Re: GNUstep.org website redesign proposal

[Riccardo Mottola]

Sebastian Reitenbach wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I guess everybody knows, and also agrees that the GNUstep website is looking 
> fairly dated, and that
> finding contents in it, is somtetimes only possible with help of google.
> the last few days I spent on thinking about the website, what it may need, 
> digging html5 and css3,
> and came up with the following design, that you can find here:
>
> https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index7.html
>
> Note, not all pages and links are "implemented". I did not wanted to waste too 
> much time, in case, the
> majority of people doesn't like with what I've come up.
>
> Older revisions, that finally lead to the design I have now, can be seen here:
> https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index3.html
> https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index5.html
> https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index6.html
>
> The major design goals of the page are:
>   * have a half way modern look, but don't overdo
>   * easy and logical menu structuring, it should be easy to find things 
> following a logic
>
> Further Ideas and things I had considered while designing were:
>
> Intended main audience:
>
> * MAC Developers seeking to port their apps to other platforms
> * Developers from other platforms, seeking to base their projects,
>    commercial or free, on GNUstep
> * Packagers, that want to package GNUstep for their favourite
>    OS/Distribution
>
> Not intended main audience, but also welcomed:
> * End users of any kind
>    * direct End users to the pages to GWorkspace or SystemPreferences,
>      Example applications, and screenshots
>    * otherwise, direct end users to GAP and maybe other external sites
>
> Why chose the main audience above?
> * GNUstep is a set of libraries, providing an API to be used by
>    developers
I disagree with this definition.
> * libraries are accompanied by a set of development tools
> * GWorkspace and SystemPreferences are nice show cases for developers
>    that want to get to know what they can get from GNUstep
>
> General design goals of the page:
> * Its generally intended to attract the main intended audience
> * have a modern look and feel, but keep the page simple
> * page should work with recent modern browsers
>   * making use of modern HTML5 and CSS3
>   * page may look a bit odd with old browsers (this likely includes SWK ;)
>   * but who is really using a browser that does not understand HTML5/CSS3,
>     or at least a subset of it? Even Google doesn't support old browsers.
> * simple wording, short and clear sentences
> * simple page structure, simulating the MAC Desktop
>    * main menu (the dock at the bottom on every page)
>     * always all the time visible
>    * horizontal menu on the top dependent on what's chosen
>      from the dock at the bottom
>     * the icon on the left shows which menu entry was chosen from the dock at 
> the bottom
> Some more specific design decisions are based on:
> * design of the contents of the homepage:
>    * do not overload with information or images, the page should
>      load fast ;)
>    * address the most interesting questions someone looking for
>      GNUstep might have with links to the right subpages
>    * generally inspired from www.gtk.org
> * Footer/Dock:
>     * show some modern CSS tricks, hopefully giving the
>       (right) impression of GNUstep being modern too
> * mostly white background
>    * white looks "clean"
>    * but if there are better suggestions, and a different
>      background color can be agreed on, then it should be ;)
> * horizontal top menu is inspired by www.apple.com
>    * make Mac developers feel at home
>    * its simple, looking nice
>    * no submenus, but having submenus there, if agreed on,
>      can easily be added, see an "older" incarnation of the
>      design: https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index3.html
>    * the icon on the left is the same as the one clicked
>      at the bottom, in order to signal where the user currently is
> * grey color in the horizontal menu on the top,
>    and other elements
>    * GNUstep apps are grey, or maybe in the future that
>      will (hopefully) change when another theme gets
>      included in GUI, but the color is chosen in reference
>      to the GUI apps and history to NeXT
>    * but if there are other suggestions for coloring the
>      menu and other elements, and it can be agreed on, then
