12:17 p.m.
Hello all,
Warning: This email is long, but important.
I've been working on a new website design for oVirt, and gave folks a
preview during yesterday's weekly status IRC meeting.
The website mockup is at:
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/mockup-1/
(This is simply a static PNG exported from Inkscape, wrapped in a very
simple HTML page. Therefore, don't expect it to scale with your browser,
have selectable text, etc.)
The mockup has many different sections and updates, and I will explain
each change, as well as the thought process that went into each, below.
There are two main things to remember about this design:
1) It's a bunch of individual changes that work together.
2) It's a work in progress.
Also, the mockup was designed with our target audience in mind:
administrators (setting up and running the software), enthusiasts (who
may run instances at home), and programmers (tinkering with and
contributing back to the project), all with experience using Linux or
some form of UNIX. It is also important to note that our audience is
specifically _not_ casual desktop users (although they could benefit
from someone setting up and maintaining oVirt for them).
I'm eager to hear feedback on any and all changes, and work with you to
refine everything.
When you do provide feedback, and want to discuss more than one point,
please limit each email to one aspect of the site at a time. If you'd
like to talk about the logo and the site structure, for instance, please
send one email specifically talking about the logo, and then another
discussing the structure. This should make conversations easier for
everyone to follow and make it easier for me to track requested updates.
Thanks!
== Detailed changes ==
= Logo =
The oVirt logo is actually quite similar. I altered the "o" glyph, to
make it more aesthetically pleasing.
Comparison graphic between current and new (in simple greyscale, to make
it easy to see the difference):
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/logo/ovirt-logo-proposed.png
= Color =
oVirt.org, right now, uses a green color throughout the site. The oVirt
administration UI also features green in its header. As a result, I've
pulled in that green and used it as the primary accent color for the new
site design.
(It also has the advantage that it is not blue, which is overused for
iconography, on the Internet, and for software in general.)
= Style =
Based on the typeface of our logo and our highlight color, our new style
reflects simplicity, openness, vibrancy, and elegance.
We can make this style work for both the WordPress and Wiki parts of the
site.
= Site structure =
A revised site structure is hinted at in the front page mockup. You can
see this reflected in the top navigation. I did some overall
categorization, strongly influenced by Dave Neary's pre-existing work on
the topic.
You can see a proposed sitemap here:
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/ovirt-sitemap.txt
This is a general grouping of types of content, not necessarily a view
of the top-level page, or of sub-pages. In some cases, these items would
be sub-level pages, in others, they would be part of the navigation page.
The documentation page would highlight the best documentation available,
regardless of format - e.g. wiki, blog posts, etc. - and also have a
prominent link to the wiki. Other sub-pages may also link to the wiki,
if there is pertinent information (such as live docs for developers,
linked to from the develop section).
= Tagline =
This is a short, catchy phrase to indicate what the project is all
about. Since the target of oVirt is running on a server, most likely in
a datacenter, and it's open source, I figured we should make this prominent.
Usually taglines are simple and direct, and often have some sort of play
on words. "Open your virtual datacenter" can be interpreted in a few ways:
1) You can use oVirt to start (open up) a datacenter with virtualization
2) Take your existing datacenter and virtualize it
3) Use oVirt as an open source solution to manage your datacenter
= Supporting lead-in text =
It's important to start with some powerful explanatory text to state the
overall goal of the project. Usually, this ranges from a phrase to
around a sentence or two.
I wanted to express the purpose of the oVirt software in a very
high-level view, as a hook to get people interested to read more.
= Call to action =
"Start using oVirt now »" is a call-to-action button. After the simple
text explaining what oVirt is, it's important to provide an obvious next
step.
After clicking the button, it would take the viewer to another page
where it provides a quick and simple way to start using oVirt.
Naturally, one would have to download oVirt to use it, so it should be
super-easy to do on this page. The page should also start a simple
step-by-step guide on getting oVirt working on one's own system(s).
I'm thinking that this may be, perhaps, simply a link to the "Download &
Use" section. Yes, it's in the navigation, but it does provide a very
important and clear next step, which helps with a natural-feeling
progression for an interested viewer of oVirt.org.
(BTW: If the simple guide is too complex, then we need to work at
further simplifying the process of setting up oVirt. It's important to
try to lower the barrier to entry. Part of this is making sure that
oVirt can run on one machine as well, and possibly booting from live USB
media for first-time evaluation purposes.)
= Front-page sections =
Most of text on the mockup is, in some way, based on content from the
current oVirt.org website — it's just edited a bit.
While most everyone appreciates a clean aesthetic, our primary target
group *also* likes to get to the point and see the information right up
front. The mockup of the front page that I'm presenting is based on this
concept.
In addition to being an overview of the project and the software it
produces, it also makes it really easy to explore from the content areas
to relevant other parts of the website. By bringing the top-level
navigation into the context of the overviews, we make it easier for
someone to jump to other sections, instead of having to scroll back up
to rely on the navigation.
The order of the front-page sections is important too. A goal with this
design was to:
1) Introduce people to oVirt, with a simple explanation
2) Let people know right upfront that it's an active project (release
blurb)
3) Detail some of the most important features
4) Make it clear that it's a community project
5) Provide timely news & a way to easily get more info
6) Publish information on upcoming oVirt-related events (currently, in the
mockup, there's filler text for the time being)
Items #5 & #6 should both have a way to subscribe so that someone could
access this information without visiting oVirt.org. Twitter solves the
news component for us; we have to make sure the calendar is able to be
subscribed to as well.
-=-=-
Thanks for reading all of this! I'm looking forward to all
conversations, especially if it's constructive (regardless of a
positive, negative, or neutral slant).
Garrett
12:44 p.m.
