phillip at communitybandwidth
Oct 21, 2009, 8:16 AM
Post #3 of 3
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Re: Preparing for Bricolage 2.0 with a new Web site (10 minute read)
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Hey there Waldo,
Many thanks for your input, as always. :-)
Key points taken re: whizzy, Web 2.0, goodness. I'll do my best to
make 'er shine.
Again, if anyone else has comments, or an interest in working on the
re-development of bricolagecms.org, please do let me know asap. I'm
going to get cracking this Friday, so comments appreciated on the
questions below until that time.
Best,
Phillip.
On 19-Oct-09, at 2:29 PM, Waldo Jaquith wrote:
> Phillip,
>
> FWIW, I think you and David have put together a good plan here. The
> addition of a "Community" heading telegraphs an important message—
> that Bricolage has a community behind it—and having a blog provides
> one-stop shopping for updates, shows regular activity for Bricolage,
> and is sort of de rigueur these days anyhow. I'm really glad that
> y'all have taken the time to plan this out.
>
> I'd like to make one additional suggestion, though I appreciate that
> this might not be the time to pursue it. There is a widespread
> misunderstanding that the merits of a CMS can be divined by looking
> at a website that's running it. While that does show a few things
> about a CMS—especially a bad one—no such information can be gleaned
> about Bricolage from a website running it, bricolagecms.org or
> otherwise. We can insist until we're blue in the face that the look
> of a site ought to have nothing to do with the CMS, but we can't
> escape that this widespread misconception. My suggestion, then is
> that bricolagecms.org ought to be pretty whizzy looking as a first
> impression. The sort of people who think "Web 2.0" is a thing are
> looking for its symptoms in a CMS. (Think jQuery/script.aculo.us UI
> widgets.) If they don't find them on bricolagecms.org, that may rule
> out Bricolage entirely. (I suspect we've all been on a team in
> charge of selecting a vendor or a product with members who are using
> the wrong criteria entirely. But they've got a vote, too.) I think
> we should consider adding a few such design elements, not because
> they're useful in any real sense, but because it's just part of
> marketing Bricolage.
>
> Best,
> Waldo
>
> ---
> Virginia Quarterly Review
> One West Range
> 434-243-4995
>
> On Oct 16, 2009, at 4:35 PM, Phillip Smith wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I had a quick IRC chat with David a week or so ago about the timing
>> for the Bricolage 2.0 release. Needless to say, it sounds like the
>> release is close enough to start thinking about a push to get it
>> done, promote it, etc.
>>
>> On that front, I jotted down some ideas for updating the
>> bricolagecms.org site and would like your input. The notes below,
>> already incorporate input from David.
>>
>> KEY CHALLENGES
>>
>> When thinking about where the Web site is failing right now, I
>> would highlight the following as issues to resolve:
>>
>> * Lots of pages with very little content (annoying, unnecessary)
>> * Hard to remember everywhere updates are required, e.g. pages that
>> say Bricolage only supports PostgreSQL and Apache 1.3, etc.
>>
>> PROPOSALS
>>
>> To address these two issues, I'd like to recommend that the site:
>>
>> 1. Be *incredibly* simplified (less navigation, fewer pages, etc.)
>> 2. Eliminate redundancy of where features are mentioned to ensure
>> updates are quick and thorough
>>
>> To simplify the site, I'd like to recommend:
>>
>> A) Move the following pages to the GitHub wiki:
>>
>> * Team
>> * Sites
>> * FAQ
>> * Summer of code
>>
>> B) Create a new "Community" (/community/) page that combines these
>> pages:
>>
>> * Documentation overview
>> * Support overview
>> * Support - commercial
>>
>> And simply provides an overview of where to find the documentation
>> (GitHub, API, etc.) and community (mailing lists, Lighthouse, IRC,
>> etc.).
>>
>> The two types of content that will require some greater
>> consideration are:
>>
>> * Screenshots: Would like to think about a different approach to
>> showing these. Lightbox, slideshow, or something similar.
>>
>> * How-to articles, News, Announcements, etc.: These are all just
>> text content and could be condensed into one single category --
>> basically, a blog. Again, there don't seem to be enough of them, or
>> frequent enough updates, to bother with so much categorization.
>> Perhaps it's also time to add comments to these types of entries?
>>
>> SIMPLIFIED SITE STRUCTURE
>>
>> In summary, I'd like to propose a much-simplified site structure
>> that would follow current conventions for helping people make a
>> choice about a software product. To that end, I would see the new
>> site structure to be roughly as follows:
>>
>> * Home: A long-ish page that presents Bricolage's strengths
>> quickly, and visually
>> * Take a tour: A simple and short walkthrough of the key features
>> * Showcase: Similar to the tour, but highlighting five or so of the
>> best Bricolage sites and some endorsements
>> * Download: Roughly the same as it is today
>> * Community/Support: An overview page that links to the GitHub
>> wiki, mailing lists, and so on.
>>
>> In the interest of keeping this project moving forward, it would be
>> great to hear any input that you have before Friday, October 23rd.
>> Otherwise, my next steps after getting your feedback are:
>>
>> * Quickly wire-framing the ideas proposed above
>> * Updating the basic marketing copy / migrating pages to the GitHub
>> wiki
>> * Building out an HTML version of the new site
>>
>> (And should any of you be able to help with the above, it would be
>> greatly appreciated!)
>>
>> Look forward to your thoughts,
>>
>> Phillip.
>>
>> --
>> Phillip Smith // Simplifier of Technology // COMMUNITY
>> BANDWIDTH
>> www.communitybandwidth.ca // www.phillipadsmith.com
--
Phillip Smith // Simplifier of Technology // COMMUNITY BANDWIDTH
www.communitybandwidth.ca // www.phillipadsmith.com
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