop for Gecko first, and then go back and fill in IE, because IE is the broken one and when it's unfucked then I can go back and rip out the hacks instead of having to rip myself down to hacks.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm confused as to whether I'm trading in my Playstation 2 for a Playstation 3, or just trading my PS2 in for a newer PS2.
When I looked at these three designs, no offence at all to the people who are doing them, but they look like what a client would be presented if they have a agreed upon a basic layout, and wouldn't a few different "looks" to choose from.
I actually think there is some pride and a lot usability in Slashdot's current look. It's not fancy, but it doesn't need to be (at all!).
I think Slashdot is wasting peoples time if we're just putting a new coat of paint on the car. We don't care how ugly you are Slashdot, we love your personality!