Re: [libreoffice-website] Work on the "Why?" pages

Hi Narayan, *,

that's what I'm also saying (or trying) from the moment I joined the Libreoffice Community,

Am 02.02.2011 um 10:56 schrieb Narayan Aras:

> Hi all,
>
> > From: commerce@traduction.biz
>
> > I just posted an expanded version of the "Why for Home?" page.
> >
> > There's quite a bit more text in there. With someone's comment of
> > "text, text, text..." still ringing in my ears, i feel I'd better
> > explain my thinking a bit.
>
> :) Ok that "someone" was me, and I wrote all why pages originally.
>
> Well, I am surprised that no Graphic Designer is attached to the website project.

He tries ;) (me)

> I tried to bring in an excellent Graphic designer, but it seems external graphic designers are 
> not welcome until SC or some other team gives him a thorough cavity search. So I dropped the idea.
>
> At present, the website looks exactly like a wiki (and thence the remark "text text text..."). 
> Apart from the LibO logo (which is a mixed up thing, as logos go), there are no graphics at all.
> All pages look exactly the same (Home page, L1, L2...), with no visual differential (with color, 
> layout, fonts, breaks...)
> The screen space is not divided according to graphic design principles.
> The site has no tagline, search or site map (three basic things).

Short version a book which nobody's gonna read.

> It is assumed that the visitor would be interested enough to stay and soak up all that text (and 
> text and text and...)
> He will look through all pages till he finds what he wants (no map, no search).

Every user (not depending on his history) doesn't read websites. He scans. Even a IT-Guy for an 
Enterprise doesn't read on the web. I'm reading for the moment some books and I'm gonna make a 
little review for you all so you can see what you have to put in your mind when you're writing for 
the web.

> We do have a wiki for LibO. So the website should be devoted to main points, and for details, the 
> visitor should be taken to the Wiki.

+1

> Compare the site with http://www.openoffice.org/ and http://why.openoffice.org/
> I am not saying that OOo site is ideal, but at least it has many visual elements to hold the 
> interest of the visitor.
>
> Websites are designed by Graphic Designers, not Engineers.
> The text is written by copywriters, not manual-writers (the different is in slant: marketing vs 
> engineering).

Papercopywriters <> Webcopywriters

> Therefore we need graphic designers to redesign the pages.
> And copywriters to brush up (and snip away) what we have written.
>
> ****
> @Role of SEO in success of LibO:
>
> Since LibO is a OpenOffice fork, we actually do not need much help from SEO.
> I have already added the metatags to most pages, which should be sufficient to start with
>
> There is a separate page for Libo at Wikipedia, which also should be a big start.
> Wikipedia also has Libo in the first place in Open Source apps list 
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_applications).
>
> A major remaining step is registration with Google ASAP.
> Then hits will ramp up within 2-3 months, with careful tuning of metadata.
> ******

+1 Google NEVER reads the whole website. It's scanning the whole. But for the SEO only some bytes 
from the beginning are important!

> Now that SEO (machine reading/spidering) is out of the way, we must concentrate on HUMAN readers.

HUMAN and for possible new users of Libreoffice

> How can we hold THEIR interest??
>
> We need to emphasize how LibO is different from the other versions.
> That should explained prominently at the website, in terms of (a) philosophy and (b) features.
>
> For example, Novell version of OpenOffice boasts of compatibility with MSO.
> Oracle version of OOpenOffice boasts of low download costs because of patch-based updates.
>
> We also should position the product in this cluster of "apparently same" products.
>
> -Narayn

Just my 2 cents!

Mike (Houbsi)


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