designers and geeks and disambiguation (was Re: Color index)

Seems like there are three distinct conversations here, struggling for
clarification and reconciliation.

One is the wpd site branding and style guide, including our logo and
type+color palettes, all of which we want to build on and hone as we
continue to improve the site.  This is the area that a design sprint
(team) would focus on, and that we need to cover at least in brief for
new editors.  This is also a good place to model best practices, and
to show how we technically implement the evolving design.

Another is the general guide to color and the web, as part of the
overall web docs, which would tie together all the redundant
information on color spaces, color representations, and color as a
parameter in coding for the web.  This is maybe where the color wheel
and discussion on complementary colors (currently somewhat hidden on
the expansive logo page) should live.

Last is the broader conversation about how web design and web coding
(aka designers and geeks) work together (or don't), which is an
ongoing challenge of mutual understanding, appreciation, and
collaboration, across disciplines that tend to attract people who can
be very different from each other in the extreme (but in fact those
groups cover the entire spectrum between the extremes, with lots of
shades of gray).  You can see this in the little miscommunication
points on this very thread.  This is also a technical challenge, since
both sides have to work on the same code and the same site (and css
only partly mitigates it).  This is a big challenge for our industry,
and anything we can do to help, by making sure that we model mutual
respect and effective collaboration, and by making the potential gaps
easier to understand and mitigate, will be both to our credit and a
great service to the greater community.

I don't mean to hijack the thread, which is why I changed the subject
line, but I wanted to point out the undercurrents pulling in
non-aligned directions that were already at play here.

DougM

On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 12:19 AM, Sébastien Desbenoit <seb@desbenoit.net> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> It looks like we have two brand identities on coming from the logo and one
> from the website. My opinion is: the identity coming from the logo is
> awesome, full of details and with a nice playground. But it doesn't fit the
> use we have for the website: we have a wider palette of colors and different
> needs that's why this color page dedicated to the website is an awesome
> idea.
>
> It may be a bit frustrating but I think we need to work around our identity
> to have a place with the right information. In my opinion, those are the one
> coming from the usage and not from the ideation. It could be
> http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Design page organized in this way:
>
> 1. WebPlatform Logotype -> Logo and rules (use recommendations, badges,
> orientation,  proportions, spacing)
> 2. WebPlatform Colors > Logo colors & Website colors
> 3. WebPlatform Copy -> Bitter, Gudea & Consolas + Header, Link (coming from
> the style guide.pdf)
> 4. WebPlatform Components -> Background, Awning, Flags, Icons, Button (from
> dabblet)
> 5. WebPlatform Design History -> Design process: from inspiration, to
> mockup, style tiles and versions...
>
> On the page we gather the essential content and on sub-page what we less
> need for styling the website.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Seb
>
> --
> Sébastien Desbenoit
>  -
> http://desbenoit.net
>
>
>
> Le 28 mars 2013 à 05:04, Doug May <intuedge@gmail.com> a écrit :
>
> Doug (shepazu) -- I'm all for avoiding repeat content, as long as the
> content is readily findable from wherever it might be relevant.  I'd
> like to get our pointer infrastructure working better than our
> deduping infrastructure, just in the interest of serving the users.
>
> There are publishing tools that let us repeat content wherever needed
> and only maintain it in one location, so I no longer believe in
> deduping just for deduping's sake.
>
> On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 2:59 PM, Doug Schepers <schepers@w3.org> wrote:
>
> Hi, Lea-
>
>
> On 3/27/13 2:27 PM, Lea Verou wrote:
>
>
>
> Ah, right, I remember stumbling on this before. Thanks!
>
> Although, at least for me personally, it’s not as helpful when
> working on WPD design elements, as:
>
> a) It doesn’t include descriptions, so I have to visually search for
> the color I need and there’s a possibility of picking the wrong one,
> since a few are similar
>
> b) It doesn’t include HSL, which is tremendously useful in creating
> darker/lighter variations
>
> c) It includes additional colors, which are used nowhere on the site
>
> d) Several colors actually used on the website, are not in it
>
> So even if I had found this when I looked, I’d probably still have
> made a new index.
>
>
>
> Those are all good points.
>
> I'd prefer we not duplicate the information on multiple pages, so I think we
> should add to and refine the logo page [1], and remove them from the design
> page [2].
>
> [1] http://www.webplatform.org/logo/
> [2] http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Design#Colors
>
> Regards-
> -Doug
>
>
>
>

Received on Thursday, 28 March 2013 18:01:29 UTC