On Tuesday 18 January 2005 22:41, Louis Suarez-Potts wrote:
[snip]
> 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.
+1
However also consider that even though the statistics of the current web
structure are very interesting, they indicate what is popular in the current
structure rather than what the user is really interested in :)
> 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.
Is it possibly a problem with yoru browser ? I'm using Konqueror and see no
big hole, but I think that the center area area does grab my attention :)
> I see the big grey footer and get confused.
Yes, this needs to be made to take less attention form the main content ( I
mentioned previosuly that the "<p>" after the "feedback" should be removed).
> * 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.
+1
> * Right column menus. The appeal of minimizing the menus is strong but
> making them collapsible is, I believe, not the right solution.
+1
> 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
How about moving these items to "Project news" ( which is renamed from "Whats
New in OOo" ) so that all blogs, articles, news letters and mentions in the
media ?
> 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."
Would it be reasonable to add "General Information" to "About the Product" ?
> One could further move out 'For developers', as it is redundant with
> "Development" tab above. The Guidelines, and to-dos are in Development
> already.
+1
> 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.
And the menus could be expanded by default.
> 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.
+1
> 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.
As above I suggest "Project news".
> 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.
+1 for reintroducing "About us" in the "general links" section.
--
CPH : openoffice.org contributor
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