Broken Kode

I'm travelling down to the homeland (for lack of better word, Lebanon) tomorrow morning. It's the first time in nearly 5 years and much I'm sure has changed (or maybe nothing has changed). Either way, expect a bit of radio silence from the 'kode in the forthcoming week, while I sort out our home down there, the internet and EVERYTHING else that I need to deal with (really boring shit like bank accounts, passport, identity cards, buying a car, boring shit, but essential shit).

See you on the other side.

So Owen's responded to a few things that I'd written. I knew it was coming, and I knew it would be a big one, so true to form the man's gotten back to me.

To be clear, although I didn't voice it at the time, one of the reasons why I actually decided to move over to WordPress a while back was in fact when it transpired that Owen might leave the project (I don't know the exact details, but it seems a community member was maybe hurting more than helping). In any case, Habari without Owen is a much poorer place. Not to take anything away from others who tirelessly contributed to the code, but he's amassed probably three times as much commits as the next guy (roughly speaking) and generally leads the way - so I listen when he's got something to say because I respect him enough because he spends the time to explain himself properly. Forget the fact that we don't agree on everything, I think it's clear we both want the software to move in the right direction.

The Problem

He raises some decent points which i'd like to consider a bit in analysing how to move forward.

I would love to replace the logo with something better. But something decidedly, unarguably better.

That's the biggest problem. Who's deciding which is unarguably better. I can argue that the question mark is brilliant and the non-descript H is rubbish till the cows come in, as I'm sure others can argue the direct opposite. The point is, it's your opinion against someone elses. The frame work is not there for moving it forward either. We're not going to strike lightning in a bottle, nor do I think that I can make something that is universally liked by everyone. Fuck me, that's pretty much impossible to do. For everyone that thinks the Nike swoosh is an icon, you've got others proclaiming that it's completely pointless.

The point is taking where we currently are and moving forward. Otherwise we end up hurting things more and ultimately not achieving anything.

The way forward

My suggestion? Elect a sub-group of people to huddle somewhere, create a plan, build something usable in a staging place, and then report back to the community for review. They take comments, re-huddle, and iterate until either everyone loves it, or there's no budging by one side or another. And at that point, the community defaults and uses what they've built.

I've created my logo. So if anything, I'm happy if I was the one making the decisions. My thought process is clear to me. The logo is out there for anyone to pick at as they please. I had an idea, I put it forward. It didn't take me too long, hell writing up the previous 5 Habari posts probably took me longer to be honest. Like I said, if anything, I've got a nice t-shirt design.

I'm not adverse to exploring the issue further with a task force, hell I think it's a great idea but ultimately I want to know that our work will be accepted, or voted upon. I want to know the structure, because the exercise will take more time out of me and honestly I don't want to waste my time - which I'm sure you can appreciate.

The taskforce

Obviously everyone is welcome to contribute to the taskforce. If you have a thought or an idea, draw it and throw into the pot. We'll discuss it find reasons for and against. Some might come up with one idea, that another person will run with which will be then built upon by another. Another might be inspired to go in a different direction. The ultimate idea is that at the end, hopefully there will be something tangible that this taskforce has produced.

The next question that should be raised is, does that then get used instantly? According to Owen, that shouldn't be the case. It should be reviewed by the rest of the community, lather rinse repeat. This can work, after a fashion. I propose that this is done in a finite number of stages. When we design a building (I'm a building services engineer), the design process is broken down into 4 distinct stages (at least from an engineering POV). Concept, Scheme, Tender, Construction. In a similar fashion, we can also break it down into a few stages.

1. Concept - Ideas about what it could be are thrown on the table. The question mark, the capital H, the doorbell etc. At this stage it is important NOT to rubbish any ideas. This is to create as many ideas as is possible. No idea is off limits.

2. Scheme - The ideas with more legs are weeded out. This is going to be time consuming, because ultimately it is important to come up with one or two ideas options which can be further pursued. The point here is reduce the number of options to a manageable few that can be detailed further.

3. Tender - The few options that are thought to be in contention are whittled down to one. Maybe the execution isn't perfect but ultimately it's an idea that everyone is behind. The general thought process is there.

