Redesign of the www.rockbox.org front page

[pixelma]

Or just refresh the frontpage in your browser and find the links below the svn table.

[bascule]

Well, obviously the links are there now  

Now that the front page has been updated

But I'm sure they weren't until just now...  

[Mr Brownstone]

I currently Do website management and design for a company so I will have a go at redesigning it for you if you want

I also got a idea of a  slideshow  which can display different models that rockbox works which I think would look cool and catch peoples attention more. what you think?

edit:made this quickly,  this is just a small uncomplete example

Code: [Select]








included the idea to a main banner...

Code: [Select]







taken a screenshot of what I done in this 20 minute session today...
http://duckyshack.co.uk/u/2209/f58292024.jpg
Am I on the right lines here?

[Mr Brownstone]

sorry double post

[petur]

well I hate animations, but I like the idea how all models are shown next to each other next to the logo...
OTOH, we don't want to put many graphics on the front page to keep the bandwidth usage down.

[soap]

OTOH, we don't want to put many graphics on the front page to keep the bandwidth usage down.

What if we put out a call for all the sexy sexy Rockbox users (men as well as women) to pose for sexy sexy photos with their players?
Could we justify that bandwidth?

Please?

[bluebrother]

What if we put out a call for all the sexy sexy Rockbox users (men as well as women) to pose for sexy sexy photos with their players?

Hehe -- like "since I have Rockbox on my player I'm that much sexier"?

Funny idea but I'm not sure if that would be something appropriate for the front page ...

[Mr Brownstone]

sorry been away with alot of work recently havent had much chance to update what I done.

update - Haven't included any animation, only the scroll with all the players. Redesigned the layout of the news and included a main blarge section on the page for writing aload of stuff about Rockbox, which was one of the requirements looks really good so far, well in my opinion.

Dunno what to do with the bottom part atm but will think about it tonight. and also post a image of it so far.

[RaeNye]

I didn't see any reference to RBUtil on the main page.

I imagine a 1st time visitor that has been told "Rockbox rocks, try it" arriving to the site. He sees that his DAP model is supported, and then wants to install RB easily, without all the bootloader...svn-build...fonts...themes...voice hassle. RBUtil does exactly this, hence should be very visible.

[AlexP]

So he should look for the installation instructions in the manual and read about RBUtil there.

[RaeNye]

Sorry, but IMHO one should not hear about RBUtil only after reaching page 7 or 8 of the manual.
Personally, I wish it would be the first link under the Downloads section on the sidebar.

[Llorean]

Why exactly should RBUtil be the first thing they see instead of the Manual?

Both files need to be downloaded.

In one situation

A) User starts downloading RBUtil, waits for it to finish, finds out they should read the manual, continues.
B) User downloads RBUtil, never sees the manual, asks for support, gets pointed to the manual
C) User downloads manual, finds out he needs rbutil, starts downloading it, and continues reading the manual while it downloads.

I like C better, since it involves the user downloading files he needs to download anyway, but getting to have something to do while downloading RBUtil, the build, the fonts, or whatnot, and because that something to do means he actually knows how to use Rockbox when he's done.

[hotwire]

My only present complaint, and thus request of the front page is that under the wiki updates table is that it really should have a link to http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/MoreRecentChanges

rockbox.org/recent.shtml really should too actually.

[yapper]

If the purpose of the front page is to guide new users through the preferred route of reading the manual first, before installing (to eliminate lots of support requests related to items adequately described in the documentation), shouldn't the links (to the forums, current build, extras, etc) be removed from the site side bar (or suppress the side bar on the front page)?

At the moment it's just too tempting to download, then hit the forums. I know - I did!

I'm not saying scrap the side bar (site-wide), but maybe remove the temptation from the front page.

[Angyman]

Hmm, generally i like the idea and i really would give this a shot but some things i really must now before i am trying to start:

I really would like to know if PHP or Flash or Javascript usage is allowed or not. In this case I would really like to be able to use scriptaculous and prototype...

Are Screenshots for decision finding welcome??? As far as i understood its also a design question and i wont start making the code before the design has any chance...

Is this process bounded to any timelines??

And yes the RButil discussion in here is very interesting because i think lots of users are scared of installing rockbox because the webpage indeed doesnt inform about how easy it is at the end to switch to rockbox.  What is the task of the frontpage???

Do you want to inform only professionals (Subversion/Tracker/mailing list)... or is there also the will to make it more understoodable for people who have never been in touch with all this programming, build, install, flash, GCC Library, Wiki, Dap ... ... ... stuff ;-)