On 08/16/2012 08:17 PM, Garrett LeSage wrote:
Hello all,
Warning: This email is long, but important.
I've been working on a new website design for oVirt, and gave folks a
preview during yesterday's weekly status IRC meeting.
The website mockup is at:
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/mockup-1/
(This is simply a static PNG exported from Inkscape, wrapped in a very
simple HTML page. Therefore, don't expect it to scale with your
browser, have selectable text, etc.)
The mockup has many different sections and updates, and I will explain
each change, as well as the thought process that went into each, below.
There are two main things to remember about this design:
1) It's a bunch of individual changes that work together.
2) It's a work in progress.
Also, the mockup was designed with our target audience in mind:
administrators (setting up and running the software), enthusiasts (who
may run instances at home), and programmers (tinkering with and
contributing back to the project), all with experience using Linux or
some form of UNIX. It is also important to note that our audience is
specifically _not_ casual desktop users (although they could benefit
from someone setting up and maintaining oVirt for them).
I'm eager to hear feedback on any and all changes, and work with you
to refine everything.
When you do provide feedback, and want to discuss more than one point,
please limit each email to one aspect of the site at a time. If you'd
like to talk about the logo and the site structure, for instance,
please send one email specifically talking about the logo, and then
another discussing the structure. This should make conversations
easier for everyone to follow and make it easier for me to track
requested updates. Thanks!
== Detailed changes ==
= Logo =
The oVirt logo is actually quite similar. I altered the "o" glyph, to
make it more aesthetically pleasing.
Comparison graphic between current and new (in simple greyscale, to
make it easy to see the difference):
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/logo/ovirt-logo-proposed.png
= Color =
oVirt.org, right now, uses a green color throughout the site. The
oVirt administration UI also features green in its header. As a
result, I've pulled in that green and used it as the primary accent
color for the new site design.
(It also has the advantage that it is not blue, which is overused for
iconography, on the Internet, and for software in general.)
= Style =
Based on the typeface of our logo and our highlight color, our new
style reflects simplicity, openness, vibrancy, and elegance.
We can make this style work for both the WordPress and Wiki parts of
the site.
= Site structure =
A revised site structure is hinted at in the front page mockup. You
can see this reflected in the top navigation. I did some overall
categorization, strongly influenced by Dave Neary's pre-existing work
on the topic.
You can see a proposed sitemap here:
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/ovirt-sitemap.txt
This is a general grouping of types of content, not necessarily a view
of the top-level page, or of sub-pages. In some cases, these items
would be sub-level pages, in others, they would be part of the
navigation page.
The documentation page would highlight the best documentation
available, regardless of format - e.g. wiki, blog posts, etc. - and
also have a prominent link to the wiki. Other sub-pages may also link
to the wiki, if there is pertinent information (such as live docs for
developers, linked to from the develop section).
= Tagline =
This is a short, catchy phrase to indicate what the project is all
about. Since the target of oVirt is running on a server, most likely
in a datacenter, and it's open source, I figured we should make this
prominent.
Usually taglines are simple and direct, and often have some sort of
play on words. "Open your virtual datacenter" can be interpreted in a
few ways:
1) You can use oVirt to start (open up) a datacenter with virtualization
2) Take your existing datacenter and virtualize it
3) Use oVirt as an open source solution to manage your datacenter
= Supporting lead-in text =
It's important to start with some powerful explanatory text to state
the overall goal of the project. Usually, this ranges from a phrase to
around a sentence or two.
I wanted to express the purpose of the oVirt software in a very
high-level view, as a hook to get people interested to read more.
= Call to action =
"Start using oVirt now »" is a call-to-action button. After the simple
text explaining what oVirt is, it's important to provide an obvious
next step.
After clicking the button, it would take the viewer to another page
where it provides a quick and simple way to start using oVirt.
Naturally, one would have to download oVirt to use it, so it should be
super-easy to do on this page. The page should also start a simple
step-by-step guide on getting oVirt working on one's own system(s).
I'm thinking that this may be, perhaps, simply a link to the "Download
& Use" section. Yes, it's in the navigation, but it does provide a
very important and clear next step, which helps with a natural-feeling
progression for an interested viewer of oVirt.org.
(BTW: If the simple guide is too complex, then we need to work at
further simplifying the process of setting up oVirt. It's important to
try to lower the barrier to entry. Part of this is making sure that
oVirt can run on one machine as well, and possibly booting from live
USB media for first-time evaluation purposes.)
= Front-page sections =
Most of text on the mockup is, in some way, based on content from the
current oVirt.org website — it's just edited a bit.
While most everyone appreciates a clean aesthetic, our primary target
group *also* likes to get to the point and see the information right
up front. The mockup of the front page that I'm presenting is based on
this concept.
In addition to being an overview of the project and the software it
produces, it also makes it really easy to explore from the content
areas to relevant other parts of the website. By bringing the
top-level navigation into the context of the overviews, we make it
easier for someone to jump to other sections, instead of having to
scroll back up to rely on the navigation.
The order of the front-page sections is important too. A goal with
this design was to:
1) Introduce people to oVirt, with a simple explanation
2) Let people know right upfront that it's an active project (release
blurb)
3) Detail some of the most important features
4) Make it clear that it's a community project
5) Provide timely news & a way to easily get more info
6) Publish information on upcoming oVirt-related events (currently, in
the
mockup, there's filler text for the time being)
Items #5 & #6 should both have a way to subscribe so that someone
could access this information without visiting oVirt.org. Twitter
solves the news component for us; we have to make sure the calendar is
able to be subscribed to as well.
-=-=-
Thanks for reading all of this! I'm looking forward to all
conversations, especially if it's constructive (regardless of a
positive, negative, or neutral slant).
Garrett
_______________________________________________
Board mailing list
Board(a)ovirt.org
http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/board
Looks ten times better than current site!
