With a little help from friends:

[The Big Glee Bopper]

On Tue, 5 Dec 1995, Wilfred Drew wrote:

> I am a graphics artist and a librarian and a "techie".  However, the 
> principles involved in good design of a page or any such document don't 
> require someone with a Masters in design.  Common sense things such as using 
> only necessary graphics that add to the value of a page, minimal number of 
> fonts, plenty of white space, picking colors for background and foreground 
> that are legible and easy on the eye, etc.  Anyone can see what graphics 
> artists can do in the way of garbage by looking at any issue of Wired 
> Magazine.  I find it unreadable and can't separate ads from content.  Just 
> because you may use a graphics desinger doesn't mean you have a good product.
> What is most important is testing and being willing to change your design.

This _thing_ has been tested 3 times before today on 3 different 
versions. It will be focus group tested tomorrow night. The feedback from 
web4lib has been amazing in a real short period of time. I think there 
are some visual problems in spite of the _wow_ aspect of the design which 
is there. I think readability is an issue. I send every message including 
this one into the group. We do follow Boorstein's "Listen to your users 
but ignore what they have to say" approach by trying to look for patterns 
and not _doing_ what folks suggest. In some cases it does come down to 
doing specific things which are suggested but not because a single person 
suggested it but because the pattern demands it. Like I say, your 
feedback and others are invaluable. Thanks.

> > After we demo I'll put up the ascii and ascii + icon url, probably some
> > time this week end. We'll make it possible for anyone to not just _look_
> > at our site but to actually _download_ and adapt the entire site in
> > whatever form you like. We'll attempt to develop the design over time and
> > provide support for people to customize the site for their use. It will
> > be covered by a GNU copy free notice which means it's free to use and
> > develop but can not be _sold_ in any fashion.
> 
> That sounds great to me.  I would be willing to test such a thing on my 
> users.

Coming up!

--Thom