Re: [libreoffice-design] "LibreOffice Menta" Design proposal

Le 2010-11-24 18:28, Christoph Noack a écrit :
> > > >  >        * Editorial Content
> > > >  >                * Text like "I need help" may be true, but only few users
> > > >  >                  want to hear that they are helpless:-)
> > > >  >
> > >  jejeje :P
> > >  
> > >  
> > > >  >                * The "I ..." have been a matter of debate for a long time
> > > >  >                  on the OOo website. The "I ..." doesn't add value and
> > > >  >                  doesn't help to feel "part of the community".
> > > >  >
> > >  Graham Lauder gave us that suggestion and the text was changed for 1.20. I
> > >  really don't care, my English is not good enough to make some kind of
> > >  suggestion on this :P
> Oh, it is just about the "I whatever ..." misses a bit value to be
> repeated several times. Today, many pages try to state as compact as
> possible what the item is about (especially if there is further
> explanation next to it). For example, the "I need help" might be "Get
> support". Oh, great think, Ubuntu does the same;-)
I will comment on this. These points were taken up in a very short 
internal debate (Web Dev. Team) during the initial creation/design of 
the LO frontpage. In this short discussion, Graham posted the following 
2 links to support his reasoning behind developing a simple page as well 
as simple choice options.

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Talk:Website/Proposals
http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@website.openoffice.org/msg02943.html

After consideration, here are some of my thoughts:

As an teacher for younger students/young adults (grades 4-8 Canada), as 
well as previous school board consultant (local French school board) for 
Math, Science and Technology, my greatest success is/has always when I 
use the principles of "keeping it as simple as possible"(KISS -- "keep 
it simple and straightforward"). Then the overall effect is that you 
will get a larger amount of success than if you add more distracting 
elements in your teaching material. The unfortunate reality is that, the 
simpler your presentation is made to the masses the greater your rate of 
satisfaction. I also agree with Graham, that making the user responsible 
(or at least give her/him the ownership) for the decision making process 
works best. We, teachers, are always encouraged to enable students to 
arrive at a solution by making the problem their own and encouraging the 
"I will ..." ; "I need ..."; "I should ...". This is one of the 
attributes of good teaching, making the student/person take ownership of 
their actions. The success rate will always be greater this way.

We should then take a closer look at the type of website we would like 
to show the public at their first arrival. Should the site be a product 
site in composition or should it be a community site? Is there a way to 
blend these two? All three of these choices may produce different 
outcomes. If at all possible the third of these choices, that of a 
community blend, would seem to be the most appropriate at this point. We 
would like to announce to the world that there is a new community called 
LibreOffice and we are offering out office suite distribution to all who 
wish to use it. Emphasis should be placed more on the new user who's 
main intent is to download the suite and to either test or use for their 
own personal reasons.

If the this third option is adopted, then presumably, we would like the 
user to download in the shortest amount of time possible and this, 
without too many distractions. We should make the new user feel at home 
and in control of her/his choices. By using the " I ... statements" we 
further reinforce to the new user that they are making a conscious and 
deliberate choice. If however, we offer new users such formulated 
statements as "For download choose ... " or "Download here" or 
"Download" etc. the user frame of mind is no longer that of a person in 
charge of her/his choice, but a person for whom the website has taken 
choices away from the user and is leading her/him in the decision making 
process. At the very outset, this formulation of statements has 
diminished the user empowerment of choice.

I also agree that the frontpage needs space. Space on webpages,  from a 
user point of view, will often offer breathing room for that particular 
user to digest the information on that page.

Just some thoughts.

--
Marc Paré
http://www.parEntreprise.com


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