Re: [Chicken-users] Homepage design proposal

[Yaroslav Tsarko]

Hi, Tim!

First of, your mock-up is very nice. Indeed it gives more modern look 
than an older version.

Just few my thoughts on it:
1. The background image is TOO heavy and draws a lot of attention to it. 
I think it needs to be somehow
    more pale than it is of now.
2. Text on the LATEST CHANGES 'panel' (or whatever it is called) looks 
too dark. I suppose it should be more light,
    may be like a text on the top of the page which describes what the 
CHICKEN is.
3. I am not totally sure, but it seems to me that the page in general 
contains too much CHICKEN silhouettes than
    it is needed (for example instead of bullet-list you used ones on 
the WHY CHICKEN? list).

But the general intention is clear and great, nice work!

On 23.01.2015 10:24, Tim van der Linden wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> In the recent light of visual changes to the wiki, I have picked up an old(er) 
> idea to have my go at a redesign of the homepage (landing page, front page, 
> the-first-page, etc...).
>
> I, for one, find our CHICKEN site charming. Yet many new folks see the homepage 
> more as the scrolling end credits to CHICKEN The Movie then an actual 
> eye-catching, easy to pick-up page. Too much text, no pleasing, eye stroking 
> candy.
>
> Do not understanding me wrong, I do not wish to push a Candy Crush, plastic, all 
> bells & whistles design, yet I hope most of you agree that something needs to 
> be done to attract new users (rather then to scare them away) and to try to get to 
> information faster.
>
> The first thing I did on this journey was to take a peek at our fellow language 
> pages, and see what they do to reel them in. A quick glance at other languages 
> (like Python, Racket (!), Ruby, Erlang, ...) show the following common features:
>
> - See common, easy-to-understand code samples depicting typical language 
> features
> - Clear changelog timeline
> - Visual weight (visual importance, not one blob of text)
> - Big Download/Get Started now call-to-action
>
> Things less commonly see, but just plain beautiful:
>
> - The ability to run code in an interactive shell
> - A map of CHICKEN across the world
> - A list of real-life CHICKEN projects
> - An awesome photo of chickens
>
> For the design I thought it would be smart to give it a minimalistic 
> approach...CHICKEN is a tiny language after all, and we want to tout it's 
> simplicity, right?
>
> Before putting in to much design work, I thought I would throw it out early in 
> the process.
> So I have gone ahead and create a (very rough) design for the homepage only, 
> using flat elements and hopefully a better approach then currently is the case.
> Mind that this is only a mock-up (nothing works!) and not all information is 
> accurate. But it should give you a fairly good idea of the direction I wish to 
> take...
>
> Also...if there are any *real* designers in the house...any help is welcomed ;)
>
> Find it here: http://shisaa.jp/chicken/
>
> All input is greatly appreciated and I hope this will spark a few ideas here 
> and there...
>
> Cheers,
> Tim
>
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