5 ms·

This website is absolutely incredible, wow! It might well be the most beautiful open source project homepage out there. Any other entries that even come close?

by mxstbr 9y ago

This website is absolutely incredible, wow! It might well be the most beautiful open source project homepage out there. Any other entries that even come close?!

kentf 9y ago
Agreed. Haters going to hate. This is art. Thank you.
- amelius 9y ago
  It looks ok, but "art" is a bit of an overstatement. It looks like something you could find in a toys store.
defgeneric 9y ago
Certainly the best I have seen.
usaphp 9y ago
Yep, also those subtle sound effects make it really enjoyable to just drag & drop those blocks for fun
agumonkey 9y ago
It's a very very nice design. A tiny tiny amount of the brutalism trend but with a comfy spirit. Surprising.
CMay 9y ago
Not sure why it matters that it's an open source project homepage? If treated as a webpage in general among all other webpages, the design isn't that special. It's not awful, but pushing a ton of deep blue in your face would not be considered good design by many. I appreciate the minimalism they're going for, the thick borders and that they aren't afraid of color, but the blue is too much. This trend of one-page fancy-scrolls grew from catering to mobile devices. On average, it seems like their only goal is to avoid bad design on mobile and ignore all other devices. These giant scrolling minimalist pages are often bad design on desktop, mediocre design on tablets and ok design on mobile. Do not forget that webpages at their core are about information design. I just had to scroll almost 8 pages in order to read a few paragraphs and most of the paragraphs didn't have the information that was interesting to me. The page that really had the information I wanted was hidden behind a "Contribute" button which makes no sense and you have to scroll all the way back up to the top to get to if you've read down to the bottom. The style it's going for is fine, but I'm not sold on it being good information design for all devices, if any. :/
- jaquers 9y ago
  > Do not forget that webpages at their core are about information design. I believe your are confusing web pages with graphic design. A graphic designer's job is based in information architecture. Webpages were originally designed for simple document sharing, however since '96 - we still have some simple documents, but we also have non-trivial games, and extremely complex applications that run businesses. This open source project happens to be for the mid to latter, so it seems appropriate then that they actually demo some of the features of the library. Also, one could make the argument that a beautiful design can inspire another developer to make something beautiful. API's are often pretty dull. I find this design to be delightful. BTW, you can always use shortcuts provided by your browser/OS. Tap in the header on mobile, press "Home" on Windoze, and Cmd+Up on Mac.
  - CMay 9y ago
    > I believe your are confusing web pages with graphic design. I'm not. I remember the times of Bulletin Board Systems you had to dial into and then the transition to the popularity of the web. It has always been about navigating information. Sometimes the information is art. Sometimes the information is the interactivity itself. Most of the time the information is text. Once people realized that packaging was important, just like a hardback book with a wonderful cover and table of contents versus a manuscript-like stack of impenetrable pages, it became a matter of business. Nobody says a book can't have pop-up cut-outs that unfold when you open a page, but whatever the quality of a book is, it can be measured. What I'm saying is that, I can appreciate what this webpage is doing, but I also would not say that it is a fantastic example of web design. > Also, one could make the argument that a beautiful design can inspire another developer to make something beautiful. API's are often pretty dull. I find this design to be delightful. My complaints with it should be possible to fully resolve while maintaining every one of those qualities you like about it. > BTW, you can always use shortcuts provided by your browser/OS. Tap in the header on mobile, press "Home" on Windoze, and Cmd+Up on Mac. I am aware of that, but often people are navigating mostly with the mouse and requiring the user to move their hand away from the mouse isn't user friendly. There is a human in front of the machine. It isn't just about the capabilities of the machine. Proper design is about the complete stack, including the biological part of it. I don't mind if other people like a page. My concern is that people take it as excellent design that should be replicated, including its faults. If someone reads these comments and appreciates that, maybe it will do some good.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
webscalist 9y ago
Wow, doesn't even work on mobile.
savanaly 9y ago
It would be perfect except it plays sound when I'm not expecting it to and that's an instant navigate away for me.
- fredsted 9y ago
  When does it do that? Scrolled down and interacted with the whole page, no sounds for me.
  - krisgenre 9y ago
    When you click on the draggable items, there is a sound being played.

