Build website theme (epic)

Just to clarify, the design will be 100% based on what's currently at http://denver2012.drupal.org/ -- correct?

Will be based on that, but the goal is not to just make it look like that. Ken will be doing fresh designs for this.

Hi everyone,

Here's the initial design concept for the DrupalCon Denver site. Obviously, the design is still missing some elements but I wanted to start getting feedback to make sure I was headed in the right direction. I'll be adding sponsor logo areas, a mailing list sign-up callout, and a twitter feed, as well as a footer. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Ken

Ooh, lovely! Looks great. The tickets and registration image is great too.

My feedback :)
* Use 2012, not twenty twelve. For a vast majority of the (int'l) population, it will be more instantly recognizable as a year
* Put the appropriate call to action next to the important date (even if it's just a text link), since it won't always be visible on the rotator
* My personal preference is have a separate style for an action buttons (submit/send/save) and text links ('read more')
* It looks like there's two registration links, one in the black area and one as an image. Do they do the same things?
* What is the Session Submission text in the lower right of the news item? It looks a bit like a button but I'm guessing (as a Drupal person) that it could be a tag

[edited to fix year ;)]

Lisa,

Great feedback, thanks!

* Changing the date is fine. Everyone else on board with this? (We're using Twenty-Twelve on the existing site).
* So which of those two example items would have a link? It seems to make sense to include it in the Call for Papers event. After the Call for Papers date passes, the link would be gone if we only included it with that event. I guess I'm wondering if it makes more sense to add something to that area that shows important actions a user could take (submit a session, vote for sessions, purchase a ticket). How does that sound?
* I'll work more on the Read More links.
* The register link at the top is really a "Create an Account" link. Should we just change it to that? The Tickets & Registration link is just for buying tickets and will change based on whether a user is logged in or not.
* The Session submission text is a tag. I'll adjust that too.

I'll also be adding "Colorado Convention Center" to the site somewhere, probably in place of one of the drops in the header.

Great work, Ken! I also really like the wood. The thing that sticks out to me is the blue gradient (in the feature, behind the "submit your sessions for drupalcon..." text. I'd like to see a little more contrast with that and the small white text in front of it.

Thanks Mason. I'm actually thinking that a different treatment for that area might be best. I kinda hate the gradient faded into photo look. :) I'll try something a bit different.

To remove the confusion between the different types of registration, I wonder if we could remove the site registration link entirely and instead direct people there when they go to do something that requires site registration.

Thanks for the great feedback so far. Here's an updated design. Any last thoughts before I get theming? This design will probably evolve as the site changes so this doesn't have to be completely final. Thanks everyone!

Looks great .... one final thought is the photos in the rotators. They're all awesome folks but if could also include people that reflect a bit more diversity in nationality, gender etc that would be cool. :)

Thanks Lisa. I just grabbed some photos off of Flickr for this, just to get the idea across. I'll mix things up a bit for the final callout.

Updated issue summary.

I like how you have a clear area for getting involved, how will you handle when it needs a clear call to action for registering? The current way to get there is in an area often ignored at first glance.

The idea with the Get Involved area is to call attention to important actions that can be taken at any given time. Initially it will call for Session submissions but later we can show registration info or an invitation to vote on sessions. We may want to just have a separate callout to direct people to register for the conference.

Yhea - long term, you might want a specific call to action for just that.

Updated issue summary.

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