4. Construction - We build the logo based on the finally selected option. The detail is put in here, and the various elements are presented to be used. In the software, on the website, as badges etc. Used in 'press' releases. Whatever.

We report back at every stage. Any thoughts are processed then and then we move on. The other thing that is important is to have a proper timeline for all of this. Otherwise it'll meander endlessly. Therefore I propose 1 month for each stage. Gives people enough time to consider, think about things, review, reflect, write emails/responses/posts if they have an issues concerns ideas.

We don't jump back several stages. The rest of the community had the opportunity to review and present their ideas in the given timeframe. Inaction is not allowing progress which as I've explained has a negative affect on the software base itself.

If anything it'll be an interesting exercise to see if design by commitee works on the internet and in an open source project. Afterall, how do you think all those buildings that you live and work in were designed? By the choices of one person? Don't be silly.

I get the feeling that when you're done tearing the thing down, assuming you have any energy left afterwards, you might actually do something. Am I right?

I hope so. Like I said, it's not because I think this will raise my profile, or because I want to have the Habari logo as a notch in my design portfolio (I don't even have one, although I keep meaning to create one). This is all being done to ensure the progression and future of the software (selfishly because I enjoy using it). I'm not going to let a few with myopic vision hinder PROGRESS dammit :).

So it seems I might have come across as being negative and I guess some have seen my last few posts as diatribes.

Just to be clear on something I'm genuinely not trying to be rude, I'm trying to build awareness because I can see a problem that I think will ultimately have an effect on the software and the developers themselves; which obviously I don't want, because I enjoying using this software immensely and I want it to succeed. I don't gain anything personally from doing this, except the satisfaction of giving something back.

I think the general consensus in Habariland is split with regards to my logo proposal:

1. Those who think the current logo is good and we don't need something new.

2. and those who like the 'idea' of the question mark, just not the current execution of the one I've presented.

Honestly, I can live with that; actually this can be considered as progress. Would it be useful to have a look at drawing a couple of other question marks? Would that be a rewarding or ultimately futile effort/exercise? Should i just carry on with the next task I've been working on (namely the website)? Would it actually be something to present for a vote by the community? Is there any point?

I ask only because I obviously want things to move in a positive direction to make the software better and to make the experience of using the software better.

You want to build a website? Go ahead. Any monkey with a computer connected to the internet and notepad can create a website. Everything else is a matter of scale.

Yesterday I had a conversation on IRC, which ultimately went nowhere (as a lot of these conversations have done in the past over there), so I thought I'd explain the reason for revisiting the branding, website, documentation aspects of the Habari project and why I feel that ultimately it's hurting the development of the software.

Design

Although much of design is thought of as subjective, obviously it's not all subjective. There are rules that you can abide by, or completely ignore. The thing is, unlike code, if you don't design it 'correctly' it's not going break and give you back an error. The error isn't immediate rather it is one the appears over the long term. What it will do is fragment your target audience, or detract them from coming back, or sticking around long enough to see if you're worth the effort.

Habari has been going on for nearly 3 years now and while it seemed ok in the first few years for the software to have a less than adequate branding, right now I think it's hurting the exposure of the software to invite new people. Maybe I'm wrong, but from looking around in the community areas, forum, IRC and mailing list and how active those are, as opposed to how active they could be, I don't think I'm far off.

The issue here is that critical mass hasn't happened, nor is a uniform infrastructure in place to allow it to flourish. And while some might think that these things aren't important, I beg to differ. If you're happy with the software doing what it does right now, and don't want it to improve, then fine, there's version 0.63 blog off; those that want to enhance the software and the blogging experiences of Habari, read on.

Free

The problem you see is that there are quite a few different solutions out there for anyone to use. These alternative solutions are all free, they're generally pretty mature in features, have decent documentation, and have a community (with varying degrees of success).

It's not like going Habari, means you get a cheaper product. You get other things with Habari, which unfortunately have not been flaunted properly, because well, they haven't been flaunted at all. Again the devil is in the detail.

New Blood

So what's the problem you ask? Well, the real problem here is that by not attracting a larger user base, you're also detracting from new blood coming into the doors. This then reduces the amount of developers available to submit patches, to create plugins, to create themes, to push the general boundaries of the software. It's left on the shoulders of an able few, and so the software takes more and more time to move forward, often putting more undue strain on the existing developers, which ultimately isn't healthy for the general future of the software.

