Requesting feedback :)

[samanthacsik]

General feedback

@stefaniebutland feedback on anything/everything is much appreciated, but here are a few particular areas that I took some creative liberties on and would love your thoughts:

• home page layout / content (e.g. do we like the mini events and blog listing pages, order of content)
• navbar layout/submenus (do we want to move anything around, change menu item titles, etc)
• Initiatives submenu pages (e.g. Reflections Program, Mentors Program, etc.; do we like the layout, orange highlights to bring attention to open educational resources, any other missing content to add?). An example page:

• how do we feel about the intro text at the top of each page? e.g. here's the text at the top of the "Who Are We" page:

• blog and events categories (do we like these, want to change the names of categories, add/remove any?)

Feedback on making documentation

I make this wiki page which details the blog's organizational structure, conventions, how to add new posts, etc. If there are any other things regarding this site that you'd like me to detail and/or document here (or if you prefer we don't use wikis), let me know!

[stefaniebutland]

My first comments are first impressions, starting on home page. Wanted to go in unbiased, before looking at your comment above. Will start new comment to address your questions

I LOVE the look. Love the mini-cards of recent blog posts. The bottom of page (contact) etc looks beautiful and clean. I like the styling of fonts and shading. It's so very good to have Events no longer on a separate site! It's a joy to click around.

HOME

• add Mastodon logo beside twitter? (across top of pages)

• I think for accessibility, we're not supposed to link from the word "here" because "here" doesn't tell person (via screenreader?) what is at the link. I suggest

  • (for blog) See our most recent posts below or browse our full blog listing
  • (for events) See our recent events below or attend an upcoming one. Browse all events

I think often you don't need a colon in statements above. If you're revising any text, I recommend using similar phrasing for similar things and cut out any extra words.

• green underline below looks crowded in new page compared to current

• the green highlight on HOME "took me by surprise" and drew my attention too much. Maybe a lighter version of same color?

WHO ARE WE

• OUR FUNDING - Julie to update funding sources - CS&S, CZI & others?

OUR LOGO

• make openscapes logo smaller - same size as the others on this page
• http://localhost:3587/gallery.html#open-landscapes images missing

CONNECT WITH US

• Follow us on Twitter - add Mastodon

Banners: color strips and illustrations

When I clicked on Attend an Event, I was surprised to see a solid colored rectangle as banner. So clicked around pages and saw Blog has similar banner. All Initiatives have a really groovy banner. And Media, Our team, Code of Conduct have same groovy banner. Other pages have gorgeous illustrations. Made me pause (drew my attention as a user) and wonder about the criteria for a page having illustration vs groovy banner vs solid rectangle.

AHA! 💡 the Blog and Event banners have text when we view an individual item!
Could you make a "groovy" banner for Blog and Events main pages (like the Initiatives pages), and leave individual blog post page banners as is?

Search

I LIKE.

[stefaniebutland]

Addressing your questions here.

home page layout / content (e.g. do we like the mini events and blog listing pages, order of content)

• Love the mini events. I would put blog before "incubated by"

navbar layout/submenus (do we want to move anything around, change menu item titles, etc)

• ABOUT: I would move Our Team above Media. The order of headings across the top is great
• INITIATIVES: I would put Mentors Framework right below Champions since those are foundational programs.

Initiatives submenu pages (e.g. Reflections Program, Mentors Program, etc.; do we like the layout, orange highlights to bring attention to open educational resources, any other missing content to add?).

• I really like the orange highlights for lots of reasons. I do not know about color matching but the highlight color seems to be too different from the banner color. Could you make it same as banner but lighter?

how do we feel about the intro text at the top of each page?

I LOVE THESE SO MUCH. Perfect to come before longer text. Most people just want this intro text and it grabs them; they likely ignore the page if it started with long text. Clicking back to current site I'm seeing again how much this new style & design makes the site welcoming and easy to access info. I find info where I expect to find it. That's key!!!

blog and events categories (do we like these, want to change the names of categories, add/remove any?)

Blog:

• I'm tempted to remove "community" (91 of 93 posts). How many posts have only that one category (it may actually be useful)?

Events:

• change nasa-openscapes to nasa-framework (to match Blog)
• add category community-call; have only community calls in this category
• new category for something to encompass invited talks, seminars, podcast, "Nature webcast", "Pangeo showcase" = webinar
  Seems like with those new categories, we might capture everything and the category names would be unambiguous

[stefaniebutland]

Love having documentation in the wiki. Could you please add guidelines for

• image dimensions - inside a blog post, and as banner image; add for Event images too
• recommended max image file size for a post; if larger, recommend using https://tinypng.com/ to reduce file size
• include an example code snippet(s) for adding an image and setting size, alt txt, caption, centering image on a page. This is something I very frequently have to search for in past posts, but relies on my memory too much
• add instructions for adding an Event (same as a blog post?)
• blog post formatting tips - recommended heading sizes, how to format a quote

[stefaniebutland]

That was fun @samanthacsik !!! Very happy to review anything further.

[samanthacsik]

Thank you @stefaniebutland !!! This is super helpful, and I'll ping ya here once updates are made

[samanthacsik]

@stefaniebutland not done with all updates yet, but wanted to follow-up with some responses and ask for some additional input when you get a chance:

the green highlight on HOME "took me by surprise" and drew my attention too much. Maybe a lighter version of same color?

How does this new, lighter blue look? (top screenshot is old color, bottom is new)

It's easy for me to update (just swapping out hex codes), so feel free to let me know if there's something you like better

I'm tempted to remove "community" (91 of 93 posts). How many posts have only that one category (it may actually be useful)?

looks like 15 blog posts have just the "community" tag -- I don't know that it's particularly helpful, since so many posts are tagged with it. Are we okay with those 15 posts having no category if we were to remove the "community" tag?

I really like the orange highlights for lots of reasons. I do not know about color matching but the highlight color seems to be too different from the banner color. Could you make it same as banner but lighter?

I played around with some colors, but could use your input! Just so you know my (not-so-scientific) methods, I use the Chrome plugin ColorPick Eyedropper to hover over colors in the browser and get their hex codes. The hex code for the yellow portion of the groovy banner is #F8DA92

The orange background block I originally used to highlight text was this light orange color (#FFEFE1):

To find a yellow color closer to what the banner color is, I plugged the banner color into htmlcolorcodes.com, moved the selector to a slightly lighter yellow and ended up on this (#FFF1CE):

Alternatively, there's this (#FFF6E1):

Let me know if either of these yellows feel better, and free to explore other color options -- it's super easy to update (I can also write up some documentation on changing those details in the wiki)

Could you make a "groovy" banner for Blog and Events main pages (like the Initiatives pages), and leave individual blog post page banners as is?

Okay this one might be easier to explain over Zoom, but these listing pages banners have been causing me all types of issues (and I'm not really sure why). I'll attempt to explain in writing here:

• To start, Quarto provides a YAML option for adding a banner image -- title_block_banner: file/path/to/img -- however, it'll crop the image so that it's super skinner, similar to the current Openscapes blogdown site. When adding a title_block_banner, you must include text in the title option as well (otherwise the banner image doesn't show up...at least that's what seems to be the case)
• Julie wanted to show off all the full landscape images (i.e. those on the Who Are We, Our Approach, Connect with Use, Resources pages), so as a workaround, I did not end up using the title_block_banner option. Instead, I (1) edited the banner image (added text in Preview on my Mac; see folder of edited banner images), (2) added the edited image outside of the yaml using the .column-screen option -- this layout option allows for the full banner image art to be displayed, (3) added a blank title in the YAML using the syntax title: " "
• I took this same approach for all pages (including those with the simple "groovy" banner)

The Blog and Events pages aren't as cooperative when it comes to my workaround (described above):

• If I add a "banner" using the .column-screen layout option (as I've done on all other pages), the Categories list disappears:

• If I try adding the banner image using the YAML title-block-banner option, I must also include a title text. I tried first adding my edited banner and set the yaml title: " ", which just made the whole banner disappear (but categories were back!):

• finally, I added the unedited banner image using title-block-banner and set title: "BLOG" (this adds text on top of the banner, shown below)...which mostly works, except the banner image looks a little glitchy/weird:

...which is why I ended up just making the listing page banners solid colors (I totally agree that isn't ideal though). Good news is that regardless of the listing page banners, we can leave individual blog post page banners as is. I'll continue to fiddle with these, but I've spent a fair bit of time trying to get it to play nicely to no avail. If you have a preference for what to keep for now, let me know!

add category community-call; have only community calls in this category

Done! But I believe there should be 7 community calls and I only found 6? Likely missed it as I was panning through them all, but maybe you can spot it more easily

[jules32]

Thanks for all your work with reviews and updates @stefaniebutland and @samanthacsik !

