Re: GNUstep.org website redesign proposal

[Germán Arias]

Hi Sebastian

El mar, 31-12-2013 a las 02:09 +0100, Sebastian Reitenbach escribió:
> Hi all,
> 
> I guess everybody knows, and also agrees that the GNUstep website is looking 
> fairly dated, and that
> finding contents in it, is somtetimes only possible with help of google.
> the last few days I spent on thinking about the website, what it may need, 
> digging html5 and css3,
> and came up with the following design, that you can find here:
> 
> https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index7.html

News at main website, was about to suggest this, because in this way we
can do a better use of wiki.

Germán.

> 
> Note, not all pages and links are "implemented". I did not wanted to waste 
> too much time, in case, the 
> majority of people doesn't like with what I've come up.
> 
> Older revisions, that finally lead to the design I have now, can be seen here:
> https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index3.html
> https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index5.html
> https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index6.html
> 
> The major design goals of the page are:
>  * have a half way modern look, but don't overdo
>  * easy and logical menu structuring, it should be easy to find things 
> following a logic
> 
> Further Ideas and things I had considered while designing were:
> 
> Intended main audience:
> 
> * MAC Developers seeking to port their apps to other platforms
> * Developers from other platforms, seeking to base their projects,
>   commercial or free, on GNUstep
> * Packagers, that want to package GNUstep for their favourite
>   OS/Distribution
> 
> Not intended main audience, but also welcomed:
> * End users of any kind
>   * direct End users to the pages to GWorkspace or SystemPreferences,
>     Example applications, and screenshots
>   * otherwise, direct end users to GAP and maybe other external sites
> 
> Why chose the main audience above?
> * GNUstep is a set of libraries, providing an API to be used by
>   developers
> * libraries are accompanied by a set of development tools
> * GWorkspace and SystemPreferences are nice show cases for developers
>   that want to get to know what they can get from GNUstep
> 
> General design goals of the page:
> * Its generally intended to attract the main intended audience
> * have a modern look and feel, but keep the page simple
> * page should work with recent modern browsers
>  * making use of modern HTML5 and CSS3
>  * page may look a bit odd with old browsers (this likely includes SWK ;)
>  * but who is really using a browser that does not understand HTML5/CSS3,
>    or at least a subset of it? Even Google doesn't support old browsers.
> * simple wording, short and clear sentences
> * simple page structure, simulating the MAC Desktop
>   * main menu (the dock at the bottom on every page)
>    * always all the time visible
>   * horizontal menu on the top dependent on what's chosen
>     from the dock at the bottom
>    * the icon on the left shows which menu entry was chosen from the dock at 
> the bottom
> Some more specific design decisions are based on:
> * design of the contents of the homepage:
>   * do not overload with information or images, the page should
>     load fast ;)
>   * address the most interesting questions someone looking for
>     GNUstep might have with links to the right subpages
>   * generally inspired from www.gtk.org
> * Footer/Dock:
>    * show some modern CSS tricks, hopefully giving the
>      (right) impression of GNUstep being modern too
> * mostly white background
>   * white looks "clean"
>   * but if there are better suggestions, and a different
>     background color can be agreed on, then it should be ;)
> * horizontal top menu is inspired by www.apple.com
>   * make Mac developers feel at home
>   * its simple, looking nice
>   * no submenus, but having submenus there, if agreed on,
>     can easily be added, see an "older" incarnation of the
>     design: https://www.l00-bugdead-prods.de/index3.html
>   * the icon on the left is the same as the one clicked
>     at the bottom, in order to signal where the user currently is
> * grey color in the horizontal menu on the top,
>   and other elements
>   * GNUstep apps are grey, or maybe in the future that
>     will (hopefully) change when another theme gets
