Re: [Firebird-website] A few thoughts about (new) site structure, and some good news...

[Pavel C. <pc...@ib...>]

Carlos,

You were quicker than me :) so I'll join with my take in your thread.

Carlos H. Cantu napsal(a):
> 
> Main page contents
> - Official Project news
> - Link to FirebirdNews
> - Link to Firebird FAQ
> - Next conferences/events
> - Donation link
> - Direct link to latest stable release

As the main page is the key, it needs extensive care and polishment. I
would like have it very very simple, with minimal text and more
graphics. Look at www.mozilla.org or www.opensuse.org for examples.

The main visual focus should be targeted on new users, i.e. downloads
(latest stable release) + everything you need to get started (single
page, more about that later). It should be based on graphics with
minimal text.

Second target is "Get Involved" featured image link. Excellent example
how it should be done is on mozilla.org.

Third is direct navigation to key site areas (in header):
a) Learn about Firebird
b) Get Support (community support list & forums, tracker, FAQ, companies
that provide support)
c) Join the community (community sites, events, etc.)
d) Our Projects
e) Get Involved (code, documentation, foundation etc.). This one should
be in header on other pages than main one, as on main one it's
highlighted in main area.

If you noticed that there is no Download and Documentation area links,
they're omitted on purpose. See comments on "Download" and
"Documentation" sections.

Fourth is a box on side (see the Ticker box on mozilla.org) with latests
releases from all our product lines (recent from all maintained engine
lineages, drivers, tools etc.). Divided by sub-project, contains only
version numbers as links to download (or download pages if it's not a
single file release).

Fifth (under the main focus area) are news. Headlines with excerpts
(each article would have it's own page). Only few, it should take a lot
of real estate.

About the design... White background is prefered. It doesn't need to use
the current logo in header (or anywhere), could use background theme
graphics, but not very intrusive. I would prefer fresh, artistic look
over corporate one (but not *too much* cool). I think that mozilla.org
stroke a nice balance on this.

There shouldn't be any button links to other sites or projects, award
badges etc.

Footer. The Ring links should go away. It has to contain button link to
SourceForge, Ohloh badge is not necessary and should go. The copyright
notice should be in smaller font and doesn't need to occupy the whole
width (could be a column like on mozilla.org). The footer could contains
contact links, quick site navigation links to important areas etc., but
shouldn't be too thick.

About the Firebird logo... I think that we should come with new one at
our tenth anniversary. The current one is not very good, we just use it
because we didn't have a better one and didn't replaced it long time ago
because this was used on various materials, t-shirts etc. But tenth
anniversary is a good occasion to make a switch. I think that we need
simple, distinctive one that uses only one colour. Maybe an isometric
bird head (in a circle?) with some graphical resemblance of fire (head
feathers)? It should be created from few slick lines instead of surfaces
like current one. PG and MySQL logos are good examples what I mean.

We could also run a community competition for new one, but taking our
previous attempts into account, I don't expect that something good would
come from it. Community is great to make rehashes of existing graphics
(buttons, banners,etc.), but not in design (we're all developers). So
I'm going to raise the logo renewal on forthcoming foundation committee
meeting (in December), so maybe we would get some monetary support to
get new one designed by professional. However, this is early shot, there
wasn't any discussion yet about it among project members, but I'm going
to kickstart one after the conference. As I know others, this idea has a
chance to pass through.

> 1. About (project description - not too long - with links to history, etc)
> 1.1 Sponsors list
> 1.2 Members

The main "About" page should be oriented to newcomers and should
summarize the most important facts and points to further reading of
interest for these users (Firebird limits and feature matrix, use cases
/ examples of important deployments, summary of application development
options, available tools, compact explanation what makes Firebird
distinct from other RDBM products).

The main "About" page should also contain clearly visible link (or side
box?) that would point to page oriented to press, with one page summary
/ project presentation for press agencies.

It should contain link(s) to secondary "About" topics you mentioned:
supporting / sponsor companies & individuals, project members (with
personal pages). I'm not certain about history, because nobody cares
about it, so I tend to let it go for good.

> 2.Downloads
> 2.1 Firebird Binaries
> 2.1.1 FB 3.0.x
> 2.1.2 FB 2.5.x
> 2.1.3 FB 2.1.x
> 2.1.4 FB 2.0.x
> 2.1.5 FB 1.5.x
> 2.1.6 FB 1.0.x
> 2.2 Side Projects (ODBC, Drivers, FlameRobin, etc)
> 2.3 Source Code
> 2.4 Logos and images

Our download portfolio is quite complex, and there are two general
download usage patterns:

1. Get the update. We'll provide shortest, direct path to most recent
releases for each product on main page.

2. Get the download of your interest. People go to specific web area
they're interested in (product, community, etc.) and then decide they
want related files. And right there is a link to related download page.

Centralised Download area as key part of site user's experience (i.e.
main navigation circle) is not practical for us, because our download
matrix is quite complex, so it would be very complex net of pages that
would need several steps to navigate anyway (everything three or more
clicks away from main page). So going to product / other area and then
to its downloads is often shorter path.

However, we WILL HAVE such maze of twisted download pages, but as
separate sub-domain (download.firebirdsql.org), standing aside from
normal page flow.

It has to be a two-dimensional matrix sub-site. The main page should
contain links to most recent stable version of each category. An image
with overlay text (version number) would be best, with some distinctive
image for each product line. It would point directly to download file
for single file releases or to release page for complex releases.

There has to be a side box / menu for each product / category that would
link to product download page (that would contain most recent stable on
top, then development release, then older releases.

> 3.Documentation
> 3.1 Only Official Firebird Project docs 
> 3.2 Link to Firebird FAQ
> 3.3 Firebird License
> 3.4 Actual Roadmap

The same as for Download area. Although we still don't have single
comprehensive "free book" for Firebird, we have a lot of documents on
many many topics. Putting it all under the user's nose (Documentation
link on main page) does more harm than good, so we'll create
doc.firebirdsql.org domain for this maze of twisted pages and link to
relevant sections from related pages of main site (support, developers,
community, CTO-related etc.). This doc sub-domain could be implemented
as separate wiki site.

> 4.Support
> 4.1 Discussion lists
> 4.1.1 International (english language)
> 4.1.2 Regional (by country/language)
> 4.2 Firebird related sites and portals
> 4.2.1 Global (english language)
> 4.2.2 Regional sites (by coutry/language)
> 4.3 Link to Tracker

Again, this is too overwhelming list of resources, we have to narrow it
down. I'd like divide it into two areas: Support and Community. Support
is strictly focused on users / developers seeking help with their
problems. All important things should be on *single* page. There
could/would be other pages with more detailed information linked from
main one.

Community area should contain sections for discussion lists, related
sites and portals, events a other resources. More comments about
community area at the end of this post.

> 5. Foundation (links direct to foundation site)

Foundation will get it's own sub-site at foundation.firebirdsql.org, and
we'll link to it and its parts from relevant places, but it will not be
 part of main site navigation like it's now.

> 6. Contact

Not as separate area / menu link. We have too many different kinds of
groups and contacts. I'll left contact to project Admins as part of
footer copyright notice and at "About" area fro press etc., but
generally contacts would be scattered around the site on places where
they're most relevant.

> 7. Search (this means, global search for the site contents - we can
>    use even Google for this)

You completely forgot one from most important parts of our site -
Developer's area for project members. It would be divided by
sub-projects like its now, and part of main navigation (Our Projects).
The main page for each project would be a show-case for it, with summary
description, download link and other most relevant items for it. Each
would have a sub-menu (horizontal bar) for download, user related info,
developer related info etc. It may vary per project.

> My view is that the main (top) menu should not have subitems. Pages
> can have sidebar menus/links or even sub-sections. We need to avoid
> too much levels = people needs to find what they want with maximum of
> 3 clicks (even less, if possible).

Agreed. But I'd like make it even simpler than you proposed :)

> Project needs to re-think and drop some things, like the CONNECT!, Job
> board, etc. I know some of you can measure the pages access
> statistics, so probably you can determine what should be dropped
> better than me.

Although I would like maintain relation between project's site and
community-related content, I'd like draw a line between it. Project site
should be focused on project matters, and let the community to do its
own things its own way. So I'd like propose to separate the community
bits to its own sub-site community.firebirdsql.org. It would be still
directly linked (part of main site navigation) to project's site, but
outside the project's control and maintenance. We'll provide a skeleton
site from community-related content we have now, with design and theme
that main site would use. We could also maintain this front page / core,
but otherwise we'll let community members to decide what should be there
or even maintain it. So if community would decide to cancel CONNECT!,
job board, whatever, or change or add anything on it, it's not our call.

> Also, I have a GOOD NEWS: IBSurgeon is willing to donate USD 1.5K to
> the website project redesign. As we already have some amount
> collected, for the first time, seems that money is not the problem for
> a task to be done.

That's certainly great news.

> Imho, the project needs to set up a really small group of 2 or 3
> people, to move this task forward. If we have 100 people giving their
> opinion about everything, we will end up having endless discussions
> and stay stuck. This group would have *total* power to do anything
> they want (regarding the website, of course). They can ask "outside"
> opinions about designs proposals or anything else, but only if they
> want to.

Hmm, that would be probably Helen and me (with feedback from other
project members), as we have the most experience with it and others have
more important things to do than spend hours and hours on this. However,
this task would go far beyond our "available time", so I have to check
first whether we could ever make time for it. So no promises, but we'll
do what we can.

best regards
Pavel Cisar