Hi,
Graham once wrote:
> I'm on a dialup connection so it feels like that to me. :)
>
Although I do not want to ignore dial up users, if we want to make a
choice, and we can significantly boost somehow our on-line identity,
then it might be good to have some numbers.
In the old continent (Europe) these are the numbers published by
EuroStat, an official body of the EU.
I believe that I read the numbers correctly when I say that ~80% of the
European households with an internet connection has a broadband internet
connection:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007_MONTH_12/4-03122007-EN-BP.PDF
Of course, when we are considering the 3rd world, we definitely
shouldn't make a website that is demanding from a bandwidth perspective.
Nor is it good for server traffic.
g.,
Maarten
Basically what I'm saying is that we provide little or no information to the
new arrival but we expect him to blindly download an unknown piece of
software.
People come to a website for two main reasons
*Curiosity
*To solve a problem
They will leave for more reasons:
*Their curiosity has been satisfied and they leave informed
*They find a solution to their problem
*They can't satisfy that curiosity within a reasonable time and they
leave frustrated
*They can't find the solution or it is not obvious and they leave
frustrated *Fear of the unknown
Our problem is right now, and the discussions up to this point are
reinforcing this point, we are not asking the User what he wants to do we
are telling them what we expect them to do, We inform them where to
download, but we don't give them information that will make them feel
comfortable about hitting the download button, or to stretch our metaphor
a bit further, we talk to our horse about the trough but not about how
good the water is, while the horse is still worried about drowning..
I think we're all concerned about ALL of these aspects, but we're our
presentation is flawed. There seems to be an emerging philosophical
discussion, on this list and elsewhere, about just HOW MUCH information
a homepage should provide (that old how many clicks will it take Marta
to really get what she wants), vs a more uncluttered presentation. This,
in essence, is what we're grappling with I think. I, for one, having
used open source products for quite some time now, don't have a good
feel for our "average" user if you want to know the truth. Maybe one of
the user support folks could weigh in more here.
So I've put together a draft of a front page continuing on the simplicity
idea which I'm a fan of. The difference is that we provide "Answers to
the Question"
"You have arrived at OpenOffice.org what would you like to do now?"
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/mwiki/images/a/a3/Home_page_draft_11-
27.jpg
Well...this is actually a somewhat reasonable approach. I kind of like
RJ's version(s) a bit better,
also simple, because it seemed to provide
a bit more sophistication than your design but I think the basic idea is
the same.
Actually I agree that Randy's is excellent, but I like this one even better
http://www.patentpending.co.nz/images/openoffice/siteconcept1.png
From IvanM off the art list, a variation on one of Nik's, except I would
substitute the Statements as I have written them on mine rather than the
How, where, what questions. At this point, I'm more focussed on the language
we use to help the New Arrival because that will tend to define the next
level pages.
I do feel, as some others have also said here, that *some* additional
elements, like a few "news" items, are good PR.
At this point in the New Users connection with OOo I think News is
unnecessary, that's the job of the why.openoffice.org page or similar
I think we offer, at the first connection, as few options as possible. That's
what my design was aimed at. Basically four choices all answering that
question:
"What do I want to do now?"
Detail can be added further in and that detail can be geared toward the user.
For instance someone clicking the "I want to know more before I download"
would want to know about news of Major Deployments of OOo, or maybe
testimonials, but probably wouldn't give a toss about really cool
developments around UNO or Extensions Development.
I think we provide that detail after we find out a little about the new
arrivals. They will give us a clue as to what news they will want to see
simply by the choices they make from that first click.
PR is good but it works better when tuned to the individual.
Cheers
GL
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
