Difference between revisions of "Creativecommons.org Development/Homepage"

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(Sites of notable homepages)
(Sites of notable homepages)
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** Magazine style website
 
** Magazine style website
 
* http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/
 
* http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/
 +
**
 
* http://www.mozilla.com/  
 
* http://www.mozilla.com/  
 
** Pretty, enticing
 
** Pretty, enticing

Revision as of 01:13, 16 December 2008

General Improvement Thoughts

  • Make better use of categories going forward?
    • Categories get a thumbnail, homepage displays post title and thumbnail (less PITA to get everyone to post an associated image with each entry.)
  • Clearer basic introduction on CC & mission
    • Enticing, inviting design/art?
  • Featured articles (Management?)
  • Related posts and content from around the web?
  • Make /weblog/ more useful and rich, than just an easily ignored archive...
  • Homepage-only special layout to highlight sections, features, content

Current Homepage

Things of note regarding the current homepage

  • Lots of links
  • Lots of blog
  • Have to scroll down for mission statement
  • Pretty picture up front
  • Nothing jumps out and shouts LOOK AT ME
  • Info architecture could be worse

Sites of notable homepages

Other non-profit/open source/commercial sites with various homepage approaches that may be closer to what cc.org ought to achieve.

  • http://www.redhat.com/
    • Doesn't say what they do, assumed
    • Up front with latest projects and pretty shiny pictures
    • Double level nav
    • Blog posts just titles (RH Blog is its own, clearly defined section)
    • Links to getting started, info, services/products
  • http://www.ubuntu.com/
    • Lots of info on what an Ubuntu is
    • Links to press releases, no blog
    • Shiny highlighted links to support/getting involved/developing
  • http://www.gnome.org/
    • Minimal
    • Latest project up front
    • Snippets of latest news, events, project info
  • http://mediatemple.net/
    • Minimal
    • Direct links to products
    • Info blurb
  • http://kiva.org/
  • http://www.eff.org/
    • Title only blog post list
    • Very short info line, but direct link to more
    • Link to Donate section separate from main nav
    • Direct links to "issues" (Categories)
      • "Issues" are their content categories, featuring cases, blog posts, related press, related "issues", press releases
  • http://www.worldchanging.com/
    • Nice info organisation
    • Colour coordinated categorisation
    • Magazine style website
  • http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/
  • http://www.mozilla.com/
    • Pretty, enticing
    • Direct link to more information
    • Direct link to latest version
    • "Sort of" latest news - Randomly updated links, not clear on link priorities

Notes from Creativecommons.org_Development

  • Remove the blog from the front page of the site and replace it with a concise summary of CC and a handful of highly relevant links to other parts of the site. I seriously doubt whether many people go to CC.org simply to read the blog, and those that do will have no problem clicking on a new tab that says "Weblog." Most people interested in the CC blog are probably somewhat technical and will most likely be using a feed aggregator of some sort. Rename "Jurisdiction News" to something like "Latest News" and incorporate items from the CC blog into the list, then move the list into the right column where there is presently nothing but whitespace, thereby leaving more room for relevant content in the main content area. (Nathan Kinkade)
  • I agree with Kinkade for the most part, but I think that the blog serves a secondary purpose of showing people who come to the site that there is always interesting news happening in our world and that there are always cool projects that we are working on. So, while I agree that the blog should not be the focus of the page (I mean, right now, the site looks like little more than a blog when you land on the front page), I think the fact that the blog is newsy and provides dynamic content is a major plus, and that it should remain in some form on the front page. I kind of like how the EFF handles updates on their site (http://www.eff.org/), although I'm not crazy about their overall design. (ES)
  • I think the landing main page should have minimal content, but to explain in a concise compelling way why CC is important, what we offer, etc.. (MR)
  • I agree that the blog should not be the landing page (MR)
  • If all goes well, then I think we should highlight the stories we start to gather during the campaign. I think this has the potential to be very valuable in terms of communicating our mission. (MR)
  • I'd be really interested in seeing a design that provided more modular flexibility. Right now, the front page has two giant blocks of info right at the top (I'm not even really sure the case studies one is of much value to the general public, but that's a different conversation) - and it doesn't seem like either really takes advantage of the space. It would be good for there to be the ability to put blocks of info/images of various sizes around the front page, so that we can highlight more than just our topline description and a single project below it. (ES)
  • Utilize categories/tags beyond sorting posts
    • Come up with structure/protocol
    • Easily find posts within a category or topic (i.e. music, education, etc.)
    • Tags could also enable more specialized RSS feeds.
  • Refresh design
    • A featured article at the top of page, followed by recently updated posts.
      • More information presented in less space without feeling cluttered.
      • Visually divide posts into columns based on tag/categories (i.e. music, education, etc.)
      • See worldchanging.org
  • Expand scope to include not only stories that directly reference CC, but also ones on related topics.
    • "Zoom out" on issues on to put news pieces into context.