Redesign of downloads

[Josh Boyer]

On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 05:41:45PM -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
>On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 04:38:36PM -0400, Josh Boyer wrote:
>> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 01:28:20PM -0700, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
>> >> You're missing the targeting part here.  We aren't looking to redesign the
>> >> default download page and keep the exact same content.  We want it simple,
>> >> targeted at new users, and with a clear an easy link for differentiation
>> >> present (to the spins page).
>> >> 
>> >And I'm saying that instead of targeting "new users" we should be
>> >targeting the tasks that the new users want to do.  So if you want the
>> >front page to have two links, one to the default spin and a second to
>> >the spins page, you need to decide what the most important tasks are
>> >that the default spin allows people to perform and make the second link
>> >tell people they can get spins optimized for different tasks by clicking
>> >to the second page.
>> 
>> Now _that_ is certainly more clear in terms of what you're trying to say.
>
>Many people come to the site to download Fedora wanting very general
>things:
>
>* More trouble-free computing
>
>* Cost-free software
>
>* General desktop computing capabilities
>
>I suspect most new users do not come with specific tasks in mind
>beyond that, so those might make very good additional descriptions of
>targets for that page.
>
>Trying to decide numbers of links on the page is not the thing we
>should be doing here.  That's a bikeshed in the making.

I agree.  That isn't exactly what Toshio was saying though.  He was saying
we should describe what our target (new users) can do with the default spin
so that it's marketed towards their usage.  He wasn't (at least with the
latest email) proposing multiple "task" links.

I'm not convinced describing the tasks one can accomplish with the default
spin is all that fruitful either.  However, doing at least a bit of that
_would_ help some I think.  It's a suggestion I think the design and websites
team can take forward and play with at least.

josh