Daniel Carrera wrote:
I just made the alternate front page:
http://oooauthors.org/alt.html
....
Jean, could you look at the alt page and tell me if you think it's
alright?
The more I look at the proposed new front page, the more problems
I see with it. And solving one problem has IMO created another.
I'll explain.
Some people looking at the front page with graphics *on* are not
going to immediately realise that they should click on one of the
language names to go to the relevant part of the site. They are
going to see the [Enter] link and click on that, which will take
them to a more complicated-looking page with a similar-looking
but smaller graphic in the middle of it, and very little real
information. At this point a lot of people will decide this is a
waste of time and leave in disgust. Or if they stay and find the
right link to click, they will be irritated that they had to go
through two clicks and some confusion before they get to anything
of substance.
This is one of the usability issues that the book "Don't Make Me
Think" talks about. The purpose and function of your proposed
page may be obvious to you, but it definitely won't be to many
people. Remember that if something can be misunderstood, a lot of
people will misunderstand it. When the main OOo website homepage
was being redone, you made all the right arguments about what
should be on it and why, from a usability point of view. Yet here
you are pushing for a front page for Authors that has major
usability problems, and you seem to be totally unaware of that.
I haven't said something earlier because I've been too busy to
think about it enough to work out what's been bothering me about
the page. It looks nice, and *if* a person knows its purpose,
then it seems like a great page, but visitors who don't know the
purpose are going to be confused.
That's why I was asking earlier about the audience for this page.
If the audience is intended to include people who don't know what
OOo or Authors is about, then the page is not good as a front
page. Once we start talking about search engine placement, then
we are saying that one of the target audiences for this page is
those people.
Jean