- My 1366x768 laptop display cannot keep up with the length and width of
the page.
- I'm not sure what is the different between the 'use' and
'documentation', and community and develop - they are tightly together.
How about 'Use' - 'Interact' - 'Contribute' : use (which will
encompass
download and documentation), Contribute (for develop) and Interact (for
community)
Y.
3:29 a.m.
On Thu 16 Aug 2012 07:44:29 PM CEST, Yaniv Kaul wrote:
Looks ten times better than current site!
Thanks! I'm glad you like it!
- My 1366x768 laptop display cannot keep up with the length and width
of the page.
This mockup is a static PNG (which happens to be 1020×1192). I'll make
sure the actual page adapts to different resolutions.
(It will definitely work fine on your resolution without horizontal
scrolling.)
- I'm not sure what is the different between the 'use'
and
'documentation', and community and develop - they are tightly
together. How about 'Use' - 'Interact' - 'Contribute' : use
(which
will encompass download and documentation), Contribute (for develop)
and Interact (for community)
I'm open for discussing the wording.
However, I chose the names for the navigation for a few reasons:
1) People are strongly conditioned to look for the word "download".
It's an very important keyword to have on every software-related site.
I added "use" there as well, as a place to give quick start information
as well as possible uses — the latter of which would link to the
documentation. (Use = getting started information.)
2) Community is a commonly used word among developers, so it's used in
the mockup for similar reasons. (It's not as strong as a word as
download is, however, but it does have a extremely close association
with FOSS projects.) The section will contain information about the
community involvement, governance, mailing lists, and information on
how to join IRC.
Documentation is a top-level section, as:
• we have quite a lot of documentation already
• it provides a quick link for those who want to do something more with
the oVirt instance they have set up
• it is primarily focused on end-user documentation, not developer
documentation (hence the develop area)
As for your other suggestions:
• Interact may mean interacting with the oVirt software, the oVirt
community, or even oVirt.org itself (as if the site would be a hosted
service, for example). It's a bit ambiguous, and the navigation should
strive to be very clear places to navigate to.
• "Contribute" might work instead of "develop".
Summary: I chose the sections, words, and even the order for the
navigation with purpose. Your suggestion of "contribute" could be a
replacement for "develop", but it would require further thought (and
perhaps some discussion).
Thanks for your feedback!
Garrett
4:08 a.m.
On 17/08/12 11:29, Garrett LeSage wrote:
On Thu 16 Aug 2012 07:44:29 PM CEST, Yaniv Kaul wrote:
> Looks ten times better than current site!
Thanks! I'm glad you like it!
I also find this much better than what we have today.
Adding more comments in context.
> - My 1366x768 laptop display cannot keep up with the length and width
> of the page.
This mockup is a static PNG (which happens to be 1020×1192). I'll make
sure the actual page adapts to different resolutions.
(It will definitely work fine on your resolution without horizontal
scrolling.)
> - I'm not sure what is the different between the 'use' and
> 'documentation', and community and develop - they are tightly
> together. How about 'Use' - 'Interact' - 'Contribute' : use
(which
> will encompass download and documentation), Contribute (for develop)
> and Interact (for community)
I'm open for discussing the wording.
However, I chose the names for the navigation for a few reasons:
1) People are strongly conditioned to look for the word "download". It's
an very important keyword to have on every software-related site. I
added "use" there as well, as a place to give quick start information as
well as possible uses — the latter of which would link to the
documentation. (Use = getting started information.)
+1 for using download.
The download is something users are looking for but I think we don't
need to add 'Use' there as well.
the quick start information can be a link under documentation and even
if we add a link to that next in the download page I think it does not
have to be reflected in the main navigation link.
2) Community is a commonly used word among developers, so it's used in
the mockup for similar reasons. (It's not as strong as a word as
download is, however, but it does have a extremely close association
with FOSS projects.) The section will contain information about the
community involvement, governance, mailing lists, and information on how
to join IRC.
Documentation is a top-level section, as:
• we have quite a lot of documentation already
• it provides a quick link for those who want to do something more with
the oVirt instance they have set up
• it is primarily focused on end-user documentation, not developer
documentation (hence the develop area)
As for your other suggestions:
• Interact may mean interacting with the oVirt software, the oVirt
community, or even oVirt.org itself (as if the site would be a hosted
service, for example). It's a bit ambiguous, and the navigation should
strive to be very clear places to navigate to.
• "Contribute" might work instead of "develop".
How about 'Developers' ?
Contribute is not clear as we consider many forms of participation to be
contributions, like reporting on bugs and responding to mails on the
lists etc.
Summary: I chose the sections, words, and even the order for the
navigation with purpose. Your suggestion of "contribute" could be a
replacement for "develop", but it would require further thought (and
perhaps some discussion).
Thanks for your feedback!
Garrett
_______________________________________________
Infra mailing list
Infra(a)ovirt.org
http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/infra
2:49 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Garrett LeSage" <garrett(a)redhat.com>
To: infra(a)ovirt.org, board(a)ovirt.org
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 8:17:10 PM
Subject: new design: request for comments
Hello all,
Warning: This email is long, but important.
I've been working on a new website design for oVirt, and gave folks a
preview during yesterday's weekly status IRC meeting.
The website mockup is at:
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/mockup-1/
(This is simply a static PNG exported from Inkscape, wrapped in a
very
simple HTML page. Therefore, don't expect it to scale with your
browser,
have selectable text, etc.)
The mockup has many different sections and updates, and I will
explain
each change, as well as the thought process that went into each,
below.
There are two main things to remember about this design:
1) It's a bunch of individual changes that work together.
2) It's a work in progress.
