No subject
Mon Oct 30 22:48:16 UTC 2006
About:
- Features
- Screenshots
- System Requirements
- Contact
- Sponsors/Donations
Download:
- Latest version
- Archived versions
Support:
- Documentation
- Wiki
- Forums
- Developers (link to Trac and other project dev related info)
News
Store
The site will cater to the end-user not the development team. The home page
should have a brief overview of what is contained in the about us section
describing the mythtv as a product, including a basic feature set, a link
for the download page and help information. In a side note somewhere can be
a link to project related information such as Trac for developers and those
wanting more detailed information. The point is that development related
information on the home page and within the main structure is not necessary
and for many people turns them away as they feel they don't understand it.
The average person just wants something to work and they don't care how it
does it. I will try to come up with a mockup of a UI I think would be
fitting of the project some time in the next few days.
Jean-Philippe
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I wanted to put a couple of my cents in here as I have pretty considerable =
experience in this department. I've been following along this post for =
a while now. I think some good progress has been made but I have come to tw=
o simple conclusions.
<br><br>First is that the current <a href=3D"http://mythtv.org">mythtv.org<=
/a> design and all these proposed designs, while all good, are very corpora=
te. I'm not entirely sure what kind of look everyone is going for but i=
f its a cookie cutter corporate identity you're going for then you'=
re definitely on the right track. Personally I disagree with this trend. I =
think MythTV should have a hip and edgy look. Something that should grab at=
you in a kind of "cool!' fashion the way the actual application d=
oes. MythTV is a pretty sweet app and it should come across that way. Then =
theres the slogan itself, which calls MythTV "homebrew", but with=
the look you're going for its almost an oxymoron. It's not homebre=
w at all. Thats not to say the site shouldn't have class. You can have =
plenty of edge with a sense of class. I'll try and pull together some l=
inks of sites that fall under the style i'm thinking of.
<br><br>Second is that <a href=3D"http://mythtv.org">mythtv.org</a> needs a=
serious content overhaul. My girlfriend, who is decently computer saavy as=
she is the product of two computer scientists but not a techie by yours or=
my standards, looked at the current website the other day and the one thin=
g she said to me was "I couldn't figure out what exactly mythtv is=
... what is it?" This is a big problem. If random visitors can't f=
igure out what it is the user base will never grow. This comes straight dow=
n to organization of content. The home page for the project should not cont=
ain the development news information. New visitors are not going to care wh=
at the latest status of the project is they are going to care about three t=
hings and three things only. 1) What is MythTV? 2) 2) Where do I get MythTV=
? and 3) How do I set it up? Last night I visited the Pidgin website. This =
is another one that has needed some work done to it and their recent overha=
ul has left me rather impressed. Its clean, simple to navigate and straight=
to the point. You don't have to wade through pages of bs to get to the=
vital info that new and current users want. Most importantly it doesn'=
t require a degree in comp sci to read through either. Looking at the propo=
sed site structure, while it is an improvement, makes me a little worried i=
n this regard as it retains a lot of the same elements of the current desig=
n. Many of the proposed sections are redundant and can be condensed. So her=
e's what I would like to suggest as navigation for a new=20
<a href=3D"http://mythtv.org">mythtv.org</a> site.<br><br>Top Level:<br><br=
>- Overview (home)<br>- About<br>- Download<br>- Support<br>- News<br>- Sto=
re<br><br>From this point the different sections can have a sub-level navig=
ation as follows:
<br><br>About:<br>- Features<br>- Screenshots<br>- System Requirements<br>-=
Contact<br>- Sponsors/Donations<br><br>Download:<br>- Latest version<br>- =
Archived versions<br><br>Support:<br>- Documentation<br>- Wiki<br>- Forums
<br>- Developers (link to Trac and other project dev related info)<br><br>N=
ews<br><br>Store<br><br>The site will cater to the end-user not the develop=
ment team. The home page should have a brief overview of what is contained =
in the about us section describing the mythtv as a product, including a bas=
ic feature set, a link for the download page and help information. In a sid=
e note somewhere can be a link to project related information such as Trac =
for developers and those wanting more detailed information. The point is th=
at development related information on the home page and within the main str=
ucture is not necessary and for many people turns them away as they feel th=
ey don't understand it. The average person just wants something to work=
and they don't care how it does it. I will try to come up with a mocku=
p of a UI I think would be fitting of the project some time in the next few=
days.
<br><br>Jean-Philippe<br>
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