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

Well, I go on holiday for a couple of weeks, and what happens? The new skin is unleashed (or whatever it is you do with skins) and I miss out on all the furore.

Anyway, my reaction when I first saw it on the 31st was, when conveyed in emoticon form, !

It hits you in the face like a big garish thing, and takes some getting used to. I've got used to it. I like it. In fact it looks very much like I imagine the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy's interface to have looked - cluttered, conveying a wealth of information in a simple format with bold, friendly colours.

I must admit I was expecting it to be slow and much more image-heavy, and I'm pleased to see it isn't.

The thing is, I am against using it as h2g2's default skin - I still think that Alabaster is the best choice for that (despite being an ardent Goo addict). When a new user first sees the site, I don't think it would be a benefit for them to be slapped in the face by loads of text, boxes and links. The frustrating removal of Talk and Read from the sidebar is, I think, a mistake, as they are very useful pages that serve as a great introduction to the wide range of features that h2g2 has at its disposal. I still use them regularly (and will now add those links to my Personal Space instead).

However, the benefits of Brunel to a regular user are clear. It is a great alternative and has a very distinctive flavour of its own - so why not promote it as one of the benefits of becoming a registered researcher, with buttons on the non-registered pages saying "view this in Goo | View this in Brunel" and perhaps some thumbnail screenshots of the two other skins in the introductory tour.

In summary: I hope it's obvious that I DO like Brunel - but I don't think it is the best choice for h2g2's default skin.

Thanks for the comments Mr T. Did you know that the Talk, Read and Contribute links are now on the Front Page? Does that make any difference to your feelings on it being the default skin?

Ah, I see, as the 'more>>>' links. Nice! I concede. It works well.

I still think it may be a little overwhelming though...

Hi Mr T.

Have you looked at the front page whilst logged out? The little lizard points the way to the guided tour which is very friendly .

Brunel is the only skin that is compliant with BBC rules so it will inevitably be the default.

Amy

Bah! Rules .

How're you doin' Amy? Your page is looking funky in Brunel. I'm just writing a spangly new update for mine, and I notice you've already included a lot of features that I am. But I can't seem to remember the GuideML for showing different content for each skin, not just each site.

Once I find it I'll be able to have a customised links bar at the top for each skin and site, so, for example, I can include Talk and Read in Brunel but not in Goo or Alabaster. Yey!

Would it be better if we changed it to 'Read More', 'Talk more' etc? What do you think?

But Amy is right, Alabaster and Goo both break BBC guidelines, although we'd never get rid of them of course!

I think all the skins are overwhelming at first, simply because to newbies, it's all new!

I think so, it might be easier for us luddites to understand!

How do the other skins break BBC guidelines? Because they don't include all the clut- sorry, features of the standard BBCi template?

Mainly the banner advert (although it's an internal ad) and frames. There might be more, that those are the main ones.

From what I've seen since we joined BBCi, I'd think there's probably more... what we're lucky about is being allowed to keep Goo and Alabaster, now that we have Brunel.

You're right there. I'm still having touble doing 'skin filter's. Any ideas? Or should I go and bug the gurus?

*puts Guruing hat on*

There is no skin filter. There is only a site filter.

Although if you're trying to force a skin, you can do:

U31911?skin=alabaster
U31911?skin=classic
U31911?skin=brunel

Note:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/U31911

Will always go to the skin it's being viewed on. (Not always Brunel as it used to).

Big Mad Mr T is trying to make links that show only on the alabaster and goo versions of his page. There is no way of doing that.

It's not recommended, we like everybody to be able tos ee everything.

Oh yeah, sorry, I misunderstood what he meant!

Oh yeah, sorry, I misunderstood what he meant!

twice

I've added the text to the Front Page. Thanks for the feedback.

Wow, democracy at work! Or something.

Thanks for the help guys, I must've imagined it. But... I'm SURE I remember that function. Ah well. I'll just have to combine them all into one big jumbo links bar.

I shall amuse myself by fiddling with the colour scheme instead.

I'm just so impressed by the speed at which your suggestion was implemented, Mr T. what's your secret?