website mockups, what is fedora?

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On 08/23/2009 12:38 PM, Paul Frields wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Ben Boeckel<mathstuf at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> The challenge for the adventurous 'all-choice' population is to
>>> realize that they aren't the lion share of people.
>>>
>>
>> Good point. Kevin said on IRC earlier today that we may
>> be looking at it from different viewpoints as well. The
>> current mockups assume new-to-Linux while in the KDE
>> SIG we are looking from a new-to-Fedora-but-familiar-
>> with-Linux viewpoint. Maybe this is a part of the root of
>> the problem behind how we see these mockups?
> 
> It may be.  That's why we set out a set of audience precepts to show
> for whom these pages are intended. I think the assumption that people
> looking for a specific set of tools, or for a specific spin they've
> either seen or heard about, are going to blindly look for the general
> download page, especially if we present better options for them.
> 
I imagine you want an "is false" at the end of that sentence :-)

I think you're wrong though -- I think that people looking for a
specific spin or a set of tools will look for the general download page.
 It's about the "task the user wants to perform", not the "type of
Fedora".  I want to download Fedora KDE, that got a positive review on a
blog.  I go to fedoraproject.org.  I click on Download.  I'm presented
with getfp.o.  At this point I don't need to see "Fedora desktop" and
"Fedora KDE" side by side to know what to click.  But I do need to see
something that clues me into the fact that the big download now button
isn't what I want to click.  And that the "Spins" or "Other options"
link is what I want.

I think mizmo's current mockups are doing a reasonable job at this....
Maybe the Other options area could be highlighted more but I admit to
being at a loss to know how.  It's pretty hard for text/a list of links
to compete with a big blue button.

> If I'm in the KDE SIG, promoting Fedora at a show, or pointing out our
> spin to someone in person, over email, on IRC, or elsewhere, if I have
> a place to point people directly such as "get.fp.o/kde", that is where
> I'll send them.  Why would I send them elsewhere on a goose chase when
> I can put them right where they'll see what I work on every day?

I don't know about this either.  If I'm at a show promoting Fedora KDE I
would definitely send people directly to get.fp.o/kde.  But if I'm at a
show promoting Fedora, is that really what I'd do?  It seems...
unethical.  I think most people in the KDE SIG would show people the new
spins page and talk to them about the various choices that exist there.

It's a higher touch sales pitch but it is more personal and more fair.

The other option is that I will direct them to the get.fp.o page.
Either because I don't want to be higher touch (although why I am
promoting at a show and don't want to talk to people I don't know) or
because I'm with a bunch of other Fedora Contributors and they're all
showing people the get.fp.o page so I want us to look professional and
have a consistent message for everyone.

> It
> is bad design and the wrong strategy to force that goal onto the
> get-fedora page, which has a very different set of objectives.
>
> That's why this fixation on making the general get-fedora page more
> complex and choice-laden seems very counterproductive to me. It
> assumes that we should have a goal for that page of diverting people
> who don't know how to make an informed choice, to force them to make
> that choice. As we've laid out previously, the purpose of this page is
> to cater -- not exclusively, but primarily -- to people who are not
> looking for a panoply of choices. We're providing *other* pages to
> cater to people looking for either specific choices, or a large menu
> of options.
> 

Not all of the people who have been speaking here feel that a strong
enough default does not force choice on people.  Or perhaps better
stated as a very strong default is almost as good as a single choice
solution while allowing for other goals to coexist in the design.

Note that I'm happy with having a prominent enough link to a separate
page with choices so I'm not going to talk further on this particular
point -- you'll have to corner one of the people who has presented this
side for that :-)

> The get-fedora page *does* need to provide for the relatively small
> portion of people who end up there by accident, giving them a way to
> find the things they were looking for. Those people are incented to
> read the whole page to find what they want, and the "route to choice"
> area prominently displays a number of the most popular things they'd
> be looking for.

As implied by the first part of this reply, the one thing I disagree
with you here is "people who end up there by accident".  I agree that
the current design of getfp.o is not intended for them to get value out
of and also that the "more options area" is at least intended to direct
them to the proper place.  But I think it is wrong to think of them as
getting to get.fp.o by accident.  what do they want to do?  Download
Fedora SpinFoo.  What will they click on on the front page?  A
navigation item that says 1) "Download SpinFoo", 2) "Download", or 3)
"SpinFoo".  We won't have a navigation item that says "Download
SpinFoo".  We will have one that says "Download" that takes people to
get.fp.o.  We might have something that says "SpinFoo" (for instance in
the "banner ad" place) but it won't be a navigation item so that
decreases the relevance people place on it.

So lots of people who we want to go to the spins page are going to see
get.fp.o before they get there.  We need to be sure the bridge from
get.fp.o to spins is apparent for all of those people.

-Toshio

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