[Info-vax] Redesign of http://h71000.www7.hp.com/ !

[MG]

On 15-10-2011 13:26, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
> Saw today that the main VMS homepage has been redesign
> into someting HP-mainstream (I guess). One thing is that
> it will definitely not be usefull without a fairly modern
> browser (which I personaly do not see as any problem, of
> course. But maybe someone does... :-) ).

What I immediately noticed about this 'new' layout.  I'll start with
the 'old' layout:

	The 'old' interface was cluttered and provided a fairly poor
	overview.
	
	However, it was fast, not very demanding, largely compatible
	with a varied amount of web browsers, to the point, capable
	of rendering lots of information per page and looked very
	authentic (which, one would figure, is a good thing for HP's
	branding).


With regard to the 'new' layout:

	It has a quasi-modern interface, the "blog" look of roughly
	half a decade ago (2005~'06), where it also seems to only
	have backwards compatibility clauses (judging by the source
	code) for MS browsers of roughly that era (back to IE6).
	The pages render only a fraction of the amount of information
	that used to be rendered, all in a very dull and static
	manner (despite the new visual style and colour theme).

	So, the biggest shortcoming of the 'old' interface isn't
	solved or compensated, in any way.  As I said, even less is
	visible per page than used to be; it's simply more distributed
	and divided over more and more crudely laid out pages.

	The choice of colours, with the black background, is also a
	rather curious one from a [web] design perspective.  For one
	thing, many images previously created with either white matte
	backgrounds or optimized for transparency on white/fair(*)
	backgrounds will have to be changed, which I personally won't
	see happening anytime soon.  (HP hasn't released any high-
	resolution OpenVMS logo and house style imagery either, i.e.
	for press/-release usage.)

	(* Exhibit: <http://h71000.www7.hp.com/images/swoosh_30.jpg>)


Conclusion:
	
	A technologically superior web site, although cluttered with a
	poor overview, was replaced for something more bland, static,
	less distinctly recognizable (save for the logo in the top)
	and still fairly hard to navigate, without a different way
	to browse the site.
	

Well, that's my take on it as a graduated graphic designer and a loyal
OpenVMS user.

  - MG