On 5/15/2010 8:19 AM, Hay (Husky) wrote: > Everyone, > i'd like to invite you to look at the current state of the Commons > main page in a web browser with a 1024x768 resolution (according to > recent reports, that's the most common resolution for around 25% of > all internet users). Imagine you're a first-time visitor, who's never > heard of Commons. If you're lazy you can also click on this link for a > screenshot: > > http://twitpic.com/1o0lx0 > > The main page is supposed to be a showcase on what a great collection > of free media we have, right? Well, let's just look at what a > first-time visitor encounters on the main page: > > * A paragraph of text talking about a 'setup page' for the media of > the day, for 'ease of translation' in something called 'Template:motd' > and 'Template:potd'. Obviously, a first-time visitor won't have a clue > about what all those terms mean and if they're important to him/her. > * A link urging people to vote for the picture of the year, but that's > only for 'eligible voters' (i am an eligible voter? how do i know?) > * 'Welcome to Wikimedia Commons!'. Finally a warm word of welcome. > Hooray! Apparently i can somehow be involved in this as well. > * An enormous list of languages to choose from. Why would i want to > view this page Suomi? I've got my browser set to my language and i'm > coming from a certain country, right? And why can't this simply be in > a dropdown list? > * A picture, finally! Note that for all those 1024x768 users only the > first 100 pixels or so of this picture are displayed, the rest of the > picture disappears under the fold. > > (scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll) > * Aha! A box about how i can participate. Cool! A pity i had to scroll > down all the way to the bottom to find that. > > Now, i'm not trying to insult anyone, but i really think we should do > a big redesign of the current main page, focusing on presenting what > we've got and how we can invite new people to join the project. I'm > not sure if the current grant from the Ford foundation also includes a > homepage redesign, but that might be very helpful. > > We did a little brainstorm during the multimedia usability meetup last > november in Paris, and this was the result of a 90 minute 'How would > you redesign Commons from scratch' session: > > http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multimedia:Meeting_in_Paris/Notes/User_Experience > > Maybe we can take that as a starting point. > > What do you think? > > -- Hay > Hear, hear! -- Cary
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