[OSM-talk] The new OpenStreetMap.org design

[Lester Caine]

John Firebaugh wrote:
> This redesign is a leap forward, but not the end-all be-all. There is
> most definitely room for improvement, and constructive feedback and
> hands-on help is always welcome.

Design is subjective, and some things like the 'modern' trend to eliminate 
coloured icons for monochrome ones is a subtle irritation when part of the 
reason is simply because 'fonts' are monochrome. It's about time that the font 
system supported full colour, but that is not something that is easy to do. We 
can at least restore full colour operation in many cases simply by overriding 
the 'font' and my own infrastructure uses colourstrap rather than bootstrap.

Yes the front end is now clean and modern, and yes all the functions can 
eventually be found, and I'm not going to say that the old front end was any 
better. Just different. There are a few things more things that need to be done 
as a matter of urgency, such as providing better help as to HOW to use the new 
front end? ( No apology here for the capitals! If I was talking to you face to 
face that word would have been emphasised ) Neither 'About' or 'Help' actually 
direct well to any real help on using the front page?

The other area though is the fact that for many years we have been using the 
embedded map as a replacement for Google and I HOPE we still want to encourage 
that use? But the shift to being 'mapping' orientated as it odds with that 
usage? Now that I've found the 'HTML' share function ... and worked out the 
options ... it's not providing a tidy solution for the 'location' map. Yes this 
is subjective, but the 'View larger map' used to provide a single page 'advert' 
for OSM along with the map and it's that which has been lost? Currently it's a 
little 'what is going on' when non-OSM 'users' find the new version when they 
were used to the old one and that will change, but I still think there is a 
place for a 'single page' map as advertising? I'm editing the current 'HTML' 
link to remove the 'mapping' orientated display - including raw data on the 
right - but replacing that with a more useful 'advert' still makes sense to me. 
The 'about' page is simply too technical as an advert and something that 
includes many of the old front page links is more appropriate?

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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