website mockups, what is fedora?

[Máirín Duffy]

On Sat, 2009-08-22 at 02:01 -0400, Ben Boeckel wrote:
> *sigh* Using KMail now with mail delivery on and now I forget to check the receiver.
> 
okay ill resend my reply

Thanks for giving it a try. Here are the problems I see with the mockup:

- Are you NEW? Go over *there*. This isn't for you.  (not very
welcoming)

- Okay, now that we got rid of the n00bs in the room. Let me tell you
information you likely already know. Here's what an Edition is... blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

- Are you going to have a single download link above the fold?

--- page fold ---

Actual download links down here

- What happens if you have more than 4 desktop environments? How does
the design handle that?

- The DVD section might as well not be there. It's down in Antarctica.
And how do you explain what the DVD has in it in relation to the spins? 

- What if I want KDE x86_64? Where do I go? These are technical people,
they need access to all the arches.

- What if (quite likely) all of the desktop environment logos clash with
each other and they don't all look professional? 

- What is the sidebar going to have in it? The documentation we have in
the sidebar in the mockups is going to be useless because it is
GNOME-only.

- What if I want the Electronics spin? What if I want the Art studio
spin? There's no mention of the possibility of these here.

- Fedora is not a menagerie of desktop environments. This makes it seem
as if it is. Gotta collect them all. Here is pikachu, here is.. uh,
toad-guy, here is giraffe guy... 

- If you're catering to people who know what they're doing, you better
offer a bittorrent link per spin. And an md5 sum. And a link to the gpg
keys to verify the packages. 

You've basically turned the design inside out. The designs I did make it
very easy and welcoming for newbies (where newbies != grandma), and they
require just one additional click from people who are already in the
community and feel welcome.

This design basically makes it clear that new people are not very
welcome - it provides a lot of choices right away, and tells the newbies
to go elsewhere, forcing them through 3 clicks and 3 page loads just to
get Fedora. They haven't bought in yet. Current community members have. 

I'm also curious how this design would interact with the big 'download'
button on the front page that has been proposed.

~m