FreeCAD Website Design

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regis
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by regis »

yorik wrote: Thu Jul 12, 2018 1:20 pm The idea is just to make one simple homepage, not a full website (The rest is all hosted apps, mediawiki, mantis, phpbb...). So it doesn't make much sense to use a heavyweight structure like a CMS
Yeah seems the idea of apps is gaining grounds. Not a bad idea if the website works like a simple standard platform with plugin features. Like for example we can sort of plug in screenshot pages, or other projects download page etc, where most customised features can be plugged in and they will be instantly running without hindering the other plugged in apps that were already running.
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kkremitzki
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by kkremitzki »

Redoing the homepage has been on my radar for a while now, although of course it's quite out of scope for this summer. Personally, I was considering Wagtail: https://wagtail.io/ which is a CMS built on top of Django, a Python web framework. While it is possible to keep the homepage barebones as it is now, it's also possible to make a fairly simple homepage which is a solid foundation for future improvements and has some nice features as well.
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AR795
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by AR795 »

Alright, so I was following a few tutorials about bootstrap and I have tried to recreate the mock-up design. The files are available here to test:
https://github.com/AR795/FreeCAD-Homepage
At this point, Its not an exact replica of the mock-up and I will continue to tweak it if I learn something new. Currently the zig-zag pattern is not aligned with the sections.
triplus
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by triplus »

Good job!

I am guessing hosting it on GitHub Pages or https://beta.freecadweb.org/ would increase the amount of feedback.

https://pages.github.com/

P.S. Will have more time to provide some feedback in the following days. Likely Monday.
AR795
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by AR795 »

triplus wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 10:25 am I am guessing hosting it on GitHub Pages or https://beta.freecadweb.org/ would increase the amount of feedback.

https://pages.github.com/
Yes, that would be more appropriate. I have created a Github Pages website here:
https://ar795.github.io/FreeCAD-Homepage/
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Joel_graff
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by Joel_graff »

AR795 wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:59 am Yes, that would be more appropriate. I have created a Github Pages website here:
https://ar795.github.io/FreeCAD-Homepage/
That is absolutely gorgeous. It's really a great contemporary aesthetic. I just wish we didn't have to link to the Wiki for everything. It makes the front page feel like a facade for an otherwise ... unfortunate browsing experience, lol.

Still, just having that in place would be a fantastic improvement.

Great job!
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yorik
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by yorik »

Joel_graff wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 12:16 pmThat is absolutely gorgeous.
I agree totally. Well done @AR795!

The design is just perfect IMHO, and the responsiveness works really fine. One little detail, when viewed in "desktop view" (with full width), the white text blocks on the right of the screenshots are on a very bright cyan background that makes them not optimal to read. Not too sure what to do, maybe darken a bit thr background image?
Joel_graff wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 12:16 pmI just wish we didn't have to link to the Wiki for everything. It makes the front page feel like a facade for an otherwise
Indeed, but we can improve that a lot by creating a them for the wiki that integrates seamlessly with the homepage (same header and footer, etc..). I had done that for the current website, but after a mediawiki update it stopped working so we disabled it, and since we were all growing tired of the current website, I got lazy to spend time fixing it. But with this one I'd like to give it a try again.
AR795
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by AR795 »

Joel_graff wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 12:16 pm
I just wish we didn't have to link to the Wiki for everything.
I guess for now the links can serve as placeholders and updated later as necessary.
yorik wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 2:09 pm
One little detail, when viewed in "desktop view" (with full width), the white text blocks on the right of the screenshots are on a very bright cyan background that makes them not optimal to read. Not too sure what to do, maybe darken a bit thr background image?
I had originally planned to have the text on the right to be colored black like in the mock-up, however I wasn't able to align the text with the pattern properly and sometimes the text would slide up and down onto the background due to the responsive layout and since the background is dark, the black colored text doesn't fit well with it, so I thought I'd leave all the text white. I guess the blue color of the pattern can be darkened a little to improve readability. I have updated the website with the changes.
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kkremitzki
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by kkremitzki »

Great job AR795, I really like the site re-design and I feel galvanized to help actually implement it! (wields FTP access) :D

At first I had written up quite a bit of feedback about what might be improved but instead I think it's better as-is. The only bit left worth mentioning is that for the text under "AND MANY MORE GREAT FEATURES", it would be nice if you included stuff about the experimental CFD, BIM, and Geodata workbenches and how FreeCAD also has potential to be a real Swiss Army knife of a general-purpose engineering toolkit. However, the fact that the copy is all pretty succinct is one thing I like about it, so pick out of my suggestions whatever changes you may.
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NormandC
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Re: FreeCAD Website Design

Post by NormandC »

yorik wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 2:09 pm I agree totally. Well done @AR795!
+1, a very nice overhaul of the website. Maybe some of the content (text, images, links) would have to be revised, but that's a different thing altogether.

P.S. One small point, ideally, I think images should have small captions to credit the authors if possible.
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