badges worked into the permies.com software

This is coming up ... but before development can start, there are a few things that need to be figured out.

1)  I want to get away from the "white belt, green belt, black belt" thing.  People start wanting to talk about too many other things.  

2)  After a lot of thought, I rather like the idea of four levels:  sand, reed, wood and iron.  So the colors would be off white, green, brown and dark gray.

3)  I liked the belt system before because somebody could say "I have a black belt in natural building" or "I have a black belt in gardening".  So, maybe that can be replaced with "I have an iron belt in gardening".  ??

4)  Once a level is achieved, then it can be displayed in the signature line.   So the question becomes:  how is it displayed?  There might be 24 different things.  Maybe even more eventually.  But let's say there are 24.  Maybe each one is an icon that is 32 pixels wide and 50 pixels high?  

I know some people are color blind in various ways, and it might be hard for them to distinguish between the badges solely by color (I'm pretty sure green, brown and dark grey would look almost identical to a person with red/green colorblindness). The sand color might also be hard to see as our forum is almost sand colored.

I'm also thinking these icons are probably going to be pretty small, like the staff leaf or the bumper stickers. Is there a type of design you're thinking of?

Maybe one way to help with color blind problems is to include something like chevrons or dots in the design. I used something similar once to translate color coding for using in black and white printer.

The badges are sand, straw, wood and iron.

So my guess is that the general color scheme would be a grainy white, a stripy yellow, a brown wood and a black iron.

Maybe if there are colorblind folks, these badges would still appear different.  color blindness is often that green looks like red.   But these would all be different intensities of brown.   So, white and black, with yellow and brown in the middle.   So I think it will be okay as far as color blindness stuff goes.

Is there a type of design you're thinking of?

I confess that I have not yet given it much thought.  

Above I suggest that each badge might be 32 pixels wide and 50 pixels high.  With 22 badges, that would be  704 pixels wide.   Current images are a max of 700 pixels wide, so I think that is about right.

Would the badges go on the side bar, or down in the signatures? I'd always assumed by the bumperstickers, apples, pie and staff icons...but maybe it would be less busy if they were down in the signature, and then they could all be in one spiffy line going across the bottom of the screen?

i think the badges are currently set up to be part of the signature.

So, I went and looked at scout badges, because I assumed they had the shape of a police badge. THey do not! They are round.



That's easier to work with!

We could have each of the 22 PEP principles have it's own little image (we could probably steal some from the bumper stickers?). That'd go in the center of the badge.

The background of each badge could correlate with the color: grainy white (sand), a stripy yellow (straw), a brown wood (wood) and a black iron (iron).

But, trying to stick an image inside a circle at 32 pixels and still have it be recognizable. Maybe have it be 50 pixels wide? Here's  a total rough mock-up of a 32 pixels textile sand badge and a 50 pixel textile sand badge.

And, for fun, I mocked up some woodland badges for the sand, straw, wood and iron. These are totally rough, but just to give an idea. These are 50 pixels.

I was thinking that our badges would be rectangular.

And, of course, those badges won't show quite as big on the forum. The bumper stickers are 32 pixels wide. So it's more like their sizes get halved when they show on the screen. The icons in side the 50 pixel icon would be the size of the bumperstickers. The

32 pixels would be more like
50 pixels would be more like

paul wheaton wrote:I was thinking that our badges would be rectangular.

Would you like me to mock up some 32x50 rectangluar badges in the similar style (boarder and icon darker and solid color), so you can compare the two styles? I could probably do that tonight. The kids just woke up, so I've got to go back to Mama duties :).

Nicole Alderman wrote:Would you like me to mock up some 32x50 rectangluar badges in the similar style

Yes please!

Now with rectangles!

I'm thinking the lighter grey for the iron is better, but I included both the blacker iron and the lighter iron.

Edit: Added in a more subdued straw background. The other seemed way too busy to me.

And, to compare the two shapes:

I like the rectangles!

Can we get some more "sand" in the sand badge?  I like the straw and wood backgrounds very much.  And the iron background looks plenty good too.   The sand badge will be the most common - so if it looks a bit sandier, that might sort out some questions.

