some thoughts on the OFBIZ.org site redesign

Posted by Si Chen-2 on Jun 23, 2006; 5:53pm
URL: http://ofbiz.116.s1.nabble.com/some-thoughts-on-the-OFBIZ-org-site-redesign-tp168708.html

David, Tim, Mike, et al-

I'm really excited about the OFBIZ.org site redesign and think  
this'll be great for the project.  I just had a couple of thoughts  
about it:

1.  It should be more "visual" but not overly graphical or fancy with  
flash or images, etc.  I think open sourcers are looking for  
information, and something that looks overly commercial would not be  
right.

2.  We should play up more about the sites, products, and projects  
that use OFBiz.  It's really great how many major commercial sites,  
products, and open source projects use OFBiz, and that should give us  
more credibility.

3.  Above all, we should talk about what OFBiz stands for -- what are  
the core values or principles of the project, both technically and  
culturally, and why they are better for the developers and users of  
OFBiz.  I think people try open source because it's free, use it  
because it works for them, but then get passionate about it because  
they identify with its values and ideals, so it's really important  
than we communicate ours clearly.  For example, we just discussed the  
roles and responsibilities of our committers on the DEV list.  I  
think we should have information like that and then explain to  
newbies what that really means.  We should similarly discuss what the  
philosophy behind the framework and applications are and then explain  
why it's great.

Again, I'm very excited about the site redesign and the new logo and  
really appreciate your work on this.

Si