RFC: Home page design

[James Westby]

On Tue Sep 01 12:44:57 +0100 2009 Emma Jane Hogbin wrote:
> 1. Utility navigation (the very top strip): do you prefer Design 1 or Design 2?

Design 2 is more obvious, and the search box would be good to have. Also the
items in the list of Design 2 are better in my opinion.

> 2. Banner carousel: necessary or not needed?

A carousel with no descriptions would be confusing I think, as it could make
it look disjointed with the different interfaces, or like you needed to
master all of them to use bzr.

Having a GUI page somewhere on the site would be good, but I'm not sure
the front page is the place for it.

It's also one of the most dominant elements on the page. Would it be a link?
If so, what would it link to?

> 3. Entry points: 4 panes (Design 1) or 3 panes (Design 2)?

I generally prefer 3 panes as it tends to give more space to breathe. However,
the uneveness of them in this design is jarring, and I'm not sure I see the
reason for it. If there is one then using the design to separate the more
important parts would be good.

However, in this case, using 2 panes seems to have caused two rows to be
required to get everything in, e.g. "Get Help" is demoted to the second
row. This makes it harder to scan for the useful topic. I think design 1
wins here, as the second row are ancillary topics, not really gateways,
and so the design could lead you to the main row to find what you are
looking for with one scan.

> 4. Additional praise?

Both are an improvement on the current front page in terms of content.

> 5. Additional concerns?

I like the footer navigation of design 1, and think that it's utility
outweighs the cost of the extra content. It could be de-emphasised more
if that is a concern.

I prefer the duplication of the download button in design 2, pulling that
out in to the header works well I think.

I'm concerned that there is little done in either design to differentiate
any of the main content.

  * Design 1 has the download button as the only green element, but I think
    this is better served by duplicating it and then making the button
    in the main text match the others.

  * Design 1 has the release notes called out, what would that link to?
    Expanded human-readable release notes? Is that really what we want
    to draw readers to?

  * Design 2 does almost nothing to differentiate the 6 sections, which
    is too many to choose from. Should the release features really be
    given the same weight as the "Get Help" pane here?

Overall, I prefer the architecture of design 1.

Thanks,

James