What’s a site skeleton?
A site skeleton is what me and some other web designers or companies use to create a draft for a website. The skeleton is some times nothing but lines or boxes with crosses in them signifying images. Some times the skeleton also have rough lines with the letter ‘H’ at the beginning to visually remind the designer that content is placed that particular area.
The site skeleton helps me organize the elements like images, content and ads if any. It also gives my clients a rough idea of what would be expected even before a mock design is prepared. The mock design is the skeleton that has been digitized but that’ll be later.
So after running our survey and analyzing it, I’ve taken the data and applied them into the site skeleton. These site skeletons aim for the same goal; promoting the pings of other bloggers whilst promoting the awareness of services such as PPS Blog, PPS Wiki, and the Announcements section. Have a look at the larger version by clicking on the image.
These layouts are referenced from other websites that I’ve found applicable in order to give PPS a fresher and more organized layout. However, do note that these skeletons only work for the homepage and not including the individual services yet.
I’m open to suggestions or other ideas, pop me an email: me at dannyfoo.com along with your skeleton or layout and I’ll post it here for discussion.
So what do you think?
personnaly, i like the second skeleton. coz in the first one, i see two navigation bars? imho, two navigation bars = simple? i prefer just one.
anyway, as long as the pings are not in bright blue and the other text remain a non-striking colour i would be so happy.
thx for doing this danny. u got some free time eh?
From your site map alone, i would say it looks a lot like the old PPS, except with bigger, bolder navigation (thus giving the other services more coverage). Would this mean more images? Would best to stay away from images as much as possible. As it it, PPS is pulling 30+ GB a month and that’s just text!!! Hosting is costing a fortune, to be honest. An unless its users become willing to pay for it more (Adsense doesn’t allow PPS to break even most months), then we will have to sacrifice images.
i think this is a step in the right direction, soliciting feedback as the development cycle goes along, getting the community involved and all. it can present a challenge in itself as you can be deluged by the flood of ideas that may potentially come in. but at least there’ll be plenty of ideas that you can toy around with. keep us all posted, dude!
wah, your site looks great btw …
@Din
Well, the 2 navigation bars was an idea I got from the great Shaun Inman. ;)
@Aizuddin
Well, I thought some images would bring some more life to the website. But if we’re really restricted, I’ll try to keep very minimal. Also, the new website will be done in full CSS later. Any any chance we could get a webhost to actually sponsor PPS? Seeing how big it has grown and with the daily number of bloggers growing. I’ve a feeling some of em might actually be finding a good host.
@cybersonique
Yeah, I know the challenge of different ideas will be at hand but it’s all about seeking balance later. And as this is progressing, I’m not exactly seeing much feedback from the designers just yet. :|
@Eliza
Thank you but I hope to revamp my own website soon. :)
Keep the comments coming people. I’ll probably start on the mock next week only.
There has been suggestions to host it in Jaring DC but i’m wary about that due to the quality of our local ISPs. Anyhows, i’m closely monitoring the traffic and will make a decision on this if required.
Yes, CSS is preferred. I’m a bit of a CSS novice, so i’m sure a more expert hand like yours would be able to do wonders. How are you with PHP?
Would it be too much to ask for your design to come in two flavours:
1. Colourful
2. Plain black and white with minimal colours
I too favour the second design, i think it would really nice with some colours thrown in.
danny & aiz: i would think css, if done right, can help in saving bandwidth. plenty of tricks can be employed to make it beautiful without resorting to graphics or javascripts even. the html code itself can be cut down (especially those table/tr/td tags). if the css file itself can be cached (may need the assistance of the provide), it will cut down even more tremendously. check out alistapart.com’s article on what if slashdot went fully css (which i believe they’re doing right now).
Well, I wouldn’t say all the local providers are terrible since my website is actually hosted by a local company. I think what we should be worrying most is the stability of Streamyx itself. But that’s another agenda.
