Hi
First the page (that's the collaborative result, yes?) looks pretty
impressive. Thanks!
And, my critique is meant to be supportive and constructive; friendly
not harsh. I fully apreciate the work that went into creating this and
by and large like the result.
So, what do we want from the homepage? This is what I would like the
homepage to provide:
* A space for users to find the product and support easily and with
minimal fuss
* A space for those wanting to contribute to find the resources to
do so
* A public face for what we want to show tot he world. We use the
homepage now for blurbs about people, events, projects.
Also, it's useful to keep in mind that we cannot or ought not to go by
the users@ list alone. That list is used by... users@, especially those
with something needing resolution.
I think Matthew's page mostly accomplishes these things. But I also
have some critiques.
* Design:
* Center: There is a large gap in the center of the page. Will it be
filled with an icon for 2.0? I presume so. If so, I am sure it will work
to focus the eye. For now, the eye gets lost. I don't know whether to
look at the left navbar, or right; and then I see the big grey footer
and get confused.
* Solution: even after an icon for 2.0, besides the download one,
the footer should be moved down, so that it maintains the margin framing
the central portion.
* Right column menus. The appeal of minimizing the menus is strong but
making them collapsible is, I believe, not the right solution. If we
really want to reduce clutter, we should, as we once did, remove "coming
events" & "media attention" and place them on a separate page.
Deepankar's newletter is expanding all the time, and he and I have been
working on making the newslists (OOo in the news, basically) more
comprehensive.
By moving these things ("coming events" [or just "events"] and "media
attention"), we free up some more room for what users, judging from
website statistics, want: Product information. Right now, on Matthew's
page, that section is no longer present, which is odd; it is one of the
most popular directories in the project. Instead we have Features,
Screenshots, Product comparison, all of which are great. But let's say
we put the Product directory back, & cal lit "General Information."
One could further move out 'For developers', as it is redundant with
"Development" tab above. The Guidelines, and to-dos are in Development
already. Licenses has to stay uncollapsed on the page but should be
moved to the left.
What we would then have is the Resources menu with its elements, and the
Product menu. The right column would thus logically be the area for
Product.
The left column would have on the homepage, the General links...
But why is Download also there? I would guess it's there because the
concern is that people won't see the big icon in the center (and they
won't, or won't know what to do; that was our experience before when we
had the huge icon in the center) and won't see the tab... but one could
go on. I would remove the Download entry from the left navbar.
I like the Report a Bug. :-) and have mixed feelings about What's
new... That's because it's not really about What's new. Calling it
"Articles, blogs, newsletter" is long, but more precise.
I would also have, as we do now, Contributing work and Donating funds.
When we first put the Donation element oin the current site up,
Jacqueline pointed out it is more effective to just say, Donate
Funds--not to leave it vague. I think it is so; we seem to get lots of
mail from people interested in donating.
Guidelines is a surprisingly popular destination, and so it presents an
interesting problem. Is there a compeling reason to have it on the
homepage? Why not linked from About Us?
Which takes us to that last part: Where is the About Us page linked
from? It seems to have been removed from the page. Given that it
summarizes the project, leadership, and structure, that would seem to be
a mistake. One could clarify the language, and reduce the duplication
with the Introduction, which is what people are sent to after the
Registration survey, but it needs to be referenced from the homepage.
* Minor points: Colors: I llike the light blue :-) I can't say the
same for the green, as it has the odd quality of not holding the eye,
though it be pleasing to it. Plain would be better, or, as they teach
you in art and classes, something red to catch the eye, say just a
title, border, etc.
Cheers,
Louis
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