>      it should be ;)
> * text alignment is "justified"
> * differentiate external links: those are marked with icon
> * News box on front page:
>    * shows news on, releases, hackathons, papers, etc.
>    * shows there is live in the community
> * New pages: hackathons page and papers page:
>    * show there is live in the community
>    * show there is fun in the community
> * make use of SSIs, to ease updating, at least for the
>    top menu, and the dock at the bottom, and for example
>    the news box on the front page
> * The screenshot pages should show off more Themes to
>    underline GNUsteps flexibility in the look 'n feel
>
> Design ideas inspired by:
> * Footer: MAC OS X dock
> * horizontal top menu: www.apple.com
> * main page: www.gtk.org
> * screenshot gallery: www.gtk.org
>
> Main Menu structure (the dock at the bottom)
> * About GNUstep
>    * about the project, and all other advocacy related stuff
> * Software
>    * information about what the software is that the project offers
> * Development
>    * any kind of information for developers about the software
>    * review the Who's who page, move long inactive project members
>      to an own section at the bottom, add new members not listed there.
> * Get Help
>    * any sort of general documentation, FAQ or HOWTO, bugtracker, etc. on
>      how to install/use GNUstep
>    * big part of this is to review the GNUstep HOWTO,
>      flesh out old/outdated cruft
>    * review the number of mailinglists, and their usefulness
> * Related sites
>    * links to GNUstep sites, i.e. savannah project site, wiki.
>    * link to other affiliated site, i.e. GAP, Etoile, Quantum-Step
> * Full Menu structure:
>     * Homepage (IS THERE)
>       * About GNUstep (IS THERE)
>       * Project Goals (IS THERE)
>       * Screenshots (IS THERE)
>       * Papers
>       * History
>       * Success Stories
>     * Software (IS THERE EMPTY)
>       * Core Libraries
>       * Development Tools (IS THERE)
>         * ProjectCenter (IS THERE)
>         * Gorm (IS THERE)
>       * Other Libraries
>       * GNUstep Desktop
>       * Download
>    * Development (IS THERE EMPTY)
>       * Libraries Map
>       * Development Docs
>       * Theming
>       * Testfarm
>       * Hackathons
>       * Who's who?
>    * Get Help (IS THERE EMPTY)
>       * FAQ/Howto
>       * Mailing Lists
>       * Bugtracker
>       * Project Wiki
>    * Related Sites (IS THERE EMPTY)
>       * GNUstep Sites
>       * External Sites
>
>
>
> PS: Some other more general ideas, independent to the
> Website design, so please when you answer on those,
> create a new subject:
>
>
>
> * Make a GNUstep maintained FAQ the main source of general
>    documentation and answers on how to get things running
>    (the wiki is just a big bad mess ;)
It is a big mess is here because of anarchy, I think the WIKI is 
valuable and should be cleaned up.
> * Make GAP use the same, or similar design, to show off
> the tight relationship between GNUstep and GAP.
Agreed, currently that's already so, 100%. Howver GAP is slightly 
different, so the design can be similar, but the structure, different.

Perhaps even the Etoile guys or other gnustep projects (e.g. PRICE) 
could "draw" more or less form a common design, perhaps by changing the 
color scheme.
> * Redirect potential end users to GAP, and from GAP
>    redirect developers to GNUstep (but only developers
>    wanting to work on the libraries, not those wanting
>    to work on Applications)
That's already done.
> * maybe trash the wiki.gnustep.org
>    * its unmaintainable, contains lots of outdated,
>      incorrect and misleading information
>    * incorporate important information into the main website
>      OR someone (or a team) needs to be willing to review
>      it regularly and if necessary clean it up/update outdated
>      info there
I'm against that. I'm perhaps the one who rarely copies from others, but 
most projects have a wiki. The wiki helps holding a lot of data, makes 
it maintainable by a lot of people.

What I envision is a design, used by many others where:
* the website is mostly static
* the website contains little information, because this is how it can be 
made look "clean" and "modern" as most people like
* the website references the wiki transparently
* the wiki is checked for quality regularly and improved.


> * Talk to German, Adam, moving the stuff in gnustep-nonfsf
>    to GAP, or GNUstep, closing off the gnustep-nonfsf project
That should be discussed separately perhaps, I'm not totally against it.

Riccardo