One quick thought on the blog's "community" tag - I agree it's not a useful tag when all of them have it, but also think it's useful for those 15 to have a tag of some kind. @stefaniebutland would you be able to review those 15 posts and give them an appropriate tag that is not "community"? Hopefully one of the other exiting tags will be appropriate (and if not maybe we'll identify a need for a more specific tag for those cases). Sam, could you provide a list of those 15?

looks like 15 blog posts have just the "community" tag -- I don't know that it's particularly helpful, since so many posts are tagged with it. Are we okay with those 15 posts having no category if we were to remove the "community" tag?

[stefaniebutland]

Yes I'll add tags for those posts and identify if there's a gap.

Coming back today to reply to your updates @samanthacsik 😁

[stefaniebutland]

Replies to your updates and questions.

category community-call: there should be 7 community calls and I only found 6

There are 8 community calls on (Events page). Please add these 2 to community-call (not so obvious).

• https://openscapes.github.io/events/posts/2021-12-09-open-leaders-cabunoc-mayes-sansing/

• https://openscapes.github.io/events/posts/2021-03-08-dr-dawn-wright-interview/dawn-wright.html

• Could you please also add a community-call category to Blog and include 8 these posts? This will take care of some community posts without a category

I'm tempted to remove "community" (91 of 93 posts) ...

Could you please provide a list of remaining posts without a category and I'll assign them or identify / suggest a new category name.

the green blue highlight on HOME ...

the lighter blue is great

I really like the orange highlights for lots of reasons

#FFF6E1 (3rd screenshot) is great! (got advice from my daughter; I have no colour sense beyond "this isn't quite right")

Could you make a "groovy" banner for Blog and Events main pages

Oof!!! Soooo hard! I really really love the landscape images and it's so impt to use them because they are core to the Openscapes brand. Given the challenges you laid out, I don't have a suggestion.

One time saving thing I like about the text in new Blog banner is that title is in title case, not all caps. I often have to copy blog post title text to social media or elsewhere and have to convert title to title case (paste in Google doc, format text).

[stefaniebutland]

Any time you want to do a quick screenshare, rather than try to explain in text, hit me up. I'll share a time-booking link in Slack

[samanthacsik]

@stefaniebutland these are the remaining posts with only the "community" category assigned. Let me know what new category(ies) you come up with. It sounds like we're going to remove "community" from all posts, but wanted to triple-check before doing so

• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2023/04/26/pathways-report/
• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2022/11/03/vacationing-with-open-science/
• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2021/01/06/audience-building/
• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2020/06/25/lessons-remote-meetings/
• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2020/06/15/black-lives-matter/
• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2019/12/11/towards-kinder-science/
• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2020/01/05/openscapes-2020/
• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2020/03/11/how-to-run-a-remote-workshop/
• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2018/11/06/build-communities/

[stefaniebutland]

ooh yes some of these are tough, but YAY many fit with a new category how-we-work that comprises posts about how Openscapes does things / our philosophy of work and open science

openscapes.org/blog/2023/04/26/pathways-report

• ?
  I'm stumped on this one. Pathways is an Initiative and this is our one blog post about it

openscapes.org/blog/2022/11/03/vacationing-with-open-science

• how we work

openscapes.org/blog/2021/01/06/audience-building

• conference
• ? other

openscapes.org/blog/2020/06/25/lessons-remote-meetings

• how we work

openscapes.org/blog/2020/06/15/black-lives-matter

• how we work

openscapes.org/blog/2019/12/11/towards-kinder-science

• how we work

openscapes.org/blog/2020/01/05/openscapes-2020

• champions
• how we work

openscapes.org/blog/2020/03/11/how-to-run-a-remote-workshop

• how we work
• conference (if you think it fits)

openscapes.org/blog/2018/11/06/build-communities

• how we work

[samanthacsik]

@stefaniebutland made the updates you shared, above. How do we feel about a "pathways" category for the first one (https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2023/04/26/pathways-report/)? If you expect there to be more posts about this initiative moving forward, it might make sense.

Also, I missed one last post with just the "community" tag (let me know how you'd like to categorize this one):

• https://www.openscapes.org/blog/2021/10/04/faseb-dataworks-salon/

[jules32]

Thanks both -

@samanthacsik , I like the idea of a "pathways" category, great idea!

And for the faseb-dataworks-salon, let's tag that with how-we-work as well.

Thank you!