[Adium-devl] Random thoughts about 1.0final

[Colin Barrett]

On Aug 20, 2006, at 12:47 AM, Peter Hosey wrote:

> On Aug 20, 2006, at 03:29:48, Colin Barrett wrote:
>> On the front page, we could have a large counter, perhaps looking  
>> like a car odometer, saying how many downloads of Adium 1.0 we've  
>> had so far.
>
> I like it. I think we should give it eight digits to start with,  
> just for a subtle hint of ambition. :)
>
> What would be REALLY cool is if it could somehow read all the in- 
> progress downloads, and build from this (perhaps from the furthest- 
> along download) a fractional number. For example, if we had 400  
> completed downloads, plus four in-progress downloads:
>
> •	1⁄3
> •	1⁄2
> •	1⁄2
> •	4⁄5 ←Maximum value
>
> It would read 400, but with that last digit rolled up 4⁄5 of the  
> way to 1 (401).

Hah, that would be awesome. Or perhaps a .x field, like on some car's  
trip odometers, which has reverse color and represents the 10th of a  
mile you've travelled.

> Maybe not possible, and if not, then I'm fine with a plain integral  
> odometer.
>
>> Considering how big of a leap 1.0 is, I think we should really  
>> hammer that point home to our users by deploying a new website.
>
> Meh.
>
> I can think of exactly two changes that we should make.
>
> The first one (I was thinking about this one yesterday) is that we  
> should split the Support and Development tabs on the front page.  
> Both going to the same destination, but two separate tabs for two  
> separate sets of users.
>
> I think people don't click on that tab because they think “I'm not  
> into development, so that tab's not for me”.
>
> Of course, it's also possible that they'd see “Support and  
> Development” on the front page and get scared away then. Maybe we  
> should split the support information into an AdiumSupport page on  
> the wiki, and point the Support tab there.

Both of these are good suggestions. Even if it's something as simple  
as a different font or color scheme, I think we should at least think  
about doing something different for 1.0.

>
>> I still like having the duck be the big ol' download button. Very  
>> no-nonsense, which is a very Adium-like attitude.
>
> I think we should make it look like a button. A giant rounded-rect  
> small-square-style button (think vending machine, but square buttons  
> instead of rectangular, and with rounded corners), with Adiumy silk- 
> screend onto it.

The vending machine at the university is kind of like this. It seems  
to be a new-style machine, I've seen others that are similar. Instead  
of having a giant picture of a Pepsi (or whatever) can on it, it has  
large buttons with exciting looking pictures of the sodas on them. The  
buttons are roughtly the same size as my hand, but (obviously) not  
hand shaped. A vending-machine theme for the front page is actually a  
pretty cool idea :) Although it conflicts with the car theme.

-Colin

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