[Design] Banners on the Front Page

[Andrew Turner]

Unfortunately gmail issues meant this didn't get sent to the entire list.
Harry briefly mentioned it, and I wanted to share the original.

Thanks Harry, this is a good discussion and valuable to discuss options and
> strategies.
>
> As a quick suggestion, what about a small list of 'upcoming events' with
> links to details that is date sorted and fed by an RSS feed? Management or
> CWG can decide policy and manage that feed on their own. That could be
> managed from a simple Blog or other RSS generator of your choosing.
>
> This would prevent having to deploy code updates for each event, take up
> space, have conflicting graphics, etc.
>
> Andrew
>
>




> @ajturner - sent from the moon
>
> On Mar 22, 2013, at 10:06 AM, Harry Wood <mail at harrywood.co.uk> wrote:
>
> I need to kick off a public discussion to do with banners appearing on the
> OpenStreetMap Front Page. It's a discussion we've had within the
> Communications Working Group back in October last year, and which was
> escalated the Management Team, but there isn't really a good reason to have
> the discussion in private, though perhaps these groups will need to vote or
> otherwise decide on a final policy.
>
> Perhaps this (very quiet) mailing list is a good place to discuss it,
> because it's a principally an issue of design aesthetics and the use of
> screen real-estate on the OpenStreetMap front page. It would be wonderful
> if this 'design' list became a place where some bunch of people somehow
> devise a solution to the eternal problem of the front page design. I don't
> want to get into that just now. Working on the assumption that we'll be
> sticking with our current design for a while...
>
> ...we have a strip down the left, and this screen real-estate is valuable
> space. Here more than anywhere users are eyeballing the graphics, text, and
> user interface elements we choose to put there. We have in the past chosen
> to put graphical banner ads promoting State Of The Map conferences and some
> other events, in the run up to these events.
>
> We need to decide when to do this, for which events, how big the banners
> should be.
>
> Usually the banners are enthusiastically designed by people running the
> events, so it's a question of when and what banners are "allowed" onto the
> front page by the sysops. TomH is in charge of this bit, but I think he
> would prefer be in charge of just deploying things guided by a clear
> policy. So that's what we need to formulate.
>
>
> There is a history to this discussion.
>
> SOTM.EU in Vienna requested a banner. This was eventually rejected,
> because the annual foundation conference was also approaching. A clash of
> demands on the banner screenspace and more fundamentally, a clash of
> interests in which event to promote. There was some indecision and
> to-and-fro'ing from the board. A clear policy would've been good.
>
> As mentioned CWG discussed it back in October. Buried in the minutes here:
> http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/CWG_meeting_2012-10-08
> http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/CWG_meeting_2012-10-15
> I think that was kicked off by a request from TomH for a policy, because
> he was asked to put the SOTM PDX banner on there. We didn't decide on
> anything in time, but there was a feeling (my feeling in particular) that
> the green banner had been a bit too obtrusive. It was on the front page for
> too long, and was too big, particularly given that SOTM PDX was a smaller
> event than the annual conference. ...but it is a matter of opinion and a
> matter of design.
>
> In an attempt to lay down a clear policy. CWG's recommendation was that we
> only have banners for the official annual foundation event. Part of the
> reasoning too, was that we need to nip in the bud any trend towards a
> situation where there is constant rolling programme of banners on the
> homepage without any quiet time in between. But in discussion with
> Management Team a number of people felt that was too strict, and the we
> should give over the screenspace for regional events on occasions
>
> Straight off the back of that, in fact *while* we were discussing, SOTM
> Scotland wanted a banner. They ended up with a smaller more understated
> banner, and placed there only for a few days in the run up to the event. I
> think that may point the way to a more balanced policy.
>
> Today the organisers of SOTM US have presented a design for a banner for
> this years event, requesting that it be posted on there immediately today,
> to help with their promotions three months in advance of the conference.
> https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/pull/217
>
> As mentioned on there, I feel quite strongly that we shouldn't be slapping
> a large graphically intense banner ad on the OpenStreetMap front page three
> months ahead of this regional event.  If we follow CWG's initial
> recommendation, there'd be no banners for SOTMUS on there. A simple and
> straightforward policy, but maybe too strict.
>
> ...discuss
>
>
> Harry Wood
>
>
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>
>


-- 
Andrew Turner
t: @ajturner
b: http://highearthorbit.com
m: 248.982.3609
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