[maemo-community] maemo.org redesign

[From: Quim Gil]

ext Dave Neary wrote:
> Indeed - I was aiming to address what you call "people who don't know
> what they're looking for" by making a page where you can see straight
> away the main places you might want to go, but with enough dynamic
> content to show people that things are happening (new software & latest
> news seemed like the best sources of dynamic content for people coming
> to the front page).

I wonder how useful is to prioritize users that don't know what is Maemo
or why they ended up in our website. The comparison with SuSE doesn't
really apply since I can be a SuSE user with my same laptop 1h after
visiting that page. Not the same case for someone knowing about Maemo
for the first time because of the simple fact that you need specific
devices.

And if you already have one of these devices probably you have an idea
of what is Maemo and what maemo.org might have for you.

In exchange of prioritizing the users that don't know where they are /
what they want, we risk to lower dangerously the interest of those
target users we could catch or keep excited.

You and me know the problem very well: is http://www.gnome.org/ homepage
showing how exciting is to be part of the GNOME community?

Well, I don't think the "static" approach serves well the home of a
vivid community.



>> I'm surprised about the total lack of feedback about my mockup snif snif.
> 
> To be frank, this is the kind of thing I would expect to see on the
> community page, rather than on the front page ;) I wouldn't want to
> overload the front page with too much information, or befuddle a new
> user coming into the site who doesn't know what they are looking for.
> Better in my opinion to keep the page very light, and have contentful
> News, Downloads, Developer and Community portal pages.

You tell me my proposal is overloaded, I tell you your proposal is
oversimplistic... They are different approaches and we need to agree on
the approach we want, or go for a tender based on both models.  :/

But I insist on one thing: "a new user coming into the site who doesn't
know what is are looking for" shouldn't be our primary focus.


> OK thanks for clearing this up - Jussi said something similarly
> reassuring. It was more things that you said sounding like
> "maemo.nokia.com will free us from doing user marketing stuff" or "how
> are you factoring in that all developer documentation will be on Forum
> Nokia?" (this is how I understood your comments).

maemo.nokia.com will free us from Nokia consumer marketing needs.

Forum Nokia will free us from official Nokia announcements and releases.


> I think that maemo.org has to keep a very heavy focus on developer
> facilitation, while at the same time better presenting the work of those
> developers to prospective users and drawing more people into
> non-development community tasks.

Of course the developer focus is kept. Focus on open source development,
unstable development, community development. Don't forget
http://wiki.maemo.org/2010_Agenda , where most items have still a
developer focus including
http://wiki.maemo.org/Objective:Co-production_of_official_%26_community_documentation

And the user focus needs to be augmented to embrace those users willing
to get involved and start contributing with simple starting points e.g.
try and rate new apps.

-- 
Quim Gil
marketing manager, open source
Maemo Software @ Nokia