NewSkinProject
What (summary)
Deployment of a new skin that evokes AboutUs rather than wikipedia.
The phase in the NewSkin Project that gets the skin ready for testing by the staff so that when we release NewSkinBeta, most of the rough edges have been polished off.
Why this is important
The look and feel of our site is one of our most important messaging tools. A new skin that communicates an earthy wholesomeness while feeling professionally polished will visually communicate our values and increase how engaging our site is to visitors and members alike.
DoneDone
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Alpha phase-
Skin is available at newskin.till from within the Portland office (related to WorkingDevelopmentBox and DevelopmentStagingProcess). -
All Portland staff have accounts created for them on till so that they can stress test the NewSkin.
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- Beta phase ... Will start Tuesday at noon
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All AboutUs users are able to select the new skin in their preferences and use it - All functionality is available in Firefox and IE (6 and 7), Safari
- Vinh and Ray agree all concerns have been addressed and any feasible changes have been made.
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- Roll-out phase
- The new skin is the default
- No major errors/concerns about new skin for a period of two days
Steps to get to DoneDone
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Create areas for suggestions, errors, concerns, tests, etc, at NewSkin -
Add a personal invitation to preview the Beta Skin to each ActiveMember's talk page - Gather suggestions, concerns, usability ideas, or errors from users over a period of days
- Address concerns/suggestions, and make any good, feasible changes to skin to get to Beta2
- Write an article that announces the Beta Skin for later posting
- Design a test script for use across various browsers/platforms
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Need a list of major modern browsers hitting AboutUsIE6 & IE7, Firefox, Safari | Camino, Opera, IE5, Lynx (screen readers), Konqueror
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- Friday Afternoon Run the test script (by hand) on IE6 & IE7, Firefox, Safari and make sure they all pass
- Saturday Post the article that announces the Beta Skin in a widely accessible place
- get users to run through the "script" on various browsers/platforms