Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 00:45:25 -0500 From: Adam Weinberger <adamw@FreeBSD.org> To: www@freebsd.org Subject: front page thoughts Message-ID: <20040402054525.GE12801@toxic.magnesium.net>
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WWW team - I know how much "fun" it is to receive unrequested advice, especially when said advice contains no actual advice whatsoever. But in the spirit of sharing my thoughts, I figured I should share my thoughts. The front page is _really_ cluttered. The page is so busy that it's difficult to find things on it unless you already know where they are. There's a lot of stuff on there that doesn't need to be on the very front page. The GNOME Project's webpage is a great example of un-clutteredness, IMO. (http://www.gnome.org) The pertinent information is easily available, but not taking up space on the front page. One idea from that page that seems like the FreeBSD page could really use is separation of resources. 6 links about bug reports are useless to people who want to know how to install FreeBSD; likewise, 9 sizable paragraphs about why FreeBSD is great is not of much use to developers. Why not consider separating the links from the front page into sections keyed to various groups: New Users, Current Users, and Developers? Nothing is more frustrating to a new user than feeling overwhelmed before they've even begun. If it wasn't for the help that wpaul gave me at first, I would have gone back to the OpenBSD from whence I came. New users want to know where the installation files are, where the step-by-step instructions are, the basic docs for how to get started, etc. Current users want access to the documentation, and information about the releases. They want mailing list info, and information about ports. Developers want the tools that are available to them. They want quick links to the parts that they use the most... i.e. pre-built common bug report searches are probably a lot more useful than "view all bug reports." The list of reasons why FreeBSD is teh r0xx0r is good to have, but way too verbose for the front page. If someone comes to the page asking, "Okay, why do I want this FreeBSD bidness," are they really expected to read a bunch of text wedged between a bunch of text, wedged between two sidebars with a bunch of text? It looks like the design of the page is to give immediate access to as much information as possible. However, we're dealing with net-savvy people here; it's reasonable to ask them to click a link or two to drill down to what they're looking for. FreeBSD's website looks very old. It uses a colour and design layout that is not popular anymore. Cleaning up the front page and minimizing the clutter would do a lot to make the site seem more professional, accessible, and well-maintained. Just my $0.02. # Adam -- Adam Weinberger adamw@magnesium.net || adamw@FreeBSD.org adamw@vectors.cx || adamw@gnome.org http://www.vectors.cx
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