[sword-devel] OSIS Web Tool- ABS online

[Chris Little]

I would suggest firing the graphics firm, and maybe suggest they find a 
new line of work for themselves that doesn't involve visual arts at 
all.  The design is one of the most horrible & illconceived webpages 
I've seen since people quit using <blink> (or at least since browsers 
quit supporting it). 

Some points (and I realize that to some extent, these issues relate to 
the adaptation of their image to an actual webpage):
o   NEVER put a texture behind text that is meant to be read (because 
they can't be).  If you want to ensure that people never use the OSIS 
Web Tool to actually read the Bible, please, continue using this design.
o   NEVER put text that is meant to be read against a dark texture.  I 
have perfect vision, and I can barely read any of the tabs or other menu 
items, even those against the lighter variety of browns.  It's no 
coincidence that so many webpages use black text on white background.  
This provides the highest level of contrast between text & background, 
making the text more readable.
o   Dark colors depress people.  Do you want people to get depressed 
when reading the Bible?
o   The "THE BIBLE TOOL" graphic is just out of place & ugly.
o   I have a headache due to eye strain from looking at that page.

I found this cool site that some other guys did and that is kind of 
similar to your idea.  You might try copying their design.  Their page 
is at http://www.crosswire.org/sword/biblenew/index.jsp .  The only 
thing I would change about their page is that graphic in the upper right 
corner: it's got too much white space, it should be a GIF or a PNG, and 
it's placement is odd (its top and the top of "OSIS BIBLE TOOL" should 
be aligned--unless it is moved elsewhere).  Other than that, I say we 
just rip these guys off (maybe slap the ABS, SBL, and that big fat 
CrossWire logo in at the bottom instead of the validator links).

But seriously, the current page needs to go.

Side note: I think a better name than either of "OSIS BIBLE TOOL" or 
"THE BIBLE TOOL" needs to be dreamt up.

--Chris

Troy A. Griffitts wrote:

> Hey guys,
>     The OSIS Web tool is now online at:
>
> http://www.bibletechnologieswg.org
>
> It's using a motif designed by a graphics firm that they hired.  The 
> end result was that they only finish the home page (which has no 
> functionality anyway), so we took a couple of their images and the 
> colors from their .css and applied them to our current site!  I'm 
> starting to understand some of this CSS stuff now, but I'm sure I 
> totally hacked things up.
>
> Those who have access, please visit ~bibletech/html/ on the server and 
> see how bad I might have messed things up.  Please change if you'd 
> like.  The official public announcement isn't until Nov 23.
>
> Thanks again for all of your great work!  The XHTML/CSS abstraction 
> was the only thing that allowed me to make up for the shortcomings of 
> that design firm for ABS.  You guys have done a GREAT job!
>
>     -Troy.