[thesite] Fw: [xxxxx] Once More, with Design

[Marlene Bruce]

Folks,

As requested by Jeff and Matt, discussion about redesigning the 
evolt.org site will be taking place on thesite list. Since I can't 
see who is subscribed to this list through the site (why is that?), 
I'm going to cc this email to everyone listed below (save Miriam) 
just to make sure they're aware this thread is starting (plus Amanda, 
in case she's interested). (I'm not suggesting we cc everyone after 
this email; this cc is just as a heads up...)

We're going to be discussing the redesign, starting with IA. To that 
end, I've started the Information Architecture wiki (based on 
Javier's page) at 
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/InformationArchitecture. I 
don't know if this is the best way to organize the IA page for our 
purposes, but it's a start.

At that page you can download Javier's most recent stab at the IA, a 
sample wireframe page, and review all of the suggestions he'd 
previously gathered.

It'll be helpful if we all review those documents before we start 
discussing things too in-depth.

Javier, would it be okay for me to post the PDF pages as .gif images 
so they're directly accessible through the IA wiki (rather than 
having to download the PDFs)? If so, I'll need you to redo and send 
me the contact wireframe, since most of the numbers on the green 
circles aren't coming out on the PDF.

Cheers,
Marlene

---------------

Righty ho, here  we go.
I posted this to theforum earlier, and we're campin' out here now.....
wheeee!

Rock on,
Miriam



OK, I'm going to pick up this ball and see how far I can run. (Well,
metaphorically; I've been in front of the computer too long to actually run
very far :-/  )

Please note that this is all moot until we figure out where we're gonna host
this puppy; however, we may as well start thinking about this again.

According to the http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/FactFindingMission
wiki pages, the following people have expressed some interest in helping
with information architecture and site design:

http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/AardVark
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/McCreath
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/ElfurLogadottir
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/ErikaMeyer
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/IsaacForman
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/JavierVelasco
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/MadhuMenon
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/MarleneBruce
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/MiriamFrost
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/PeterPaulKoch
http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/TaraCleveland

I scanned those quickly; holler if you're not on this list and are supposed
to be; holler if you don't really want to work on this. Also, if you can
elaborate on your design skill set, that'd be great. Let's get talking. I
know that some people prefer to have a separate list; should we do that?
Should we not?

A while back I threw out an idea about a redesign contest (after we get the
specs worked out, natch). That was shot down but never elaborated on. If you
think it's a stupid idea, fine; just let's talk about why, and what might
work better. It'd certainly get more designers involved in evolt.org and be
a neat way to get more visibility etc. (See
http://www.monsonboards.com/contest/ for a possible way to structure this.)
It'd also be a fair way to avoid a bland "design by committee" look. (Any
winning design would be more of the starting point than an end-all-be-all
final design.

Please take a look at Javi's fabu IA diagram:
http://members.evolt.org/mantruc/evolt-ia/
Here are the results from the neato SurveyMonkey Survey taken in January:
http://five2one.org/evolt/evoltsurveyresults.html

I know I've seen a design proposal somewhere but can't find it.

Meanwhile, I'm going to take some of the forms from these excellent ladies
http://www.web-redesign.com/index.html and see if I can make a wiki-ish
thing that would work for us.

All right, off to sharpen my pencils and my crayons.

peace out
Miriam