I'll try to find a sandier sand texture (most of them were ripplely rather than gritty)

I'm also trying to think of how many of the PEPs we can pare with existing bumper stickers. Here's the 22 badges:

dimensional lumber woodworking
round wood woodworking
natural building
Food Prep and Preservation
Wildcrafting and guerrilla gardening  (xxx needs better title)
gardening
textiles  
rocket  
tool care  
Metalworking
animal care  
electricity (including solar)  
woodland care  
community living  
commerce (be able to do business)  
earthworks  
greywater and willow feeders
plumbing and hot water
nest
natural medicine
homesteading
oddball

And, here's the bumper stickers:

And now, how many can I match together....

dimensional lumber woodworking
round wood woodworking
natural building
Food Prep and Preservation
Wildcrafting and guerrilla gardening  (xxx needs better title) maaaaybe? It kind of fits wildcrafting, but not guerrilla gardening. Kind of at a loss here...
gardening
textiles  
rocket  
tool care  
Metalworking
animal care  
electricity (including solar)   or a lightbulb
woodland care  
community living   maaaaybe? not very fitting, but it's the closest we've got right now.
commerce (be able to do business)   money symbol?
earthworks  
greywater and willow feeders
plumbing and hot water -- a pipe?
nest ?
natural medicine
homesteading
oddball --a ball made from puzzle pieces?

Tried some other textures. For the second, I raised the contrast to make it more gritty.

Edit to add it to the rest to see how they look

some more

Kinda like the muted tones of this one best



Can it be a lighter color?

dimensional lumber woodworking - hammer?

Wildcrafting and guerrilla gardening  (xxx needs better title)

I think this will be foraging.  Maybe a nettle leaf?

tool care - I see you have the hammer now, but i think the hammer will go better with dimension lumber woodworking.   For tool care, maybe an oil can?

metalworking - a bit of welding?

commerce - yes, the dollar sign

earthworks - an excavator?

greywater and willow feeders - an outhouse!

plumbing - a water drop?

nest - a broom?

natural medicine - a dropper bottle

oddball - how about an 8-ball on it's side (so it looks like infinity)

??

I'll give it a whirl!

How's this?

i like the hugelkultur badge better!

Okay! Got all these done with our existing bumper stickers. The other ones will take quite a bit more time, as I'll have to make a bumper sticker for them first...but, hey, at least we'll end up with a bunch more bumper stickers out of the deal!


dimensional lumber woodworking

round wood woodworking

natural building

Food Prep and Preservation

foraging Maybe a nettle leaf?

gardening

textiles  

rocket  

tool care--- oil can

Metalworking --

animal care  

electricity (including solar)  

woodland care

community living

commerce (be able to do business)   money symbol?

earthworks  -- an excavator?

greywater and willow feeders ---an outhouse!

plumbing and hot water -- a pipe?- a water drop?

nest -- broom?

natural medicine - a dropper bottle .

homesteading

oddball -- how about an 8-ball on it's side (so it looks like infinity)

Go busy doing moderating stuff today. Hopefully I'll have time to work on this today.

I went looking for foraging/guerrilla gardening icons for inspiration.








None of those say foraging as well as guerrilla gardening, though....


The nettle leaf looks a bit indistinct.

Maybe a dandelion for foraging?

How about something like this for foraging/guerrilla gardening?

tool care--- oil can

For metal-working?

How's this for earthworks?

And for greywater and willow feeders?

(I'm making the bumper stickers first, then, if you like them, will put them in the badges.)

For plumbing?

For nest ?

natural medicine ?

How's this for Odd-Ball?

Here's two options for currency. I think I managed to get all the bumperstickers made today. Which do you like? Any improvements to make before I make them into badges?

foraging:  I think the dandelion is best!  

tool care:  this is excellent!  

metalworks is great:  

earthworks - i am amazed you were able to get so much detail into such a tiny image

willow feeder - maybe we can get this with a tree?  

plumbing is great

nest looks great

for natural medicine, it took me a while to see that the liquid in the bottle is part of the bottle or not.  i think this one is best

oddball - last image is best

commerce:  i think the simpler dollar looks better

How is this to be implemented? I mean, I have been following the badge developments for PEP, and as we are on your site, I assume you will be the one assessing qualifications. Will we post pictorial documentation?

Also, are you looking to use these as accreditation here on the forums?

-CK