Hitchwiki:Improving the looks

Hitchwiki is almost 4 years old in its current incantation - it would be great to have a new look for the next birthday. A complete make-over is possible. There has been some effort towards a Logo update but a complete makeover would be better than merely putting a new logo in the top left corner.

Setup
current work in progress: http://hitchwiki.org/new-front2.php guaka 21:35, 13 October 2010 (CEST)
 * Hitchwiki:NEW_Start_Page: rendered -> use MediaWiki markup, keeping as much CSS in here as possible during development (for flexibility)
 * Hitchwiki:NEW_Start_Page/css: raw CSS, guaka also included common Hitchwiki CSS for now.
 * Hitchwiki:Topline/new: raw HTML, use MW markup here too?

TODO

 * Help us!

graphics:
 * upload nicer thumb
 * upload nicer HITCHWIKI
 * upload CC-BY-SA icon
 * upload icons for Maps, Planet, Blogs etc.

CSS:
 * spacing
 * background languages and other box
 * nicer HR
 * language buttons
 * colors
 * names (also in template)
 * hovering

What can we do?
we need good splicers :)
 * guaka - CSS, HTML, tech
 * platschi - writing, editing, testing
 * Mikael - HTML, tech, JS, kick ass graphics, UIX

Logo
I'll just update this to here, since it's under current discussion. Old bla bla can still be found. In short, new proposal based on this new startpage design. Click to see bigger. You can also comment on FB -Mikael 15:46, 13 October 2010 (CEST)


 * Looks good!  I'm all for replacing the current logo with this one asap! :)
 * Well, except for the www in the logo, we don't have that in our URLs. guaka 16:03, 13 October 2010 (CEST)
 * I like it. I am not sure if it fits into our current layout though. --MrTweek 16:38, 13 October 2010 (CEST)
 * Nice! As guaka said, the URL looks a bit ugly in the logo. About layout, how difficult is it to adjust the new start page layout/css to the english hitchwiki? i think a bit more orange would do better than the monotonous, boring blue right now =) I'm for! --Platschi 21:54, 13 October 2010 (CEST)
 * I uploaded new version without URL on it. Also we now have a Maps badge. -Mikael 10:19, 15 October 2010 (CEST)
 * or maybe some slogan under "hitchwiki" would do? :-) -Mikael 11:31, 15 October 2010 (CEST)
 * Nah, it's simple, easy to understand. I like it. Let's integrate it into the wiki! --Platschi 11:12, 16 December 2010 (CET)

Frontpage

 * Mikael made a new design for the frontpage, which could be taken over to the wiki, used or worked on further. See here for more information. Also a new hitchwiki maps might come in future ;) --Platschi 15:56, 11 October 2010 (CEST)
 * Yes, this looks nice. Could be a good start for a make-over?  If more people like this?  Anyone interested in doing the splicing/HTML/CSS with me? guaka 23:35, 11 October 2010 (CEST)
 * If somebody has some time for HTML, just contact me for the layered psd-file. It's quite simple to do, only language "buttons" need to be smaller to look better with Many languages. Oh and new Maps will be ready soon. ;-) -Mikael 12:55, 12 October 2010 (CEST)
 * What about picking a day and work on it? Or everyone who feels like, join the IRC Chat and let's get in action! Mikael and me are available there quite often :) --Platschi 17:48, 12 October 2010 (CEST)
 * I can speak HTML, but I can't open photoshop files :> Anyway, I'm also in IRC every day, let's do it there! --MrTweek 22:28, 12 October 2010 (CEST)
 * Mikael, I also avoid opening .psd files. Can you save the different graphical parts in appropriate formats?  You can simply upload them here.  I think the thumb and the HITCHWIKI are probably enough, we already have the flags.   I think it could also be nice to have some more deeplinks on our frontpage.  E.g. to "first time hitchhiking" and possibly the continents, in a way that is popular these days, with a big menu with many items in the bottom.   It could be in between the yellow and the grey part.
 * We can simply start a page that will be only editable by admins ( which we all are here, right? yes I checked :) and that is included from new-looks.php or something. guaka 00:42, 13 October 2010 (CEST)


 * You can now download bits or see them and start working with them. I already started with an empty canvas and header links (see .html included). Those deeplinks somebody mentioned could be added after introduction text under the logo. Then just smaller language selections. -Mikael 15:04, 13 October 2010 (CEST)


 * Cool. I quickly put on Hitchwiki:NEW_Start_Page, and it's included from http://hitchwiki.org/new-front.php guaka 16:03, 13 October 2010 (CEST)


 * Well, about the deeplinks: a website, especially its starting page, shall not overcome more than 5-7, max 9 items of navigation as users tend to be irritated and confused with more. I personally also prefer a clean, well-arranged starting page. when a visitor joins e.g. the english wiki, he'll be confronted with tons of information anyway. And about adding first time or other information deeplinks, do you want to add them all in all the 8-9(?) different languages we offer so far? I guess for non-English speaking visitors these might be totally irrelevant. I slightly remember we had this discussion earlier here as well ;) --Platschi 15:31, 13 October 2010 (CEST)
 * I agree. I would prefer the start page as simple and international as possible, to not confuse first-time visitors. --MrTweek 15:35, 13 October 2010 (CEST)
 * Valid point. Cleaner is better. –Mikael 15:38, 13 October 2010 (CEST)
 * OK. guaka 16:03, 13 October 2010 (CEST)

Wiki pages
More visuals. What do you think about this? Minus logo it should be possible to do with pure CSS. –Mikael 20:45, 15 October 2010 (CEST)


 * Looks good!  I wish some concepts of the old logo could somehow still be around somewhere though...
 * The colors of the boxes on the front page should also be adapted. It could be good to create mock-ups with a country page instead? guaka 02:45, 16 October 2010 (CEST)


 * What about visualising the whole design a bit more towards orange? For me the blue&orange combination kind of doesn't look very pleasent to the eye. E.g. what about e.g. green/orange or so? Symbolizes Nature according to this ;) Or is a complete new make-up of the wiki not recommended ? --Platschi 11:18, 16 October 2010 (CEST)


 * Some editing (and adding that girl to there, sure!) to the mainpage layout would be good yeah. Why this layout ain't that orange is because I kinda wanted it to blend to the background and not to disturb content/readers. Orange is a good color to remember (Hitchwiki - aah, thant orange thingy!) but it doesn't make good frames for lots of text. Readability of wikis isn't that good anyway. Some even say it's better readability if you're blind, for it's really semantic and well done technically. :-D Just looks often horrible. Anyway, I'll come up with some fresh stuff for the mainpage content area soon enough. -Mikael 15:29, 16 October 2010 (CEST)

//


 * What do you think about inserting wiki into main template ? :) It's not finished, it's just an example of putting wiki inside main template


 * All services (Community, Wiki, Maps) need to be connected somehow more together to a one big service, you're right on that. But I was thinking more of a similar layout between services (already done: Wiki frontpage, Community and Maps - just Wiki missing) and what most important - to every service, a big enough and visible main menu with links to all these services, with icons. Now many ppl who know about the Wiki, don't find Maps. -Mikael 12:02, 22 March 2011 (CET)

Social media
Let's add some links to our FB, twitter, identica and the newly created group on LinkedIn :) But where?  On frontpage?  In the top bar?  Below Flattr? guaka 14:01, 6 November 2010 (CET)


 * some code for Facebook, created here:

