Author Topic: That NANY badge (Read 74882 times)

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #50 on:** January 16, 2011, 05:04 PM »

...
that's why i was voting for dif colors -- just to break up the monotony. maybe if they were all in same family -- like pastels.
i think the other reason, besides just the aesthetic niceness of seeing not just a row of the same icons, would be that it kind of helps identify the group -- ie the orange nany badges all participated in the same nany, etc.
...
-mouser (January 16, 2011, 04:24 PM)

Have you tried to see how many diferent colors are really distinguishable at 16px x 16px? Let's just try and see...

Red, Blue and Yellow are the primary colors we can start with.

Now if we add the secondary

Red + Blue = Maroon
Blue + Yellow = Green
Yellow + Red = Orange

Ok now we have 6 colors that has a reasonable contrast, but the text (assuming we start with Black would have to be reversed to White on Blue and Maroon for sure and may need to be considered on Red and Green, depending on how the Black text looks.

What other colors could be added that would still have reasonable distinction at that tiny a footprint? How different would a Purple look net to a Blue? Would a Red-Orange be distinguishable from Red or Orange?

Even if we added three more colors to the options, that only gives us 9 choices before we have to redesign the NANY badge, or repeat previous colors.

This is my point. At a 16 pixel square, there just isn't enough real estate to get too fancy. Now this is my personal views, but I'll be happy to defer to others as well as more experienced graphics professionals.

Thanks for the ear,
Calvin

nudone · « **Reply #51 on:** January 16, 2011, 05:09 PM »

i prefer hamradio's badge style to the gradient.. i think at that small resolution it just looks cleaner.
-mouser (January 16, 2011, 04:56 PM)

right. i was just trying to get the words "nany" and the year on there without it becoming unreadable. after that, i thought i may as well add something for the background and a solid colour looked a bit plain. didn't bother with anything else as i think it will get in the way of the text.

but, no reason the badges should have text on them really is there. or, here's a quick idea, how about doing them so they look like those big single day calendars you stick on your desk; like the one that features in the original nany mug image.

edit:
actually, that one in the nany mug image isn't really like the real single day calendar thing (where you rip off each day).

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #52 on:** January 16, 2011, 05:12 PM »

...
I maybe would wonder about having a different colour for Entrant and Admin (/and maybe volunteer)... I know from this year where my NANY entry was a miserable failure (as far as completing goes), and it would be nice not to have that confusion in the badges.
-Perry Mowbray (January 16, 2011, 04:04 PM)

+ 1 for this idea!

May I suggest.

Admin - Navy Blue on top with White Text
Entrant - Medium Blue on Top light enough to use Black text.
Helper - Very Light Blue with Black text

I also like Hamradio's original design. While nudone's gradient idea at the top doesn't do anything for me (I can't see it very well), I do like his idea of using the DC Blue. Maybe as the background for the big area at bottom? Would the gradient work there?

Calvin

wraith808 · « **Reply #53 on:** January 16, 2011, 05:21 PM »

i prefer hamradio's badge style to the gradient.. i think at that small resolution it just looks cleaner.
-mouser (January 16, 2011, 04:56 PM)

^ This.

nudone · « **Reply #54 on:** January 16, 2011, 05:28 PM »

okay, final edit with this one. i now see that trying to fit text into such a small space isn't required - and doesn't work that well.

i guess that's why icons are icons - you do away with the text and just use a nice image instead.

worstje · « **Reply #55 on:** January 16, 2011, 07:59 PM »

I prefer the old style (is that hamradio's?) as it is very iconic and simply breathes nany to me. It is styleful and as much an identity of NANY as Cody is of DoCo.

The gradient variety is unreadable to me, sorry, and I completely vote against it. DoCo blue, while nice, doesn't come through nicely in an image that size and all I saw was ugly cyan, a color I personally hate and that also makes for hard-to-read text if said text is anything but black.

I am with mouser and CodeTRUCKER both regarding the badge colour thing. I mean this in the sense I think different shades are a great idea, as the current state of certain peoples badges (you know who you are!) are just spammish in nature and more of a 'let me show off' thing rather than a 'look I competed here and there and there'. It's the same reason why more than one successive emoticon drives me crap.

See?

The idea of different colors per year is great, and I think different shades per entry status are also great. However, I don't think we need an 'admin' badge since they're unattainable for most people. After all mouser is already in a category of his own, no need to add 6 more.

Likewise, the 'helper' is a bit unclear as to what it would mean. Helping organise? Helping bug test apps? Etc.

However, I think two badges per year should be the total top ever. One for entrants, and one for 'alternative participants'. I haven't got much of a clue for it, but the idea is that app writers can simply nominate people who made a useful contribution to their app (beta testing, etc) and that these people deserve this badge.

