VCE notes, constructive criticism...?

[Mao]

it's awesome, but a bit of cc always helps, here's a list of what i can see:


1. logo (yes i know it shall be sorted out, but... soon??)

2. links buttons?? the top row looks a bit, well, messy with text links,

3. the background of the main text areas is a little conflicting, just a bit

4. "x.doc" notes <_<" dude, pdf plz



here are my suggestions:

1. clean up the page, the bottom of the page need something (terms and conditions, small text links, etc etc, oh, and privacy policy which is required by law)

2. buttons for links

3. clean up the notes section on the left, it's kinda messy (at least shrink the fonts a bit)

4. add a browse section...?

5. announcements on the main page, try to make it like a blog, it'll look neater

6. pdf as notes

7. hurry up and vote for logo

8. get rid of/change the background on the main section of the main page, it's messy


its excellent, dont get me wrong, but so much could be done
from the look of it, it's PHP?, i'm sure there's some supersaiyan around who can help you out with stuff

that's my 2c

[enwiabe]

You design me buttons... and I'll implement them.
EDIT: Browse is already there. Look harder.

[Mao]

OK UPDATED stuph:

clean up browse (maybe box each note...?) the userface looks pretty, well, messy

and again, the background needs to be changed



PS i shall try to make buttons, but i'm sure ice_blockie or reg would do a much better job than myself even if i tried
and i'll draw up what i think the design should look like (in grey lead xD no colours xD) and pdf to u soonish (could be weeks xD)

[enwiabe]

PDF can't be helped. You can upload stuff as a PDF but I looked into script converters and they're all way difficult to implement. Again, this stuff WILL be covered in the redesign of the site coming this year. Hopefully.

[Mao]

PDF can't be helped. You can upload stuff as a PDF but I looked into script converters and they're all way difficult to implement. Again, this stuff WILL be covered in the redesign of the site coming this year. Hopefully.

write a guide to "how to PDF" and make all uploads pdf only

[enwiabe]

That weeds out uploads. EVERYONE has .doc except for mac users and Macs have Microsoft Office anyway! They also have document viewers that can process .doc that are FREELY AVAILABLE.

[costargh]

One suggestion. Directed at other Dan. Make the Enter Calc more user friendly and the interface about 100 times better. It's probably in the pipeline but geez it really does annoy me to see a great product dressed in a potato bag.

[tia]

- make it more user friendly/less cluttered
- have the same logo on the main page as forum, it looks tacky otherwise

[enwiabe]

On the front page, that's the BANNER. The logo is on the forum.

As to the user friendliness/clutter... that's what we have to go on for the next 6 months at least. Sorry it couldn't be better but there was very limited time to get this off the ground.

[reg]

I can't read the front page text on that bg, makes me fair dizzy and cbf

[AppleXY]

That weeds out uploads. EVERYONE has .doc except for mac users and Macs have Microsoft Office anyway! They also have document viewers that can process .doc that are FREELY AVAILABLE.

Yeah. MS office 2008 just came out, not only can it read .doc it can read .docx

[abcat]

Good to see it up, I think the background/text problem could be fixed easily with a nicer font, and just a lighter background like the one attached.

* The side panel could have the font a few points smaller
* Increase the spacing a little between the left sidepanel and the right main body so the text doesn't sit on the border
* Increase top/bottom spacing in top menu (i.e. home, notes, search etc.) between main header and main body, such that it doesn't sit like on border.
* Some pages, including the not logged in page, the login page, search page, have the search box broken in Internet Explorer, that is the image is seperated
* Table on Notes page could be made wider, not centered perhaps.

That's about it, hope it helps.

[bturville]

write a guide to "how to PDF" and make all uploads pdf only

Yeah, i think that would be a great idea. Keep things cleaner and then pictures can be included.

What if a mod converts all the submitted docs/rtf's/whatever format files to pdf, and then uploads them with a "VCE Notes" header with the site URL etc.  (Although this system would need to implemented fairly early)

Also then if students (teachers?) photocopied them, the url would stay on the notes and get a bit of publicity happening.

[enwiabe]

Not happening with the VCE Notes header. That's effectively a watermark. I can't ask that of my staff. They're unpaid and that system requires consistent obligation. Their current duties allow each of them to be slack and have other staff members pick up that slack at various times. Document viewers are much more freely downloaded by end users, and also, you can put images in Word Documents.

EDIT: Also just thinking about that... the individual retains the ownership of their documents. Whilst they can't delete them from the system themselves, any e-mail/PM requests to have them deleted are/will be honoured. Thus, putting a VCENotes watermark over them implies VCE Notes ownership which is not the case. :-/

@ abcat, I'm going to be implementing some of your suggestions. Thanks.

[Eriny]

beh. I submitted pdfs! I hope that's okay... I don't really understand all this hi-tech mumbo jumbo.