As for PHP, I’ve only just begun to learn but I’m sure there are developers out there willing to help. :)
Urm, it’s not too much to ask to have it colorful but black and white. However, when I read that it somewhat puts me dead center what’s it suppose so mean. :P
@cybersonique
You can’t get rid of JScript altogether because there are somethings that still utilize JS except that the scripts are more web standards compliant nowadays. But I get what you’re saying.
As for the bandwidth, I’m just wondering if it’s a 1 pixel width but slightly taller image that’s a repeated background, would that consume lots of bandwidth too?
I think if you have 50 pings on the front page that would be sufficient to negate people looking in the archives. The current PPS design with just 10 pings/no excerpts on the front page actually takes more bandwidth because people visit the first page and then click on to the pings page.
As for adding some colour, would it be able to enable gravatars on the pings? Look at 9rules to see how they implement them. Blogtimore uses favicons. Gravatars and favicons will add some graphics to the site, but they don’t suck bandwidth because the images are hosted off-site.
Repeating backgrounds rock. If you optimise the images they won’t do that much of damage to the bandwidth. They can also get cached by the browser so they won’t need to be downloaded the next time someone visits.
More ideas:
– an explanation of what PPS is displayed prominently so that newbies don’t go ‘What da heck..?’
– regularly rotated featured blog(s) of the week/month
– adverts to pay for the hosting
– build on the blog. I honestly don’t see the need for the wiki because the blog can handle all the necessary content including tutorials, etc which you suggested.
I’m currently redesigning my own site but would love to have a hand in helping with the redesign, rebranding and re-relaunching of PPS! Email me if you need another grunt and good luck with this project.
I can volunteer to help with the CSS, if possible.
@David
Great feedback, David.
As for the number of pings, well, if 50 were displayed on the homepage then there wouldn’t be any need to have a Pings page. It also wouldn’t help solve PPS previous weakness of not being able to promote the other services effectively.
I’m planning to display the latest 10 pings or more with a show/hide link of the excerpt like 9rules later.
Hmm, I’m not sure if there’s a Gravatar plugin for MovableType.
I don’t think adverts are enough to pay for the hosting as mentioned before by Aizuddin. As for the business of expanding PPS, I’d like to leave that to Aiz and others.
I was thinking the same thinking for the blog. But if Aizuddin installed the Wiki, I believe it’s being activated for a good reason so I just suggested the next best thing we could use the Wiki for. :)
I’d love to see your redesign later, David. Cheers.
@CheeAun
I’d be grateful if you could help out with that part. You the CSS Masta.. ;)
I’m all for Aizuddin’s suggestion. I think black-and-white exudes the aura of professionalisme, which is what we need, in addition to the usage of other soft colours to bring out the Malaysian flavour.
Similar to the way you designed the Merdeka Blogger Project site (which was just amazing), I think using colours that are representative of the Malaysian lifestyle would be best.
Repeating backgrounds can be very beautiful when appropriately used, and I’m sure that they’ll come out well when done by your expert hands, Danny, but please be careful; I’ve seen some sites turn out badly when using repeated backgrounds.
As I’m also a fan of minimalisme, might I suggest that images/logos/mascots be used sparingly?
Hi Danny,
I’ve got more to add :oP
At the end of the day I think it boils down to what users use the site for. If they mainly use a site to see the latest pings, then displaying a small number then leading them to a separate page for full listing is a (small) obstacle to usability. Why accomplish something in 3 clicks when you can do it in 2?
I’m glad you you have similar sentiments about the blog and wiki. I believe that a service provider engaged for a job has the obligation to advise and provide consultation to his/her client on the best decisions for the site. In this case if you feel there’s an unclear objective for the wiki then I think you should voice your opinion. It goes the same for adverts because they can really help with the bill. I know a M’sian guy who’s earning in excess of RM1000 from his AdSense monthly. You should at least check with Aiz on adverts. I believe most ppl don’t mind them as long as they’re relatively unobtrusive.
I’d love to have a longer chat with you on MSN.