h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Would it be possible to have a simple re-coloring of Alabaster? A darker blue, and mellower yellow, even a different shade of white? (if you've repainted a house, you know there's a lot of different "whites") Because I love the layout of Alabaster, but I use GOO because Alabaster hurts even my 18-year-old eyes.

Just my humble two cents.

How about a 3-D skin? We could wear those red and green glasses you used to get at 3-D movies

Or how about an interface designed like those stereogram images, where you have to adjust your eyeballs parallax in order to see the picture?

Or, what the heck, how about direct neural interface? Then we could really get into the Goo!

Tal

I'm 100% a goo head from the moment I came to the site... the alabaster scared me when I got here, I looked at the site in the goo skin, and I never went back... so goo is so much better... but what I don't like about it is that it takes a little while to load... could we just find a way to shrink the size of the graphics so they load faster! Then I'd be a 100% happy goo head!

Saturn Girl

Goo is so classic that I itch for something different. Alabaster is so boring. I spend most of my time at 800x600, and Alabaster just takes up too much space at the top of the window. Goo generates pages which are too long - Alabaster is a little better for the personal space - and leaves too little space for conversation.

If the banner is never going to be used for advertising (this is the BBC, after all), then scrap it. Consolidate the buttons up into the space that leaves, eliminate duplicates (h2g2/front page), remove BBC links other than the home page (A-Z index, search, main sites). Then, having minimised the number of links which are necessary, relax a little and make it look good.

Hmm... there's always the posibility of making a skin that looks like the galaxy this is a guide for you know... stars, and nebulas, and all that jazz on a background, and stuff... Just a thought...

Saturn Girl

Whatever happens, I hope we don't get one of those annoying 'mystery meat' types of interface. Those are the cute kind with unlabelled buttons, hidden hotspots etc.

Navigation is the main issue, followed by the actual 'look' - colour, design, decoration.

Since I mostly work on a notebook, I prefer an uncluttered interface. I also like instant access to menu items.

Using frames is one way to keep the menu available at all times, but it uses up too much real estate.

Javascript can create a collapsing menu that 'sticks' at the top, for example, in its collapsed state, and drops down with whatever items the user wants.

Tal

If the banner space will never be used for advertising, then can it. Takes up far too much acreage. As a child of the sixties, I really like the goo design, but the previous comment about stars and galaxies is pretty jazzy, too! A space theme!

SC

I currently am a primary goo user, although I do have an alternate ID that uses alabaster (just to keep things straight). I like the idea of a Galaxy skin, but wouldn't that interfere with text on the page?

BTW, one thing that might make my life easier is just a simple color reassignment option. I love classic goo, have since before there was even an alabaster option. I also like the handy tool bars of Alabaster, but I don't need 'em. Other than the 'User Space' and 'Who's Online' buttons, I probably don't use them at all (I just type in URLs or click on links for anything else that I need).

What about a goo-ish skin that was mostly the same, with the exception of different colors options for the actual goo and the background? I've often wondered what Classic Goo would look like in a red background....

I currently am a primary goo user, although I do have an alternate ID that uses alabaster (just to keep things straight). I like the idea of a Galaxy skin, but wouldn't that interfere with text on the page?

BTW, one thing that might make my life easier is just a simple color reassignment option. I love classic goo, have since before there was even an alabaster option. I also like the handy tool bars of Alabaster, but I don't need 'em. Other than the 'User Space' and 'Who's Online' buttons, I probably don't use them at all (I just type in URLs or click on links for anything else that I need).

What about a goo-ish skin that was mostly the same, with the exception of different colors options for the actual goo and the background? I've often wondered what Classic Goo would look like in a red background....

Animated Goo would be a lovely option for those with fast modems. And little animations trigered when you type a certain word.

I do like the idea of a galaxy skin though, and while we're on the subject, what about a chocolate skin yummy!
or would it look like ........t?

FABT

Personally, I use alabaster almost all the time, because it seems to load quicker. Some of the alternatives suggested above sound fun though, if I'm ever borrowing a PC with a higher-speed connection.

If you decide to go down the road of javascript, can I put in a plaintive request for at least one non-java skin to be kept? I sometimes surf the net using a browser that's allergic to java, and it would seriously hamper my enjoyment of h2g2 if it was essential.

Lux

JavaScript menus are evil, evil evil! That's where you start to run into incompatibility problems between web browsers - currently I very much doubt it's possible to get a decent system working that runs perfectly in IE, Netscape, Mozilla, Konqueror, NetPositive...

Actually, I was thinking today that something like a simplified Goo would be nice - use table background colours and really teeny images resized to make borders of the appropriate lengths, so you get a flat colour background instead of the Goo... I know it'd look pretty dull, but it'd be fast!

And yes, do we actually need to keep the advert banner? And if we do, can't we have a smaller one? I may use 1280x1024, at which res it's pretty insignificant really, but lots of people don't...

Yes, javascript is Evil, ( muah - hah - hah! )..
ECMA; what ECMA?

I was wondering if it would be possible to make GML create collapsible menus... Perhaps taking up the space currently occupied by the banner. It would also be nice if the menu could persist at the top of the page, like a frame, ( yes, I know, frames suck! )

I like the idea of a simplified goo. I even like the sound of it:

'Simplified Goo'

A Philosophy of Life!

Tal

You realise that persistant and collapsible menus are done with JavaScript, I hope? Or rather, ECMAScript which nobody fully seems to support yet... not to mention the fact that they can be confusing, and downright irritating.
I hate things which move around the page as I scroll.

Yeah, I know. Just wishful thinking, I guess

I too find most of the 'sticky' javascript menus are indeed annoying, but I also don't like scrolling down loooooong pages!

I guess I'll just have to be content with keeping at least two layered browser windows open, one for content and one for navigation.

It gives the right mouse button a good workout, anyway

Tal

If you set up your web browser's links/bookmarks toolbar up right, you don't need to use the h2g2 buttons at all... assuming, that is, that your web browser has a links bar.

I rarely use the buttons at all - and then I only really use the h2g2 logo and My Space. I'm far more likely to type an address in the location bar, or choose a bookmark from my fairly large collection, so I just want a skin that looks nice!

I strongly support what some of you said:

A Goo-coloured but Alabaster-shaped skin.

Sometimes I switch to Alabaster just to get the imho better functionality, then I turn back to Goo because it's better for my eyes.

An additional text only skin would be very appreciated.

Jeremy

But we've already spent enough time IN the total perspective vortex at the beginning of the year! We don't need to inflict that on ourselves any further surely

As to a suggestion - as regards a colour scheme why don't we have a scheme which actually helps people who have either sight problems or dyslexia (a yellow background with black lettering has been shown to be much easier for them to read)?

y'know, I had completely forgotten about using the links toolbar!

Got it set up now, and am zipping happily thru h2g2

Thanks, MaW

I wonder if it would be possible to set up a series of test pages, with varied colour schemes, etc, and do a bit of voting??

Tal (Linking happily )

I like the idea of setting up the test pages, and voting... I'll definately vote for the one I like best, and I hope that we'll keep our goo, though with a little bit of a fix to make it load a little fast!

Saturn Girl