new FLTK web page

[Paul Hahn]

Just a few thoughts about an eventual new/updated web page for FLTK.

I suggest starting fresh for best outcome, and just keep a link somewhere to the old one.

Also, the new one should be more attractive to new visitors I think, which may mean thinking in terms of something with more simplicity not just better color scheme etc..

Also, things like titles that use the word "recent" that have links to articles dated 2021, 2019 is off-putting for folks browsing and evaluating. It gives a false sense that FLTK may be "dead". Try to emphasize that FLTK is alive and well!

[supsm17]

I think it's just mainly the color palette that is making the webpage feel "outdated" or "vintage" due to the heavy use of bright, vivid colors.

Here is a quick attempt at "modernizing" some of the colors in about 5 mins:

Otherwise, the navigation and layout seems pretty reasonable for the most part, and maybe a "Pinned Articles" could be added above "Recent Articles".

I'm just not sure we should be spending too much effort on a complete redesign when these color changes alone fix 90% of the issues.

[Albrecht Schlosser]

Thanks to you and Paul for your suggestions.

We are considering to modernize the web page with low priority (lower
than releasing FLTK 1.4.0, obviously).

On 3/23/24 06:22 supsm17 wrote:
> I think it's just mainly the color palette that is making the webpage
> feel "outdated" or "vintage" due to the heavy use of bright, vivid
> colors.
> Here is a quick attempt at "modernizing" some of the colors in about 5
> mins:

> [image removed]

Honestly, I also don't like the existing colors, and I'm aware that
changing the colors would "only" be changing one CSS file (maybe, mostly
...). However, there are also a few small images to display borders (or
"rounded corners") which is a leftover from the 2000's where this was
used instead of today's CSS options (at that time it was likely "state
of the art").

However, we'd have to discuss color changes (at least internally) and
make a decision for the new look.

> Otherwise, the navigation and layout seems pretty reasonable for the
> most part, and maybe a "Pinned Articles" could be added above "Recent
> Articles".

Actually the first articles below the title "Recent Articles" *are*
pinned articles (see the small pins). What we could do is to make an
extra title, i.e. move the "Recent Articles" title below the pinned
articles and add the new "Pinned Articles" title where the old title
was. That should be easy.

This would also solve the issue Paul mentioned: "titles that use the

word "recent" that have links to articles dated 2021, 2019 is
off-putting for folks browsing and evaluating".

I'll look into it while I'm working on the web server anyway for
different reasons.

> I'm just not sure we should be spending too much effort on a complete
> redesign when these color changes alone fix 90% of the issues.

Good point.

Let's see what I can do quickly as a first step...

[Albrecht Schlosser]

On 3/23/24 14:39 'Albrecht Schlosser' wrote:
> Actually the first articles below the title "Recent Articles" *are*
> pinned articles (see the small pins). What we could do is to make an
> extra title, i.e. move the "Recent Articles" title below the pinned
> articles and add the new "Pinned Articles" title where the old title
> was. That should be easy.
>
> This would also solve the issue Paul mentioned: "titles that use the
> word "recent" that have links to articles dated 2021, 2019 is
> off-putting for folks browsing and evaluating".
>

> I'll look into it [...]

Done. I added a separate "Sticky Articles" headline and improved
formatting a tiny bit.

To view the changes you may need to reload the page or clear the browser
cache.

[supsm17]

>  What we could do is to make an
> extra title, i.e. move the "Recent Articles" title below the pinned
> articles and add the new "Pinned Articles" title where the old title
> was. That should be easy.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Sorry if it wasn't clear.

> However, there are also a few small images to display borders (or
> "rounded corners") which is a leftover from the 2000's where this was
> used instead of today's CSS options

I think those shouldn't be too difficult to "fix" by making the background transparent. Here is a simple proof-of-concept of the main page (haven't bothered to change any of the other colors).

[Albrecht Schlosser]

On 3/24/24 03:48 supsm17 wrote:
[Albrecht wrote:]

>  What we could do is to make an
> extra title, i.e. move the "Recent Articles" title below the pinned
> articles and add the new "Pinned Articles" title where the old title
> was. That should be easy.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Sorry if it wasn't clear.

> However, there are also a few small images to display borders (or
> "rounded corners") which is a leftover from the 2000's where this was
> used instead of today's CSS options

I think those shouldn't be too difficult to "fix" by making the background transparent. Here is a simple proof-of-concept of the main page (haven't bothered to change any of the other colors).

[image removed]

Yep, every single item may not be difficult to fix, it's just that it needs to be done.
Here's another proof of concept where I changed CSS colors to improve contrast (not my favourite colors!):



I marked some of the bits with red ellipses: the placeholder at the right border of the "FLTK" logo and the "rounded corners" of the "tabs".

While the image part is easy to fix the "simulation of rounded corners" by using an image in the (old) background color would likely need a little CSS to make the rounded corners of the tabs w/o any images. Probably no "magic", but again, it needs some time to be done.

Please don't understand me wrong, I'd love to do this but currently our priorities are to release 1.4.0.

The full screenshot with my CSS mods (again, not my favorite colors):



Just to get an impression...

[supsm17]

>  Please don't understand me wrong, I'd love to do this but currently our priorities are to release 1.4.0.

Yup, of course that's much more important than website nitpicking, haha. We can continue discussion after the release. Good luck!