>     included in GUI, but the color is chosen in reference
>     to the GUI apps and history to NeXT
>   * but if there are other suggestions for coloring the
>     menu and other elements, and it can be agreed on, then
>     it should be ;)
> * text alignment is "justified"
> * differentiate external links: those are marked with icon
> * News box on front page:
>   * shows news on, releases, hackathons, papers, etc.
>   * shows there is live in the community
> * New pages: hackathons page and papers page:
>   * show there is live in the community
>   * show there is fun in the community
> * make use of SSIs, to ease updating, at least for the
>   top menu, and the dock at the bottom, and for example
>   the news box on the front page
> * The screenshot pages should show off more Themes to
>   underline GNUsteps flexibility in the look 'n feel
> 
> Design ideas inspired by:
> * Footer: MAC OS X dock
> * horizontal top menu: www.apple.com
> * main page: www.gtk.org
> * screenshot gallery: www.gtk.org
> 
> Main Menu structure (the dock at the bottom)
> * About GNUstep
>   * about the project, and all other advocacy related stuff
> * Software
>   * information about what the software is that the project offers
> * Development
>   * any kind of information for developers about the software
>   * review the Who's who page, move long inactive project members
>     to an own section at the bottom, add new members not listed there.
> * Get Help
>   * any sort of general documentation, FAQ or HOWTO, bugtracker, etc. on
>     how to install/use GNUstep
>   * big part of this is to review the GNUstep HOWTO,
>     flesh out old/outdated cruft
>   * review the number of mailinglists, and their usefulness
> * Related sites
>   * links to GNUstep sites, i.e. savannah project site, wiki.
>   * link to other affiliated site, i.e. GAP, Etoile, Quantum-Step
> * Full Menu structure:
>    * Homepage (IS THERE)
>      * About GNUstep (IS THERE)
>      * Project Goals (IS THERE)
>      * Screenshots (IS THERE)
>      * Papers
>      * History
>      * Success Stories
>    * Software (IS THERE EMPTY)
>      * Core Libraries
>      * Development Tools (IS THERE)
>        * ProjectCenter (IS THERE)
>        * Gorm (IS THERE)
>      * Other Libraries
>      * GNUstep Desktop
>      * Download
>   * Development (IS THERE EMPTY)
>      * Libraries Map
>      * Development Docs
>      * Theming
>      * Testfarm
>      * Hackathons
>      * Who's who?
>   * Get Help (IS THERE EMPTY)
>      * FAQ/Howto
>      * Mailing Lists
>      * Bugtracker
>      * Project Wiki
>   * Related Sites (IS THERE EMPTY)
>      * GNUstep Sites
>      * External Sites
> 
> * As a project from developers, for developers, let's focus
>   on the fun of developing, showing off i.e. hackathons, the
>   one like in Cambridge, AlpenStep, etc.
> * have a page showing off presentations done by project
>   members about GNUstep (and related topics), i.e. FOSDEM
>   slides, and others. This shows off that the project is alive.
> 
> Please bear in mind, I'm not a web developer, more or less
> everything of the design is open for discussion.
> But I'd hope that the majority of people like the general design,
> and could live with it ;)
> Defining different colors, or exchanging icons, or menu entries,
> etc. that should be easy ;)
> 
> cheers,
> Sebastian
> 
> 
> 
> PS: Some other more general ideas, independent to the
> Website design, so please when you answer on those,
> create a new subject:
> 
> 
> 
> * Make a GNUstep maintained FAQ the main source of general
>   documentation and answers on how to get things running
>   (the wiki is just a big bad mess ;)
> 
> * Make GAP use the same, or similar design, to show off
> the tight relationship between GNUstep and GAP.
> * Redirect potential end users to GAP, and from GAP
>   redirect developers to GNUstep (but only developers
>   wanting to work on the libraries, not those wanting
>   to work on Applications)
> 
> * maybe trash the wiki.gnustep.org
>   * its unmaintainable, contains lots of outdated,
>     incorrect and misleading information
>   * incorporate important information into the main website
>     OR someone (or a team) needs to be willing to review
>     it regularly and if necessary clean it up/update outdated
>     info there
> * Talk to German, Adam, moving the stuff in gnustep-nonfsf
>   to GAP, or GNUstep, closing off the gnustep-nonfsf project
>