[drupal-devel] drupal.org front page should be for potential users, not developers
I'm thinking we need to fundamentally rethink drupal.org. As things stand, the front page (indeed, the site as a whole) reads as if it were primarily aimed at two groups: (a) drupal developers, and (b) drupal users. What's missing is the obvious: potential drupal users. The main reason people come to drupal.org for the first time is, I assume, because they have heard of drupal and want to evaluate it for potential use. It's true that there is a one-sentence summary and an "about drupal" link near the top of the page. But that's it. The rest is drupal techies. * "Drupal 4.6.0 released" and a bunch of specific technical info. * The nodes promoted to the front page, which is a mish-mash of, mainly, highly internal-interest posts. * Side panel blocks that are at first glance almost incomprehensible. - "Navigation" that starts with "CVS messages", whatever that means. - Forum topics that are full of technical jargon and give the impression there's a ton of thorny problems in the software. - And "Drupal talk", culled from who knows where, which is full of random musings often not about Drupal at all. - By the time you get to "Support Drupal" at the bottom, the average first-time user is probably asking, "Why?" And then look at the page title. "Community plumbing". Pardon? I'm not saying the info we present isn't useful (okay, except the "Drupal talk", which I'd put in the "eccentric curiosity" category). But it's not what we should have as a public face. I'm suggesting we need: * a front page that provides people with the information to make a decision "Why would I choose Drupal". * sections, linked from the front page (e.g., through top-of-page links) for (a) developers (module development, core development, etc.) and (b) users (tips, questions, etc.). In practice, have a look at plone.org. They, I believe, are doing this right. In the short term, I suggest: * move the recent nodes listing to a side block of titles, ideally broken down by subject (e.g., one block for "news", etc.) * dedicate most of the content space to highlighting the features and advantages of drupal * change to the page title to something catchy and understandable Thoughts? Nedjo
Thought: Important observations and ideas. And: How can I help? Despite what it may look like ;-) I can actually write *fairly* well and have a newbie's eye for misunderstanding or saying as Nedjo does "Pardon?" when I see something that is an 'inside' joke or more clever than it is useful. I fall into that latter category on many occasions. I can install and customize Drupal, but frankly I haven't quite figured out how to contribute to documentation or the site itself. I've been heartened by recent documentation discussions here and plan to be less timid about contributing - there's just some initial hurdle I haven't quite gotten over. And, probably, like some other's I've been a bit intimidated by the fact that it feels like a developer's world and I don't want to step on anyone's toes. The strength of Drupal, IMO, is the incredible dedication, skill, and vision of the developers. And there is *sometimes* a significant gap in perception (and sometimes in practice) between the features, functions, code and the *users* and administrators (administrators are a hybrid group who don't code but have to configure, fix, maintain, customize, patch, update, etc). I see very useful improvements in 4.6 (just getting familiar with it) and the theme system has taken a major step. From what I can see Drupal developers are constantly looking to stabilize and look to the next set of improvements. Yet, over the last week have been dealing with the taxonomy access control module. This module seems like a great attempt to bridge the gap until ACL's are integrated into Drupal itself (critically important for organizations). I haven't got it working correctly yet. I mention this module because of the confusion regarding the documentation, module package, etc. that would easily frustrate anyone but an administrator or developer (actually it would frustrate them too ;-). Maybe there could be some 'buddy system' between users/administrators and developers? ~ Kent -----Original Message----- From: drupal-devel-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:drupal-devel-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Nedjo Rogers Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 9:09 AM To: drupal-devel@drupal.org Subject: [drupal-devel] drupal.org front page should be for potential users,not developers I'm thinking we need to fundamentally rethink drupal.org. As things stand, the front page (indeed, the site as a whole) reads as if it were primarily aimed at two groups: (a) drupal developers, and (b) drupal users. What's missing is the obvious: potential drupal users. The main reason people come to drupal.org for the first time is, I assume, because they have heard of drupal and want to evaluate it for potential use. It's true that there is a one-sentence summary and an "about drupal" link near the top of the page. But that's it. The rest is drupal techies. * "Drupal 4.6.0 released" and a bunch of specific technical info. * The nodes promoted to the front page, which is a mish-mash of, mainly, highly internal-interest posts. * Side panel blocks that are at first glance almost incomprehensible. - "Navigation" that starts with "CVS messages", whatever that means. - Forum topics that are full of technical jargon and give the impression there's a ton of thorny problems in the software. - And "Drupal talk", culled from who knows where, which is full of random musings often not about Drupal at all. - By the time you get to "Support Drupal" at the bottom, the average first-time user is probably asking, "Why?" And then look at the page title. "Community plumbing". Pardon? I'm not saying the info we present isn't useful (okay, except the "Drupal talk", which I'd put in the "eccentric curiosity" category). But it's not what we should have as a public face. I'm suggesting we need: * a front page that provides people with the information to make a decision "Why would I choose Drupal". * sections, linked from the front page (e.g., through top-of-page links) for (a) developers (module development, core development, etc.) and (b) users (tips, questions, etc.). In practice, have a look at plone.org. They, I believe, are doing this right. In the short term, I suggest: * move the recent nodes listing to a side block of titles, ideally broken down by subject (e.g., one block for "news", etc.) * dedicate most of the content space to highlighting the features and advantages of drupal * change to the page title to something catchy and understandable Thoughts? Nedjo
On 19-May-05, at 7:09 AM, Nedjo Rogers wrote:
I'm thinking we need to fundamentally rethink drupal.org. As things stand, the front page (indeed, the site as a whole) reads as if it were primarily aimed at two groups: (a) drupal developers, and (b) drupal users.
What's missing is the obvious: potential drupal users.
You'll probably get better response on the Drupal Docs list. Which is, BTW, busy re-writing the handbook. Pretty much all the info you suggest will live in the handbook. This is another large task, and is probably too much to tackle right now. -- Boris Mann http://www.bmannconsulting.com
On 5/20/05, Nedjo Rogers <nedjo@gworks.ca> wrote:
And then look at the page title. "Community plumbing". Pardon?
The first time I visited drupal.org (seems like a past life!), I remember that the first thing I saw was the page title: "Drupal.org | Community plumbing" I thought it was clever, witty, and appropriate the first time I saw it. Every time I've read it since then, it has brought a smile to my face. Although I must admit, the smile is partly because 'plumbing' makes me think of 'toilets', which is kind of a funny thing to think of when you visit drupal.org. ;-) Jaza.
On 20 May 2005, at 9:13 PM, Jeremy Epstein wrote:
On 5/20/05, Nedjo Rogers <nedjo@gworks.ca> wrote:
And then look at the page title. "Community plumbing". Pardon?
The first time I visited drupal.org (seems like a past life!), I remember that the first thing I saw was the page title:
"Drupal.org | Community plumbing"
I thought it was clever, witty, and appropriate the first time I saw it. Every time I've read it since then, it has brought a smile to my face.
Although I must admit, the smile is partly because 'plumbing' makes me think of 'toilets', which is kind of a funny thing to think of when you visit drupal.org. ;-)
It's particularly funny if you interpret the ' | ' as 'pipe to' :) But seriously, I think it's a good tagline. It's a perfect use of the word plumbing, slightly old-fashioned but given new currency in its context. Djun
On 19 May 2005, at 16:09, Nedjo Rogers wrote:
* Side panel blocks that are at first glance almost incomprehensible. - "Navigation" that starts with "CVS messages", whatever that means.
I removed the 'CVS messages' from the main navigation menu. The link to the 'CVS messages' page is still available from the 'Contributor'-block which you can enable from your personal profile page, the 'Contribute'-tab on every page, or the 'Contributor handbook'. Better? PS: I encourage everyone to enable the 'Contributor'-block! -- Dries Buytaert :: http://www.buytaert.net/
* Side panel blocks that are at first glance almost incomprehensible. - "Navigation" that starts with "CVS messages", whatever that means.
I removed the 'CVS messages' from the main navigation menu.
The link to the 'CVS messages' page is still available from the 'Contributor'-block which you can enable from your personal profile page, the 'Contribute'-tab on every page, or the 'Contributor handbook'.
Better?
PS: I encourage everyone to enable the 'Contributor'-block!
It should say "my projects", "my issues" and the like (instead of "your projects", etc), as in the user menu shouldn't it? Goba
participants (7)
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Boris Mann -
Dries Buytaert -
Gabor Hojtsy -
Jeremy Epstein -
Kent Livingston -
Nedjo Rogers -
puregin