Hey LiteStep Crew,

Before I begin this, I'd like to point out that I have not yet installed LiteStep. The feedback is based upon my few hours of surfing around, reading regular forum posts and download descriptions.

I like the website as a whole. It has nice colours that don’t strain the eyes when you surf around for a long period of time; the interface is easy to use, and thankfully not bloated with nifty features that slow down my surf experience. However, I did find a few places that in my opinion could use some polishing:

1. The screenshots of LiteStep on the front page are too small to get an idea about what it is, and there is no way to make them bigger.

2. I would love to see more information on the front page about the powers of LiteStep and how it will change your windows experience forever. Take the most important features and highlight them separately with some nice close-up screenshots.

3. The general download section is OK. The various sections are displayed with short but good informative text. But if there is more than one file to download within each subsection, the separation (the amount of white space) between the files could use some improvement. Either increase the amount of white space between the files or make the font for the “Name:”–header bigger. Or maybe reorganize the layout elements completely.

4. Maybe the brilliant programmers behind LiteStep could cook up an updated installer that integrates the latest version of LiteStep and have it placed on the front page of the website. I really don’t understand why the download is hidden away in a subsection in the download area (that furthermore requires registration), when clearly the main purpose of this website should be to advocate LiteStep as the best thing next to sliced bread with an easy-to-use install feature.

Besides the fact that the installer always should incorporate the most recent version of LiteStep, the user could be given various choices to which modules will be installed and whether or not a default theme will be made available:

Standard Installation (Recommended) – This will install LiteStep with most commonly needed modules for newer themes and a new cool standard theme designated by the LiteStep crew. This is the default installation option.

Full Installation – This will install LiteStep with all modules and a new cool standard theme designated by the LiteStep crew.

Custom Installation (Experts only) – This will install LiteStep with whatever modules the user decides to include. Furthermore, the user will be given the choice to install a new cool standard theme designated by the LiteStep crew.

If bandwidth is an issue, make separate downloads available:

1. Full install (installation file will present the user to all of the above possibilities).
2. Standard install (a download that installs LiteStep as a Standard Installation).
3. Minimum install (LiteStep installer only – no modules and no theme).
4. Build install (for experts who don’t trust installers and prefer manual labour).

The installer should also search the user’s system for “msvcp60.dll” and have it copied to the correct directory, in case it’s not present on the targeted system – or skipped if the user has a more recent version of the file.

And of course it should be able to merge the settings of any previous installed version of LiteStep with the currently installed version.

Cheers all. :)

That sounds like a lot of work. I wonder who could do it...

1) We know...as soon as a certain person has time to do it we will be linking to the fullsize image.

2) You aren't the first to give feedback on the front page. However, as of yet nobody has contributed anything to changing it. If you write something up and send it to me it may just end up there.

3) What are others opinions on this? I can add it to the long list of things to do once we get a programmer if more feel it necessary.

4) It is tucked away on this site per a requirement from our host. As for there being a new installer, one is in the works.

4.5?) The 3 install types you have proposed, from my understanding, don't fit the direction of LS. The concept is to get everything you need to get LS running on your machine, with no extra files. We can't include all of the 600 some cool modules for you, because there will be someone that only wants 5 of them.

Some of the things you mentioned like needing "msvcp60.dll" came as requirements long after the current installer was released. Therefore, it wasn't within the scope of that installer. However, this time around it is.

As for the installer having the latest build all the time, it really depends on the user. If you go through your install you have a utility in your popup menu for "Update your build". Beyond giving you the tool to install it, we don't have means to force it upon you...without installing some sort of "spyware".

Overall thanks for the feedback...I know I appreciate it from the LSnet side of things.

Hello again,

1. Great, I really think that will help spreading the word a bit. There's nothing worse than small thumbed screenshots on which it's impossible to see what's going on.

2. I'm not much of a writer. Well, actually I enjoy writing, but my knowledge about the pros of LiteStep is limited, as I have only been playing around with it for a few days now.

I have absolutely no experience with scripting/coding/markup (whatever is needed to make this nice shell tick), so I have no idea how to make a complementary top 5 (or similar) of LiteStep.

That being said I think there's information on the front page that ought not be there. The front page should ONLY tell about the product, and/or other product related news. This part...
... is not appropriate front page material and should be tucked away and put on the register page.

I'm not too keen on the whole front page layout. The design is great but it hinders usability and functionality compared to other websites with a portal-ish frontpage. Naturally, This is a matter of taste, and I'm a bit conservative so don't take it personal. ;)

3. I guess we will never know when people don't bother replying...

4. Hmm okay, I should have installed LiteStep first and tried out a few themes before proposing some rough ideas for an LiteStep installer. Now that I have tried it out for a few days and fiddled around with ten different themes that I picked up on various websites, I'll write some more about this.

From my brief experience the worst part of LiteStep is the add-on "community" or rather the lack of it. I think I have up to seven or eight different versions of the same mod. Why is there no focal point for the mods? Shake up the mod community and gather them! If any of you play World of Warcraft you should know about ACE(2) located at wowace.com, the mods located at files.wowace.com, and how their installer WAU is working. Why not make something similar with the LiteStep mods?

Have a central base where ALL LiteStep mods are kept and updated. When people install a theme, LiteStep will fetch (just like it does now) the needed and most recent build of the module(s). Of course, this requires theme creators to keep their themes updated, so that theme functionality doesn't break if a mod is suddenly updated using a new method of handling something. LiteStep itself could feature an auto-update function, which checks and update the installed mods. This update can be set to check at a scheduled time (e.g. once per day) or triggered manually.

By the way, I have seen so many cool themes around the internet but they're not OTS2 compliant making them impossible to install. Maybe if you have a person with some decent theme taste to browse the net, pick a handful of those really great-looking ones and have them updated and put on this website, that way you'd have more to offer newcomers.

I would personally love to do update them myself, but the amount of time I would have to put into this (just to understand how a theme is made) is sadly more than I can handle. And admittedly I don't have that much of a knack for understanding the theme coding/scripting - at the moment I am struggling to fix a theme (non|step II) because even though it's slightly broken it still fits my needs perfectly.

Cheers. :)

Maybe if you have a person with some decent theme taste to browse the net, pick a handful of those really great-looking ones and have them updated and put on this website, that way you'd have more to offer newcomers.

http://www.nbi-studio.com
I have done this already...enjoy!

Very nice, Immortal! I have already fallen in love with the World of Warcraft theme! ;)

Plus I see some new ones I've never seen before that I must check out. I have a feeling my LiteStep directory will soon be over 100 MB from all those themes I'm testing at the moment.

Thank you, mate. :)

You can thank West for making that theme...
He does have some great skillz...

Oh my God, why have I never heard of LiteStep until a few days ago?! There are sooo many nice themes out there. EcyStep v2.02 is simply an amazing theme.

Anyway, I better stop ranting before I throw the main purpose of this thread overboard. ;)

Fullsize Image Linking Enabled. YIPPEE! BTW...that prolly cost you guys like 2 hours worth of dev time on the core of LS. Any PHP Devs want to contribute to the community?

I'd almost take the time to learn PHP just so people would stop asking. Now if only I could be motivated somehow...