Also, the mockup was designed with our target audience in mind:
administrators (setting up and running the software), enthusiasts
(who
may run instances at home), and programmers (tinkering with and
contributing back to the project), all with experience using Linux or
some form of UNIX. It is also important to note that our audience is
specifically _not_ casual desktop users (although they could benefit
from someone setting up and maintaining oVirt for them).
I'm eager to hear feedback on any and all changes, and work with you
to
refine everything.
When you do provide feedback, and want to discuss more than one
point,
please limit each email to one aspect of the site at a time. If you'd
like to talk about the logo and the site structure, for instance,
please
send one email specifically talking about the logo, and then another
discussing the structure. This should make conversations easier for
everyone to follow and make it easier for me to track requested
updates.
Thanks!
== Detailed changes ==
= Logo =
The oVirt logo is actually quite similar. I altered the "o" glyph, to
make it more aesthetically pleasing.
Comparison graphic between current and new (in simple greyscale, to
make
it easy to see the difference):
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/logo/ovirt-logo-proposed.png
= Color =
oVirt.org, right now, uses a green color throughout the site. The
oVirt
administration UI also features green in its header. As a result,
I've
pulled in that green and used it as the primary accent color for the
new
site design.
(It also has the advantage that it is not blue, which is overused for
iconography, on the Internet, and for software in general.)
really liked the colors, looks much better the today.
= Style =
Based on the typeface of our logo and our highlight color, our new
style
reflects simplicity, openness, vibrancy, and elegance.
We can make this style work for both the WordPress and Wiki parts of
the
site.
= Site structure =
A revised site structure is hinted at in the front page mockup. You
can
see this reflected in the top navigation. I did some overall
categorization, strongly influenced by Dave Neary's pre-existing work
on
the topic.
You can see a proposed sitemap here:
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/ovirt-sitemap.txt
This is a general grouping of types of content, not necessarily a
view
of the top-level page, or of sub-pages. In some cases, these items
would
be sub-level pages, in others, they would be part of the navigation
page.
The documentation page would highlight the best documentation
available,
regardless of format - e.g. wiki, blog posts, etc. - and also have a
prominent link to the wiki. Other sub-pages may also link to the
wiki,
if there is pertinent information (such as live docs for developers,
linked to from the develop section).
= Tagline =
This is a short, catchy phrase to indicate what the project is all
about. Since the target of oVirt is running on a server, most likely
in
a datacenter, and it's open source, I figured we should make this
prominent.
Usually taglines are simple and direct, and often have some sort of
play
on words. "Open your virtual datacenter" can be interpreted in a few
ways:
1) You can use oVirt to start (open up) a datacenter with
virtualization
2) Take your existing datacenter and virtualize it
3) Use oVirt as an open source solution to manage your datacenter
= Supporting lead-in text =
It's important to start with some powerful explanatory text to state
the
overall goal of the project. Usually, this ranges from a phrase to
around a sentence or two.
I wanted to express the purpose of the oVirt software in a very
high-level view, as a hook to get people interested to read more.
= Call to action =
"Start using oVirt now »" is a call-to-action button. After the
simple
text explaining what oVirt is, it's important to provide an obvious
next
step.
After clicking the button, it would take the viewer to another page
where it provides a quick and simple way to start using oVirt.
Naturally, one would have to download oVirt to use it, so it should
be
super-easy to do on this page. The page should also start a simple
step-by-step guide on getting oVirt working on one's own system(s).
I'm thinking that this may be, perhaps, simply a link to the
"Download &
Use" section. Yes, it's in the navigation, but it does provide a very
important and clear next step, which helps with a natural-feeling
progression for an interested viewer of oVirt.org.
(BTW: If the simple guide is too complex, then we need to work at
further simplifying the process of setting up oVirt. It's important
to
try to lower the barrier to entry. Part of this is making sure that
oVirt can run on one machine as well, and possibly booting from live
USB
media for first-time evaluation purposes.)
= Front-page sections =
Most of text on the mockup is, in some way, based on content from the
current oVirt.org website — it's just edited a bit.
While most everyone appreciates a clean aesthetic, our primary target
group *also* likes to get to the point and see the information right
up
front. The mockup of the front page that I'm presenting is based on
this
concept.
In addition to being an overview of the project and the software it
produces, it also makes it really easy to explore from the content
areas
to relevant other parts of the website. By bringing the top-level
navigation into the context of the overviews, we make it easier for
someone to jump to other sections, instead of having to scroll back
up
to rely on the navigation.
The order of the front-page sections is important too. A goal with
this
design was to:
1) Introduce people to oVirt, with a simple explanation
2) Let people know right upfront that it's an active project (release
blurb)
3) Detail some of the most important features
4) Make it clear that it's a community project
5) Provide timely news & a way to easily get more info
6) Publish information on upcoming oVirt-related events (currently,
in the
mockup, there's filler text for the time being)
Items #5 & #6 should both have a way to subscribe so that someone
could
access this information without visiting oVirt.org. Twitter solves
the
news component for us; we have to make sure the calendar is able to
be
subscribed to as well.
-=-=-
Thanks for reading all of this! I'm looking forward to all
conversations, especially if it's constructive (regardless of a
positive, negative, or neutral slant).
Garrett
_______________________________________________
Infra mailing list
Infra(a)ovirt.org
http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/infra
2:58 a.m.
Adding the arch list (for those who do not keep track of infra and not
registered to board list)
On 16/08/12 20:17, Garrett LeSage wrote:
Hello all,
Warning: This email is long, but important.
I've been working on a new website design for oVirt, and gave folks a
preview during yesterday's weekly status IRC meeting.
The website mockup is at:
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/mockup-1/
(This is simply a static PNG exported from Inkscape, wrapped in a very
simple HTML page. Therefore, don't expect it to scale with your browser,
have selectable text, etc.)
