Over the past couple months I've been speaking with Ian about your fascinating project and recently, he's asked me to give feedback on the new site design so I've included a previous email addressing that below.
Looking forward to more conversations with each of you!
-Brendan
p.s. Here's my brief bio: I am a digital product designer, interested in interactive design, information architecture, user experience, business strategy, and generally making life easier and more fun.
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Hi Ian,
Overall, I think that this visual design is a nice step forward. The navigation is clearer, and having a single column structure gives you room for a left hand navigation down the road on lower-level pages, should you need it.
As far as color, do you have sense of what you want the brand colors to be? It looks like the new release of the app, and the logo mark, are blue. Perhaps consider having a blue-tone color theme rather that the black grey theme. Having the header black makes it feel "dark". I would be mindful of the connotations that "darkness" has (good and bad). Might be interesting to see a lighter treatment. Perhaps blue and grey of beige?
(As far as information design and the presentation of the content on the pages, see the comments below on structure and content. It makes sense to address the larger questions prior to focusing the presentation of page-level content.)
That's pretty much my first blush on design.
I think there are a couple quick-wins that are usability related, that I've included below (1&2).
PAGE: Home page:
http://amphibian.dyndns.org.nyud.net/freenet/newsite/index.html
1. Since you've opted to have the app installer automatically begin the install after they click (instead of downloading first) Here are a few preparatory steps you might want to include to prepare the suer.
Make the label on the button more descriptive and consider adding a few bullets above the button to describe the installation process. For instance:
"Getting started is easy! When you install, you'll do the following:
· Download and automatically open the installer
· Set your security preference and connection speed
· Explore the feature through the Getting Started Tutorial"
["Install Freenet now" = button label]2. Screenshots are great to have. Consider adding a trigger that says "Click to View Screenshots" under the one on the right, and on the destination page, add more screenshots and label what those screens are. Currently the destination page is just a single larger screenshot. Add a description telling the user which screen they are looking at and add additional screens of other parts of the app beneath it on this page and a link at the bottom to take the user back to the previous page, the home page.
I like the "Latest News" item. Feels like a 'heartbeat' on the site. That's good.
Here's some additional food for though regarding content and structure.
Have a look at panic.com or http://www.panic.com/transmit/ and check out how they have loads of features on the product page. Consider having a "product features" page with iconography and a quick description of each feature. This is a nice way to pay off your central product 'value proposition' (Ex. "Share, Chat, Browse. Anonymously. On the Free Network." - Then give a list of features somewhere on the site that explains this in a bit more detail.)
Here's a big structure idea. It looks like there are two main content areas: Content related to the app: And, content related to the Freenet Project. In the future, restructuring the site, and making a clear distinction between these two types of content, could really help the overall UX and usability of the site. This type of structure would also help a broader audience to self-segment and get to their desired content more easily.
Best,
Brendan
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