Introducing the New Semantic Focus Site Design
Published 9 months ago by James Simmons
I just launched the new site layout! In my opinion the new layout is a huge improvement over the old one. I'm sure I'll be spending the next week getting everything dialed in. It feels like I've been working on this redesign non-stop so it's a great relief to be able to focus more on other parts of the site (like Planet Semantic Focus).
So you can see the difference between the two layouts, here is a screenshot of the old one:
About the author
It's my goal to help bring about the Semantic Web. I also like to explore related topics like natural language processing, information retrieval, and web evolution. I'm the primary author of Semantic Focus and I'm currently working on several Semantic Web projects.
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Posted by Yihong Ding on September 21, 2007 at 10:38am
Great work, James. Congratulations!
cheers,
Yihong
Posted by James on September 21, 2007 at 11:14am
Thanks Yihong :)
Posted by Cody Burleson on September 21, 2007 at 11:26am
Much improved! I am very grateful for your hard work and this excellent resource. Here are just a few observations for your consideration (extremely minor things):
1) I do not think that the text "Looking for something?" that appears above the search field is necessary. In usability terms, one might call it "visual noise". The Search utility is an established web convention; the box, button, and position on the page are themselves well enough to convey the purpose and meaning.
2) In the welcome message at the top-right, the text "Welcome to Semantic Focus!" is blue, but it is not a link. Since most all of your links are blue, but are not underlined, this appears to be a link. since it is not, it should be black text (perhaps, bold?). Consistency is key, in my opinion. If it is not a link, don't make the text blue. Otherwise, underline your blue links.
3) The "Search" link in the top navigation bar seems redundant to me and could also be considered "visual noise" since it provides no additional functionality than the search bar itself. (Isn't clean and simple the best approach?)
4) The Registration page lists a few benefits to registering, however - after registering and logging in, I cannot see or understand what additional functionality is provided. Can you clarify? Why register?
Posted by Cody Burleson on September 21, 2007 at 11:27am
OH! And I see now that the comments now honor basic formatting such as line breaks! Excellent!!!
Posted by Cody Burleson on September 21, 2007 at 11:31am
Sorry for the successive comments. I just figured out the benefits of registration. Unfortunately, I did not notice at first because you have to scroll down (in the dashboard) below the change profile form to find those realized benefits. Perhaps you can use that as an additional point for usability consideration.
Posted by James on September 21, 2007 at 11:48am
Thanks for the constructive critism Cody, I was hoping I'd get some!
1) I added the "Looking for something?" text more for visual balance than anything else. I agree that the search box is an established Web convention, but I also feel the question will help guide users to make the initiative to search for something that they're looking for. It was more about balance though ;)
2) I made the text in the welcome box blue so that it matched the background color of the box (the gray box has dark gray text, the blue box has dark blue text). I see where this is confusing, I'll see if I can't come up with a visually appealing way to keep that part of the layout consistent.
3) The search link may be a little refundant for now, but I plan on expanding the search functionality of the site to where the search start page will contain information about previous searches, most popular searches, as well as ways to search for different resources across the site (and there will be a very diverse array of resources in the near future).
4) Registration will make more sense in the following weeks as I roll out updates that take advantage of having a user account. For one it will eliminate the need for the user to keep entering his or her information into the comment box. I am rolling out forums after Planet Semantic Focus so the user account will be vital at that point.
Posted by Ramani on September 21, 2007 at 1:14pm
Looks good! I have started following your blog and other blogs about semantic web recently. You are a great resource for newbies to semantic web!
Posted by James on September 21, 2007 at 1:19pm
Thanks Ramani, I'm glad to know that people are getting use out of this site :) Cheers!
Posted by Cody Burleson on September 21, 2007 at 6:45pm
That all sounds reasonable. Just curious: are you running on a custom coded wiki engine or are you building atop an existing framework or platform?
Posted by James on September 21, 2007 at 7:19pm
The site runs on a custom backend written in PHP5. I just felt more comfortable having my own codebase rather than using an existing system.
Posted by Tim on September 24, 2007 at 6:23pm
Looks good. I always thought the navigation in the big blue menus was a little too much.
Posted by James on September 24, 2007 at 6:47pm
Thanks Tim, and you're right, too much real estate was being used up for 5 menu items ;)