<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>Nah, it really *is* "tl".<br></div><br>So tl;dr:<br><br></div>Advertica Lite good for a news site, which might be different from the main landing site.<br><br></div>Landing
site should contain "call-to-action": a simplified way to download
Kubuntu; feature tour should either be a cta or be the main page.<br><br></div>Not
included in original message: people scroll more, click less than
before [citation needed, although I've seen some research on this].<br><br></div>Good examples of distro sites: <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/" target="_blank">http://www.ubuntu.com/</a> ; <a href="http://elementary.io/" target="_blank">http://elementary.io/</a> ; good for its purposes: <a href="https://getfedora.org/" target="_blank">https://getfedora.org/</a> ; good usability, not quite good design: <a href="http://www.linuxmint.com/" target="_blank">http://www.linuxmint.com/</a> (not incl. in orig.) ; BAD EXAMPLES: <a href="https://www.archlinux.org/" target="_blank">https://www.archlinux.org/</a> ; <a href="https://www.debian.org/" target="_blank">https://www.debian.org/</a> .<br><br></div>Make it more vivid ( ;) ) by showing a photo with a Kubuntu-running Linux in a good-looking environment.<br><br></div>And yeah, I forgot to mention mobiles: instead of call to download - "let us send you an e-mail with a download link".<br><br></div>Everything for now, I think.<br><div><br><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">2015-02-26 21:48 GMT+01:00 Paweł Abramowicz <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pawelabrams@gmail.com" target="_blank">pawelabrams@gmail.com</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class=""><div class="h5"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>Hey,<br><br></div>This
is Paweł 'Avras' Abramowicz here, the Quintasan's flatmate from earlier
discussion; together with a bunch of my friends we're designing
websites for some time now.<br><br></div>To add my two pennies worth; I
see Advertica Lite as a very refreshing proposal, but as it is a
multi-purpose theme, it would need some serious tweaking to fit Kubuntu
perfectly. Its text pages are really good, and it would be a neat theme
for Kubuntu News, obviously, but rearranging the tour and main page
using Wordpress and Wordpress only (even with theme options, but without
struggling with editing the theme's CSS and PHP) might prove difficult.
I have minor concerns about the parallax, too; it must be done right to
achieve any effect, and not just be a pure decoration – and when it is,
it must be a bit more subtle.<br><br></div>Browsing through other
distros' sites I've observed a few features worth discussing. I'll drop
the links on the end of my e-mail.<br><br></div>To start with, the first
page a potential user sees of Ubuntu [1], Elementary OS [2] or even
Fedora [3] to some extent, are optimised for newcomers; they have either
a feature tour right on the first page, or there is a big button (or,
as marketers say, a Call-To-Action) to download or see for yourself if
you are not yet convinced. Debian [4] tried, but the only thing they did
is a white button, not big enough for a 1366x768 screen, not to mention
Full HD ones.<br><br></div>There is a trend to delegate the news
section to a dedicated blog [2n], [3n]. It might be a fad, but I think
it's a good idea, and you can use a distinct, but similar theme for the
blog. I think that's where Advertica Lite should go, as its typography
is perfect, but the landing page is not convincing enough. A different
look for a news site allows for a few modifications, too; you can expose
RSS feed and category listings, and hide irrelevant options from the
menu. The main page and the rest of the site is mostly about visuals;
the news site is all about text.<br><br></div><div>The question if
Advertica Lite won't just be maintaining a status quo in people's
reaction (except from the change from "oh, it's old" to "oh, it's new")
is not about what it does right, but about what it doesn't, and what's
wrong that it doesn't avoid. It's basically another do-all news site
without a strong feeling of what you should do next. I know Kubuntu is
not a commercial project, and we don't need to bait people into buying
anything, but it would be beneficial even for a veteran user to have a
visual cue to locate the download button; the download process itself
should be straight-forward and amount of clicks needed should be
minimised. A new release, or just a current number of a version the
download button points to, should be easy to spot. The intent of the
page – here, we have the best Linux for both casual and experienced
users, that is good for every environment – should be clear.<br><br></div><div>The
bad practices are now easy to point in ArchLinux' site[5] - a KISS
distro that has a reddit-type, complex website, where there is only one
download button, hidden from plain sight. Debian[4] is not good either -
it's engineer's interpretation of good practices in design, that turned
out badly. The 16-colour-palette blue is not a pleasant hue, the
download call-to-action is tiny on Full HD screens, and while the site
is responsive, it is certainly not mobile-friendly (links are densely
packed, the colors are too contrasting and hurt eyes in the long run).<br><br></div><div>To
end on a positive note, there are a few features worth using :) The
double menu (static big one in header and fixed top when scrolled down)
is a good idea, but its execution could be a bit better [6]. The header
image is OK, but it can contain a call-to-action within it, and be more
attractive. To look modern, we could use a photorealistic presentation
of the system's desktop, using a ready-made mockup [7][8] or take a
photo ourselves; Quintasan and I could try doing that on our balcony
with my HP or his Thinkpad, but I'm not sure about possible results.<br><br></div><div>That's all for now; sorry for "tl", and I hope you don't resort to "dr".<br></div><div><br></div>[1] Ubuntu - <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com" target="_blank">http://www.ubuntu.com</a><br></div>[1d] Ubuntu Desktop Download Page - <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop" target="_blank">http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop</a><br></div>[2] ElementaryOS - <a href="http://elementary.io/" target="_blank">http://elementary.io/</a><br></div><div>[2n] ElementaryOS' blog - <a href="http://blog.elementary.io/" target="_blank">http://blog.elementary.io/</a><br></div>[3] Fedora - <a href="https://getfedora.org/" target="_blank">https://getfedora.org/</a><br></div><div>[3n] Fedora Magazine - <a href="http://fedoramagazine.org/" target="_blank">http://fedoramagazine.org/</a><br></div>[4] Debian - <a href="https://www.debian.org/" target="_blank">https://www.debian.org/</a><br>[5] ArchLinux - <a href="https://www.archlinux.org/" target="_blank">https://www.archlinux.org/</a><br><br></div>[6] one of my coding jobs – the design is not mine, and I don't really take pride in it - <a href="http://oderpaare.de/" target="_blank">http://oderpaare.de/</a><br></div>[7] a free mockup; we could use this one on CC-BY, or shoot our own - <a href="http://www.blog.domdesignonline.de/kostenlos-laptop-mock-up/" target="_blank">http://www.blog.domdesignonline.de/kostenlos-laptop-mock-up/</a><br></div>[8] two collections of mockups, unfortunately, free versions are of no value to this project: <a href="https://placeit.net/" target="_blank">https://placeit.net/</a> , <a href="http://place.to/" target="_blank">http://place.to/</a></div>
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