This is an HTML mockup. My idea is that we should maintain both a community and commercial website, haiku-os.org and .com maybe ââ¬â One should be graphically rich, bright, flashy, everything to get Grandma or Junior to use Haiku when it is ready. Not a CMS, not a Blog, no developers, an HTML static website ââ¬â think RedHat.com or Apple.com. The other website would be the community-driven system. I have shown you my initial mockup for the community wiki, here is my idea for the commercial site.
It looks nice, but does it handle large amounts of data?
Looks bad, it’s just too flashy.
I’d propose using more pale colors and making it look good for BOTH developers and granmas. :x
And especially simple!
Edit: I’d propose colors between S = 45% - 55% (in HSV scale)
skoe wrote:
It looks nice, but does it handle large amounts of data?
yeah, thats just the index.
and it is supposed to be flashy.
I like the design 
, but it might still be just a little too bright even for an index. Also, the top banner graphic is very nice! 8) FYI down at the bottom in Welome to Haiku I think you want collects and not collections in the second to last line. 
Sorry, but did we ever agree on creating an official community website? While it may sound nice I would rather have one single, professional website for both, commercial and community. It should still be simple, but contain all necessary information. What do you want to add to the community website that could not go into the main website? I don’t really understand why we would want to split this. We need one central, official place for everyone.
wkornew wrote:
Sorry, but did we ever agree on creating an official community website? While it may sound nice I would rather have one single, professional website for both, commercial and community. It should still be simple, but contain all necessary information. What do you want to add to the community website that could not go into the main website? I don't really understand why we would want to split this. We need one central, official place for everyone.
I didn’t say we did. I was proposing an idea be I feel that too often community-oriented websites fail to satisfy the needs of the casual explorer. Haiku right now is still beginning. A novice, casual user couldn’t use Haiku. When Haiku gets to the point that it is very usable, we would want people to use it. Fedoraproject.org is another example of a website that has a strong community appeal, but little commercial appeal. Right now, we have a community website. community-oriented, little graphics (which are important), etc.
I thought that community sites have a lot of graphics in contrast to commerically-oriented ones. What exactly do you want to put on a community site that cannot be on a commercially oriented site? I think that we can easily combine both without overloading the website.
What we would like to have is a community site that does real community work:
- email accounts with AJAX-based very easy to use webmail client (maybe reusing concepts from googlemail)
- address book
- sync your address book with the community site
- maybe a BFS-like network file system service (Ingo is developing the FS)
- share files, contacts, emails, appointments with other members
- collaborate (VoIP?, desktop sharing, remote access, plan meetings, …)
- community projects
- software repos (like BeBits, but integrated with an automated Haiku update service and focused on freeware&open-source)
- SpreadHaiku and other marketing related work (representing the official Haiku Marketing Project)
- non-developer volunteers offering help (translate, document, test, etc.)
- community blog (my experience with Haiku)
- secret Haiku tricks and how to become more productive
- code bounties, donations for Haiku, offer hardware to Haiku developers
- your personal Haiku Community homepage
- … whatever comes to your mind that might attract more users and that is more innovative … get inspiration from .Mac service …
Now, if you were talking about that then we’re absolutely behind it.
Bye,
Waldemar Kornewald
I am not talking about a community website ââ¬â we have one already. Community websites aren’ t attractive to users who don’t want to know anything about the Haiku community, they just want to know about the commercial product. Mozilla.org vs. Mozilla.com. .com shocases commercial advantages, has screenshots, etc, no community content or “news posts”. .org has plenty of community content. I am saying Haiku needs a .com, a commercial website that lets people get, learn about, and get support for Haiku without the computer-babble. There should be no mention of contributing, source-code, or anything that a casual user doesn’t need. Plus, some people feel alienated by this kind of stuff. A single link for “developers” like on mozilla.com is good enough for all of that. They realized that they need a commercial front for their work and Haiku needs one too.
And, i don’t think they can be both the same site, because you cannot both have community content and NOT have community content at the same time.
I understand mozilla.org as the development site. Especially, since the development section at mozilla.com points you to mozilla.org.
Could you please give a complete spec about how the two sites should be organized, so we can get a better understanding of what you mean?
- layout (Home, Screenshots, Download, …)
- why should something be in .com and not in .org (i.e.: why did you choose one layout over the other?)
I’m not really sure if I can follow you. I mean, why would someone with commercial interest not want to see news (new version, new features, changes, etc.?)? Also, the commercial website definitely needs the “Collaborate” section because companies will have to know how to get the Haiku-Compatible logo, etc. Then, what computer babble are you talking about? I definitely don’t want to have computer babble on our website as long as you stay within the end-user sections (i.e.: stay away from “Development”). A casual user will actually only browse the front page, see that there is a new version, and click “Download Now!”. That’s it.
The mockup is OK in terms of layout, but overall there’s far too much going on in terms of colours and graphics for it to feel professional. Don’t be afraid of a little whitespace, both Apple and Red Hat utilise it to good effect.
Dirty Harry wrote:
The mockup is OK in terms of layout, but overall there's far too much going on in terms of colours and graphics for it to feel professional. Don't be afraid of a little whitespace, both Apple and Red Hat utilise it to good effect.
Not afraid of whitespace, look at Microsoft’s website - they have very little whitespace, but the site is still OK
Don’t design for designers! Design for users!
Purposeless wrote:
Don't design for designers! Design for users!
Yes . . exactly. Many of you are too concerned with the “standards” “established” for “usability”. (Yes, air quotes on each of those words). I design for the end user, and they like eye candy, and things that are attractive. People like images. People like to see information more than they like reading it. iPod ads for instance, they say a lot about the product and there are two lines of text “iPod + iTunes” and “Apple”. Microsoft’s website is quite a bit more attractive than suse.com is. openSuSe.org is getting there ââ¬â its bright, and it presents a lot of accessible information. Visit hula-project.com, mono-project.com, beagle-project.com. There is a lot of visual information there. Haiku-os.org ââ¬â not so much.
ar1000 wrote:
Purposeless wrote:Don't design for designers! Design for users!Yes . . exactly. Many of you are too concerned with the “standards” “established” for “usability”. (Yes, air quotes on each of those words). I design for the end user, and they like eye candy, and things that are attractive. People like images. People like to see information more than they like reading it. iPod ads for instance, they say a lot about the product and there are two lines of text “iPod + iTunes” and “Apple”. Microsoft’s website is quite a bit more attractive than suse.com is. openSuSe.org is getting there ââ¬â its bright, and it presents a lot of accessible information. Visit hula-project.com, mono-project.com, beagle-project.com. There is a lot of visual information there. Haiku-os.org ââ¬â not so much.
Yup - which is why "a picture is worth a thousand words" - and why screenshots "sell" products more than anything else.
But, that usually only gets people interested - using the system/site is still important - and requires a proper balance of usability and eye candy. There are many people that “just want to get the information” - and really don’t care all that much how it looks - or would rather it looked dull and non-flashy as long as it’s laid out cleanly and they can find what they need quickly. It is important to please these users also.