The mockup has many different sections and updates, and I will explain
each change, as well as the thought process that went into each, below.
There are two main things to remember about this design:
1) It's a bunch of individual changes that work together.
2) It's a work in progress.
Also, the mockup was designed with our target audience in mind:
administrators (setting up and running the software), enthusiasts (who
may run instances at home), and programmers (tinkering with and
contributing back to the project), all with experience using Linux or
some form of UNIX. It is also important to note that our audience is
specifically _not_ casual desktop users (although they could benefit
from someone setting up and maintaining oVirt for them).
I'm eager to hear feedback on any and all changes, and work with you to
refine everything.
When you do provide feedback, and want to discuss more than one point,
please limit each email to one aspect of the site at a time. If you'd
like to talk about the logo and the site structure, for instance, please
send one email specifically talking about the logo, and then another
discussing the structure. This should make conversations easier for
everyone to follow and make it easier for me to track requested updates.
Thanks!
== Detailed changes ==
= Logo =
The oVirt logo is actually quite similar. I altered the "o" glyph, to
make it more aesthetically pleasing.
Comparison graphic between current and new (in simple greyscale, to make
it easy to see the difference):
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/logo/ovirt-logo-proposed.png
= Color =
oVirt.org, right now, uses a green color throughout the site. The oVirt
administration UI also features green in its header. As a result, I've
pulled in that green and used it as the primary accent color for the new
site design.
(It also has the advantage that it is not blue, which is overused for
iconography, on the Internet, and for software in general.)
= Style =
Based on the typeface of our logo and our highlight color, our new style
reflects simplicity, openness, vibrancy, and elegance.
We can make this style work for both the WordPress and Wiki parts of the
site.
= Site structure =
A revised site structure is hinted at in the front page mockup. You can
see this reflected in the top navigation. I did some overall
categorization, strongly influenced by Dave Neary's pre-existing work on
the topic.
You can see a proposed sitemap here:
http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/ovirt-sitemap.txt
This is a general grouping of types of content, not necessarily a view
of the top-level page, or of sub-pages. In some cases, these items would
be sub-level pages, in others, they would be part of the navigation page.
The documentation page would highlight the best documentation available,
regardless of format - e.g. wiki, blog posts, etc. - and also have a
prominent link to the wiki. Other sub-pages may also link to the wiki,
if there is pertinent information (such as live docs for developers,
linked to from the develop section).
= Tagline =
This is a short, catchy phrase to indicate what the project is all
about. Since the target of oVirt is running on a server, most likely in
a datacenter, and it's open source, I figured we should make this
prominent.
Usually taglines are simple and direct, and often have some sort of play
on words. "Open your virtual datacenter" can be interpreted in a few ways:
1) You can use oVirt to start (open up) a datacenter with virtualization
2) Take your existing datacenter and virtualize it
3) Use oVirt as an open source solution to manage your datacenter
= Supporting lead-in text =
It's important to start with some powerful explanatory text to state the
overall goal of the project. Usually, this ranges from a phrase to
around a sentence or two.
I wanted to express the purpose of the oVirt software in a very
high-level view, as a hook to get people interested to read more.
= Call to action =
"Start using oVirt now »" is a call-to-action button. After the simple
text explaining what oVirt is, it's important to provide an obvious next
step.
After clicking the button, it would take the viewer to another page
where it provides a quick and simple way to start using oVirt.
Naturally, one would have to download oVirt to use it, so it should be
super-easy to do on this page. The page should also start a simple
step-by-step guide on getting oVirt working on one's own system(s).
I'm thinking that this may be, perhaps, simply a link to the "Download &
Use" section. Yes, it's in the navigation, but it does provide a very
important and clear next step, which helps with a natural-feeling
progression for an interested viewer of oVirt.org.
(BTW: If the simple guide is too complex, then we need to work at
further simplifying the process of setting up oVirt. It's important to
try to lower the barrier to entry. Part of this is making sure that
oVirt can run on one machine as well, and possibly booting from live USB
media for first-time evaluation purposes.)
= Front-page sections =
Most of text on the mockup is, in some way, based on content from the
current oVirt.org website — it's just edited a bit.
While most everyone appreciates a clean aesthetic, our primary target
group *also* likes to get to the point and see the information right up
front. The mockup of the front page that I'm presenting is based on this
concept.
In addition to being an overview of the project and the software it
produces, it also makes it really easy to explore from the content areas
to relevant other parts of the website. By bringing the top-level
navigation into the context of the overviews, we make it easier for
someone to jump to other sections, instead of having to scroll back up
to rely on the navigation.
The order of the front-page sections is important too. A goal with this
design was to:
1) Introduce people to oVirt, with a simple explanation
2) Let people know right upfront that it's an active project (release
blurb)
3) Detail some of the most important features
4) Make it clear that it's a community project
5) Provide timely news & a way to easily get more info
6) Publish information on upcoming oVirt-related events (currently, in the
mockup, there's filler text for the time being)
Items #5 & #6 should both have a way to subscribe so that someone could
access this information without visiting oVirt.org. Twitter solves the
news component for us; we have to make sure the calendar is able to be
subscribed to as well.
-=-=-
Thanks for reading all of this! I'm looking forward to all
conversations, especially if it's constructive (regardless of a
positive, negative, or neutral slant).
Garrett
_______________________________________________
Infra mailing list
Infra(a)ovirt.org
http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/infra
3:18 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
Adding the arch list (for those who do not keep track of infra and
not
registered to board list)
On 16/08/12 20:17, Garrett LeSage wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Warning: This email is long, but important.
>
> I've been working on a new website design for oVirt, and gave folks
> a
> preview during yesterday's weekly status IRC meeting.
