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I have discovered some usability and visual issues with the prototype
1		I have discovered some usability and visual issues with the prototype
2	-	website. I also give a brief proposal on how to fix each problem. In
2	+	website (http://prototype.php.net). I also give a brief proposal on how
3	-	highest to lowest priority, they are:
3	+	to fix each problem. In highest to lowest priority, they are:
4
5		1. The documentation left-sidebar steals the attention.
6
7		When I go to a particular documentation page, most of the time
8		I want to see its description and parameter definition. The way
9		things are now, the left side bar grabs my attention. I then have
10		to revert to the actual content. It looks like the sidebar is the
11		main content instead of the documented item.
12
13		Proposed fix: Remove the background color of the documentation
14		left-sidebar. Reduce the border-left of the hyperlinks to something
15		less than 9 pixels. In playing around with it, 6 and 8 pixels both
16		look good. Recommend 6.
17
18		2. Section headers and parameter items have the wrong visual priority.
19
20		After I have changed my attention from the sidebar, the next
21		thing I notice are the parameter names inside of the parameters
22		section. When I am using the documentation, I find the section I
23		want first, then the item. The values stick out too much and the
24		title too little.
25
26		Proposed fix: Swap the colors of the parameter colors and the
27		titles. Also reduce the parameter size from 1.2em to 1.1em.
28
29		3. Main navigation should go over the rest of the page instead of
30		pushing the rest of the page down.
31
32		I don't have any reason to suggest this other than it seems wrong.
33
34		Proposed fix: Perform usability tests comparing the two methods.
35
36		4. Border-radius inconsistency.
37
38		The rounding on the search-box and go button are 5 pixels,
39		while the documentation boxes use 3 pixels. Other
40		things that use borders are not rounded at all.
41
42		Proposed fix: Consider removing the rounding altogether, but
43		at least reduce search-box and go-button rounding to 3 pixels
44		to match the rest of the site.
45
46		5. Documentation sidebar spacing is inconsistent.
47
48		The left-sidebar has 32 pixels between it and the main
49		documentation. The right-sidebar/page navigation is
50		scrunched. This makes the right-sidebar hard to notice.
51
52		Proposed fix: Reduce the spacing between the left-sidebar and
53		the documentation to 15 pixels and increase the spacing
54		between the documentation and the right-sidebar to 15 pixels.
55
56		6. User-contributed notes are difficult to read because of background.
57
58		The background color is too dark for the text colors on top of it.
59
60		Proposed fix: Remove background color. That change
61		necessitates a few others, including the removal of padding
62		on multiple elements.
63
64	-	7. Method synopsis is inconsistent with the rest of the page.
64	+	7. Method synopsis and code examples are inconsistent with the
65		rest of the page.
66
67	-	but it only has them on the top and bottom.
67	+
68		but these only have them on the top and bottom. Also, while
69		they have a lighter background than their container, it still
70		does not pop enough,
71	-	all sides.
71	+
72		Proposed fix: Add border-right and border-left. This also
73		means that the padding should be changed to .5 em on
74		all sides. Change background color to #fff (white).
75
76		8. Too much vertical padding on the section boxes.
77
78		Proposed fix: Reduce vertical padding from 15 pixels to 10 pixels.
79
80		9. The bar between user contributed notes and the documentation
81		doesn't match the page.
82
83		Proposed fix: Change color to #81939F, which is a color
84		already on the page.
85
86		You can see high-resolution screen-shots for my proposed changes at
87	-	This is not a comprehensive list, but does address what I could in an
87	+
88	-	hour.
88	+
89
90		This is not a comprehensive list, but does address what I could find
91		in two hours.
92
93		Levi Morrison