Redesign of the www.rockbox.org front page

[PaperArtillery]

Another attempt:
http://www.sanusart.com/rocksite/R2/index.html

I really like Sanusart's shot at it...I think it might be wise to have a little more comprehensive of a nav system, but otherwise it's quite nice, maybe with a slight tone-down in the brighter yellows (it's a wee bit hard to look at for too long).  Those aside, I approve.

I might take a shot at it myself here soon, but that's assuming I have the time off of work.

[bluebrother]

The one in the upper right of the picture: "Rockbox is an open source ..."

This is an explanation, not a quotation. Thus quotation marks are out of place ...

[kratonator]

Personally, I like the site as it is. It's very sober and easy to use. Never change a winning team.

[Zardoz]

The one in the upper right of the picture: "Rockbox is an open source ..."

This is an explanation, not a quotation. Thus quotation marks are out of place ...

To me the quotation marks are just stylisitc? as in they function as a visual element and not as 'proper' punctuation or diacritics.

Personally, I like the site as it is. It's very sober and easy to use. Never change a winning team.

It's a great site, make no mistake. I still think it can be improved (I think the logo is horrendous!)

[Llorean]

I think they can be left off if they're merely stylistic, as obviously some people won't see them as such.

And some of us love that logo very, very much.

[Zardoz]

And some of us love that logo very, very much.

I respect that, needless to remark. 'Horrendous' is probably too strong a word. I guess I meant I don't like it and I think it could be improved. That's all.

[macku]

Hi,
After I read topic about new rockobx install button, I attempt to do redesign of rockbox site.

Here is some results:

Front page
http://macku.to.pl/rockbox/rockbox.html
http://macku.to.pl/rockbox/rockbox2.html
Main concept was to create a page for non-rockbox user that visits page for the first time. So there are some basic links to information about rockbox ex. buyers guide. For old users/developers I put some feeds link on top.
The image with player should change and show different players that rockbox can handle.
I also borrow the install button graphic

Subversion table
http://macku.to.pl/rockbox/subversion.html
This screen show last subversion changes. Table will appear after click on Subversion link.

If you like it I can prepare sub-page layout. Waiting for your suggestions.

[Llorean]

One problem I have with that one is that it throws away the list of currently supported players. Considering the number of people we already have asking "Is my player supported?" it'd be nice if the list were still always visible and very apparent on the homepage.

[BdN3504]

[...]attempt to do redesign of rockbox site.[...]

Looks great to me! i don't know if it's ok to depict an actual picture of a rockboxed player copyrightwise, but the design looks awesome! sorry for the plumpness of my post, i'll dig deeper and will post again if i find something critique-worthy later.

[macku]

@Llorean: I will try to place the list somewhere soon.
@BdN3504: You mean cut the players/manufacture company name? I can put them back.

[Zagor]

I attempt to do redesign of rockbox site.

Very nice work. Some feedback:

1. It's very, uhm, orange. :-) How would it look with the orange backgrounds being shades of blue instead?

2. The top white-on-gray navigation is hard to read.

3. Where do developers go?

4. I'd love to see some sub-page sketches. A new theme needs to work well with wiki and the tracker too.

BdN3504: Depicting products on a web page is perfectly legal.

[ThaCrip]

i am not sure if this is the right place to ask but what happened to all the 'supported players' on the home page of this site?

it's currently only showing Apple stuff.

and also it says... "SVN access disabled. See news and IRC. "  instead of showing the usual bug fixes there.

[Llorean]

As it says "see news and IRC." If you don't wish to do either of those, just wait until tomorrow for further news on the issue.

[BdN3504]

BdN3504: Depicting products on a web page is perfectly legal.

Disregard my post concerning that matter then.
top bar:
I think it would be better to have all elements look similar. on the right hand side for example you used some kind of mirroring for the "Project news, Sub... etc." IMO either use the same effect on all elements of that bar or leave it out. the home support etc. buttons... will the one you hover over be black like home or yellow like support? i think they should all look similar, especially the elements that are not in a button now, i can hardly read them against the grey background. context wise: i don't know how you will handle the subcategories. see on the current site downloads, documentation, support etc. all have subcategories. i would like it best if they showed up below them, when pointing at 'em. here's a shitty screenshot mockup of what i mean:

The part below that (showing the player/svn) bar is fine.

The  big white bar gives me the feeling of an organized site, should be there, but i think the glossary and screenshots item shall be left out.

At the bottom i think the announcements is a bit misleading, especially with the numbers below that item. it's a forum thread, right? i think major changes would fit better on the front page. the about box right next to it is good, but if you have the support button at the top bar i think it's redundant to put it to the bottom of the page again. The background design of that section is neat, clearly readable and all.

i think you should add "our sponsors" or something of that kind above the sponsors, because i don't think the user will understand that the shown icons represent them.

So, i hope this helps a bit. keep up the good work!

[Llorean]

I feel exactly the opposite about the white bar in the middle. It feels like noise to me. It's splitting navigation between two areas, and most of the information it's prominently displaying isn't particularly useful to potential users.

Target Status is mostly developer oriented information.
Feature Comparision is often outdated, and likely to stay in a very useful state. A simple feature list of Rockbox generally would be better.
Buyer's Guide is also not so useful. It's mainly useful for people already wanting to use Rockbox, rather than people wanting to find out if they can use it on their player. And price information, etc, will often fall out of date.
Screenshots might be useful.
FAQ might or might not be useful, depending on which you point to, but would be better as simply a project description, which is already covered in why choose rockbox.
Glossary is useful.

If it's going to be "user oriented" it should aim for the very most prominent stuff to be things that *new* users want/need, I think