The road to Launchpad 2.0

["Matthew Revell" <matthew.revell@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey guys,

If you've used Launchpad in the past few hours - or if you've been
reading The Register or Ars Technica, amongst other publications -
you've probably noticed that the user-interface changes over the past
couple of weeks have settled into a handsome and more usable evolution
of Launchpad's design.

Joey's posted here before talking about the new UI but I'll give you a
quick recap of what we've done and why:

 * Death to the Actions menu: we've started the process of removing
the catch-all Actions menu. It was bad for a couple of reasons but
mostly because it took links away from the data they affected. We've
now moved those links closer to the actual information they deal with.
The other benefit this gives us is that it frees up the left-hand
column, giving more room on the page for the stuff that really
matters.

* New logo: our wonderful new logo, designed by Eugene Tretyak, is now
in place. I love this bold move away from our former logo.

* Simpler to find out where you are: next to that new logo is a trail
of links showing you where you are in Launchpad (if you're involved in
web development, you'll know it as the breadcrumb). This is now much
simpler than the version we had in our previous design.

* Page-wide application tabs: to emphasise the importance of the
effect that switching between applications has on the information
you're viewing on the page, we've made the application tabs much more
prominent.

 * New sub-tabs: take a look at your person profile
(https://launchpad.net/people/+me) and you'll see that below the main
application tabs are a second row of tabs that switch between pages of
different information about your activity in Launchpad. These new
sub-tabs appear on many pages and should make it easier to drill down
to the info you want.

There's more to 2.0 and we'll be making the full release soon. At that
time, I'll post a full release announcement. In the mean time, let us
know how you get on with the new UI!

Thanks.

-- 
Matthew Revell - Launchpad.net - free software collaboration and project hosting