Daniel Carrera wrote:
I like several of the general principles of this page. It aims a lot for
simplicity, and chooses a few things to be more dominant, etc.
But I disagree with the choice of content. This page looks like it was
done by marketing. :)
The OpenOffice.org web site, and especially our home page is one of our
most important and effective marketing tools.
Through our web site we hope to communicate that we have a great office
productivity suite and a huge diverse community that thinks so too. The
community develops, supports and builds both OpenOffice.org the product
and grows our community.
It spends a lot of time advertising OOo,
The only aspect that I consider advertising is the "Download" now button.
and removes
some very important functions of a home page, like mailing lists, forums
an documentation.
I disagree.
The page we are talking about is referred to as a home page, but I think
we need to consider it more of a door page to the huge amount of
projects, activity and people behind that door. The OpenOffice.org web
site has much rich and diverse content that very few people see or
utilise. The purpose of my design is to invite people inside our
community, so they may stay awhile, explore and see what we have to offer.
The links or content to which you are referring (mailing lists, forums,
doco) are important and are already accessible off the home/door page
through the "Support" tab.
The purpose of the "New to OpenOffice.org" button is to introduce and
guide those new visitors to the OpenOffice.org community, i.e. what it
is we have to offer other than OpenOffice.org the product.
Considering the three elements you raised in turn:
- mailing lists - I feel that we need to let people know of our mailing
lists, but "amongst" the other resources that we have available, such as
documentation and FAQ. Otherwise, what often happens is that people
immediately post to a mailing list without seeing that the question or
query they have has been answered already, or that they can browse a
forum to see if anyone else has asked the question.
- forums - The current forums are on an external site. It's crazy to
have a link on your home/door page that leads people off your domain
onto another. It is very confusing for new visitors who have
expectations of what to find on www.openoffice.org. They say they cannot
find certain items, but it is because they are not to be found by
following the link to an external site. This needs to be explained in
context.
- documentation - Is important, and of course I am going to say that as
one of my roles in real life is that of a technical author :) But, I
don't think it belongs on our door page.
We have the opportunity to be more welcoming on a landing page (New to
OpenOffice.org) and guide people to resources that they may find useful.
For example, describe what happens when you click on a tab, the fact
that the tabs are available from whatever page you are on. The "Support"
tab is an important one here - you can get there from where ever you
are. How to navigate the website and access information (FAQ and doco),
people and activities.
New potential contributors also need to be made to feel welcome, and
while they are more likely to hunt and peck, providing a summary to
introduce people to the How to Contribute page, how the OpenOffice.org
community/project is organised, licensing, and the "Development" tab if
they are potential developers is like offering a virtual guiding hand.
I think that the mage needs to remove marketing content
and replace it by this important functionality.
I don't consider it just as marketing content, but that of organising
information such that when people visit www.openoffice.org:
- if they were looking for OpenOffice.org they are reassured immediately
they have the right place (OpenOffice.org is ...)
- they are confident that it is a successful and vibrant
project/community (community articles and presence in other publications)
- they are made to feel welcome if it is their first visit or unsure
where to go next (New to Openoffice.org)
- if English is not their first language, confident that your language
and community is considered (Native Language Confederation button) Note:
I have the opportunity to visit many non-English sites (as an editor for
dmoz.org), and if they have a link to English, it is very inconspicuous.
The most conspicous
examples, I think, are "articles" and "press". Neither of those things are
more important than lists/forums/documentation.
They are on a home/door page for the reasons I have explained above.
Btw, articles on the current home page are "Buttons" and "OOoRegiCon
North America". I think it is very important to be proud of our
successes and share the news about our community.
Also, on the other design proposals, the list of OpenOffice.org in the
news is listed. I added the small "... Press Room" link (not heading) to
my design, as journalists, writers, and analysts who create these
articles for other publications need current and often immediate
information about us. This will link to the same "Press Room" that is
linked from the Marketing Project that will be a landing page especially
for this audience.
In my design prototype I have attempted to address three areas:
- interaction design - not suggested any changes here except to replace
the login box with the search box, and describing in "New to
OpenOffice.org" what is under the tabs and that they are available
whatever page you are on.
- information design - there are many types of potential visitors, but I
have separated visitors into new (seeking or casual) and repeat
visitors (end users and or contributors).
- presentation design - I think we need to clearly communicate who and
what we are so that we are useful to our many target audiences. That is,
individuals, organisations, accustomed to interacting with online
communities (or not), understand what is OSS (or not), and welcome
potential contributors.
Regards
Jacqueline
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