I come down somewhere in between the draft page and Graham's more bare
bones approach.
I agree that cleaner is better, and I agree that the goal is to move
people along as quickly as possible. Toward that end, I'd eliminate any
nav bar or other distracting, focus-pulling options that only serve to
confuse people. However, I don't see anything wrong with a little prettier
header, and I was glad to see "Your next office upgrade" make the cut.
I also don't see anything wrong with the one-sentence explanations below
each action statement. In fact, they might actually serve the goal of
moving people forward, since they will help eliminate visitors' head
scratching and confusion as they try to figure out if this link is really
the one they want to click.
Paul
On Monday, Jan 07, Graham Lauder wrote:
On Tuesday 08 January 2008 07:59:34 Ivan M wrote:
Hi everyone,
The look of the new OpenOffice.org homepage is currently being worked
on (a good indication of where it's headed can be seen at
www.patentpending.co.nz/openoffice). This is based on the action
statements approach that was discussed on this list in December, and
the main goal of this new homepage is to increase downloads.
When an action statement is clicked, additional content with links to
relevant pages will appear under it, and all other content below it
will slide further down. This has not been implemented yet, but you
can get an idea of what it will look like here:
http://moofx.mad4milk.net/
The only exception to this rule might be "I want to learn more about
OpenOffice.org", which could jump straight to why.openoffice.org (by
the way, what is the status on the new design for why.openoffice.org?-
I think it would be great if it could be launched with the new
design).
Here is where your input is needed - the wording of all the content.
Which links should go in the navigation bar? How much content should
go in the footer? What text should go below "I need help with my
OpenOffice.org"? What links should be displayed (i.e. forum,
documentation, etc) when it is clicked, and how should it be worded?
Because the action statements are more verbose, the content could
follow a similar approach. Instead of a simple bulleted list appearing
under "I want to participate in OpenOffice.org" with these options -
file bug report - donate - join projects, each of these links could be
accompanied by 1 or 2 friendly, informative sentences explaining each
link.
A wiki page has been set up for this:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Website/Content
or, you could continue the discussion here. We are aiming to launch
this month, so your input would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ivan.
The thing that concerns me is that thee seems to be more and more "Stuff"
getting onto the page.
The aim of the overall design is to increase downloads. Within that
structure
the goal of this page should be to get people further as quickly as
possible.
My personal preference is in the style of
http://ooogear.co.nz/splash_prop.html No more links than that. No other
links, no Nav bar. That sort of detail can be on the next page. I'd
even do
the Logo in text with the only image being the gulls if there was a way
of
guaranteeing everything would line up. Without the logo this page is
under
1KB and even on dialup it's message and it's function is obvious
immediately..
Why, Download, Support and Contribute is where we want them to be, not
here.
Then put as many links in as you want. and as much js and so forth as you
want. On this page however we want them moving on quickly and easily.
I am mindful that we are coming up to a month behind on this as well.
Lets
get this up and then expend the energy on the pages mentioned as well as
the
extensions
.Cheers
GL
--
Paul F. Olson
http://paulfolson.com
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