The biggest change I think is needed is that instead of having '01' on the current awesome NANY icon, it needs to become the last two digits of the year. It simply makes way more sense and will do more to distinguish different badges than anything else.

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #56 on:** January 16, 2011, 08:36 PM »

I prefer the old style (is that hamradio's?) as it is very iconic and simply breathes nany to me. It is styleful and as much an identity of NANY as Cody is of DoCo.
-worstje (January 16, 2011, 07:59 PM)

But funnily enough: I found it harder to read

But I'm not too fussed on which style is chosen...

The idea of different colors per year is great, and I think different shades per entry status are also great. However, I don't think we need an 'admin' badge since they're unattainable for most people. After all mouser is already in a category of his own, no need to add 6 more. Likewise, the 'helper' is a bit unclear as to what it would mean. Helping organise? Helping bug test apps? Etc.

However, I think two badges per year should be the total top ever. One for entrants, and one for 'alternative participants'. I haven't got much of a clue for it, but the idea is that app writers can simply nominate people who made a useful contribution to their app (beta testing, etc) and that these people deserve this badge.
-worstje (January 16, 2011, 07:59 PM)

That's a nice idea... Entrants get a full colour badge, helpers/volunteers get a 50% colour and admin get's grey

To tell you the truth, I always felt that I shouldn't really have a NANY badge at all (I still have not managed a completed entry

)... and having a grey one would make me feel much better about it

and yes: the recommendations on volunteers was that anyone that helped with the entry should be credited at the top of the Thread.

40hz · « **Reply #57 on:** January 16, 2011, 08:41 PM »

I was thinking that the number of times you participated in NANY might be considered more important than which year it happened in. Maybe what you could try is to provide two badges. One to indicate you participated either in any NANY - or possibly just the most recent. The second badge could then have a changeable numeric element to acknowledge the times someone's participated. Doing it this way eliminates the need for a multiple badges to show the same thing.

As long as there's a "Hall of Fame" of Honor Roll type page with the names and the years of participation, anybody who wanted could just look it up if they were that interested.

But again, I don't think it's so important what year somebody did NANY. IMO what's important is the fact someone did it at all. And additional distinction comes from how many times the effort was repeated.

Just thinking out loud.

superboyac · « **Reply #58 on:** January 16, 2011, 08:53 PM »

I was thinking that the number of times you participated in NANY might be considered more important than which year it happened in. Maybe what you could try is to provide two badges. One to indicate you participated either in any NANY - or possibly just the most recent. The second badge could then have a changeable numeric element to acknowledge the times someone's participated. Doing it this way eliminates the need for a multiple badges to show the same thing.

As long as there's a "Hall of Fame" of Honor Roll type page with the names and the years of participation, anybody who wanted could just look it up if they were that interested.

But again, I don't think it's so important what year somebody did NANY. IMO what's important is the fact someone did it at all. And additional distinction comes from how many times the effort was repeated.

Just thinking out loud.
-40hz (January 16, 2011, 08:41 PM)

+1
I was thinking while this thread was going on, it looks kind of funny to have a lot of those (very similar) badges in your avatar area.

mouser · « **Reply #59 on:** January 16, 2011, 08:55 PM »

The second badge could then have a changeable numeric element to acknowledge the times someone's participated.

that's an interesting idea, and feasible. though i think just one nany badge in that case, with a number indicating how many times you've participated.

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #60 on:** January 16, 2011, 09:04 PM »

The second badge could then have a changeable numeric element to acknowledge the times someone's participated.

that's an interesting idea, and feasible. though i think just one nany badge in that case, with a number indicating how many times you've participated.
-mouser (January 16, 2011, 08:55 PM)

Unless I miss my guess, it is also "script-able," as in could be automated, no?

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #61 on:** January 16, 2011, 09:06 PM »

The second badge could then have a changeable numeric element to acknowledge the times someone's participated.

that's an interesting idea, and feasible. though i think just one nany badge in that case, with a number indicating how many times you've participated.
-mouser (January 16, 2011, 08:55 PM)

and that would get around an ever lengthening problem:
Nany badge.png

you only get one coding snack badge regardless of how many you do??

nudone · « **Reply #62 on:** January 17, 2011, 01:34 AM »

sounds like a very good idea to have the single badge that reflects the number of times you've participated.

you could always display all the individual badges you'd collected in your profile.

worstje · « **Reply #63 on:** January 17, 2011, 01:49 AM »

Hrm, there's another idea.

Which brings me to something that might sound silly... but would that be in years of participation, or amount of apps released? More apps in a single year doesn't mean that there's any less effort involved per-app, after all. Especially with the 6+ months-lasting NANY event we had this time I think it might be fairer to not just move stuff in terms of participating, but also in the fruits of the effort.

Sure, someone could game it and release 10 apps in a single year, but I doubt that'll happen or we'd already be getting very questionable NANY entries just so people could get a badge as-is. (Which we aren't last I checked.)

