[Debconf-team] Debconf12 website design
Hello all together,
we have news from the website team. First of all we have a design
proposal (http://i.imgur.com/4svVh.png) which should be discussed during
this week, so we can go on with implementing this soon. So, please leave
your feedback!
Some weeks Leogg and I met to plan the new Debconf12-Website. We went
through the structure, all the elements and menus on the site and at the
end we realized that we started making quite a lot of changes. With this
email we want to explain what and how we changed the site:
==== Design: ====
* We think a Debconf-Website could look some more personal and lovely.
See the design proposal :-)
* The sponsors' logos were all over the place, but usually a user is
only seeing the first or maybe the second highest sponsor, and with
short text we had some really ugly white spaces for excessive scrolling.
(See for example http://debconf11.debconf.org/debianday.xhtml) We think
it is better to get all sponsors together into the footer. So we can
avoid unnecessary scrolling and if somebody wants to see them, then they
are all there; nice and compact.
* It is really important to promote DebianDay right. We think a little
text page and a link in a menu is not enough to present the event. It's
another event that is more important during a certain timeframe. We
decided to give it a prominent place on the website and a somehow more
fancy appearance, though to a lot of the website visitors come to this
website just for this. Till one month before the conference there is no
need to present it in such a prominent way, so we decided to first use
this space to promote the "Call for papers" and when this is over
"DebianDay" will go in.
* We think a general, very short and nice looking description about
what Debconf is would be great to get sponsors and support. We present
this on the front page on the top of the content.
* Past Debconfs could be listed as following. Past Debconfs: (1), (2), (n)
==== Structure and navigation: ====
* On the Debconf11 we discovered four different menus;
- Main menu (something like direct access)
- general menu with basic information about the conference,
- more informational menu
- "practical information", which was aimed to use when you are at or
about to go to the conference.
Though these links in these menus were not clearly sorted, even somehow
mixed up and it made things difficult to find anything.
* Another thing we discovered is the "FAQ"
(http://debconf11.debconf.org/faq.xhtml ) which is basically to explain
how a website works and should be obsolete. We think it might be better
to structure the website - anyway this website shouldn't be too complex
for a Debian Developer :-)
* There were several links that appeared two times in the menu: "About
Debconf", "Register", our lovely "FAQ". We think that they (besides of
the FAQ) are really important, but we want to give them the necessary
attention by placing them right into the design, instead of having them
twice and creating a more complex menu system. We are in favor of a new
main menu that only consists of "About", "Talks" (Call for papers or
later the schedule), "Travel+Sleep+Eat" (everything about the travel
information).
* "Call for papers" and "Talks schedule" has been merged into "Talks"
and has become one of the main menu items. Call for papers become an
additional and special place, which later will be used for the promotion
of Debian Day.
* We think all "How can I help", "Donations" should be grouped. You can
support through: Volunteering, Donations, Becoming a sponsor,
Advertising (Banners). We think we can get all this together.
Nevertheless "Become a sponsor" has a special button on the top-right.
* Everything which are materials should be found in one section
"Materials", this includes the IRC protocols, banners, swags, other
arts, and what might come...
==== Structure changes during time: ====
* There is information and links that are only relevant for a certain
time. These are namely; "Register", "Streaming", "Become a sponsor".
These are all really important during a certain time, but then they are
obsolete, like "Register", "Call for papers", "Become a sponsor" and
others become relevant, such as "Streaming" (which later could become
"Videos"). "Register" would be over, when DebianDay becomes relevant. We
can gain a lot from updating the website over time and showing the right
stuff promoting it when it is really relevant. We propose to use a
button like area on the top right with two or three buttons of the
points written above at the same time.
* There are some links that have some time priority but should be
available all the time: All the preparation links (Getting to, Visa,
Accommodation) should be more present before the conference and all
practical information during the event should be more visible during the
of the event. We think it is enough to have a link that links to the
general section when it is not as relevant. So, in other words, we would
switch part of the menu, the day the event starts:
/* Before the event */
- The venue
- Getting to Managua
- Accommodation
- Visas & Customs
- Practical information # this would lead you to the links of the
menu beyond
/* During the event */
- The venue
- City map
- Local contact mail and phones
- Travel information # this would lead you to the links of the menu above
I hope our notes are understandable and we are looking forward to
getting your feedback.
Cheers,
Felix
Reply to: