Posted by
David E Jones-2 on
URL: http://ofbiz.116.s1.nabble.com/Reviewing-the-links-of-the-main-ofbiz-org-site-tp172431p172432.html
I very much agree that the ofbiz.org web site could use some
improvement, although I rather think that at this point it needs more
of a planned re-design rather than iterative improvements.
First maybe some background of the current site:
1. the structure of the site, except for reorganizing and adding some
color to the home page about a year and a half ago (looks like April
2005), has not changed in a few years and is basically the original
structure of the site
2. the intent of the web site from the beginning of the project has
been to serve the needs of developers and hopefully attract
contributors, ie people that are detail oriented and have the skills
and/or interest necessary to be able, and likely to, contribute to
the project in a meaningful way
3. the project is now reaching a point where we do want to attract
more end-users that will likely not contribute directly to the
project, or even interact directly with it, but that are certainly
still extremely important to the long term success and stability of
the project
4. the web site has been created and maintained by a single person
(yours truly and sincerely) with little feedback except for
occasional small mistakes or needs for change or contributions like
testimonials and case studies (which we could use a LOT more of); the
person who has created and is maintaining the site has done quite a
bit of research on web site usability including reviewing various
case studies (the current "big page" design for the home page was
based on a case study of amazon.com) and studied human-computer
interaction in his one semester of graduate school, and so he knows
very well that one of the big problems with the current site is that
it has had no usability studies, and not enough feedback from actual
users to substitute for that; he is also not a graphic designer and
has demonstrated this by creating the current layout and color scheme
of the ofbiz site
Because of this history of the site and the changing direction of the
project, my opinion is that instead of starting with what we've got
and talking about moving things around, perhaps we should start with
more of a blank slate and talk about what we'd like the site to look
like, and then after something is in place there review the current
stuff and decide where everything should go (including a trash bin
option...).
With iterative changes at this point, like the ones you've proposed
which are individually good, I think it could hide resources or make
the site more difficult to navigate for a while, ie until it finally
settles down, and during that period it could be even worse than it
is now in terms of usability, find-ability, et cetera.
-David
On Sep 15, 2006, at 4:31 AM, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> what about simplifying the main page of the OFBiz website:
>
>
http://incubator.apache.org/ofbiz/>
> ?
>
> I've started reviewing the links in the left column (that for your
> convenience I've copied at the bottom of this message), and I think
> that some of them are unnecessary and can be removed or at least
> moved to a new web page named "Misc Resources" (or something like
> this).
>
> In detail:
>
> 1) the section "Cool Sites" could be removed
>
> 2) the sections "Apache OFBiz Communities" and "Apache OFBiz
> Related Blogs" could be moved to the new "Resources" page
>
> 3) in the "What is OFBiz?" section, the links "Brochures",
> "Conference Videos" and "Framework Intro Videos" should be moved to
> the
http://incubator.apache.org/ofbiz/documents.html page
>
> 4) in the "Download OFBiz" section:
> 4a) the links "Getting And Using OFBiz", "Production Setup Guide",
> should be moved to the
http://incubator.apache.org/ofbiz/
> documents.html page
> 4b) the "Documentation" link can be removed
> 4c) the "Release Notes" link can be removed (or hidden) because it
> the referenced document is too old
> 4d) the "Download Releases" link should be hidden or should point
> to the new (temp) folder where the RC1 is stored: I think that the
> reference to the OLD sourceforge release can be very confusing for
> new users
>
> 5) in the "Resources & Tools" section:
> 5a) add a new link to the new "Misc Resources" page (that needs to
> be created)
> 5b) move the "Old Mailing Lists", "The Old Java.net Site",
> "The Old SourceForge.net Site", "Old Wiki" links to the new "Misc
> Resources" page
> 5c) remove the "Old Jira (Issue Tracker)" link
> 5d) all the following links can be moved (they are already in the
> "documentation" page): "Documentation (Confluence)", "Production
> Setup Guide", "Documentation" (maybe we could leave just this),
> "Conference Videos"
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Jacopo
>
>
> ===================================================
> ***What is OFBiz?***
>
> General Overview
> Is OFBiz for Me?
> Feature List
> Features Coming Soon
> Brochures
> Documentation
> Conference Videos
> Framework Intro Videos
>
> ***Demo Site***
>
> Extended Demo by Open Travel System
> eCommerce Demo
> Management Console
> Hotel Frontend
> Hotel Backend
>
> ***Download OFBiz***
>
> Getting And Using OFBiz (PDF)
> Production Setup Guide
> Source Access (Recommended)
> Release Notes
> Download Releases
> Weekly Builds
> Documentation
> Copyright & License
>
> ***Resources & Tools***
>
> Apache Incubator Status
> dev Mailing List
> user Mailing List
> commits Mailing List
> Old Mailing Lists
> Apache OFBiz - Jira (Issue Tracker)
> Old Jira (Issue Tracker)
> SVN (Source Repository)
> Documentation (Confluence)
> Docs Site: Wiki
> Old Wiki
> Production Setup Guide
> Documentation
> Conference Videos
> The Old Java.net Site
> The Old SourceForge.net Site
>
> ***Apache OFBiz Related Blogs***
>
> OFBiz and Open Source by David E. Jones
> What's New in OFBiz by Si Chen
>
> ***Apache OFBiz Communities***
>
> Locales
> United Kingdom
> Germany
> France
> Netherlands
> China
> Industries
> Government
> Travel
>
> ***Cool Sites***
>
> Java.Net
> SourceForge
> FreshMeat
> NewsForge
> Slashdot
> JavaLobby
> TheServerSide