Mailing List Archive: Preparing for Bricolage 2.0 with a new Web site (10 minute read)

Preparing for Bricolage 2.0 with a new Web site (10 minute read)

Oct 16, 2009, 1:35 PM

Post #1 of 3 (2495 views)

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

Re: Preparing for Bricolage 2.0 with a new Web site (10 minute read) [ In reply to ]

waldo at vqronline

Oct 19, 2009, 9:29 AM

Post #2 of 3 (2369 views)

Permalink

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

Re: Preparing for Bricolage 2.0 with a new Web site (10 minute read) [ In reply to ]

phillip at communitybandwidth

Oct 21, 2009, 8:16 AM

Post #3 of 3 (2332 views)

Permalink

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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