Of course, I can kind of imagine people from previous years disliking such an idea a bit as it kind of 'devalues' their older entries.

Likewise, one might wonder about going that number-in-badge route with normallisher Coding Snacks. But in the end, I think that if we start using a number to indicate an amount, or even 'amount of times participated' instead of a general badge or yearly badge, rethinking the right thing to 'count' in the first place might be a good idea.

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #64 on:** January 17, 2011, 03:42 AM »

Ok, well this brings us full circle.

I know I suggested some changes, but in thinking about it, I see things differently.

NANY is all about participation. Perhaps just use, the present, one badge that indicates any NANY participation. Who's keeping score any way? So what if a person contributes 1 year or 10? What's next... NANY "Privates," "Lieutenants," "Generals?"

Adding another NANY badge is not going to make me work any harder to get my 2012 app out there and not adding another badge won't prevent me from entering as many future NANYs as I have time for and inclination. I do it because I love doing it! NANY is a blast!

Frankly, if it hadn't been for the help of the people that kept pushing, advising and encouraging me, "VeggieSquares" might not even have materialized.

I remember the night I was going to cash it in because I had snafu'd and overwrote my entire source with something else and didn't realize it until it was too late. I posted my regrettable forfeit. If the next post had not been, "Hey CodeTRUCKER, did you look in the...?" I would have given up, but although it wasn't where my fellow DC'er had suggested, my memory was triggered to look in a place I had forgotten and I was able to restore about half the source. That was not a lot, but it was enough for me to not give up. If the poster had not cared about my success, it would have been over for that round.

So, you tell me ... who deserves the NANY badge more? Me or the folks that kept me going? I couldn't have done it without them, especially, "A. Nonymous!"

IMHO,
Calvin

<Edit> I fully realize I only have *1* NANY badge, so it would seem I have nothing to lose in this debate? While this is reasonable to assume at this juncture, I will be participating in future NANYs. Given this I do have a real stake in this discussion.

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #65 on:** January 17, 2011, 03:54 AM »

I think you've (not quite) succinctly summed up my feelings about NANY... it is an amazing community event where the coders do put their pledge on the line, but for most there is a huge amount of help / volunteering / encouragement / etc from the forum.

It's not about the number or quality... it's about the celebration and the community.

The more NANY structure encourages celebration and development of community the better.

mouser · « **Reply #66 on:** January 19, 2011, 11:59 PM »

ham is working on the badges now -- i vote for ONE small 16x16 badge showing the # of NANY's you've participated in, and then on your profile and on the badge listing page, it will show one for each year. i can implement this easily and i think it will reduce clutter on the posts pages (like this one).

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #67 on:** January 20, 2011, 12:53 AM »

+1 (Especially if this method does not add more to your workload.)

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #68 on:** January 20, 2011, 01:19 AM »

ham is working on the badges now -- i vote for ONE small 16x16 badge showing the # of NANY's you've participated in, and then on your profile and on the badge listing page, it will show one for each year. i can implement this easily and i think it will reduce clutter on the posts pages (like this one).
-mouser (January 19, 2011, 11:59 PM)

I'd like a grey one (because I'm not actually Entrant Class

mouser · « **Reply #69 on:** January 20, 2011, 01:26 AM »

if anything you should get a golden rainbow one -- nany would not happen if not for you!

mouser · « **Reply #70 on:** January 20, 2011, 04:51 PM »

badges are in place. let me know if you spot any issues. thanks hamradio for the icons.

mouser · « **Reply #71 on:** January 20, 2011, 04:53 PM »

ps.

To view NANY badges by year:
https://www.donation...09,nany2008,nany2007

To view NANY badges by # times entered:
https://www.donation...nanyx3,nanyx2,nanyx1

tomos · « **Reply #72 on:** January 20, 2011, 05:31 PM »

I like them

Some minor comments/suggestions:

tooltip should read
nany x 5 badges [mainly the added space but also the "s" at the end]
instead of
nanyx 5 badge

Page showing number of entries should sort from the highest number to the lowest
Page showing year of entry should sort from current year backwards

(IMO!)

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #73 on:** January 20, 2011, 05:35 PM »

Hmmm... my first impression on seeing them was "very nice!" Then the digits, "01," "03" and the "05" on the badges provoked an instinctive perception the digits were "years."

Maybe we could consider just single digits "1," "3" and the "5" centered in the lower portion?

I had also considered "#1," "#3" and "#5," but it could be problematical once some folks get to "10," "13" and "15."

Roman numerals, anyone?

Just thoughts.

superboyac · « **Reply #74 on:** January 20, 2011, 05:36 PM »

This whole badge thing is unfair. it's totally programmer-biased. I'll take any badge I can get. How about an ass badge? I think I'm pretty exceptional at being an ass.