Hi *, On Wed, Jan 26, 2005 at 02:13:39PM -0500, Daniel Carrera wrote: > Christian Lohmaier wrote: > > > > 3. The primary objective of *any* product page is let the user grab it. > > > > Do you relly thing that this cannot be accomplished with a box that > > reads "Download"? > > Not if it's hidden. > > > But it isn't hidden at all! > > I looked for it and couldn't find it.
Then you must be rendered differently in your browser compared to mine.. The download box is very prominent on that light background and even has a hover effect.. (I was serious regarding the screenshot) > > > This is a general principle. Download goes > > > first, and encouraging the user to click on it is second. > > > > Nah, the big "goal" should be to attract contributors (but before you > > respond: I know this is not possible with a front-page) > > No. You are thinking about *your* goals. I think that is the goal of the OOo-community, not my personal one. > You should be thinking about the > visitor's goals. That's the problem with the current page. When creating a webpage, you have some reason to do so. The reason for the OOo page is to spread it to the world and get people involved. You are right, that most visitors only come by to grab it, but this shouldn't prevent you from following the other goals. I agree that the current page is bad in both aspects (esp. in the latter), but I don't think that focusing only on downloads won't make people (visitors happy), Again: they usually only download once. Furthermore, I think that the "murb-design" is a better approach than the "matthew-design" because it offers a much improved navigation. Much clearer, less clutter. To get the visitors' point: They want to quickly find what they're looking for. That is not *restricted* to the download. > > The now "something". Right. But this "something" is very unclear. They > > don't always know that this is an Office Suite. > > Notice that I don't propose that the page be devoid of explanatory > material. Explantory material should be present and easy to find, but in > appropriate measure. It should be second to the download. Matthew's page > has very clear and prominent info material (6 directly related links and a > couple less-related ones; all located in prominent locaitons). 6 links... and other ones. This is exactly what I don't like about it. I think it is a requirement of the front page to explain what the site is about. Gnome has the "What is Gnome box" KDE has it.. Mozilla explains it (Firefox, the faster, better webbrowser... - Thunderbirn, Mozilla's next generation eMail client...) <name your software-project>: Project - A tool to <bla> I don't want exactly that wording, but at least it should be cleary stated that Openoffice.org is a full featured Office Suite. Not on a seperate About page, but on the front page. > > > The current page lacks OOo information, but we shouldn'g to go the > > > opposite extreme either. See Matthew's page. The about-ooo links are more > > > prominent and clickable, and it would easily accomodate a 1-2 sentence > > > description. > > > > Just tried it. It took me quite long to identify this link in the mass > > of other links. > > 1) Maybe we need to remove other links. Definitely. > 2) Which link exactly could you not find? There are 8 links about OOo. > One says "about us", Again: too many links. (see above) > another "about the product", -> this one. But how should I know what the project is when I visit the page? To find out, I have to follow the link -> Bad. > and 5 cover individual > components, How should I know what these Words mean? I have to follow the links to find out -> bad. > and one says "information" and it's right in the middle of the > page, inside the big green square with the download button. You could not > see a single one of them? I see them but don't know where they will take me. This is part of the critique. That Information link could mean anything. How to download, how to buy a CD, pricing information (yes - how should I know that I can use it for free? - many sites offer a "free download" - but that is for crippled versions or shareware) > > > Reporting a bug is not getting help. > > > > So what? Where's the problem if it doesn't fit the heading 100%? > > There is a big problem with a illogically organized website. Reporting a > bug is not even remotely related to getting help. Getting help in having it fixed. - Anyway that just was a proposal, the link can be put somewhere else, no problem. > > I get the impression that you want links to almost everything on the > > front page. > > NO!!! > > Did you see the changes I made to the page? Do you realize I cut the links > by about half? Only read my comments above. Compared to the current home-page there almost is no improvement. regarding the clutter. The number of links itself is irrelevant. You cannot count the Links in the news-box, or in the coming event box. The user can clearly see that these are specialized links. If one is not interested in News or the events, just don't look at it. Important are the navbar links (no change) 9 links in the old page, 10 links in General & Ressources boxes on the new one So "no, I don't notice a major clean up". (I'm having a look at http://website.openoffice.org/nonav/tryouts/Matthew/OOoWeb2/index.htm I hope you're refering to that page) > Do you realize that people are asking for links and I'm > trying to accomodate them as I can without wrecking the page? Again: Ask why they ask for links. Because they cannot find what they're looking for. -> Help them finding their page by providing clear navigation. > A page jam-packed with links is bad. > A page that's dead-empty is bad. > > We need a balance. Yes. But obvioulsy we have a different understanding of balance. > > The left navbar in Matthews design already contains 13 Links to choose > > from. > > IMHO this already is too much. This is fine for the developer pages, > > but too much for the front page. > > I am happy reducing that number. ciao Christian -- NP: Blind Guardian - A Past And Future Secret --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
