Re: [Chicken-users] Homepage design proposal

[Matt Gushee]

Hi, Tim and everyone--

I've been meaning to comment on this topic for some time, but I am
somewhat afraid to express my opinions on this list (I hasten to add
that that has nothing to do with anyone's behavior here - just my own
feeling of being hopelessly outclassed in this community. Plus the
fact that I tend to ignite controversy without meaning to). But my
hand has been forced!

And I have to make this really quick, so this is going to be more of a
braindump than a coherent statement ....

First of all, Tim, I think your mockup is a giant step forward. Thanks
for doing it! I agree that the homepage needs work, the sooner the
better, and I mostly agree with your approach to the task. I also took
a recent tour of programming language websites and gleaned more or
less the same insights as you. Funnily, the site I thought was best
(more from an information architecture standpoint than a visual one)
was opendylan.org - Dylan being possibly the coolest implemented
language that nobody uses.

However, I'm also a strong proponent of designing web sites around
their content, and I think the site as a whole lacks coherence and
needs an overhaul. But that should not be based on one person's, or a
small group's idea of what makes sense. I think there is a broader
topic that should be discussed before any major work is done on the
site. That is the question of how Chicken Scheme should position
itself in the software development world.

And actually, I have to cut this off right now. I'll try to finish my
thoughts later this afternoon. Let me just complete the above thought
by saying that I think it's a great idea to reorganize the homepage
content and layout right now along Tim's lines. And I'm not saying the
"bold new look" is necessarily wrong, just that any new visual design
should apply to the whole site, and so perhaps should wait until the
deeper problems are addressed.

On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 12:24 AM, Tim van der Linden <address@hidden> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chicken-users mailing list
> address@hidden
> https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/chicken-users