A redesign in the works for Thinkpads.com?

Message

#121 Post by **BillMorrow** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:08 am

the search function will be fixed once there is content and something to search within..

there will be a section on how to buy..

this is still a work in progress..

that said, i made some small cosmetic changes tonight..
changed the banner bar and background..

opinions..?

thanks..

wangzipsuper · #122 Post by **wangzipsuper** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:15 am

why the total is 99%?

#123 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sun Mar 27, 2005 2:25 am

wangzipsuper wrote:why the total is 99%?

huh..?

what total..?

friedrich-eugen · #124 Post by **friedrich-eugen** » Sun Mar 27, 2005 8:21 am

Hello Bill,

I tried Your new site.

It seems functional, but still a bit to functional.

It lacks the graphics the first properly developed one, that had quite an IBM'touch in colors, graphics and some nicely ironic text on it. Probably it was a bit heavy when it comes to use it with a 56k-connect.

I left a comment with Your new site

Anyway, what ever will be Your new site, it will be thinkpads.com, and those unsing TPs will gather around it ...

happy easter Bill

#125 Post by **BillMorrow** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 2:03 am

friedrich-eugen,

well, work progresses, slowly, while trying to keep every other activity current..

it is not me who is doing the heavy lifting, yet..
kevin is doing all the work, so far..

thanks..

#126 Post by **daeojkim** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:56 pm

Hi Bill,

Would it be possible to add another topic on "how to" or " Do it yourself (DIY)" or "User Lessons" section that would allow experienced users to post tips and how to do certain things to fix, update, or upgrade thinkpad. Or if there was an interesting Q on certain aspect of hardware or software it can be moved here as well.

To make search easier, this section must follow certain rules and format of heading or first few line of writing must briefly describe what this is about and TP models that is applicable. May be making a simple template where posters would have to follow the format to post a topic. A lot of it can already done by copy and paste from various sections on this forum. Some suggestions are very valuable from many knowledgeable members here and it can be lost within piles of questions / comments / etc.

It would not really be a place for asking questions such as "How do I do such and such?", but rather posting "How to do something by experienced users if they feel that a certain knowledge would be very helpful for many"

e.g. How to create Windows XP CD from i386 would go to this section, first steps one should take when they first receive their TP (make R&R CD, set certain passwords, etc...). Most important topic will be on a sticky on top.

I find that many users ask same Q's again and again, partly because it is either difficult to find certain topic or it is easier just to ask. ( I know I have done that

)

Let me know what you think.

Thanks.

kjarrett · #127 Post by **kjarrett** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:09 pm

Hi daeojkim,

I'll reply if that's OK with Bill, we are working on the site together. It's taking so long thanks to me, unfortunately.

Your suggestion is a good one, in fact, in my view, it may be "doable" quite easily. However, the immediate solution is already on your screen: this forum.

All we need is a "DIY" or "How To" forum with specific guiidelines on posting titles and perhaps message structure. Wouldn't be hard ... and we've already got the software!

Bill, what do you think?

If it ain't broke.....

-kj-

benplaut · #128 Post by **benplaut** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 1:58 pm

first of all: you guys need a nice banner. I'll try to make one to fit the theme when i get home

second:take a loot at this site:

http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/

I think it would be very helpful to nonny and the rest of the dial-up users if the site had a "hi-fi" and "low-fi" version... one that is nice and flashy, and one that is not flashly and loads fast on dialup (but having the same content. Better yet, how about making one Lynx compatible? that would rock

Third: postnuke is a decent CMS, but, IMO, e107 is much better in terms of looks, customizing, and upkeap. give it a try.
If you want to keep the vast archives of the current forums in the new site, try PHPnuke... the forum module in it is a port of phpBB, so there should be a way (never done it myself) to transfer over the current forums.

===
Good luck!

djspoof · #129 Post by **djspoof** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:35 am

i'm a webmaster i have been designing sites for people and myself for a long time. i'd be more than happy to make you a new design but i can't promise i'd keep up with it afterwards. my work:

http://www.serialentertainment.com
http://www.blognog.com
http://www.dailyflashgames.com
http://www.acidic-records.com

i also mastered phpbb a long time ago but dont have any sites up right now that use them anymore.

benz · #130 Post by **benz** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 10:32 pm

Something I think would be great for this site (and it might be best as a link from the top of the forums) would be a Java-based IRC chat applet through the browser. Additionally, the channel could be accessible via normal IRC programs. I think this would be a nice addition that would cut down on a lot of the chatter that seems to plague the T-series forum, especially. For instance, if someone had a quick question that had been asked numerous times previously they could hop into the chat room and ask there first, saving us mods the trouble of telling them to search and locking their thread.

