RFC: Home page design

[Emma Jane Hogbin]

On Tuesday 15 September 2009 3:47:08 am Ian Clatworthy wrote:
> David Ingamells wrote:
> > I have 1024 pixels height with a KDE toolbar along the bottom of my
> > screen.
>
> It would be nice to have the page display in that real estate. At a
> minimum, it would be good if at least the *existence* of a footer was
> evident on a typical 1024x768 screen.

This is "by design." Please read:
http://bazaar-vcs.org/BazaarPersonas
specifically, "This area should be redundant against the top part of the page 
as it is persistent throughout the site. " If it's redundant, it does not need 
to be visible without scrolling. There are also accessibility links provided 
at the very top of the page for people to jump to the footer without scrolling 
(Ian, you removed these links in one of your updates, I'm sure that was not 
intentional.)

Please also read:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/blasting-the-myth-of
Specifically, "Stop worrying about the fold. Don’t throw your best practices 
out the window, but stop cramming stuff above a certain pixel point. You’re not 
helping anyone. Open up your designs and give your users some visual breathing 
room."

We're currently using a very basic footer navigation design (akin to Mozilla's 
which is also not visible without scrolling). Additional designs can be seen 
at: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/04/08/footers-in-modern-web-design-
creative-examples-and-ideas/

regards,
emma