Jacqueline McNally wrote:
> The OpenOffice.org web site, and especially our home page is one of our
> most important and effective marketing tools.
We should design the website with the mindset of meeting visitor's needs.
It's not about what you (or me) want to tell them, but about what they are
wanting from us.
> 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.
... instead of whatever might actually came here for...
> 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.
We should put the user first, not the marketing department. Our top
priority should be to meet the visitor's needs. Especially on the HP.
> 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.
"Support" is not the place I'd expect to find documentation.
Documentation is not tech support, it's documentation.
Tech support imvolves another human you talk to.
> - mailing lists - I feel that we need to let people know of our mailing
> lists,
You feel? What is that feeling based on?
Just because *you* know about them doesn't mean that new users do. In
fact, people new to open source are not even familiar with the concept of
mailing lists. Just looking at the people who actually make it as far as
posting to users@ or discuss@ you'll see that a significant number of them
are rather lost.
> - 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.
No, it's not cracy. The forums are an important part of the community, and
the fact that they have a different domain is no reason to exclude them.
OOoForum provides a very valuable service that can't quite be replaced by
mailing lists or documentation. I think we should welcome OOoForum as a
valuable and integral part of the OOo community.
> It is very confusing for new visitors who have
> expectations of what to find on www.openoffice.org.
If they have downloaded the software, they probably expect to be able to
get help on it, and perhaps read a manual.
> - 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.
A significant number of new users would be looking for that. But instead
of answering their question ("how do I do xyz?") you want to tell them how
great we are.
It's infurating when a website removes useful services so they can spend
more time telling you how much they care about visitors.
> 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.
... by hiding them?
> 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 ...)
The logo at the top wouldn't tell them that?
In the case of Matthew's page, wouldn't the big bold letters that say
"OpenOffice.org 2.0" and an icon taht says "download free" tell them that?
> - they are confident that it is a successful and vibrant
> project/community (community articles and presence in other publications)
... by hiding the community links?
> - they are made to feel welcome if it is their first visit or unsure
> where to go next (New to Openoffice.org)
*that* link was good.
> - if English is not their first language, confident that your language
The mockup we were working on had the NLC icon higher up, in a more
central place.
> 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.
... instead of telling them how to use the software they just
downloaded...
I'm sorry, but I strongly disagree with a lot of what you suggested.
Sincerely,
--
Daniel Carrera | There is no urge so great as for one man to
Join OOoAuthors today! | edit another man's work.
http://www.oooauthors.org | -- Mark Twain
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