>
> The website mockup is at:
> http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/mockup-1/
> (This is simply a static PNG exported from Inkscape, wrapped in a
> very
> simple HTML page. Therefore, don't expect it to scale with your
> browser,
> have selectable text, etc.)
>
> The mockup has many different sections and updates, and I will
> explain
> each change, as well as the thought process that went into each,
> below.
>
> There are two main things to remember about this design:
> 1) It's a bunch of individual changes that work together.
> 2) It's a work in progress.
>
> Also, the mockup was designed with our target audience in mind:
> administrators (setting up and running the software), enthusiasts
> (who
> may run instances at home), and programmers (tinkering with and
> contributing back to the project), all with experience using Linux
> or
> some form of UNIX. It is also important to note that our audience
> is
> specifically _not_ casual desktop users (although they could
> benefit
> from someone setting up and maintaining oVirt for them).
>
> I'm eager to hear feedback on any and all changes, and work with
> you to
> refine everything.
>
> When you do provide feedback, and want to discuss more than one
> point,
> please limit each email to one aspect of the site at a time. If
> you'd
> like to talk about the logo and the site structure, for instance,
> please
> send one email specifically talking about the logo, and then
> another
> discussing the structure. This should make conversations easier for
> everyone to follow and make it easier for me to track requested
> updates.
> Thanks!
>
>
> == Detailed changes ==
>
> = Logo =
>
> The oVirt logo is actually quite similar. I altered the "o" glyph,
> to
> make it more aesthetically pleasing.
>
> Comparison graphic between current and new (in simple greyscale, to
> make
> it easy to see the difference):
> http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/logo/ovirt-logo-proposed.png
>
>
> = Color =
>
> oVirt.org, right now, uses a green color throughout the site. The
> oVirt
> administration UI also features green in its header. As a result,
> I've
> pulled in that green and used it as the primary accent color for
> the new
> site design.
>
> (It also has the advantage that it is not blue, which is overused
> for
> iconography, on the Internet, and for software in general.)
>
>
> = Style =
>
> Based on the typeface of our logo and our highlight color, our new
> style
> reflects simplicity, openness, vibrancy, and elegance.
>
> We can make this style work for both the WordPress and Wiki parts
> of the
> site.
>
>
> = Site structure =
>
> A revised site structure is hinted at in the front page mockup. You
> can
> see this reflected in the top navigation. I did some overall
> categorization, strongly influenced by Dave Neary's pre-existing
> work on
> the topic.
>
> You can see a proposed sitemap here:
> http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/ovirt-sitemap.txt
>
> This is a general grouping of types of content, not necessarily a
> view
> of the top-level page, or of sub-pages. In some cases, these items
> would
> be sub-level pages, in others, they would be part of the navigation
> page.
>
> The documentation page would highlight the best documentation
> available,
> regardless of format - e.g. wiki, blog posts, etc. - and also have
> a
> prominent link to the wiki. Other sub-pages may also link to the
> wiki,
> if there is pertinent information (such as live docs for
> developers,
> linked to from the develop section).
>
>
> = Tagline =
>
> This is a short, catchy phrase to indicate what the project is all
> about. Since the target of oVirt is running on a server, most
> likely in
> a datacenter, and it's open source, I figured we should make this
> prominent.
>
> Usually taglines are simple and direct, and often have some sort of
> play
> on words. "Open your virtual datacenter" can be interpreted in a
> few ways:
> 1) You can use oVirt to start (open up) a datacenter with
> virtualization
> 2) Take your existing datacenter and virtualize it
> 3) Use oVirt as an open source solution to manage your datacenter
>
>
> = Supporting lead-in text =
>
> It's important to start with some powerful explanatory text to
> state the
> overall goal of the project. Usually, this ranges from a phrase to
> around a sentence or two.
>
> I wanted to express the purpose of the oVirt software in a very
> high-level view, as a hook to get people interested to read more.
>
>
> = Call to action =
>
> "Start using oVirt now »" is a call-to-action button. After the
> simple
> text explaining what oVirt is, it's important to provide an obvious
> next
> step.
>
> After clicking the button, it would take the viewer to another page
> where it provides a quick and simple way to start using oVirt.
> Naturally, one would have to download oVirt to use it, so it should
> be
> super-easy to do on this page. The page should also start a simple
> step-by-step guide on getting oVirt working on one's own system(s).
>
> I'm thinking that this may be, perhaps, simply a link to the
> "Download &
> Use" section. Yes, it's in the navigation, but it does provide a
> very
> important and clear next step, which helps with a natural-feeling
> progression for an interested viewer of oVirt.org.
>
> (BTW: If the simple guide is too complex, then we need to work at
> further simplifying the process of setting up oVirt. It's important
> to
> try to lower the barrier to entry. Part of this is making sure that
> oVirt can run on one machine as well, and possibly booting from
> live USB
> media for first-time evaluation purposes.)
>
>
> = Front-page sections =
>
> Most of text on the mockup is, in some way, based on content from
> the
> current oVirt.org website — it's just edited a bit.
>
> While most everyone appreciates a clean aesthetic, our primary
> target
> group *also* likes to get to the point and see the information
> right up
> front. The mockup of the front page that I'm presenting is based on
> this
> concept.
>
> In addition to being an overview of the project and the software it
> produces, it also makes it really easy to explore from the content
> areas
> to relevant other parts of the website. By bringing the top-level
> navigation into the context of the overviews, we make it easier for
> someone to jump to other sections, instead of having to scroll back
> up
> to rely on the navigation.
