Difference between revisions of "Website/Requirements"

Revision as of 19:18, 21 September 2007

This is the preliminary page for sketching out the user pages requirements. More content soon!

Wish list

In general

• User friendly links: openoffice.org/download; openoffice.org/help etc. should bring the user where he should get.
  • User:Murb "running a complete end-user website on enduser.services.openoffice.org doesn't make things easier to remember, see Jakob Nielsen on the matter"
• Localisation should be build in from start
  • User:Murb "the end user pages should be more similar, try to create a global brand image; don't talk about "native language projects" anymore, but just about OO.o in your own language, or OO.o <language> (e.g. OpenOffice.org Deutsch, OpenOffice.org Nederlands etc.). As en example look e.g. at (sorry) Mozilla Europe: http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/ , http://www.mozilla-europe.org/nl/ , http://www.mozilla-europe.org/de/ "
• Review the information architecture ~"the table of contents of the website"
• All clicks from the main page should land on a page still friendly to end-users, maintaining the same style etc.
• "I would like to propose that the first page is mirroring or echoing the content that is available on the different subproject's websites, putting focus on resources that are often used." - Per Eriksson

Getting OOo

• Auto detection / auto selection of language & os
  • Requires server side scripting
• Offer CD's
  • Anecdote: One of the complaints was initially with a one click download that CD offerings are neglected. Which introduced at least one extra click in order to relieve the crowdedness on the main page. P2P is also given as an alternative way to get OOo, but I would consider that still as user unfriendly.
• Only offer bittorent and alike when it can be integrated smoothly

Why

• Good explanation in as few lines/pages as possible why people should get OOo
• Comparison with other office suites

Get more out of OOo

• Downloads to cliparts, good tutorials, templates, extensions etc.
  • User:Murb: "I believe this should be either a centralized effort or an effort involving some kind of voting mechanism... there is a lot of material that looks unprofessional and makes working with less fun."
• Create a package with good looking cliparts

About

• Short, and optimized for e.g. journalists who want to get background info

Get people to contribute

• Smart placement of links; e.g. when describing the draw component, create a link to de development pages of this component.
  • Requires cooperation with the component managers to create reasonable landing pages (provide them with a template?)
• Idea once proposed at website-dev: "OpenOffice.org community"; brand all community efforts "part of the OpenOffice.org community".

Help

Persona's

Persona's help to get an idea of what type of user we are focussing on. You can 'test' design proposals using the persona's, by simply trying to think how this person would solve the problem he or she is faced with. If you think a typical user is not yet mentioned in this list add 'm. If you think a persona is within the scope of the end user focus plan, please add your opinion.

• 46 year old father with two kids wants to download OOo by himself. His native language is Dutch (nl).
• 15 year old girl is making an assignment for one of her courses. She is looking for nice clip art to use in OOo
• 25 year old male student is looking how to create well structured documents, in order to make his thesis writing process efficient
• 33 year old has switched to the Mac platform and wants to get OOo running as well...
• A user behind a slow connections wants to know where to buy a CD with OOo
• Fanatic user wants to find out more about the community. He would like to contribute to the new chart component.
  • User:Murb: "I believe we can learn from this one that we need bridges to the developer pages, users start of as an end-user, but some want to get involved. Offering bridging links would help."
• Journalist from a local newspaper wants to compare OOo to other competing office suites
• A 'geek' is waiting for the inclusion of the lightning project with OOo, where to find more information?
  • User:Murb: "We should think about how deep we should go in providing information on these pages... [not sure whether this persona is applicable]"

Examples of websites

OpenSource

why.openoffice.org

proposed by the Marketing Project, March 2007

netbeans

more technical; interesting read: Deconstructing the www.netbeans.org Redesign

pidgin

User:Cj: "clear separation between user and development, easy download, easy access to additional information"

mozilla

User:Murb: "Typical example of a big opensource project with a easy download (most users just have to click download; language & os is all preselected, very much end user focussed. Developper's site is on another domain. Focus only on download however doesn't work for OOo, since OOo is a much heavier download..."

Closed Source

MS Office

User:Murb: "I want cool cliparts / templates etc... it is just a few clicks away, and looking more attractive. Much to improve also on this site, but I like the focus not only on the potential user just about to get it, but also on the user experience of users who are actually trying to use it for their projects"

Apple iWorks

User:Murb: "Looking at it I would say, DA!, DA!, DA!... Pages, Keynote, Numbers. Very attractive screenshots right in your face. It sells itself...; on the other hand it kind of gives a feel of, is it only about being beautiful? Would it work for my 100+ page Thesis? (and of course it is Mac only ;) )"

Rough design proposals

Please write some of your preliminary ideas down here: