Re: Less Personal :-) (was: Re: [libreoffice-website] Re: Personal Statement)

Hi Ivan!

Am Donnerstag, den 16.12.2010, 22:29 +1300 schrieb Ivan M.:
> Hi Christoph, all,
>
> First of all, apologies for my absence - of course catching up reading
> 100s of messages some additional took time away too :)

Let's say that my enjoyment to read you mail totally outperforms your
absence ;-)))

> On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 2:46 PM, Christoph Noack <christoph@dogmatux.com> wrote:
[...]
> +1. I think there's a lot of room for improvement, and I don't think
> there's any excuse for LibreOffice not to launch the Silverstripe site
> with a stronger design.
>
> > So, why improvements?
> >
> > Although the visual and structural design of the current (static)
> > website has proven to work rather well, this design might not work that
> > good for Silverstripe. I started to draw some boundary boxes (several
> > days ago) for one of the pages - in a very simplified point-of-view, the
> > aim should be to reduce the number of lines to reduce an uncluttered
> > design.
> >
> > http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xZawms3ks-rpnvizZFN6pA?feat=directlink
> >
> > In this example, there isn't even a sub-menu that will add another item
> > on the left hand site. Also, on some pages there seems to be a
> > breadcrumb menu:
> > http://test.libreoffice.org/features/draw/
>
> If the information architecture is any good, the simplicity of the
> website at this stage should eliminate the need for breadcrumbs.

++1

Klaus-Jürgen already described the complex menus that might have to be
added to the page - personally, I don't "accept" that our rather
lightweight page requires that much menus and navigation concept.
Especially since the menus don't help that much at the moment (jumping
between sections, ...).

> > So, I started to work on a menu concept (and iterated a lot, I fell back
> > to very simple but powerful version...) and added some more visual
> > design. Thus, here is an example for the welcome page - along with the
> > menus to be used on other pages:
> > http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bbnG0Hny0SpccJIZsGp72A?feat=directlink
> >
> > My assumption is, that (having users in mind, and basic developer
> > information as well) two menu levels should be sufficient for the page.
> > Thus, we can avoid using the breadcrumb. The sub-menu is directly placed
> > below the main menu (if required on that page).
>
> I think this could be a workable idea... but maybe we could use a
> secondary color for the second menu (e.g. blue) otherwise it might get
> a bit too green

That was the last thing I've did before I went to bed yesterday. At
least, it looks rather colorful ...

> > Another nice side-effect is the search functionality (once being
> > available) is well integrated and also provides visual feedback if used
> > (usually, search leads to somehow "nowhere" on other pages).
> >
> > But, of course, there are also many open points - e.g. the proper
> > integration of the language projects (usually offered in the upper
> > right), ... and how to provide such "Emotional Artwork" (in the most
> > simple case a static picture).
>
> IMO, a screenshot of the start center would be the thing to have on
> the homepage... visually, it provides the greatest screenshot
> marketing potential, and it also hints at LibO's functionality. Maybe
> that can encourage us to develop the start center's emotional appeal
> in the future as I don't think the LibO visual identity has any overt
> emotional connotations - it's very neutral and professional - maybe if
> we had a mascot, it could feature there, but even then I'd suggest
> having a picture of the mascot standing/sitting next to the start
> center. I'm not in favor of using photos of any sort, but if someone
> thinks that might work, Flickr has a handy creative commons search
> option [1].

Oh, I did think about some LibO pictures ... but more what you can
achieve (e.g. show nice effects provided by the new functionality of the
release) and how great it looks in general. This is what I mean with
"emotional" - it is about getting people interested. From a branding
perspective, the StartCenter might be a good catch - but providing less
boring views.

> > However, it would be great to know what you think ...
>
> Your design is quite different to what David is proposing (with the
> blog/twitter widgets featuring prominently on the homepage) - I'd
> prefer a mix of the two - that is, have news items and social media
> links on the homepage, but also have big buttons as in your design for
> other activities such as contributing.

Hehe, what luck that I've included the "Fidelity Matrix" - the 50%
information design and 20% editorial content don't cover that. Of
course, social media stuff is fine :-)

> Additionally, I think the design can be simplified a little further,
> so I've created a (somewhat weird and not-quite-there) hybrid [2].
> I've included some alternative ideas but my main intention is to
> demonstrate (what I think is) improved spacing and header + footer. In
> terms of the visual design I think it is more consistent with the
> application branding (e.g. splash screen) and more tidy (as well as
> minimalist). The content there is just to demonstrate styling and
> spacing... but I think we need to have a larger conversation about the
> home page content.

Great! Now it gets interesting how to put together some ideas ;-) But,
I'm running out of time ... so just a few snippets.

I tried to design my proposal for medium sized screens. So the most
important information (including the support button) is visible once you
open the page. Therefore I had to accept some size constraints for logo
etc.

The main problems I ran into was the sub-menu level ... the current
solution of having it at the left side "breaks" the pages (and it is
visually too strong in my point-of-view). Thus, we require a more
balanced design (e.g. wider content area, helpful additional information
below the sub-menu, ...).

So if you have any ideas here ... you have my full trust, of course!

Cheers,
Christoph

PS: Great arrow for the download button :-)


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