As OOo 2.0 approaches release, and the big marketing push for it begins, I think it would be useful to revise the main page of the web site to accomodate first-time visitors/users of OOo. If people who had just heard of OpenOffice.org were to visit the current site, I believe it would be difficult for them to find out, quickly and easily, what the product does.
Newcomers would probably click "new user & general info" at the left because it's big and seems relevant. The small icons at the right that describe the components might not catch their eye (they are overwhelmed by the seagull eggs). Upon arriving at http://www.openoffice.org/about_us/new.html, the new users still don't see "what does this product do" -- they have to click "product" in the first paragraph. If they don't click it, then they would read the whole page and still have no idea what OpenOffice.org does. If the readers do click "product", they'll get to http://www.openoffice.org/product/index.html, where they finally find out what OpenOffice.org consists of, but only after reading the first paragraph about how the development took place, and how it is better than version 1.0 (although they have no idea what version 1.0 did!) I suggest the following changes to the main page: 1. Make the components and the download area the "centerpiece" of the page. 2. Make the icons for the components larger, and describe the components. (The Korean native language page at http://ko.openoffice.org/ does this, but doesn't link the descriptions). 3. Change "native language" to the less technical "choose your language", and change "new user & general info" to "about this site". (Those buttons should be smaller as well.) I have made these changes on a sample page which is available for viewing at http://oooweb.evc-cit.info/ Comments/opinions/flames welcomed. -- J. David Eisenberg http://catcode.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