>
> The order of the front-page sections is important too. A goal with
> this
> design was to:
> 1) Introduce people to oVirt, with a simple explanation
> 2) Let people know right upfront that it's an active project
> (release
> blurb)
> 3) Detail some of the most important features
> 4) Make it clear that it's a community project
> 5) Provide timely news & a way to easily get more info
> 6) Publish information on upcoming oVirt-related events (currently,
> in the
> mockup, there's filler text for the time being)
>
> Items #5 & #6 should both have a way to subscribe so that someone
> could
> access this information without visiting oVirt.org. Twitter solves
> the
> news component for us; we have to make sure the calendar is able to
> be
> subscribed to as well.
>
I think putting the "search box" in the bottom of the page makes it harder to
find & notice.
Usually search is amongst the topmost and/or central elements in the site, as it makes it
much easier for people to navigate across the site & locate the information they
want.
>
> -=-=-
>
> Thanks for reading all of this! I'm looking forward to all
> conversations, especially if it's constructive (regardless of a
> positive, negative, or neutral slant).
>
> Garrett
> _______________________________________________
> Infra mailing list
> Infra(a)ovirt.org
> http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/infra
_______________________________________________
Arch mailing list
Arch(a)ovirt.org
http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/arch
10:12 a.m.
On 08/19/2012 10:18 AM, Mike Kolesnik wrote:
I think putting the "search box" in the bottom of the page
makes it harder to find & notice.
Usually search is amongst the topmost and/or central elements in the site, as it makes it
much easier for people to navigate across the site & locate the information they want.
I made a deliberate decision to downplay the importance of search on the
mockup for the front page for these reasons:
• Someone should be able to easily find the correct content without
having to resort to search.
• Right now, the form only searches WordPress, which is not very useful.
Searching the contents of the is a great thing, however.
Solutions for improving search:
1) Combined WordPress + MediaWiki search results. (If it's not easily
possible [1], we could consider _only_ searching MediaWiki, perhaps.)
2) Highlight search in the documentation area. Basically, when someone
clicks on documentation, it has the most common and useful documentation
grouped on the page, and above that, a big search entry (which is
prefocused, so one could simply type and hit enter, when visiting
ovirt.org/documentation).
[1] There are several plugins for integrating the two, but they all seem
to focus on embedding, adding comments, or using a single sign-in (which
could still be useful for us).
I'm currently working on a designs for the sections, and will be
including a large search at the top of the documentation page to make
sure searching is more prominent. Hopefully this will address your concern.
Thanks for your feedback!
Garrett
11:41 a.m.
On 08/20/2012 11:12 AM, Garrett LeSage wrote:
On 08/19/2012 10:18 AM, Mike Kolesnik wrote:
> I think putting the "search box" in the bottom of the page makes it
> harder to find & notice.
> Usually search is amongst the topmost and/or central elements in the
> site, as it makes it much easier for people to navigate across the
> site & locate the information they want.
I made a deliberate decision to downplay the importance of search on
the mockup for the front page for these reasons:
• Someone should be able to easily find the correct content without
having to resort to search.
• Right now, the form only searches WordPress, which is not very
useful. Searching the contents of the is a great thing, however.
Solutions for improving search:
1) Combined WordPress + MediaWiki search results. (If it's not easily
possible [1], we could consider _only_ searching MediaWiki, perhaps.)
2) Highlight search in the documentation area. Basically, when someone
clicks on documentation, it has the most common and useful
documentation grouped on the page, and above that, a big search entry
(which is prefocused, so one could simply type and hit enter, when
visiting ovirt.org/documentation).
3) Use google search for the entire ovirt.org domain?
Thanks
Robert
[1] There are several plugins for integrating the two, but they all
seem to focus on embedding, adding comments, or using a single sign-in
(which could still be useful for us).
I'm currently working on a designs for the sections, and will be
including a large search at the top of the documentation page to make
sure searching is more prominent. Hopefully this will address your
concern.
Thanks for your feedback!
Garrett
_______________________________________________
Infra mailing list
Infra(a)ovirt.org
http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/infra
--
Thanks
Robert Middleswarth
@rmiddle (twitter/Freenode IRC)
@RobertM (OFTC IRC)
4:27 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
Adding the arch list (for those who do not keep track of infra and
not
registered to board list)
On 16/08/12 20:17, Garrett LeSage wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Warning: This email is long, but important.
>
> I've been working on a new website design for oVirt, and gave folks
> a
> preview during yesterday's weekly status IRC meeting.
>
> The website mockup is at:
> http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/mockup-1/
> (This is simply a static PNG exported from Inkscape, wrapped in a
> very
> simple HTML page. Therefore, don't expect it to scale with your
> browser,
> have selectable text, etc.)
>
> The mockup has many different sections and updates, and I will
> explain
> each change, as well as the thought process that went into each,
> below.
>
> There are two main things to remember about this design:
> 1) It's a bunch of individual changes that work together.
> 2) It's a work in progress.
>
> Also, the mockup was designed with our target audience in mind:
> administrators (setting up and running the software), enthusiasts
> (who
> may run instances at home), and programmers (tinkering with and
> contributing back to the project), all with experience using Linux
> or
> some form of UNIX. It is also important to note that our audience
> is
> specifically _not_ casual desktop users (although they could
> benefit
> from someone setting up and maintaining oVirt for them).
>
> I'm eager to hear feedback on any and all changes, and work with
> you to
> refine everything.
>
> When you do provide feedback, and want to discuss more than one
> point,
> please limit each email to one aspect of the site at a time. If
> you'd
> like to talk about the logo and the site structure, for instance,
> please
> send one email specifically talking about the logo, and then
> another
> discussing the structure. This should make conversations easier for
> everyone to follow and make it easier for me to track requested
> updates.
> Thanks!
>
>
> == Detailed changes ==
>
> = Logo =
>
> The oVirt logo is actually quite similar. I altered the "o" glyph,
> to
> make it more aesthetically pleasing.
