13 replies to this topic

[Ed Mack]

I've looked at the front page, and noticed we are very quickly getting to an over-burdened 'portal' style, like Yahoo ect..

I feel that currently there is simply too much information on the front page. Anyone coming for the first time would simply be lost, and just because we have info, must we display it - critically I'm sugesting the following for discussion:

Remove the current forum topics. This doesn't convey much of the forum, and is unlikely to solve someone's problem immediately. Most people don't need encouraged to explore forums, and its well linked, so newbies will find it.

Remove the article categories, that's the purpose of the article page. The two big article columns at the top are brilliaint and eye catching, and will easily draw the reader into the articles page for more info, or to read those seen.

Join up the hosted sites, outside sites, link to us and sponsers (cool!) into one banner section with a few headers, in a smart way to remove that fragmentation

Move the stats box into the forums, as its not really much use or interest other than a gimic.

I know this'll thin out the front page a bit, but explorability and simplicity (less options is more) really matters :)

Anyway, tell me why my requests are stupid and I should eat my cat :D

[baldurk]

Ed Mack said:

I've looked at the front page, and noticed we are very quickly getting to an over-burdened 'portal' style, like Yahoo ect..

I feel that currently there is simply too much information on the front page. Anyone coming for the first time would simply be lost, and just because we have info, must we display it - critically I'm sugesting the following for discussion:

Remove the current forum topics. This doesn't convey much of the forum, and is unlikely to solve someone's problem immediately. Most people don't need encouraged to explore forums, and its well linked, so newbies will find it.

Remove the article categories, that's the purpose of the article page. The two big article columns at the top are brilliaint and eye catching, and will easily draw the reader into the articles page for more info, or to read those seen.

Join up the hosted sites, outside sites, link to us and sponsers (cool!) into one banner section with a few headers, in a smart way to remove that fragmentation

Move the stats box into the forums, as its not really much use or interest other than a gimic.

I know this'll thin out the front page a bit, but explorability and simplicity (less options is more) really matters :)

Anyway, tell me why my requests are stupid and I should eat my cat :D

:yes: :yes:

I agree with it all. Minimal is good.

[anubis]

thumb up !

[NomadRock]

Perhaps we need some spring cleaning for the page layout. To be honest when you told me that you had a COTD, I looked and coulnd't find it for a minute, which is a long time in web page browsing terms. If I didn't know it was there, I probably would never have found it.

[davepermen]

indeed. and i, by myself, am the admin of this very item.. nearly haven't found it and had to ask :D

[Dia]

Very valid points. Thank Ed Mack for bringing it up. You know, when you're used to something, it's hard to find the problems But it's good that you brought up the problem and above that you suggested possible solutions.
The site will be redesigned very soon to be more compact.

[Francois Hamel]

I agree with the suggestions.
Also, when there will be an Image of the Day thing (whatever it'll be called) it will add a lot to the front page I think. It's too "text-oriented" right now so it can get confusing.

For example, I did not even notice the Code Spotlight when it was launched... I saw it by looking at a post in the forum saying it was done :)

[SnprBoB86]

I agree completely with everything except this:

Ed Mack said:

Remove the current forum topics. This doesn't convey much of the forum, and is unlikely to solve someone's problem immediately. Most people don't need encouraged to explore forums, and its well linked, so newbies will find it.

I like the list of recent active threads and it is a great way to get new posts a little exposure.

Other than that: Less is certainly more! Take www.google.com for example :rolleyes:

[NomadRock]

After looking at the page though, there really isn't that much on it, so it will be difficult to figure out what to remove. A simple format revision may be enough. Either way, don't be afraid to give us multiple solutions to look at and mull over. Also, don't get frustrated if we are not sure what we want, because most of the time we dont know what we want until we see it.

[davepermen]

i think the article sections could get removed from the left. we have the articles link on top, when clicking on this one, the sections could come up on the left, and the big middle-part comes up as well.

i don't think we really need such a main-interface page. remove most of it, and make it a news page instead, with a direct link to other stuff, like new posts in the forum, and such stuff.. no need to have it on the main page imho.

but i'm minimalist anyways..

[bladder]

I personally like the first page with as much info asn eye pleasingly as possible. Not too much though. But not as daverpermen wants it either.

The articles listing can definetly go IMO. If someone wants articles they'd probably want to browse them all. and the main panel that you see when you open devmaster does a good job of catching peoples attention if they're looking for articles.

I think the CS panel can take over the latest forum posts panel. and the latest forum topics can go where the article categories panel is. Then you can have the developer image spotlight right on the upper right, and the CS right under it.

[NomadRock]

heh, that's the same way flipcode had it bladder...

personally I think flipcode was pretty cluttered too though, even moreso I think at flipcode they used color better though. It was easy to see the distinction between elements using color.

Taking another look at the main page, we dont need featured articles AND new articles. One or the other but not both.

[davepermen]

i love google design.. :D

create a newspage, a forumpage, a cs page, etc .. all sort of pages..

and when you log on, you see a nice list, ordered by date, of new stuff in every part. new news, new posts, and all..

hihi, that'll be at least something new :D

[Ed Mack]

Out of all the Dev sites, I like this ones visual style best. Black is just drab and uncreative (I find it depressing at times).

I'd like to see the frontpage as an advertisement for the site, a small juicey slice of a few recent, important things -> The news, a few interesting articles, code spotlight, a nice glossy image. Not a daily digest (thats what I see the forum as, the main meat).