RFC: Bazaar Web site Home Page Redesign

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Emma Jane writes:
 > On Wednesday 05 August 2009 5:00:49 pm Martin Albisetti wrote:
 > > On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 12:14 PM, Emma Jane<emmajane at ubuntu.com> wrote:
 > > > Proposed wireframe
 > > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmajane/3791477132/
 > >
 > > > 1. Does this wireframe have spaces to accommodate all front-page-worthy
 > > > material?
 > 
 > Basically: did I miss anything that you think needs to be on the front page?

You absolutely :-) need an exit ramp for "Launchpad", large enough
to make it clear that use of one is really enhanced by the other.  I
could also imagine a "Featured Developer/User/etc" corner, but that
gets boring and moldy in about 6 weeks unless somebody takes
responsibility for changing it about monthly.  Maybe a link list
including Canonical itself and Ubuntu (as well as Launchpad).

 > > > 2. Can anything be omitted from this wireframe because it is not
 > > > front-page-worthy?

I think there's a lot of space being taken up by things that could
very well be combined.  "Extend", "Solutions", and "Plugins"
probably have more than 100% overlap, and can surely be condensed to
two.  If "Support" is advertising, then it's different from "Help",
otherwise it's basically 100% overlap and one should go.  And "Help"
overlaps at least somewhat with "Documentation".  "Install" and
"Release" have a lot of overlap.  (This redundancy shows very
clearly in your site map.)

 > > - With the plan to have 6 month release cycles, release notes and
 > > release features become less interesting, I think
 > 
 > *nod* I see this as being a "newsy" area. Maybe that doesn't need
 > to be on the front page though?

I think it does need to be on the front page.  The six-monthly
"stable" releases are more than just a relabelling of every sixth
monthly release, but not that much more, not yet.  The monthly
release cycle has been rather successful, the six-month cycle won't
be a fact in user consciousness for about 9 months (two releases,
starting from now approximately a cycle and a half), and new
features are going to continue to be developed at an average pace of
one per 1-2 months for that period, based on the stuff we see on the
wiki and this list.