I'm no expert in design, but from what I can get from my personal feel:
from the Mathematica site, what I think called the attention of the OP
is that it's red. Simply as that. From the wikipedia page on Marketing
(which by the way seems pretty informational):
"""
Requirements of a good advertisement
The AIDA principle. Attention, Interest, Desire and Action
* Attract attention (awareness)
* Stimulate interest
* Create a desire
* Bring about action (to buy the product)
"""
the trick to attract attention in the Mma case is the big, bold, red
top. It appears to me it is also what makes some people here "nervous".
To me, that much red hurts the eye.
>From this page
http://bizcovering.com/marketing-and-advertising/the-subliminal-effects-of-color-in-marketing/
one can read:
"The color RED implies an outgoing, aggressive, excitable, assertive,
courageous, and regal behavior."
and
"Words that describe the color BLUE include deep, mysterious, withdrawn,
peacefulness, dignified, knowledge, order, tranquility, and melancholy
or depression. LIGHT BLUE symbolizes healing, spirituality, soothing and
comfort."
yeah, Marketing people do study those things (and they tend to work)
Now, compare both: from that, it appears that the Mma site calls
attention and the Sage one is depressing. Actually, that was my first
impression, though on a second look, one can absorb the "knowledge" part
of blue.
Also, to me, the best of those sites are Sage's and Matlab's. The Sage
one does indeed need some rearrangements. First, I don't know why, but I
believe that smaller fonts make the site looks more professional. One
can note that the sites of all three commercial softwares have fonts
smaller than sage. The big boxy icons in the page give sage a unique
feel, but I think they waste space unnecessarily, so maybe they could be
resized too. The sage main page also needs some attention to the wording
as others have pointed out already. Notice: when cleaning up and making
things small, don't make menus like the one in the Maple (too long). A
nice alternative to put more links in a cleaner page is to use that +
symbols in the bottom of the Matlab page. No hovers, easier on the
mouse.
One of the things I like about the Matlab page is the screenshot right
in front. It does show some cool stuff that it can do, and one "feels an
urge" to click it. Everybody likes screenshots. Yet, I didn't like much
how they mixed blue and yellow. Also, I'm not sure if a Sage screenshot
would go well in the main page due to the mostly blue-and-white colors
(but it may fit well, since the notebook is also in the same colors;
only putting it there to know).
Disclaimer: I'm an electronics engineering student, so Matlab is THE
default app everywhere. I didn't like the Matlab page because of this.
To be true, I am the only one in my department who uses python and I
rarely use sage. It's just plain easier/faster to use plain python+pylab
with the occasional scipy (yes, I do all my assignments with that). From
my viewpoint, sage is a wonderful tool for mathematicians, though not so
good for engineers.
Cheers,
Ronan
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