Head in the Clouds

Open Font Library sucks. Open Clip Art Library sucked (they just switched to the Aiki Framework though). Any project hosted on ccHost invariably sucks no matter how conceptually awesome they are. Why? I can give you three reasons why:

1. Clarity
2. Previews
3. Interest

These really are all aspects of the same reason, let me explain. Clarity means when I visit your site I want to immediately know what you have to offer. Sure it says “Open Font Library” at the top of the site but I don’t see anything that tells me what you’ve got. Even when I click through to “Fonts” I only see words and download links. There’s plenty of metadata (alternate file types, license information, tags, author) but the most important thing I need to make a decision is missing. I need previews. The League of Movable Type does this spectacularly with foundry quality type samples. The new Open Clip Art Library gets it too, making previews the main feature of the site. This brings us to interest. When I look at your site there is about 15 seconds in which I will scan for something that interests me. On the new Open Clip Art Library I see a high detail vector photo lens. “That could be useful,” I think, “I wonder if there’s any other high quality clip art I could use?” Now I’m engaged. I might even contribute. When I see a generic gradient and rounded corners screen along with a big block of text I usually keep moving.

So please use a solution that promotes community by putting their work front and center visually not a solution that is academically correct and just as stuffy as that sounds.

Thanks. Your Friend Regis.