[ubuntu-art] Main page discussion

[Matthew Nuzum]

On 6/15/06, Michiel Sikma <michiel at thingmajig.org> wrote:
> Hey everybody, I recently had another look at the main page design of
> Ubuntu.com, which I don't really do often, and realized that it went
> through a bit of a redesign since I last checked there. I think that
> some of the things that are different should be changed, however. I'm
> not sure who's maintaining it, but maybe he could consider some of the
> changes that I'd like to propose:

Henrik has been doing this job, and even though it's not what he was
trained to do, I feel he's done excellent work.

Canonical recently had a job opening for a webmaster, but the job
listing has been removed, which suggests that the job has been filled.

> http://thingmajig.org/tmp/ubuntuhomepage_proposal.png
>
> First of all, I didn't really like the mini navigation at the top of the
> page. It's usually a good way of giving the user some basic navigation,
> but the current page design wasn't really created with that sort of
> navigation in mind, and as a result, it makes the page look a little
> awkward.

Are you referring to the tabs, or the four blocks?

> Secondly, I think that it's not really a good idea to use the
> Ubuntu-title font for anything other than official product names. This
> is because the font shouldn't become too commonplace and because it's
> still got a few problems such as the numbers that totally dwarf the
> undercase letters and the inability to use capitals (such as for the "LTS").

The LTS looks capitalized to me. Also, I don't think it looks great to
switch from a rounded font to an angular font for just the letters
"LTS."

> Lastly, I've done some minor fixes on some parts of the layout, such as
> the "related projects" logos not being perfectly lined up, the edges of
> the grey background of the navigation at the top-right not being
> anti-aliased, the typography being stretched/squished (which is a pretty
> bad thing to do), and the main page text not having any kind of an intro
> (I added the part in bold, the text for it comes from the Dapper CD design).

I think it's important to get people to their destination as quickly
as possible. Many websites tend to be "content heavy" with a "wall of
text." I feel the current design has improved drastically on this from
previous versions of the site.

I still feel the site is very text heavy on the home page however.
Case in point, two sites that produce a "competing" product, provide
scads of information to a variety of people who all seek different
things and do an excellent job of making the home page engaging,
informative and easy to navigate are apple and Microsoft (although
apple's website doesn't look nearly as good with the "I'm a mac"
advertisement right on front - previous versions were much better).
Both of these sites provide links to tons of information, but the
homepages only contain minimal information... everything points deeper
into the site.

I think the benefit of this is that people come to the site for many
different reasons. You're never going to be able to satisfy all or
even most of those people with the home page alone... instead, you
need to send them out to different pages that can thoroughly help each
in their own unique way. For example, contrast the needs of a person
wanting to download the cd to a person trying to get their network
card working.

The following statement is probably controversial, and I'm not willing
to say that it is absolutely true, but I think it is so. I doubt many
people come to the Ubunutu.com homepage and wonder "what is ubuntu?"
I'll bet they're thinking something like, "my friend says Ubunutu is
great, I want to try it," or, "I want to learn how to XYZ." I'm not
saying the "what is Ubuntu" question shouldn't be answered, it just
doesn't need to be answered with such great detail on the home page.

> Personally, I think that this looks okay. I do agree that we need to add
> a different kind of navigation into this site in the future to make
> people be able to get to the core part easily.

I agree. I would go so far as to say that the home page is all about
navigation. It's also OK if the home page uses a different (but
synergistic) navigation scheme than the rest of the site.

> Let it be known if you agree or disagree with these propositions. I
> think that these changes are a good start in any case.

I like the way you used the font on the "Ubnutu is..." blurb and I
also like the way you made the image big and bold. Your design isn't
bad, but it is more of the same thing that has been there for a while.

By the way, also contrast the RedHat home page and Novell's Suse Linux
home page.
www.redhat.com
www.novell.com/linux/

Doesn't the novell website make you just want to go to sleep, or go to
another website? Add conversely, doesn't the redhat website feel
vibrant and full of energy?

I think the Ubunutu website should definitely shy away from the
"sleepy" image. I don't know what the "mood" of the Canonical
marketing department is, but I don't think it's the "shameless self
promotion" that characterizes apple, therefore I think a mix of redhat
and microsoft home pages would fit the culture of the Ubunutu
community well.

Instead of starting with the Ubunutu website and looking for a way to
improve, I think it's better to look at innovative and exciting home
pages from other sites and see what we can use.

Others I like as inspiration are the www.mozilla.com and www.nasa.gov
home page (after the splash intro).

It would be fun to see what other website people like and don't like
as inspiration for the Ubuntu website.

BTW, I'm a webmaster and therefore I feel more interested in art from
the website perspective than the desktop perspective.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
www.bearfruit.org