[Grok-dev] Re: heading layout on website

[Kevin Teague]

>
> I believe that Kevin was editing the html directly.

Yup, I was just plunking around with static HTML files locally, and  
then rsyncing to the server. Old skool CMS :)

For the creative intent of g.z.o, I am happy with the initial design,  
but I think there is still lots of polish and improvements that can  
be made. Please feel free to implement and fixes or general  
improvements as you see fit. If some things still look a bit wonky,  
it's probably just because it's not finished and not by design ;P

Some ideas that I was thinking about doing to improve the design:

  * Fixing up the URLs, e.g. /docs/tutorial feels much nicer to me  
than /tutorial.html

  * Splitting the Tutorial into multiple pages - it feels very  
overwhelming and intimidating as one big page. The addition of the  
sub-heads helps a lot already. The PDF idea is great! For a text of  
this length I think a lot of people will prefer to print it  out

  * Enhanced navigation:

    - breadcrumbs across the top as we start adding more content

   - Navigational sidebar for sub-pages or for the "Contents" section  
of the Tutorial. I was thinking about a design that looked like stone  
slabs - although would be tricky to implement.

   - Stone corners for the main layout - I think I like the web site  
being fairly caveman themed as opposed to say a more clean,  
straightforward layout. However, if we keep the main contents having  
the stone corners, the images could use a do-over and be made to look  
better

   * Enhanced header: The primary navigation bar across the top and  
the Grok header stills feels very rough. There are lots of ways this  
could be improved.

     I was thinking about something like carved-out-of-stone  
navigation tabs using a technique like this:

     http://alistapart.com/articles/slidingdoors/

      Then the stone slabs could be made to look like they are have  
had a field of grass growing over them and finally Grok appears to be  
resting on the grass. That's fairly ambitous, and in the end it might  
just look wonky - but I think we could make the header look better  
somehow :)

   * Grok logo: I like the current Grok typeface. I was thinking  
about taking the crosshatched pattern from Grok's tunic and applying  
it to the orange part of the lettering the logo - I think that could  
look worthy of an official Grok logo?

   * Web badges: Powered By Grok and I like the Django "I wish this  
site were powered by Grok" badge idea.

Hopefully I'll get some time to play with some of these ideas in the  
not too distant future, but right now I've got to see about getting  
php Point of Sale integrated with a Plone site ... trying hard not to  
rewrite phpPOS in Grok ... :)