I don't know which applet is the best, or what capabilities Bill's server has, but I think this is something that could be added relatively easily and directly to this forum (as a link up top, above the FAQ or something). Bill, let me know if you would like me to do some research into this avenue, I do not mind the work but I'm sure there are some talented web designers here who have already explored this option in great detail.

#131 Post by **BillMorrow** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 2:47 am

lots of good ideas here..

thanks for the input..

more, when i have time to breath..

benz · #132 Post by **benz** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 12:58 pm

Another idea I had would be to make a 'favicon' for this site....perhaps a shrunken down parrot, similar to the one in your avatar...

A custom icon for this site would further distinguish it and plus it would liven up my bookmarks toolbar a bit

#133 Post by **BillMorrow** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:45 pm

good idea..

mattfromomaha · #134 Post by **mattfromomaha** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 9:06 am

As far as I understand, you can just save a picture of the parrot in the root web directory with the extension .ico, and the browser should pick it up?

benz · #135 Post by **benz** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 10:00 am

Here's a good guide for the process, I tried it on my site and it worked perfectly:

http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/favicon.shtml

#136 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sun May 01, 2005 12:22 am

the bird or the thinkpad..?

#137 Post by **JaneL** » Sun May 01, 2005 9:59 am

Oh, the bird, of course!

benz · #138 Post by **benz** » Sun May 01, 2005 11:20 am

DEFINITELY the bird! In fact, I already made a 16x16 ico file of it for you, just upload it to your main directory and add the line

<link REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="http://forum.thinkpads.com/favicon.ico">

to the area in the html of the index file of forum.thinkpads.com just BEFORE the <head> tag.

G-Man · #139 Post by **G-Man** » Sun May 01, 2005 1:21 pm

BillMorrow wrote:the bird or the thinkpad..?

No question, the BIRD!

Regards,
G-Man

dcdomain · #140 Post by **dcdomain** » Sat May 14, 2005 11:10 am

Been a while since I visited, have you guys considered Mamboserver.com? I tried using the various Nuke packages in the past and found them really hard to design around. Checkout http://www.mamboserver.com, it's fantastic for designers and has a huge community developing plug-ins.

I just found this: http://docs.postnuke.com/module-pageset ... pid-1.html and http://docs.postnuke.com/index.php?modu ... 02s01.html a tutorial for creating themes for Postnuke. Very different from Mambo in that it's much more cumbersome. With Mamboserver, you edit one template file and one stylesheet.

super_i_man · #141 Post by **super_i_man** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:45 pm

Hello Bill,
I am a fan of vbulitin board, you can do anything to this great place but please please keep on using vbulitin. thats all i want to say. long live vbulitin boards.

#142 Post by **K. Eng** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:06 pm

Any updates on the rollout of the new site? A lot of people I know (including myself) have moved to FireFox, and the tables on the current site are completely messed up when viewed in FireFox

benplaut · #143 Post by **benplaut** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:57 pm

K. Eng wrote:Any updates on the rollout of the new site? A lot of people I know (including myself) have moved to FireFox, and the tables on the current site are completely messed up when viewed in FireFox

^^

pitsche · #144 Post by **pitsche** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:01 pm

Hello,

my first posting here and I fear, I am asking something stupid, but I did'nt get it whats going on with the redesign: Is it ready, is it still work in progress, is there any help needed?

So instead of reading all the five pages, perhaps I can get a very short summary in one or two sentences? That would be very kind for a lazy guy like me

Oh, and the Mambo CMS is indeed very good, you can find a online demo for example at http://www.mamboserver.com/ (there was a misspelling in the hyperlink dcdomain told you).

And if you want to get a glimpse of the design possiblities of Mambo, take a look at a template shwocase of our turkish Mambo friends (website is availible in six different languages including english): http://tema.mambo.gen.tr/

Mambo is great, isn't it? And wait until you see upcoming version 5.0 of Mambo - it will beat almost every freeware CMS than...

thanks,
pitsche

pitsche · #145 Post by **pitsche** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:25 pm

Hello again!

Ahhh, stupid me, the upcoming and work-in-progress new version of the websites was well hidden behind some letters, unfortunately there were a lot of them

I saw, that you are using Postnuke, how is tha Nuke-Clone?

