On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 11:54 AM, Scott Gillard <[email protected]> wrote: > I did the two second exercise for the three social media options and the > website, and offer a few additional comments ont he website. I'll take a > look at the remaining questions and share some more detailed views after > some googling and research. >
Sorry for the delay in responding. I've been taking some end-of-year vacation days. > > 1. Website > 1. A lot of text - too much - need a cleaner layout that is more > graphical That is the impression I have as well. Too busy. This matches an engineer's view of "power", a machine with a thousand switches that allows you to do everything ;-). But users think of "power' as a machine that does the right thing without the user needing to understand a thousand switches. > 2. The Marketing Volunteers Wanted link Good. > 3. "Learn more" seems to trump "Download" - "Download for free" > should be the most prominent section of the site as prominent as > the logo. Indeed downloading is the most common thing users do, based on our stats from Google Analytics. So if that is there most-frequent action, perhaps we should optimize for it? A good comparison website -- another popular open source desktop application -- is the Firefox homepage: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/#desktop Look how clean it is, how simplified the list of options is, but nothing is really missing. You can still get to support, etc. > Then directly nested under that perhaps "Learn how this software is > free" > 4. The language used should be clear, accessible, and should conform > to people's expectations of a software website. This reinforces the > quality of the product - making the sigficance of learning about > values and > open source more interesting. Yes. > 5. Logo is lost > 2. Google+ & Facebook > 1. Logo jumps, looks good - should include text/the name? Perhaps when we do the brand refresh and get new logos. Currently we have a horizontal banner version, that does include text. And we have the "globe with gulls" without text, that is in a square aspect ratio. The profile pix for these sites want something square. > 2. Regular updates > 3. Twitter > 1. Lots of updates, though they seem to go out in clumps - appear > scheduled > The clumping probably occurs because only a few people are putting out content, and they do it in batches. If we had more people doing it, over more time zones, it would reach more people. > > > ------------------------------------ > *Scott Gillard* > Mobile: (902)402-2962 > Web: www.novacaper.ca > Twitter: @scoalegil > Facebook: facebook.com/scoalegil > > > > On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 11:55 AM, Rob Weir <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I have a problem. Like most of the existing OpenOffice volunteers I'm >> "too close" to the project. I see our website 100 times a week. I >> read every tweet, every Facebook post, every news article related to >> OpenOffice. I eat, drink and sleep OpenOffice. My wife uses >> OpenOffice. My mother uses OpenOffice. Because I am constantly close >> to OpenOffice I have a distorted view. I am unable to "see" the brand >> like an average user does. This lack of perspective causes me to be >> hypercritical about some things, and perhaps causes me to be blind to >> other things. Since many project members are in this same situation, >> there is the danger that "groupthink" and conventional thinking >> dominates. >> >> You, as new volunteers, are free from this bias, at least for now. >> I'd like to take advantage of this interval, where you are interested >> in volunteering, but not yet over-exposed to OpenOffice discussions, >> to help us see the world better with fresh eyes. >> >> Some ways in which you can help gain a fresher perspective: >> >> 1) What does our website look like to a new user? >> http://www.openoffice.org. One exercise is to go to the home page, >> look at it for only 2 seconds (time it) and then close the window. >> Then write down everything you remember about the website, what text >> messages did you notice? What logos? What did your first glance tell >> you? What was your emotional response or qualitative assessment of >> the site? >> >> >> 2) The website is both functional, helping the user get the >> information they want. But it should also reinforce our brand, our >> message, our values. Taking a closer look at the website, with your >> fresh eyes, what is your impression? >> >> >> 3) Similar questions for viewing our social media accounts: >> >> Twitter: https://twitter.com/apacheoo >> >> Google+: >> https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/114598373874764163668/+openoffice/posts >> >> Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ApacheOO >> >> What is your initial impression? Unlike the website, social media >> offers communications in two directions, a greater degree of >> engagement with users. Does it look like we're doing this well? Do >> you see any opportunities for improvement? >> >> >> 4) OpenOffice is it good or bad? What do the reviews say? Imagine >> you are a user who is thinking about moving to OpenOffice. You are >> aware of it, and know that it is free. But you are not yet persuaded >> to act. What resources do you consult to learn more about OpenOffice >> and what do they tell you? >> >> >> 5) A recent survey of brand recognition showed that only 24% of U.S. >> internet users recognized the brand "OpenOffice". So there is a large >> opportunity for increasing brand recognition. Imagine yourself to be >> a user in each of the following situations. In each case you do not >> even know the word "OpenOffice". What do you do to find and compare >> possible office suites? And how easy or hard is it for you to find >> that OpenOffice solves your problem? If this involves a Google >> search, what terms do you search for? >> >> A) You are a university student. You need a Microsoft-compatible word >> processor for your course, but Microsoft Office, even with the student >> discount is too expensive. >> >> B) You are an IT Director for Public Library or Community Center with >> a computers available for public use. You want to provide office suite >> functionality to their patrons. But you have limited budget, so >> commercial software licenses come at the expense of other potential >> user services. >> >> C) You are a CIO of a medium to large corporation currently using >> Microsoft Office 2003. Microsoft has announced that Office 2003 will >> be "end of life" with no support in April 2014. Are there any >> alternatives to paying Microsoft for a license upgrade? >> >> >> Feel free to grab one or more of these items and respond back via >> email. It is fine to have more than one person do the same item. We >> can then compare and discuss. >> >> Thanks! >> >> -Rob >>
