Re: PostgreSQL website redesign

On 17 November 2011 00:10, Thom Brown <thom@linux.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> As you will no doubt be aware, the PostgreSQL website is overdue for a
> fresh lick of paint, so we are planning to give it a new look in the
> near future.  The plan is to use some existing community funds to
> employ the services of a professional designer who will be able to
> produce the new design.  Some of the community already have experience
> working with the designer in question as they designed the Postgres
> Open website (http://postgresopen.org/), and I think you will agree,
> they did an excellent job.
>
> With that in mind, we want to establish some design goals.  These will include :
> - what is the website's target audience?
> - how do we wish to be perceived? (e.g. traditional, modern, friendly,
> professional etc.)
> - what do we hope to achieve with the website design?
> - what new opportunities does this present us with?
> - what usability problems do we currently have that the redesign could address?
>
> You may have heard it said "there is no spoon".  Similarly, there is
> no bike shed, so there's no colour to paint it.  In other words, the
> gritty details (such as layout, colour, font-size, borders etc.)
> aren't up for discussion at this stage.  Instead, a design committee
> (which has already been selected) shall agree on the final design
> goals, liaise with the designer to discuss the finer details, and to
> ensure our goals are met.
>
> The final design will be licenced under our very own PostgreSQL Licence.
>
> So with that, I'd like to open this topic for discussion.

Okay, to get the ball rolling here's my initial input:

What I'd like to see is something which suggests "open", "modern" and
"clear", nothing elaborate or fancy.  The design must aid people
finding what they want rather than getting in the way of it.  There's
no point in people thinking "Wow, what a great looking site!  Now
where the hell is the documentation?"  A website I believe follows
this general direction is Drupal (http://drupal.org/).  I'd want to
avoid anything too cutesy or too corporate as neither of those really
represents our users, and the user base diversity is quite broad.

It would be interesting to see where visitors go upon visiting the
site.  One thing I tend not to notice on the main page is the
"Shortcuts" section.  This is one of the few places the wiki is
referred to, and it's a shame it's not more clearly sign-posted since
it contains plenty of helpful info.

One page which I find fairly inaccessible is the "About" page:
http://www.postgresql.org/about/

It just doesn't scan well as it's too dense, and not very attractive
for a page for potential users who wish to be introduced to PostgreSQL
itself.

One thing to bear in mind is people using lower screen resolutions.  A
typical screen resolution on a netbook is 1024×600 (according to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_netbooks), so it's probably
safe to set that as our base.  We won't want the first thing for
people to see on every page to be a big banner with no actual visible
content.

So, does anyone know if we have analytics for visitors hitting the
home page?  It would be nice to be able to distinguish those who
habitually click on the link they always click on immediately upon the
page loading, and those contemplating where they want to go, who spend
time looking at the whole page before clicking through to whatever
they were looking for.

Thom