I personaly dislike PHP-Nuke and after one horrible week when I had to work with it, I never again took a look at any Nuke-alike version, brrrrr...

Kevin must be a real peaceful man, me instead would have smashed something at the wall while "fighting" against PHP-Nuke because it made me crazy, helpless and crying all at the same time

Brrr, feeling that again only by remembering my working with PHP-Nuke...

But it looks nice and lightyears better than what I think is the old design, right?

So keep on and good luck!

pitsche

UCI2CI · #146 Post by **UCI2CI** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:15 am

hi bill and all the people working on redesigning the site. i took a few HCI classes and here is what i learned from my teachers reading and a little bit of testing. perhaps it will help you in redesigning your site:

people hate reading:
dont burry important information in lots of text. people get bored of reading, and they might miss it.

people with visual impairment also visit your site:
stay away from using red for text. I my self have a very hard time reading red text. the simple black and white text is great. even dark blue on white is very readable. Font styles are also important. I found ( its been researched, i just tested it myslef too. i dont take credit) that on computer screens, people tend to be more comfortable in reading san-sarif fonts. On paper, it was the opposite. make sure screen fonts are readable with various different font smoothing settings (i.e cleartype).

place links where people expect them to be:
again, dont burry links in text. try to keep links organized in a way that related links are closer together. if links are repeated from page to page, keep them where they were before.

Links that lead to the same page should have the same name:
Self explanatory

people dont scroll:
keep web pages short on both ends. most important information/links should be on top and to the left( as we read from top to bottom, left to right).

provide a link to your homepage on every page:
when people get lost in a site (feel like they hit a dead end), the home page is where they usually tend to want to go to.

link bars are very useful"
keep upper-tier links in a link bar on the side or at the top of the every page. A simple example would be |Home| |Shop| |Forum| |Contact|

Keep people informed of where they are in your site:
people do get lost, but your can keep them informed of where they are at and where they came from. A good way of doing this is by displaying the chain of pages that led to the current page, specially if you have multiple links to the same page. for example, on your home page you might want to advertise a special on a specific model t42, 2373-KTU for example. when people click on that advertisement, it might take them to the KTU information page. but you can also access this page from going to "Shop", click "Thinkpads", click " T series, and then clicking "2373-KTU".
So, you can put "Shop > Thinkpads > T Series > 2373-KTU" on the KTU page to let people know where they are at in the site (im sure you've seen this on many sites). this also lets people get a better understanding of how you organized your site in general.

Build prototypes and test them:
Before you actually start making the site, do some prototype testing. We started with some very crude methods when we did our first phase of prototyping. We drew our pages on paper, organized and layered them in different ways, then we tested them on some test subjects to get a feel for how people reacted to the site. On our team of testers, one person acted like the web browser. When people pointed at a link on the paper, our "web browser" brought up the corresponding page

(lame, i know), another person took notes, and another person was there to help out the test subject if needed. We gave people specific task (buy a t42 with 2.0 ghz Centrino and DVD-burner, contact Bill and ask him a question, check whats on sale.....) and watched them do it. If we had to interfere and give them hints or answer questions, we noted the incident. If the same problem was common among test subjects, then we tweaked the site to match peoples expectations/intuitions. After that we digitized the site very crudly using Denim ( http://guir.berkeley.edu/projects/#design ) and tested it again. We didnt start doing the HTML part for a good 4 weeks, but when we did it, we were confident in that it was a good desing that was easy to navigate.

i know i said people dont like to read, so ill stop. I hope your new site is a crowd pleaser.

dcdomain · #147 Post by **dcdomain** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 1:25 pm

The mambo site you linked to looks like a default install, in terms of design you can do a lot more than that =T. There's also Drupal, but I haven't played around with that CMS. I consider them a close second though.

There's no need to go with new forum software, you can always stick with PHPBB and just redo the style to go along with the new design.

verktyg · #148 Post by **verktyg** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 2:11 pm

This site is great!

It's easy to read, the colors are just right, there's no distracting eye candy - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The complainers are all a bunch of whiny-assed techno geeks!

#149 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 8:04 pm

THIS site..?
the open forum..?

or

the old thinkpads.com web site..?

whichever, thanks..

a kind word is always good..

verktyg · #150 Post by **verktyg** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 12:29 am

This site. The old one was too much like the IBM forum.

Also I meant to say "techno-weenies" not techno geeks. There's a very fine distinction....

A redesign in the works for Thinkpads.com?

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