[Pydotorg-redesign] Re: [marketing-python] PWC: informal announcement

[Michael McLay]

On Sunday 24 August 2003 08:43 am, Roy Smith wrote:
> On Friday, August 22, 2003, at 12:34  AM, Michael McLay wrote:
> > I've been doing some work on a prototype redesign. Please take a look
> > at:
> >
> > 	http://drydock.python.net:9673/python
>
> Over all, very nice.  But, of course I've got some nit-picks...
>
> Why the calender in the right margin?  What events are we going to show
> when you click on a date?  It's pretty, and perhaps it's a nice demo of
> plone technology, but I'm a bit of a minimalist when it comes to web
> design.  The question I always ask is, "Does the value justify the
> realestate dedicated to it?"  Is a calander really so important that we
> should devote prime real estate (top of a column) to it on every page?

The calendar will only be useful if we can generate enough conent to show that 
there are alot of opportunities for people to learn about python. Local 
Python user groups should be able to place announcements. And of course big 
events like the PyCon. People offering training courses could also use this 
as a place to advertise their classes. I would also expect we would also 
allow Zope sprints and other Python related events in the calendar. If we 
don't have enough traffic then I agree that it would be a distraction from 
the site. If we do get enough traffic then the calendar should be removed. 
It's a marketing tool for showing that Python has an active community of 
users.

> > I've only completed a draft for the Manager and Donation links. The
> > prototype
> > still needs a market pitch for Developers, Students, etc.. If anyone is
> > interested in filling in some of the holes, embellishing my first
> > draft, or
> > fixing the grammar and speling, please let me know and I'll add you as
> > a
> > manager to the plone interface.
>
> I'm game.  I don't know anything about plone, but I'm willing to learn.

Adding content is very easy once you have an account. I've written all of the 
current content as structured text and there is a good HOWTO on the plone 
website that teaches how to do this. The editing capability is part of the 
plone user interface once you are logged into the website. 

> The "donating to the PSF" page is formatted differently from the others
> (the center text has longer lines).  I assume this is unintentional?

I'm not seeing a difference in line lengths. I haven't finished the Donations 
page. I cribbed something I had written for other purposes to get something 
to fill up the space. It needs some refinement.

> There's a fair amount of real estate devoted to membership related
> stuff.  What would people be joining?  What benefits do they get?  What
> benefits do we get by making people join something before getting
> access to certain material?

I've removed the login box from the top page and moved it to the members tab. 
I don't have a plan for what becoming a member will provide as of yet, aside 
from allowing Python users to submit news articles and event announcements. 
Beyond that the value of being a member is TBD.

>
> The drinking from the firehose link doesn't have any indication that
> it's an off-site link, and the result is visually jarring (and somewhat
> confusing).

The point of adding this link is to include access to the current content 
directly from the front page. If we assume that the committee agrees to this 
new look and feel then the existing content would be moved to the new format. 
Until that happens the link is going to be jarring.

> Lastly, a bit of a meta-comment.  Obviously, the design is the plone
> site with some new content dropped in.  Is the intent that these two
> sites will have the same look-and-feel in the long run?  If so, I think
> that's not a good idea, because their identities will merge.  There are
> lots of e-commerce web sites I go to which have so many visual elements
> in common with Amazon that my first impression is that "Oh, Amazon must
> have bought this company".

I just used the default plone site as an easy way to get the site up and 
running for collaborative development. I'm not a website designer so I'll 
expect someone else to work on developing a new theme for the look and feel. 
I was only working on getting some marketing content in place.