Organizing layouts

[denise]

We've been talking a bit about how the Select Style page should be categorized and laid out as we get more and more styles added (and OMG, I am loving the styles that we've been adding!), so it is time to discuss how we should categorize things.

afuna and I have already been talking about a few options, but I wanted to throw it out to the community at large to see what you guys think first, before we talk about what we've been thinking, to see if anyone has any great ideas that we would have missed!

To that end, a poll:

Poll #1158 Layout choice

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 313

View Respondents

When looking for a design for your journal, how do you expect to be able to browse/select one?

View Answers

By color family
171 (54.6%)

By color contrast
37 (11.8%)

By font size
23 (7.3%)

By base layout
282 (90.1%)

By header image content
66 (21.1%)

By something else (explain in comments!)
15 (4.8%)

Discussions, ideas, pros-and-cons, and other thoughts go in the comments. :)

Comments

[branchandroot]

Okay, I think it's pretty clear that the first thing we really need to do is publicize more vigorously the capabilities of the S2 layouts. And then, perhaps, reconfigure the Select page to display the tags of each item. I was a little afraid this might happen, especially when I saw how the preview pics are being done. Based on most people's previous LJ experience, the previews imply that the column layout in question is the only one that theme supports, because most people (eg above) don't know yet that a whole bunch of them support all column layouts, and there's no field for indicating that in previews. So suppose someone searches by "two column, sidebar left" and sees the preview of Stepping Stones in there. That's going to be a moment of cognitive dissonance, even for those who know that SS can be set for two-left.

Two pronged approach: tags plus public information blitz. Some how-to posts here, publicized through News might be good, especially for colors and columns (layout and width both).

[piranha]

*nod*. i now try to mix up the previews (if there are several themes), but there will always be that cognitive dissonance when a preview comes up that doesn't match the layout choice the user expected.

maybe in addition to your suggestions some explanatory verbiage on the select style page, and an indication under the previews of tabula rasa offspring that the columns are configurable? that's the page all people will see, while public relation blitzes and how-tos will still miss lots of people.

[branchandroot]

*nodnod* Yeah, I like it that we see a variety of layouts in the previews, but since there can only be one picture... Maybe a display of related tags, including column layouts, with the search term (if any) highlighted.