New download pages, brainstorming

[Máirín Duffy]

On 08/26/2013 09:52 AM, Robert Mayr wrote:
> 1) Create a drop-down menu on our main page, where we can also add in
> the next months other important changes (fedoramagazine, features,
> etc), to help users to find their desired format or spin faster than
> now. I'm adding a mockup for this here. [2]

This is inconsistent with our website chrome and it blocks banner
content so I'm not convinced it's the right call.

Are there patterns from other websites you're using to inform this
design? Or is it gut? I put the term 'screenshots' in 'Features &
Screenshots' the nav bar because after reviewing dozens of app and OS
websites, it's a really common thing to have in the primary nav. What
problem are you trying to solve by pulling it out and putting it in a
submenu?


> 2) Drop the get-fedora-all page completely!
> This doesn't mean I don't want it's content. I'd think more of having
> no more duplicates (some spins are available on 2 or more pages) and
> complete our very nice get-fedora-options page with missing
> informations.

I don't think duplicate info is a problem. People come to sites with
different needs in mind - for someone with need a, they might go to the
one page, person with need b the other page, and the duplicate spins
might help both.

> Finally I'd like to have all spins on spins.fp.o, which means we have
> to include our spin page better in our main fedoraproject.org site to
> have the same effect as now.

What do you mean by this? Make it more visible, or integrate it? (I
think the former is okay, but I don't think we should integrate it at
all. They are not supported anywhere near the level of the main
downloads promoted on get.fpo and listing them equally will give a false
impression.)

> 3) Use the get-fedora page to promote all the shipping methods
> The clearest method to do so IMHO would be to drop also the right
> random banners we have on the sidebar (Desktop, 2nd-arches, Cloud,
> Spins) and to put them into the get-fedora page. See a mockup here
> [3], althoough it's not complete (obviously I don't want to have the
> 2nd-arches banner alone there and will make them nicer when writing
> the code). The banners should link to the tabs in get-fedora-options
> or to our spins page and give users a clear idea of what is available.

Why would you call out desktop specifically when the desktop edition is
already there on the page? Why would someone click on 'desktop'? Who are
you thinking would be looking for that?

I can see promoting cloud here, or even giving cloud a box like the
'Fedora 19 Desktop Edition' that says 'Fedora 19 Cloud Edition' or
whatnot. I don't like promoting spins with just a button that says spins
because people new to fedora have no idea what spins are. I could see
promoting the arm builds here since arm is pretty relevant and a lot of
people are talking about it and using it for various devices, but I'm
not quite sure s390 and ppc builds are really anywhere near as
interesting or useful to folks browsing this page.

> Same for get-pre-release:we can continue to promote it easily on the
> get-fedora page and we could also advertise it better on our main page
> (drop down menu).

Who do we want using pre-releases? The site was originally designed with
the intent of being more of a showroom for users new to or considering
Fedora. Testers know how to get pre-releases and don't need so much
guidance.

> 4) Sidebar: if we want to go ahead with this kind of restyling we can
> drop a lot of stuff on our sidebar, like the rotating banners and the
> events.

Why would we want to drop that content? What problems would that solve?

> Instead of it why not use something nicer? Badges or social networks
> for example? Look at this mockup [4], I'd love it.

Do we actually have social media presences in all those venues? (I don't
think we do) We could put little icons like that for the social media
presences we do have though and have just one row.

I don't know if the sidebar is a good place for general fedora stuff
advertising - that is what we have the sliders on the front page for,
isn't it?
> 
> I have created a dedicated branch (web-dl-redesign) to work on and try
> to have it all running and ready for production within F20 GA Release.
> 
> Please let me know your thoughts, your ideas and improvements, I'd be
> also happy if someone wants to help me with this part of work. Kévin
> (shaiton) will do the background scripting part (thx) to have our
> variables running the right way also for a completely new download
> pages management.
> And thanks to Maria (tatica) for her drop down menu mockup ;)

Thanks for kicking this off, it's clear we need some kind of change. I
think we need to talk a bit more about the problems we're trying to
solve first though.

> [3] http://paste.opensuse.org/94023207

With this design in particular, I worry that this design says "nobody
could make up their mind what is important, so they put everything up
front."

I don't think this is the right approach.

We need direction from FESCO or the Board (or both) as to what we should
be primarily promoting. We cannot promote all 20*n potential downlaods
we have available equally.

~m