by mxstbr 9y ago

This website is absolutely incredible, wow! It might well be the most beautiful open source project homepage out there. Any other entries that even come close?!

kentf 9y ago

Agreed. Haters going to hate. This is art. Thank you.

amelius 9y ago
It looks ok, but "art" is a bit of an overstatement. It looks like something you could find in a toys store.

defgeneric 9y ago

Certainly the best I have seen.

usaphp 9y ago

Yep, also those subtle sound effects make it really enjoyable to just drag & drop those blocks for fun

agumonkey 9y ago

It's a very very nice design. A tiny tiny amount of the brutalism trend but with a comfy spirit. Surprising.

CMay 9y ago

Not sure why it matters that it's an open source project homepage? If treated as a webpage in general among all other webpages, the design isn't that special. It's not awful, but pushing a ton of deep blue in your face would not be considered good design by many. I appreciate the minimalism they're going for, the thick borders and that they aren't afraid of color, but the blue is too much. This trend of one-page fancy-scrolls grew from catering to mobile devices. On average, it seems like their only goal is to avoid bad design on mobile and ignore all other devices. These giant scrolling minimalist pages are often bad design on desktop, mediocre design on tablets and ok design on mobile. Do not forget that webpages at their core are about information design. I just had to scroll almost 8 pages in order to read a few paragraphs and most of the paragraphs didn't have the information that was interesting to me. The page that really had the information I wanted was hidden behind a "Contribute" button which makes no sense and you have to scroll all the way back up to the top to get to if you've read down to the bottom. The style it's going for is fine, but I'm not sold on it being good information design for all devices, if any. :/

jaquers 9y ago
> Do not forget that webpages at their core are about information design. I believe your are confusing web pages with graphic design. A graphic designer's job is based in information architecture. Webpages were originally designed for simple document sharing, however since '96 - we still have some simple documents, but we also have non-trivial games, and extremely complex applications that run businesses. This open source project happens to be for the mid to latter, so it seems appropriate then that they actually demo some of the features of the library. Also, one could make the argument that a beautiful design can inspire another developer to make something beautiful. API's are often pretty dull. I find this design to be delightful. BTW, you can always use shortcuts provided by your browser/OS. Tap in the header on mobile, press "Home" on Windoze, and Cmd+Up on Mac.
- CMay 9y ago
  > I believe your are confusing web pages with graphic design. I'm not. I remember the times of Bulletin Board Systems you had to dial into and then the transition to the popularity of the web. It has always been about navigating information. Sometimes the information is art. Sometimes the information is the interactivity itself. Most of the time the information is text. Once people realized that packaging was important, just like a hardback book with a wonderful cover and table of contents versus a manuscript-like stack of impenetrable pages, it became a matter of business. Nobody says a book can't have pop-up cut-outs that unfold when you open a page, but whatever the quality of a book is, it can be measured. What I'm saying is that, I can appreciate what this webpage is doing, but I also would not say that it is a fantastic example of web design. > Also, one could make the argument that a beautiful design can inspire another developer to make something beautiful. API's are often pretty dull. I find this design to be delightful. My complaints with it should be possible to fully resolve while maintaining every one of those qualities you like about it. > BTW, you can always use shortcuts provided by your browser/OS. Tap in the header on mobile, press "Home" on Windoze, and Cmd+Up on Mac. I am aware of that, but often people are navigating mostly with the mouse and requiring the user to move their hand away from the mouse isn't user friendly. There is a human in front of the machine. It isn't just about the capabilities of the machine. Proper design is about the complete stack, including the biological part of it. I don't mind if other people like a page. My concern is that people take it as excellent design that should be replicated, including its faults. If someone reads these comments and appreciates that, maybe it will do some good.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

webscalist 9y ago

Wow, doesn't even work on mobile.

savanaly 9y ago

It would be perfect except it plays sound when I'm not expecting it to and that's an instant navigate away for me.

fredsted 9y ago
When does it do that? Scrolled down and interacted with the whole page, no sounds for me.
- krisgenre 9y ago
  When you click on the draggable items, there is a sound being played.