new design: request for comments

[Eyal Edri]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Garrett LeSage" <garrett at redhat.com>
> To: infra at ovirt.org, board at 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
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