RFC: Home page design

[Emma Jane Hogbin]

[with some bit snipped and dealt with separately]

On Saturday 12 September 2009 3:56:07 pm Eric Siegerman wrote:
> I prefer the look of the old design-2 nav bar:
>   - The new background colour doesn't seem to me to fit as well
>     with the rest of the page

It's much greener and darker on the monitor I'm using now. I will be adjusting 
the colour.

>   - The type is too small

The type is the size provided by the 960.gs CSS framework that I'm using. I 
will be adjusting it to use relative font sizes.


>   - I'm not overly fond of the yellow type, despite the fact that
>     it ties in with new yellow main-page area.  For me,
>     consistency with its nearest neighbour (the banner) trumps
>     that tie-in to a more distant part of the page.  But this
>     one's a *weak* preference; change the other two and I can
>     easily live with the yellow nav-button type.

Not sure what you're referring to by "yellow type"? Do you mean in the utility 
navigation? I assume yes based on the changes you made in your branch.


> > 3. clear, unique buttons for "action" areas of the site.
>
> Darn, I *like* the road-sign buttons from Wednesday's version!
> (http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmajane/3903764440/)  I laughed
> when I saw them.  I like the look of them on the page, and I
> *really* like the playful way they riff off the bzr logo.  The
> latter is not nearly as obvious with the new buttons, despite the
> diamond shape of some.  I much prefer the ones from Wednesday's
> mockup.

I liked them too. mpt, one of the Canonical designers, asked me not to riff on 
the logo. :( He prepared a longer response to the list, but I don't see it. 
Maybe it got stuck in the moderation queue? If one of the list maintainers 
could check, it'd be much appreciated.


> > 6. nicer screenshot in the carousel area (thanks Gary!)
>
> Which made the banner section even huger than the too-huge it
> already was.  I know that particular banner is only for the home
> page, but still, I find it most excessive.

Please read: http://bazaar-vcs.org/BazaarPersonas
The screen shots must be big enough to be "readable" by our target market. 
Currently the image is 247 pixels. This is not excessively large given its job 
of convincing people that Bazaar has a "usable" GUI suitable for non-technical 
people. Chances are good that if you're subscribed to this list, you're not 
the target market for that image. :)


> > 2. The yellow "action" panes are based on the initial wireframes. They
> > are: Download, Extend, Get Help. Are they the right "actions" for the
> > front page of the site?
>
> Martin Pool suggested that the middle pane should be "Get going",
> linking ultimately to a fan-out page for docs, plugins, etc.  I
> like that.  Of course I didn't read it till after I'd wasted a
> couple of hours making a "plug-in" extend icon that will no
> longer be useful if this suggestion is adopted :-(

ha! Nice! It's a bit hard for me to see the plug itself on my high-res 
monitor. I think it's a fun idea though. :)


> In today's version, the "Bazaar is used by" logos are back.  I
> like them in their current location.

\o/


> +1 on this idea of Paul Harris's:
> |   if you want to "sell" bazaar to people who dont use it, perhaps
> |   two small links under the big "Bazaar" title+logo (in the
> |   dead-space)
> |   * What is a DCVS ? (for those who come from CVS / SVN / floppy disks
> |   * How does it compare to other DCVSs ?
>
> Here's what most[*] of those suggestions result in:
>     screen shot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/86666232@N00/3912524403/
>     mockup HTML: lp:~eric97/+junk/bzr-home-page-mockup

Thanks for taking a crack at this. I really appreciate the time that you put 
into it. I've updated the branch to include your utility navigation changes.



regards,
emma