Input requested on design and layout of V3.0 of this site

Another thing I thought of...
Emoticons: two points :
1) Can we update the ones we have or get a better variety (cloudynights.com have a very good selection with some geared specifically towards astronomy.)
2) If I edit a message and want to insert an emoticon, it automatically inserts it at the end of the message as opposed to where I want it and where I had clicked. A small flaw but a little pet hate of mine!

Another thing I thought of...
Emoticons: two points :
1) Can we update the ones we have or get a better variety (cloudynights.com have a very good selection with some geared specifically towards astronomy.)
2) If I edit a message and want to insert an emoticon, it automatically inserts it at the end of the message as opposed to where I want it and where I had clicked. A small flaw but a little pet hate of mine!

As for the first point, yup, that can be done. There may be copyright issues around just stealing them but I'll ask them nicely!

The second one is an issues with phpBB and since we will be swithching to phpBB 3.0 when it comes out it's not something I think I should be putting too much of my time into.

While this 'free for all' approach to the site design might be fun, and generate a lot of ideas, I don't think it is the best way to do things.

Dave (dpower) has offered his help with the design. He is a professional graphic designer.

IFAS trusted Bart (voyager) with the technical development of the site, and these decisions have been made and are not open for debate (let alone a thread where people throw around ideas regarding the technical aspects!)

So, why not make the most of Dave's offer, and trust him with the decisions regarding the UI, colours and layout?

Too many cooks spoil the broth! And while the ideas on this thread are all valid, it will be impossible to create a design which incorporates all of them, and which everyone will be happy with, without making the homepage looking like a messed up Photoshop nightmare.

I think valid discussion points would be in the area of content. For example, I was thinking for the homepage;

- Logo & welcome message
- Recent threads + who's online
- Photo of the day + link to gallery
- Club events (what's on this week) + link to calendar
- News items (Irish news + NASA type news feed)
- Tutorials / Articles (probably simple link to forum containing these articles instead of a seperate CMS)
- Map of Ireland with clickable points to let people find their nearest club

Hi guys
Just going to give my two cents worth.
I think that before we push ahead with redesigning the site, we need to have a firm idea of what the site does and what we want it to do in the future. From my time here it seems to me that the main functions of the site is are
1.) a discussion forum, where people can exchange ideas,help each other out and generally discuss things astronomical.
2.) to be the dissemination of pics
3.) the publication of info such as the novice/binocular challenges etc.

In my opinion these make up the core of the site and should be highlighted with an extremely easy to use navigation system,which also provides a quick link to join the site.

IMO the other functions such as links to clubs, profiles, etc should take more of a back seat.

With this in miind, it should help simplify the task of redesigning the site. As for background images, colours etc. These need to be kept simple and enhance the site not dominate it. A simple, easy to navigate, clutter free site with a strong identity that fulfills its functions, is what we need.

With this in mind perhaps we can also decide on a colour and font palette that we will use on all IFAS communications, this should probably go hand in hand with logo design. If I can help,please let me know, although I am no graphic designer.

1- Logo & welcome message
2- Recent threads + who's online
3- Photo of the day + link to gallery
4- Club events (what's on this week) + link to calendar
5- News items (Irish news + NASA type news feed)
6- Tutorials / Articles (probably simple link to forum containing these articles instead of a seperate CMS)
7- Map of Ireland with clickable points to let people find their nearest club

1, Like previous posts, I'd keep the logo static, i might post up an example of a new static logo and see what yee think.

2, Recent threads, like before have the following on the front page
"View all posts since last visit"
" View all posts in the last 24 hours"
" View all posts in the last 48 hours"
" View all posts in the last 7 days"
I put in these time ones in as someone who is a guest can use these instead,

3, a photo of the day might be a good idea, but who picks it, are these solely IFAS/posters images or are we going outside IFAS.
Can an image remain on for more then one day?
There are enough images in the site to keep it going for a while, but when the weather is bad, the image might remain unchanged for a fair amount of time.

4, Club events, goes back to the scrolling ticker, to be honest, I'm not bothered how its done but I do feel that there should be somthing indicating club monthly events on the front page, but not take up alot of valuable page space.

5, Dont know about this one.

6, I agree with this one.

7, I really like this idea and its one I was also thinking of a while back, could we incorporate this into the club logo somehow???



As for my earlier posts on the background, I was just throwing ideas out there, I realise its probabily not feasible.

Regarding the Clubs Page:

Events can be listed in-depth on this page, but not at length i.e. only whats coming up (in detail), and not the list of meetings for the year! (the link to this could also be the ad banner I previously mentioned)

Added into this page would be good to have it in tables, or sections, with the clubs' logo beside each name. A Club Rep on these boards would have the task of keeping their own section up to date. Can that be done with permission of a particular section akin to the Files section (where one can only edit their own posts/files, yet everything else is also displayed on the page aswell).

Seanie.