Lisaac website

[Mildred Ki'Lya]

Hi,

(WARNING: don't be put off by these remarks. I'm not saying the website
is bad, just that it could be improved)

I did not took part in the conversation about the wallpaper but I think
there is a point here, that I feel from some time about the Lisaac
website. To put it simply, I think there is too much Javascript in that
website, and it is too much animated.



First, I think Javascript should NOT be required for the Lisaac website.
Why ?

Because some people (like me) don't allow JavaScript globally and only
allow websites from a whitelist. The main advantage of doing so is that
you get away from most of the advertisement and nasty things found on
modern webpages.

I don't say not to use Javascript, just not make it mandatory for the
website.



Now, if I do enable Javascript, I find the front page too much animated.
All those effects are nice but get in the way of the user in the end.
And it also from my point of view it gives a childish appearance to the
website. It makes me remember of all those website that included too
much JavaScript (back when JavaScript was a novelty).

What I think should be removed:

- The logos scrolling. You really don't care about them most of the time
and it draw your eyes to this area.

- The animation on the menus is pretty disturbing to me. i much more
prefer to have the menu popping open. And with the animation, it makes
me wonder if my computer is slow when I focus on "Downloads" since it
doesn't have a menu. Again, it draw your eyes to the expanding corner of
the menu where there is nothing interesting instead of the content of
the menu. So, for a millisecond, you are busy trying to focus on a
moving menu.

- About the fading news on the front page. This is not as much of a
problem as the two points I mentioned above. But without Javascript,
it's like mess. I think it would be much better to create a bullet point
list allowing the user to see what happened. Fading news are nice but
you don't know which is first, which is last. And you end up not reading
them at all. Also, when yyou click on an arrow to show the next/previous
news, you have to wait for the news to appear, and the impatient visitor
won't wait for that long. And, is that normal the news always end with
"..."?

- In comunity -> Team, I don't think we should have a fancy view at all.
Especially if it plays sound (that's annoying) and especially if it's
the only way to access more detailled information about team members
(photo, CV, ...). Again, this doesn't help with the professional image
of the website.


Now, other things:

- The poll, is that really useful? I don't say it's not, but...
- Why cares how many people are visiting the website? This is not a
comunity website (like a forum) where we might want to out friends online.
- If you ask me, the second wallpaper shouldn't be on the official
website. I understand why guys might like it, but please, not here. Your
personal website is fine for that.
- Documentation -> Library. There should be a note to tell people
they're not going to stay on the website. They don't except to be thrown
directly in the library browser.
- The top of the webpage says "The power of simplicity at work for you".
The reflection is a bit too much I think and doesn't help reading the
text. Perhaps it could be softened.



Now, i do realize this email might sound like a lot of critics, and
please excuse me for that. This website is a wonderful initiative (even
if I do prefer on a personal level static webpages generated
automatically). I don't say it's not good. I just say it can be
improved, and hopefully my remarks are constructive.


If I should ask for a feature in that website, I would ask for the
ability to add pages using a markdown syntax (or similar, I don't really
care). Preferably, without having to use a web interface (I just hate
web interface). I do prefer plain old protocols like ssh or rsync.

Mildred

-- 
Mildred Ki'Lya
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