[Typo3-marketing] New Typo3.com Site Design

[Daniel Hinderink]

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for your mail. I agree with you and Sander, to emphasize on content,
not looks.

What i have been asking for in my original mail was not a complete redesign,
but help with creating a more portal-like splash-page with boxes that could
be used for news, case-study links and what not.

So what i need is some new looks for new content on the splash page.

What i also said, if there is a proposal for a soft facelift, i am also open
to that. We simply can't make too much of a change, is that we have tons of
material depending on this "CD", especially regarding colors and the general
page layout. Changes can only be made to details of it.

However Reuvens screens are overdoing it in my eyes, but i like some
elements and finally, i would really like to see some more proposals from
people on this list.

To Reuven:
I have been spending time time speaking to customers for two weeks at the
largest IT trade fair worldwide (CeBIt) and a very enterprise-minded crowd
at SYSTEMS just a week ago. I don't worry about TYPO3.com being visually
outdated. I also can't find that to be the case compared to the pages you
have listed. The only thing they have and we don't is the aformentioned
portal-like boxes.

Again, I do worry about TYPO3.com, not being vivid enough in terms of
content, especially frontpage items.

To Sylvain: The marketing plan :-)
Good idea to make an update on this matter.
It will probably help to set up an editorial board for TYPO3.com.
But it is also not something that will be done in two weeks from now.

Right now, we have a few options to make some practical progress:

1. Dominik Brander offered to take care of news, so we need Robert L to
finish his typo3.org installation of the news-plugin.

2. if we get the frontpage boxes and right column items fixed in the
template, we can start filling them. BTW: we already have a template
selector on typo3.com for switching between two and three column layouts.

3. We should get a marketing team together, that consists of people who are
willing and able to put in at least some hours per week on this subject, so
we can actually get something done. Among these, a marketing plan.
This never worked out in the past, but that doesn't mean we should give up
trying.

4. Jan Wischnat made a substantial contribution by already implementing the
current design as XHTML, which many customers care about.
I would like to try and help him finish his work, so we can then add in new
elements. If no other designs are made by people from this list, we can just
start and try to incorporate some of Reuvens content boxes.

Any more ideas for practical progress?

What about this subject matter at t3board05? Of those coming to Kitz: what
would you like to discuss? What would you like to get going?

Cheers

Daniel



> Hello all,
> 
> After looking over the current design, the .gov design and the new designs,
> I have to say that I would stay with the current typo3.com design. I think
> it fits Daniel's requirement of it being a "timeless layout" which is very
> important. It's clean and seamlessly integrates TYPO3's colors into the
> design. The color and fonts in the prototype designs do not seem to "hold"
> TYPO3's identity as well. I also like the lack of clutter in the current
> design. The TYPO3 sites are informational sites, so they need to be easy to
> read. Also, by the keeping the design simple, we can have an appealing site
> for any culture or country. Since this is the main T3 site, that is a very
> important consideration.
> 
> With that said, I understand the need to keep the site "fresh". I think we
> should stay with the current design and move it to XHTML (we seem to have a
> great start with the .gov design already) and add some extras instead. Most
> companies keep their design for many years, which makes it easier for
> visitors to find what they need. Since the site went live, we haven't even
> had a chance to refine the design yet.
> 
> So I guess my suggestion is not to worry about changing the design, but to
> focus on the real need -- content. We have let the content become stale on
> the homepage. We need news, events, conference dates, TYPO3 User Group
> updates, new case studies, project status, current release notes (in
> "marketing language"), etc. We need testimonials and profiles scattered in a
> right column throughout the site. Part of the problem is that it's difficult
> to coordinate what everyone is doing and to get updates from everyone. Lack
> of time is a major problem, but maybe if we made things easier to update
> rather than just wrapping the old content with a new design. Thoughts?
> 
> Michelle
> 
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