Fbide website updated

[VonGodric]

Hey guys,

I've updated the fbide website -new clean design, simpler navigation.

http://fbide.freebasic.net/

Comments, suggestions, feedback, criticism are welcome

[dkl]

I like it!

[TESLACOIL]

Good on content but the website looks a bit weird

I would strongly prefer a boring but traditional layout

Key is this " when making complicated decisions anything that makes the visitor / decider go 'do what ? ' is bad "



make the black top bar smaller, embed scr shots in the page , not keen a new window opening to display the screenshots

too much text , have bullet points at the top ( at a glance ) and more detailed text further down the page

stuff like that.....right now it works but it realty doesn't look right

[VonGodric]

thanks for your feedback.

I tried to keep the design slick, simple and modern. So I'm surprised if you had trouble figuring what to do. But i'm no gfx/ui designer so...

Do you mind showing a quick mockup of what you think would be a good layout?

[TESLACOIL]

if i spot a webby with the right look ill post it

FUD is the enemy , remove fear uncertainty and doubt

brevity , clarity and a familiar look and feel are the best weapons against FUD


.....after all you are trying to sell Fbide as a simple and clean IDE , dont show all the fancy stuff on the first pages or at the top

i dloaded FBide from the old style webby a few years back.....i was full of fear uncertainty an doubt , but the simple clean webby helped assure me it was safe to click the download button



Ideally

Have a page with a windows installer , another with page with linux versions etc

upload the files to the webby , i click dload and i get jumped to source forge...i have no idea if what im dloading is for windows linux or what ?


....windows are opening i dint ask for, browsers taking me to other websites unexpectedly = not good





its very easy to forget what its like to be a new visitor who has never seen your webby before and is not sure if FreeBASIC or FBide is going to be 'good for them' or just a waste of their life

If there is one rule that ive seldom seen broken its this ' computer programmers are effing shyte at design ' this means much of their hard work gathers dust. Coding requires 'talent' ...but so does good design.




old coder hacks wont give two hoots about design , they are used to scanning oceans of text embeded with version numbers what have you, newer users ( your target audience ) will be simply overwhelmed. Cartoon style simplicity , a website design that guides your eyes not overwhelms them is the ideal.....like everything, good code and good design takes a fair bit of effort to get it right.....take your time and aim high

[VANYA]

Cool design!

[TESLACOIL]

@ VonGodric

if someone says ' cool design ' .....just ignore it , lol ,yes really !


pay attention to those who highlight the errors and point out where things can be improved


that is the 'black art' of good design..... when i get some time i can help you out with the design, just logged and im busy today

[codeFoil]

I like it.
The only changes I would make is move the "news" column to the far right.

[VonGodric]

TESLACOIL: Thanks for your feedback. I agree with few things you pointed out -such as make more clear WHAT user is downloading. But I can't do anything about SF opening up, because that's where I host the files. Also I don't think the new design and layout is quite as dire as you make it sound. It just (in my humble opinion) needs some tweaking. I think from usability point of view its miles from the old website (for the better). But like I said there is room for improvement and if you have specific suggestions you are more than welcome to help me with this.

codeFoil: Thanks. I will sometime in the near future put a proper blog on the site. So it will be a blog feed.

[badidea]

Looks good + clear navigation!

[TJF]

FB is a cross-platform compiler. Your IDE is win32 only. (I heard it runs under Wine. But it doesn't run under DOS, right?)

I think you should mention this.

[Zippy]

Good on content but the website looks a bit weird

I would strongly prefer a boring but traditional layout

Key is this " when making complicated decisions anything that makes the visitor / decider go 'do what ? ' is bad "



make the black top bar smaller, embed scr shots in the page , not keen a new window opening to display the screenshots

too much text , have bullet points at the top ( at a glance ) and more detailed text further down the page

stuff like that.....right now it works but it realty doesn't look right

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.. Or offer advice..

This, Tesla, is your handiwork:
http://freebasicportal.wikispaces.com/

Me thinks you express elephantine testicular fortitude by offering criticism (positive or negative) of any website. "Good on content but the website looks a bit weird" ??? Oh, my.
.

[vdecampo]

elephantine testicular fortitude

Lol. I will file that one away for later use!

-Vince

[Richard]

@ VonGodric.
I like the functional simplicity of FBIde. I like the functional simplicity of the website. Never judge a book by it's cover, or a website by it's home page. Just keep it simple. Competent graphic design will make little difference to the usability of the site. You certainly will not profit from any change.
I think you should ignore the artistic criticism and devote the little spare time you have to the new FBIde source. That will have the greatest benefit for the FreeBASIC community.

[Roland Chastain]

Hi !

I learned programmation with your FB ide. I spent a long time to look for and to try other programming tools : FB+FBide is still my favourite and the one I would keep if I had to keep one.

I didn't know that (as I can see in your page) that FB ide makes html files. Maybe I haven't the latest version , or maybe I haven't seen this function.

If you rewrite FB ide, please don't add too much things : keep it simple and solid !

Roland