[ubuntu-art] Main page discussion

[Michiel Sikma]

Matthew Nuzum wrote:
> 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.

That, or it's expected that the community will take care of it properly. 
I'm not certain. Does being a webmaster imply that you also make designs?

>> 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?

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."

I'm not sure which font the "LTS" letters are in. It's not the 
Ubuntu-title font, since it doesn't seem to contain any capitals.

I still don't think that it's a good thing to use the Ubuntu-title font 
for anything besides the logo. It just isn't really a good 
general-purpose font. It looks great on the logos, though. But the logo 
title font should be important enough to be reserved for official 
artwork and not just "tossed around". That decreases its value.

>> 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 wholeheartedly agree with that! The Ubuntu site has been a "wall of 
text" for a long time, and that's not really something people like to 
browse or read through. It's definitely so that there's a lot of text on 
the site and that it doesn't look very inviting.

(I omitted some of the rest of your mail because I agree with it and 
have no commentary.)

>> 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.

I too think that the main page needs a big redesign, but this design I 
sent in was more of a way to "roll back" until we figure out what the 
best way to do that is. Truthfully, I'd rather see the main page rolled 
back to what it was before (or to my version) as a temporary measure. 
The things I mentioned (such as the upscaled pictures used in the top 
block navigation, which look awful, as well as the insane saturation 
contrast on the letters that it uses, as well as the stretched 
typography et cetera) are, in my opinion, bad enough to warrant a revert.

> 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 haven't looked at the Novell site in a while, and you're right. It 
feels half-done. It's very empty and there's too much text in there.

Red Hat's site is awesome. Ubuntu would have to go through a MAJOR 
redesign if it were to be able to have such a nice navigation, though. I 
have ideas for a better site which I'd like to present in the future.

> 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.

I also don't exactly know how Ubuntu wishes to market itself, but I know 
that the current site doesn't address what they DO want. It's too boring 
and stale, I believe, for it to be anything near to the goals that 
Ubuntu has.

I believe that Ubuntu's marketing strategy is: quality software libre 
operating system, tightly integrated with community, shrouded in 
informality; appeal to individuals rather than corporations.

> 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.

I think that a really neat site you might want to take a look at is the 
old Audion 3 site, which everybody seems to have forgotten about, 
(Audion 3 is an audio player/editor for Mac OS which is no longer being 
updated):

http://panic.com/audion/

The main content is easily visible, the navigation is straightforward, 
and they successfully managed to place information alongside it as well, 
without being intrusive with it. This isn't exactly how I envision 
Ubuntu's site, but it's not a bad idea to take a look at it.

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

It'd be great if we could brainstorm about this. I work at a web design 
company too, although currently I'm only doing Flash. I like working 
with HTML too, though.