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redesign ideas
https://www.calcudoku.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=212
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Author:  calcpnm  [ Thu May 10, 2012 12:22 pm ]
Post subject:  redesign ideas

Hello all,

I'm having some trouble finding a decent designer on a freelancing website I'm using.

If anyone knows a designer they can recommend, do let me know.

Ideas for redesign are very welcome too. I think the main things that have to happen are:
- a more logical and "tighter" grouping of page elements
- a visual design (colour scheme, possibly logo, possibly some kind of "number theme",
e.g. large light numbers in the background for example)

Any suggestions appreciated :-)

Patrick

Author:  clm  [ Thu May 10, 2012 2:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: redesign ideas

calcpnm wrote:
Hello all,

I'm having some trouble finding a decent designer on a freelancing website I'm using.

If anyone knows a designer they can recommend, do let me know.

Ideas for redesign are very welcome too. I think the main things that have to happen are:
- a more logical and "tighter" grouping of page elements
- a visual design (colour scheme, possibly logo, possibly some kind of "number theme",
e.g. large light numbers in the background for example)

Any suggestions appreciated :-)

Patrick


One idea: I would reasonably group together the configuration "parameters" like: Continuous error checking, Save for later, Clear All Cells, Show coordinates, Cell size, and even a new "Show coordinates in the printed version of the solution", etc.

And move the "solver rating" and Puzzle id: (contiguous) just below the puzzle.

Author:  clm  [ Thu May 10, 2012 6:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: redesign ideas

calcpnm wrote:
Hello all,

I'm having some trouble finding a decent designer on a freelancing website I'm using.

If anyone knows a designer they can recommend, do let me know.

Ideas for redesign are very welcome too. I think the main things that have to happen are:
- a more logical and "tighter" grouping of page elements
- a visual design (colour scheme, possibly logo, possibly some kind of "number theme",
e.g. large light numbers in the background for example)

Any suggestions appreciated :-)

Patrick


Some more ideas:

- The logo must be in the top line but more to the center (also you may replace the small calcudoku, redundant?, by another icon ... perhaps someone generates some very original icon ... ).
- The flags to select the language could go to the right upper part of the page (smaller size would be enough and possibly without the literal, the description looks redundant, only the flags themselves).
- The five lines of the "trademark" comment (with the names) at the end of the page can be "hidden" as in "Show explanation" with a link of "Show trademark" gaining space in the page.
- The "Day before", "Actual date (the one selected)" and "Day after" could be replaced by direct (and consequently faster) links to the specific (numerical) days whitin the past seven days involved (the "Today" link could be mantained).
- Large light numbers in the background? ... information in the background would probably be unpleasant and not very esthetic, but perhaps you may use a very-very light background colour (pink, blue, ... ) to enhance the puzzle area itself contrasting it with the rest (in background white as actually) of the page.
- The literal "Show explanation" looks redundant for the icon, and the icons for "Next Bonus target" (in this case the word "puzzle" is not necessary), "Settings", "Your history" and "Logout" could be moved to the same line of the other icons (to the right) gaining space too.
- The "I like .. 'f' " link, "Google +1" and "syndicate Calcudoku" should be better grouped with the "Send your ideas ... " (with your e-mail link) and with the "post to the forum!" link.
- "Puzzlers active in the past half hour" ... (very well immediately below the puzzle) but why not in the last hour? :-) .

Author:  pnm  [ Sat May 12, 2012 7:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: redesign ideas

clm wrote:
Some more ideas:
...

Thanks a lot clm, very useful :)

Patrick

Author:  clm  [ Wed May 16, 2012 12:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: redesign ideas

calcpnm wrote:
Hello all,


Ideas for redesign ...

... a visual design (colour scheme, possibly logo, possibly some kind of "number theme",
e.g. large light numbers in the background for example)

Any suggestions appreciated :-)

Patrick


In my opinion, large numbers in colour in the background (or even "operators") look OK, they introduce some "motion", but perhaps a little lighter, a little smaller and defining the specific areas for them in such a way that they do not appear "truncated" (no problem with the overlaps) [smile].

Author:  calcpnm  [ Wed May 16, 2012 11:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: redesign ideas

clm wrote:
In my opinion, large numbers in colour in the background (or even "operators") look OK, they introduce some "motion", but perhaps a little lighter, a little smaller and defining the specific areas for them in such a way that they do not appear "truncated" (no problem with the overlaps) [smile].

Avoiding the truncation is very difficult (cross browser differences, different layouts on various pages,
different font sizes..). Lighter & smaller is possible.

For those interested: the image is first generated in SVG: it's about 2 periods of a sine wave,
with 50 numbers on each period. At each step (1) a random digit is picked, (2) a random colour
out of a palette of 10 is picked, (3) a random displacement in x and y is applied (range [-50, 50]).

The font is a 72 point "sans-serif / Arial" font.

A new random image is generated every hour :-)

Needless to say, all these parameters are variable (function used, font size, etc. etc., also
for example the orientation of the digits (!))

I'll quiet it down a bit. Also, the plan is to group a lot of the controls on the page, and put
each group "under a tab", so the page will look a lot less busy.

Patrick

Author:  picklepep  [ Wed May 16, 2012 3:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: redesign ideas

[/quote]

In my opinion, large numbers in colour in the background (or even "operators") look OK, they introduce some "motion", but perhaps a little lighter, a little smaller and defining the specific areas for them in such a way that they do not appear "truncated" (no problem with the overlaps) [smile].[/quote]

I find that the background can be a little distracting, especially during timed puzzles. Possibly a better demarcation between the puzzle and the background? You could put a black border around the puzzle, or maybe change the background to a different color.

Author:  sneaklyfox  [ Wed May 16, 2012 4:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: redesign ideas

picklepep wrote:
I find that the background can be a little distracting, especially during timed puzzles. Possibly a better demarcation between the puzzle and the background? You could put a black border around the puzzle, or maybe change the background to a different color.


I find the background a bit distracting too, especially for timed puzzles. I preferred the plain white background.

Author:  pnm  [ Wed May 16, 2012 5:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: redesign ideas

sneaklyfox wrote:
I find the background a bit distracting too, especially for timed puzzles. I preferred the plain white background.

I'll run this background for a week, and will then run some stats on how
the times were negatively affected [blink]

Author:  clm  [ Wed May 16, 2012 5:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: redesign ideas

picklepep wrote:
clm wrote:

In my opinion, large numbers in colour in the background (or even "operators") look OK, they introduce some "motion", but perhaps a little lighter, a little smaller and defining the specific areas for them in such a way that they do not appear "truncated" (no problem with the overlaps) [smile].


I find that the background can be a little distracting, especially during timed puzzles. Possibly a better demarcation between the puzzle and the background? You could put a black border around the puzzle, or maybe change the background to a different color.


I would also like a change in the background to a different colour (I was referring to that on my second post on May 10), not over the full page, but over the puzzle area only (in a very-very light colour, pink, blue, ... ) keeping the rest of the page as actually (in white); in these conditions probably a black or "shadowed" area around the puzzle would not be necessary, so not reducing the space around the puzzle even considering that this reduction would be very small.

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