Andreas-

 

I really like the ideas and your mockup.

I disagree with one point, Flash is a horrible idea. Trust me on this one. As part of Novell's web development team, we had a lot of anger on the Linux front last Spring when the designers implemented a Flash-based login page for Novell Partner accounts. Flash carries some inherent security risks, and many Linux users have Flash disabled in their browser in general. I even got a worm through a random flash that targeted users of a specific program, only a few weeks ago on a Windows box.

 

Javascript has several libraries that are just as flexible as Flash. Jquery is a great place to start.

 

Also, another example - I didn't create this page, but http://www.novell.com/solutions/ is completely Javascript running Jquery. There are other options such as Mootools. In fact, tomorrow we're having a developer meeting to discuss these advanced Javascript code functions.

I'm all for the changes, that's one of the reasons I signed up for this mailing list. I think openSUSE is a great OS and needs to be more friendly to the average user if it is to gain any marketshare in the open-source market.

 

Keep me updated,

Chris Coray

>>> Andreas Demmer <mail@andreas-demmer.de> 7/31/2008 12:31 AM >>>
Hi,

I suggested some improvements for the WIKI to Zonker and he told me that the
marketing mailinglist would be most probably the best place to turn to.

All my suggestions here deal with the WIKI startpage (not the general "get
it", "discuss", "create" doorpage although I support the discussions about a
general browser-default-page centric page). IMHO the WIKI startpage needs
prominent linked screenshots and something like a "desktop" tour. The Ubuntu
website is a good place to get inspiration. :-)

openSUSE 11 has succeeded in becoming one of the best (if not THE best)
distros around, but the website is optimized for users who already know what
openSUSE. The website though should reflect much more the needs of new,
interested users.

Therefore, we do not need to overthrow the existing design, but we need to add
some informations more popular, such as screenshots, a "what can i do with
openSUSE?" section and the like. The current text ("openSUSE is a project
sponsored by Novell [...]") is quite gibberish for people who never hat
contact to openSUSE. Even worse: In my opinion, its even not very obvious that
openSUSE is a Linux-distribution and a very user-friendly one too.

At least this page should much more promote the product and put the community
thought in second place (without emasculating it). The text on the boxed
version is a good text to show here and some really visually compelling
artwork would catch the design-lovers. A "user-screenshots" section would also
be nice. Spread the word how SEXY openSUSE can look.

Here I made a first mockup:
http://www.andreas-demmer.de/opensuse_website_mockup1.jpg

It features a screenshot slider which shows some screenshots of openSUSE in
action so the visitor intuitional gets an idea of what openSUSE is and what he
can do with it. Here the saying is true: A picture is woth a thousand words!

The slider could be implemented in JavaScript and Flash. Zonker noted, that
Flash would not be such a good idea and maybe he is right. But I thought that
Flash allows much more stylish effects than one can achive with JavaScript.
The people we want address in the first place are most likely Windows users
and therefore impressible by visual bling-bling. Maybe Flash is not such a bad
idea after all.

Nevertheless, I am a web-professional and can help implementing in whatever we
come up here. In fact: I would love to do that! :-) My major skills are
(X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and the like but I have access to a whole bunch
of professional screendesigners, flash developers and others.

I await your feedback eagerly!

Greets,
Andreas

--
Andreas Demmer

Skype:   andreas.demmer
ICQ:     103 924 771

http://www.andreas-demmer.de