Hi,
Good to see people are still critical :) I'm replying quick, as I
actually should be doing other things :s ...
J David Eisenberg wrote:
[Sorry if this is a duplicate; I tried posting this a couple of days ago
but it seems not to have gone through]
I haven't seen it :)
[...]
Newcomers would probably click "new user & general info" at the left
because it's big and seems relevant. The small icons at the right that
describe the components might not catch their eye (they are overwhelmed by
the seagull eggs).
Do you think these product icons are so important? Why? All office
suites have more or less similar components, don't they? I don't think
it's bad to offer information on the products, but considering these of
major importance? I'm not so sure.
Upon arriving at http://www.openoffice.org/about_us/new.html, the new
users still don't see "what does this product do" -- they have to click
"product" in the first paragraph. If they don't click it, then they would
read the whole page and still have no idea what OpenOffice.org does.
I would say this as a problem (telling a bit more about the product in
this paragraph) and not the main page. Furthermore are the product pages
linked to in this about text out of date, which needs repair (Louis?)
If the readers do click "product", they'll get to
http://www.openoffice.org/product/index.html, where they finally find out
what OpenOffice.org consists of, but only after reading the first
paragraph about how the development took place, and how it is better than
version 1.0 (although they have no idea what version 1.0 did!)
Do you also think this is a problem at the new page;
http://www.openoffice.org/product2/index.html ? It doesn't compare much
to the 1.0 or 1.1 version, right? Except for pointing at it's track history.
I suggest the following changes to the main page:
1. Make the components and the download area the "centerpiece" of the
page.
The download area is already centerpiece of the page at the moment.
About the components, see above.
2. Make the icons for the components larger, and describe the components.
(The Korean native language page at http://ko.openoffice.org/ does this,
but doesn't link the descriptions).
Another thing I don't like about making the components this much larger
is the fact that it seems that it are separate products, which can be
downloaded separately. Yet they can't.
3. Change "native language" to the less technical "choose your language",
and change "new user & general info" to "about this site". (Those buttons
should be smaller as well.)
I agree with you that these buttons might be smaller, however lot of
discussion has gone in this also. Thing is that changing the homepage is
not that easy with so many people having something to say (I don't
expect this thread to be short :) ) about it. I must say however that I
like your 'choose your language' suggestion. We have had more friendlier
(than the current one) titles under consideration, but these didn't
cover what it is actually about. As the NL-projects are more than just
simple translate-projects. I believe we should reconsider this. The
other suggestion is more a problem of the page where is linked to, as it
is intended to contain information for new users. If it doesn't tells
users what it is intended, it's the problem of that particular page.
Please don't feel offended by my short comments. I think it's good
people think about the website and offer proposals. But don't expect
major changes just before the release of OOo2.0. It already took a long
road to create the current homepage, which most have agreed upon, also
content wise.
In summary I believe the following problems should be tackled (inspired
by your e-mail):
* Change "native language" into "choose your language"
* Have about_us say more about the product, what it actually is
* Have about_us to link to the new product page.
* Have the old product page to link to the 2.0 version
* Make the non-download buttons smaller (not a major issue imho)
* [personal] Make the download button only for the 2.0 download and have
a link to the features in the introduction text. I've more than often
brought this up, and still think it's bad to have a bullet list in a button.
g.,
Maarten
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