[Mageia-webteam] Web site, a few updates pending, open for comments

Fri May 11 16:45:41 CEST 2012

Hi there,
+(xposted on mageia-webteam and mageia-marketing, I'll track answers on
+both lists)
+
+I'm working on a few changes on the Web site:
+
+ a. (related to below) a new global top navbar, that's consistent
+across all mageia.org; a preview is available here:
+http://www.mageia.org/en/about/?testnav=1 ; documentation for
+using/spreading it is available here: http://www.mageia.org/_nav/ ;
+improvements brought by this new design:
+   - it's consistent and can be consistently deployed and updated in
+all mageia.org sites and apps (using the javascript snippet);
+   - it embeds the Mageia project logo, so branding is consistent too;
+   - it structures and highlights how the mageia.org Web at large is organized.
+
+ b. (related to above) a more obvious site map, a preview is available
+here: http://www.mageia.org/fr/map/?testnav=1 ; there are several
+(new) sections here that are not ready/do no exist yet; and parts of
+the existing contents need to be reorganized; but this will give you
+an idea; it's the Community and Contribute sections that need a lot of
+thought and work; the site map is organized in 6 sections:
+   - About Mageia (learning about the project and NPO - that's the
+institutional part of the site)
+   - Downloads (learning about and getting the software, updates, etc.)
+   - Support
+   - Community (what's happening, who is in this project, what are the
+tools at hand)
+   - Contribute (what one can do in the project)
+   - You (one's user account and facilities with Mageia)
+
+ c. as introduced above, a new Community section with its own home
+page (mageia.org/community or shorthand mageia.org/coop or ?): that's
+where contributors and active users will want to go for what's in the
+community, who is there, doing what, and what can be done; this
+section's landing page is to summarize news (blog, planet, calendar),
+activities (forum, bugzilla, buildsystem, teams reports)
+
+ d. change how people get to mageia.org:
+   1. the home page of www.mageia.org will focus and provide a single
+major call to action: get Mageia; with a few, lower contrast other
+actions (more info, contribute). Preview here:
+http://i.imgur.com/nDlwK.png (not on par with Mageia bg design, I'm
+still not sure how to integrate it properly); the rationale is:
+      - most people coming to www.mageia.org/ leave quickly;
+      - for (most) new/casual visitors, we tell them the main story:
+download and use Mageia;
+      - for other visitors, with a goal, we propose them shortlinks
+to: Support, Community and About Mageia.Org sections
+
+   2. loading the browser in Mageia currently sends you to
+start.mageia.org which in turn redirects to www.mageia.org; I'd like
+to change that so that start.mageia.org goes to
+www.mageia.org/community/
+   3. given these changes, in the new navigation bar, clicking on the
+logo/home position would not redirect to the c.1. home (which is
+targetted to fresh/new visitors) neither /community, but to /map which
+provides a large, top-view of what's available in mageia.org Web site.
+That's quite a change from usual navigation practices (although it is
+used sometimes), and I'm not 100% confident yet, but I think it's
+worth trying something a bit different.
+
+
+There's still a lot of improvements in this (and other topic not
+reached here, such as www pages layout in general), and I suspect some
+of the proposed changes above won't make it for some people.
+
+Among other noticeable, shipped changes:
+ - rewritten http://www.mageia.org/en/about/ to better introduce the
+whole section;
+ - added http://www.mageia.org/en/about/constitution/
+ - consolidated code for http://www.mageia.org/en/about/reports/
+ - consolidated code for the downloads (in the background, still need
+to articulate 1 and 2 pages and listings)
+ - download redirector page
+(http://www.mageia.org/en/downloads/get/?q=Mageia-2-rc-i586-DVD.iso&torrent=1&testnav=1
+for instance) has room for two major call for action, once the
+download is running (those would be: 1) what to do with the file once
+download is complete, and 2) how to contribute back to the project ?)
+
+Quick feedback welcome, so I can know what can be shipped for 2
+official release or not.
+