>
> Comparison graphic between current and new (in simple greyscale, to
> make
> it easy to see the difference):
> http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/logo/ovirt-logo-proposed.png
>
>
> = Color =
>
> oVirt.org, right now, uses a green color throughout the site. The
> oVirt
> administration UI also features green in its header. As a result,
> I've
> pulled in that green and used it as the primary accent color for
> the new
> site design.
>
> (It also has the advantage that it is not blue, which is overused
> for
> iconography, on the Internet, and for software in general.)
>
>
> = Style =
>
> Based on the typeface of our logo and our highlight color, our new
> style
> reflects simplicity, openness, vibrancy, and elegance.
>
> We can make this style work for both the WordPress and Wiki parts
> of the
> site.
>
>
> = Site structure =
>
> A revised site structure is hinted at in the front page mockup. You
> can
> see this reflected in the top navigation. I did some overall
> categorization, strongly influenced by Dave Neary's pre-existing
> work on
> the topic.
>
> You can see a proposed sitemap here:
> http://people.redhat.com/glesage/oVirt/website/ovirt-sitemap.txt
>
> This is a general grouping of types of content, not necessarily a
> view
> of the top-level page, or of sub-pages. In some cases, these items
> would
> be sub-level pages, in others, they would be part of the navigation
> page.
>
> The documentation page would highlight the best documentation
> available,
> regardless of format - e.g. wiki, blog posts, etc. - and also have
> a
> prominent link to the wiki. Other sub-pages may also link to the
> wiki,
> if there is pertinent information (such as live docs for
> developers,
> linked to from the develop section).
>
>
> = Tagline =
>
> This is a short, catchy phrase to indicate what the project is all
> about. Since the target of oVirt is running on a server, most
> likely in
> a datacenter, and it's open source, I figured we should make this
> prominent.
>
> Usually taglines are simple and direct, and often have some sort of
> play
> on words. "Open your virtual datacenter" can be interpreted in a
> few ways:
> 1) You can use oVirt to start (open up) a datacenter with
> virtualization
> 2) Take your existing datacenter and virtualize it
> 3) Use oVirt as an open source solution to manage your datacenter
>
>
> = Supporting lead-in text =
>
> It's important to start with some powerful explanatory text to
> state the
> overall goal of the project. Usually, this ranges from a phrase to
> around a sentence or two.
>
> I wanted to express the purpose of the oVirt software in a very
> high-level view, as a hook to get people interested to read more.
>
>
> = Call to action =
>
> "Start using oVirt now »" is a call-to-action button. After the
> simple
> text explaining what oVirt is, it's important to provide an obvious
> next
> step.
>
> After clicking the button, it would take the viewer to another page
> where it provides a quick and simple way to start using oVirt.
> Naturally, one would have to download oVirt to use it, so it should
> be
> super-easy to do on this page. The page should also start a simple
> step-by-step guide on getting oVirt working on one's own system(s).
>
> I'm thinking that this may be, perhaps, simply a link to the
> "Download &
> Use" section. Yes, it's in the navigation, but it does provide a
> very
> important and clear next step, which helps with a natural-feeling
> progression for an interested viewer of oVirt.org.
>
> (BTW: If the simple guide is too complex, then we need to work at
> further simplifying the process of setting up oVirt. It's important
> to
> try to lower the barrier to entry. Part of this is making sure that
> oVirt can run on one machine as well, and possibly booting from
> live USB
> media for first-time evaluation purposes.)
>
>
> = Front-page sections =
>
> Most of text on the mockup is, in some way, based on content from
> the
> current oVirt.org website — it's just edited a bit.
>
> While most everyone appreciates a clean aesthetic, our primary
> target
> group *also* likes to get to the point and see the information
> right up
> front. The mockup of the front page that I'm presenting is based on
> this
> concept.
>
> In addition to being an overview of the project and the software it
> produces, it also makes it really easy to explore from the content
> areas
> to relevant other parts of the website. By bringing the top-level
> navigation into the context of the overviews, we make it easier for
> someone to jump to other sections, instead of having to scroll back
> up
> to rely on the navigation.
>
> The order of the front-page sections is important too. A goal with
> this
> design was to:
> 1) Introduce people to oVirt, with a simple explanation
> 2) Let people know right upfront that it's an active project
> (release
> blurb)
> 3) Detail some of the most important features
> 4) Make it clear that it's a community project
> 5) Provide timely news & a way to easily get more info
> 6) Publish information on upcoming oVirt-related events (currently,
> in the
> mockup, there's filler text for the time being)
I think the home page is overcrowded with text.
It makes me feel like I am reading a blog or some sort of PDF .
Adding to this is the monotonicity of using only the green color..
I think if we take as example Fedora or Gnome sites, you can see they look more colorful
and less intimidating (less text in-your-face and the text is down the page, where whoever
is really interested in it can read it).
Of course we're not talking about a desktop shell site here, but I think more graphics
would make it more pleasant to look at.
Also I would add some screenshots/screencasts (maybe even a section where more can be
viewed) since it really helps visualize what the product is and what it does.
>
> Items #5 & #6 should both have a way to subscribe so that someone
> could
> access this information without visiting oVirt.org. Twitter solves
> the
> news component for us; we have to make sure the calendar is able to
> be
> subscribed to as well.
>
>
> -=-=-
>
> Thanks for reading all of this! I'm looking forward to all
> conversations, especially if it's constructive (regardless of a
> positive, negative, or neutral slant).
>
> Garrett
> _______________________________________________
> Infra mailing list
> Infra(a)ovirt.org
> http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/infra
_______________________________________________
Arch mailing list
Arch(a)ovirt.org
http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/arch
4260
days inactive
4264
days old
9 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
Eyal Edri -
Garrett LeSage -
Livnat Peer -
Mike Kolesnik -
Robert Middleswarth -
Yaniv Kaul