26 09 2010
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Thoughts on the upcoming redesign of joomla.org

Thoughts on the upcoming redesign of joomla.org
A few comments on the newly released mockups for the redesigned joomla.org coming soon...

The frontpage of the site is missing many things. Let's start from top to bottom...

The slideshow navigation may be confused with the actual content being on top. A better front/back control would fix that. Also, titles in "italic" is really too much. The font is just fine to display "normally".

Moreover, it's missing important elements for newbie users and not only.

First, it's missing an "about" block. What is Joomla in short? If I were a newbie I'd have no idea what this site is about.

Newbies should also see a block with resources like: "New to Joomla Get started" and a list of things to do (what Joomla is, read the intro guide, how to install, where to seek help etc.).

There should also be only one block for news/announcements. Having stories dating a month back in your frontpage is not that good.

It's also missing links/buttons to the social channels Joomla has a presence on like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr etc. A block with the latest official Tweets would not hurt too.

A block with a few screenshots would also be good to quickly show users of other CMSs what Joomla looks like, as it's one of those CMSs with a distinct backend and not one that mixes frontend/backend all in the same place (cough Drupal).

We have a great video for Joomla, called Joomla-la-la. It would be uber cool to have it there. Shows visitors that there are dedicated and fun people involved in this community. We're serious at what we do, but we're not M$ serious.

It would also be helpful to have a random showcase of sites built with Joomla. That could be a feed from the featured picks in the Joomla Showcase site.

As you can see, there are many things to add in the frontpage. The joomla.org redesign team could do that in several ways, without sacrificing height (e.g. using tabs or sliding panels).

Oh, and btw: the inner page/Forum page has the "active" menu wrong ;)

What do you think?

(this post was submitted as a comment to the joomla.org post as well, slightly modified...)

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9 comments

  • WebTeks WebTeks 26 Jan 2011
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    I think the new redesign is on the right track. The 3 bottom content buckets and the lighter color scheme is an improvement to the original site. The only issues I see are the wasted space down the left and right and the white filler. Maybe a light pattern on the background white area just to add a little interest to the page.

  • CompleteWebCare CompleteWebCare 02 Jan 2011
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    Couldn't agree more:). Care to comment on the JCM look and feel? I think your input will be very useful:)). Thank you in advance.

  • kibardesign kibardesign 05 Dec 2010
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    I think should be simple
    http://www.duvarkagidim.com" rel="nofollow">dekorasyon

  • JoeJoomla JoeJoomla 28 Sep 2010
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    Re: the redesign of joomla.org - why try to make the home page be one size fits all? Why not a specific homepage for newbies, one for devs, etc...

  • Green_Dome Green_Dome 27 Sep 2010
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    Seems like the design was done 5 years ago - so old and boring!! Its simple, just get Komrade/Joomlaworks to do the job. They did a fantastic job with the Joomla magazine - No complains there.

  • NoNumber_nl NoNumber_nl 27 Sep 2010
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    Sorry, don't like it at all.

  • klas_bzzzz klas_bzzzz 26 Sep 2010
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    Hard to say anything good about this.. plain ugly. It is in the "how low you can go" league..

  • David Hurley David Hurley 26 Sep 2010
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    I'm at a loss for words. As with everyone else that posted on the original blog article on joomla.org - I feel that I should express MY opinion. I am sure there will be those that disagree as design is always so subjective and most designers are very opinionated. :) I am one as well. Please keep that in mind as I say my piece.

    I think the new design is very poor. The overall layout lacks the feel necessary for a site of this size and caliber. The menu lacks the necessary accessibility and functionality to encourage browsing. I do not think that a rainbow color bar introduces enough color to justify ignoring it for the rest of the page. The lack of structure throughout the content and the right-aligned images in addition to the misused white space tend to make things feel all out of whack. I understand that openness and aggressive use of white-space is very popular these days in web design however, I don't feel that that style works very well on a site of this size. A site of this caliber needs structure, it needs organization, and it needs good information that is easy to find. We can't forget that we are appealing to a very wide spectrum of users - the first-time visitor that has never heard of Joomla and the developers that have been around since before Joomla existed.

    Redesigning a site of this size is a huge undertaking - I respect Steve attempting this task and don't necessarily envy him because this is one huge example of "don't design by committee." However, I believe this one should be taken back to the drawing board.


  • dannytamez dannytamez 26 Sep 2010
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    Fotis, you are pretty right on. The "italic" style is not working for me either. Overall it's just not that impressive. I'd like to see a more progressive design, and an intro video would be great for newbies.

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