Solution

And you're solution is what? A new logo?

It's the start of the solution. The actual solution requires attack from several different directions. The things that I think need to be considered are:

1. Branding

2. Website

3. Documentation

1. Branding

Branding can be used to provide awareness back to the software. There are enough different solutions out there, which means Habari needs to distinguish itself somehow. Having a beautiful logo will entice people to put it onto their sites as a badge of pride and thus provide more widespread awareness back to the software. This of course brings up the whole subjective nature of what makes a beautiful logo. A good logo is memorable and should reflect the values/ideology of that which it is representing. It doesn't need to SHOUT it's raison d'etre. I've done my part with regards to this so I'll move on.

Branding isn't only a logo. Thankfully the admin panel and the code itself has already defined these aspects. Elegance. Simplicity. Modern. Black. Grey. Inventive. 'Out of the way'. All words to help better define the Habari branding. All elements which should be extended to the rest of the Habari presence online.

2. Website

Which brings us to the website. This is both our best and worst tool at the moment. When someone types in Habari in google or clicks on any one of the plethora of CMS demo sites, they are taken to the habariproject.org website. That is their first habari experience (after the name).

While you can't be something to everyone, the website should at the very least try and address the various userbases: hobbyist, developer, designer.

The real shame of it (which is why I'm writing this) is that the site, does the software base a HUGE disfavour. The software and admin is better than that. It deserves better than that. Many times depending on how professionally put together a website appears it will attract or drive away potential users.

At the moment the page doesn't do a good job of conveying what makes Habari special and better than the other solutions. It doesn't distinguish itself.

3. Documentation

The importance of this cannot be overstated. The problem is, you need a larger user base in order to tackle this. The current documentation is written for developers. The complete novice, or neophyte like myself won't be able to understand what's going on most of the time. There is a way to writing good documentation and we need to address this as well. I have a few ideas with regards to this as well (I've done this within the company I work for).

Remaining Questions

How do we entice the young aspiring developers looking to gain some experience to come to us? How do we get the developer who is more familiar with WordPress or Textpattern? How do you get the web designer, who wants a more elegant solution (there's that word again)? While some of these questions are somewhat answered by the current website, again I feel they're not presented in the correct manner, but that's the next post.

I don't have the power to enforce said changes, so I'll talk and present my ideas on this site; if they're employed, then that's fantastic; but in a year's time when we're looking at the same general user base (having not gained much further traction) then maybe some of this will become more important. If not I'd happily eat some claim chowder.

So now that we've got ourselves a kick ass logo, now would be a good time to make some badges so that everyone can put them on their websites and you know, spread the word.

In this set you'll also find a few with Habari written in them.

See how that logo gets integrated? The font used is Gill Sans, which is one of my favourite fonts - you can see it in use on this site. The reason I think it works here is because it's rounded so it retains an element associated with the logo (the playful nature of the logo), and yet bold and modern (like the software). The package contains:

Logo

1. PNG - Light grey on white background

2. PNG - Dark grey on light grey background

3. PNG - White on dark grey background

4. EPS - Vector for you to customise as you wish

Logo with Habari

These come in two sizes, 460px and 180px widths.

1. PNG - Dark grey on light grey background

2. PNG - Light grey on dark grey background

3. PNG - White on dark grey background

4. PNG - White on light grey background

Download entire set.

These will also find a permenant home at www.brokenkode.com/habari .

You don't need a designer. You need a marketeer.

That's what my brother said to Yanni last week sometime when we were discussing his online radio station as he was lamenting that not many people were listening to his station. That got me thinking about Habari. It's been going on for a while now, and yet I don't feel like the software has hit a critical mass, which is a shame. I think there are several reasons for this, but I'll start with the first part in trying to help the guys and gals move forward.

Branding

I'm not actually surprised that a proper branding and logo were not agreed on, past the h-dumbell thing. Yes, you can kind of see the H in there, and if you really really try (after someone points it out to you) you might see a bell in there as well, but what that doesn't have much if anything to do with the software, what it does or what it is?

To be completely blunt, from an aesthetic POV it's not terribly elegant and doesn't really convey anything about the actual software, the community, etc. That eyesore has to be sorted out for the good of the software (I'll be going into this in more detail in a future post). Rather than just bitch and moan about something, and not actually do anything about it, I thought I'd take up the challenge. The thing is I did attempt to do this 3 years ago, and I came up with this lovely collection:

Yeah, shut up. I can actually see my thought process, but I guess at the time I was more interested in making something that appealed to the people that had originally started the work (the original Cabal). Thankfully, now I'm just out to make a good logo, that people can use in a plethora of applications, is memorable as the Habari software and is nice enough for me to want to include said mark on my website as well.

Obviously the logo should reflect the software itself, which I have repeatedly been calling it elegant, both in code and in design.

The Question

So I sat down at my desk last night, thinking I'll spend a couple of hours on this tops, and I wrote down:

1. Habari

2. What's the news?

Then I paused. Why the hell didn't I think of this before? Habari may by definition be a noun, but it's also a question. What's the news? Habari is also the answer, a method to provide the news online. The simplest answers are sometimes staring you in the face. The logo should be the question mark. For some reason I instantly knew how that question mark was to look like, at least in my head, but first I thought I'd try seeing what it looks like with some typical typefaces, Helvetica, Gill Sans etc. This is what it looked like:

Convinced that the actual idea had legs and the more I thought about it the more I was convinced that this as an idea is a good one I started sketching. The thing is I didn't need to sketch for long, because like I said the second I had the idea, the logo was fully formed in my mind. There would be no harsh lines. The reason for this is because that's not what Habari is about. It's about elegance, not sharpness. It does things slightly differently than other to smooth your general experience (this is evident from the installer through to the admin panel and beyond).

So here's my proposal for the new Habari logo:

I've also included this set of iterations, which show the logo in both dark and in light colours, on white and on dark backgrounds. The logo remains distinct in all these incarnations.

This next set shows the logo at different sizes: 100px, 75px, 50px, 25px and 16px - click here for the full size of the image.

There have been other attempts at looking at this in the past, all of which have failed, so I don't think that this time is going to be any different, because it's a very touchy subject (which is why it's not moved forward in 3 years). I don't really expect anything from this exercise to be honest, except that I for one want to at least know that I tried to help in this regard and gave a viable (and hopefully useful) alternative.

And if anything, it would make an awesome t-shirt as well:

For those who know me from my professional life (I'm a Chartered Engineer), know what a complete filing freak I am. All graduates that have helped me out, or that I've had anything to do with their training have gone through an induction with regards to how to file things properly. It's a MASSIVE bug bear with me.

When I had that moment of madness and I moved over to WordPress, what struck me was that Habari's elegance doesn't extend to just the admin panel. In Habari it extends to the filing structure, which I really want to shine a bit of a spotlight on, only because I think it's not generally discussed and I think that the developers deserve mad props for building this elegance in.

When you download a copy of Habari and you open your folder, you're presented with the following files and folders:

Let's compare some of the other people:

WordPress

Textpattern

Chyrp

There are a couple of things to take from the above. The first is the number of files without folders. In Habari, this is a total of 3, in WordPress it's 23, in Textpattern it's 4, while in Chyrp it's 5.

The second thing to pay close attention to is the names chosen for these folders. I know which I feel is the clearest filing structure of those above.

Lets turn our attention to the main menu in Habari. As I mentioned before there has to be a better way than the current method. The reasoning for the current menu is simple, once you start adding all the menu items (including those provided by the various plugin) the list becoming very long indeed. Without any plugin menus this is what is currently there (including one of the expanded menu version):

And here's that menu with one of the side menus popping out:

From my personal use, I only need 8 menu items in total:

1. New Entry

2. New Page

3. Manage

4. Comments

5. Dashboard

6. Plugins

7. Options

8. Logout

For me everything else is completely superflous, or at least it's bloody rare for me to even go there, like once a year if that (I don't think I've ever gone to the logs and groups menu for example). As I said that's only because of the way I choose to use Habari. Other users might feel like they want something a bit different, and this type of functionality would allow

Proposal

The Menu plugin would allow you (in the options page) to hide all the menu items, spare the Dashboard, Options and Logout menu items (for obvious reasons). From then on, it's open season for you to configure your drop down menu as you wish. This would reduce the need for side menus to pop out. It would also empower the user to customise the menu which would in turn hopefully streamline the workflow, your route from A to B.

The other aspect of this Menu plugin that would also hopefully enhance the experience, would be bringing the shortcut numbers back. In the options menu we would also provide an option to assign the menu option with a keyboard shortcut to a menu item. This way we'd get back to a more streamlined workflow, which is slightly hindered by an additional keyboard stroke (at least in my eyes it is).

Future Details

While talking with Michael on #irc about the above, one of the things that he brought forward is maybe having an option to expand all the menu items by double clicking 'Q' or something like that, which I think is an excellent idea. Also in the options menu apart from just a quick tickbox to see whether or not you want the menu item to be shown or not we might also be able to provide the option to rearrange the menu itself, thus providing further customisation, enhancing elegance.

One of my absolute favourite plugins on Habari is the Publish Quote plugin written by Michael. The plugin has done well by me for like over a year, but in my mind there is some room for slight improvement in the way it operates. Habari does a great job of staying out of your way (as I found out the hard way) and I feel that this plugin is really a direct extension of that, which will make it even easier for you to actually publish your thoughts quicker and faster, ultimately making you blog more.

Currently the plugin works by taking you back to main admin panel with all the various fields filled in (according to your option preferences). There's nothing fundamentally wrong with this approach. As long as you're logged in, you have no problems (and seeing as I use the persistence of memory plugin my Scott, I'm ok on that front as well).

Proposal

My absolute favourite bookmarklet of all time has got to be the one used by Asaph. I've been using that particular software since it came out and it's done extremely well for me, even thought it's never been updated since it's release (save for a minor point release).

The 'new' Publish quote plugin would operate in a similar fashion. Clicking the bookmarklet would provide a drop down card which would sit above the page. The card would look like this:

Details

When you click on your bookmarklet, this card slides down to reveal three pertinent fields and the save and publish buttons. The design stylings are taken from the admin panel. The background is slightly transparent (not as much as the message logs in the admin, but enough for you to notice a difference).

The card has rounded corners (to be consistent with the admin panel) and also includes the slightly greyed rounded box in the top left hand corner around the title of the plugin (more on this below).

User Experience

In my mind, the nice thing about the way in which this proposed bookmarklet operates, is that your 'workflow' is improved. You don't leave the site that you are appreciating (or not as the case may be) and wanting to write about. Your blogging experience is enhanced by not taking you away from your 'target'. The software then stays out of your way and because of that hopefully entices you to use the software more, because it's that easy.

After all the whole point of this is to communicate your thoughts and ideas as easily as possible in an enjoyable fashion.

Future Iterations

Looking to the future, while maintaining what makes this plugin elegant and useful is important. The 'Quote' text has the small greyed background (which follows the structure of the drop down menu in the main admin panel). The reason for this is to possibly allow some further functionality into the game. By choosing another option from this additional menu, you could choose to post an image from a website instead of a quote by choosing the image (in a similar way to how Asaph does this). Or simiarly you could choose a video etc. This is just one direction that this plugin could go.

In looking around the Habari admin panel I've got to thinking which areas are important to me in the way that I use the software and how to take care of those pesky little design issues which I see as glaring mistakes. These are the areas that I feel could use a little bit of design TLC, which basically will give the software that added bit of polish and maintain it's elegance.

I'm currently in the process of learning PHP, so hopefully in a few month's time I'll have hopefully created the plugin to deal with these few issues. If they're seen as a good idea, then maybe they can be included into the core, but I'm more interested in getting the software to do what I personally would like it to do, good ideas often times find their way back up the trunk. If someone wants to jump in now, I'm not going to stop you, and will gladly help where I can.

Dashboard

When you get into the Dashboard, you currently get a small paragraph above the rest of the cards. This paragraph has some information specifically relating to your site. The issue for me here is that it's completely out of context with the rest of the admin panel, as it's the only place where such text exists.

Solution: This information should be collected into another card that sits with the rest of the cards and can be moved around in the same fashion to suit the person's preferences.

Drop Down Sub-Menu Items

The current implementation of the drop down menu is that a sub-menu item slides out from the side of the main item. This implementation was considered the best option due to the fact that as you add more and more plugins, their menus will increase the main menu greatly, making it too long.

Solution: I would go even more minimalist. As an everyday user, I don't actually need to have most of these options available on my screen. I don't need to have:

1. Logs

2. Theme

3. Users

4. Import

5. Groups

6. My Profile

Personally, the only secondary options that I would like to have are the Options and Plugins (secondary options being New, Manage, Comments and Tags). Other people might have a different approach, but again I would probably argue that every person has got options in that menu which they rarely use.

To that end, I would reinstate the original design of having a sub menu present inline of the main menu item. Within the 'Option' page there would be an additional section which would allow the end user to 'hide' some of the menu items. The only backend menu items that would be present as a default would be the Dashboard, Options and Logout. You would then reduce the length by 6 lines deep.

Earlier this month I moved this blog back over to WordPress in an act of madness. I hated it and did little blogging in that time. In considering why I hated the experience at WordPress so much, I came upon an interesting parallel. Habari is to WordPress what Apple is to Microsoft.

One of the things that can be said about Apple when compared to Microsoft is that Apple provides a more elegant computing experience that has been better thought out. In a similar fashion Habari is by far the more elegant product where the details have been sweated out and the experience has been better considered.

As a simple example when you install WP you get a random password in your email box and then the second you log into the panel you get a message asking you to change your password. Why didn't you let me choose a password during the installation process?

Meanwhile on Habari, the installation is all done on the same page, you insert your preferred password right there.

As another example once you've logged into WordPress you're bomobarded with this clusterfuck of items - TMI (too much information). Yes, i know you can remove most of that stuff (but this is all feeding into my analogy). These items aren't necessary, they're added first and you are asked to remove them. It's like when you buy yourself a Dell PC and get a whole bunch of crapware installed on it, which you can remove (most of the time).

Habari doesn't have that shit to begin with. These items have not been added from the outset. These things have been considered. And who else do we know that doesn't like superflous stuff cluttering your view and generally getting in your way? These are just a couple of examples which I might expand upon, because the above is basically the tip of the iceberg.

These are subtle differences but important I think in the final assessment, afterall the devil is in the details.

All animals are equal.
But some animals are more equal than others.

It's been YEARS since I read Animal Farm by George Orwell, so much so that I'd completely forgotten the story. I know it mirrored Communism but couldn't really remember the details. If you've not read it in a while, seriously you'd do yourself a massive favour in rereading it when you're older because it really does make for better reading with older eyes. Also this time around I've got the power of the internet in front of me so the following links can only add to the general enjoyment of the work; comparison chart of the characters and the wikipedia entry.

After a moment of pure madness, I went back to WordPress, only to find that actually the creature comforts that I had become accustomed to in Habari were not present. It had such a detrimental effect on me that I could even post small links. The bookmarklets didn't work, the thing felt heavy and I couldn't wrap my head around the various elements of the code that had passed me by.

I'll be writing more about Habari in the coming months as there definitely is a lot of work being done, but it just needs a bit of, consolidation of sorts.

If you're reading this in your feed reader, then have a look at the site, which looks a little bit different, as I've also updated to version 9.

What's the reason for going back to WordPress? Simply the plugins and documentation available to me to actually do what I need to get done. Yes I could called on the Habari community, but I just want to get on with things. Trying to write something like P2 for Habari is definitely out of my scope of knowledge. I'm not a developer. I'm not even a web designer. This is something of a hobby that I enjoy playing around with. But it should get in my way, and unfortunately due to my inadequacies as a developer Habari was getting in my way. I really really hope that in the future I'll be able to make a proper and permenant jump over to Habari, but now is not the time (I did attempt it for a year, but my site looked more like it was created in 2006 rather than in 2009).

I am more than happy to play around with this and make it work for me, slowly moulding it and shaping it to what I want it to do, but writing this from scratch would be too much of a pain in my ass.

So here it is, comments are back online (for now) and I'm sure there is going to be a load more things to come in the not too distant future.