Re: [Banshee-List] Website design - feedback requested

["Scott Peterson" <lunchtimemama gmail com>]

Some sites I like:

http://f-spot.org/Main_Page
A concise front page with an attractive dark theme that makes good use of contrast. The photography theme is emphasised with the header collage (what are some ways we can visually communicate the theme of music?). The menu is simple but salient. The content on the front page is also very effective: A brief description of the program, links to download, and links to mailinglist, irc, bugzilla &c. are right up front. Notably absent from the front page is news. I don't know if that's a bad thing.

http://www.ubuntu.com/
Fairly good looking, but the visual noise is pretty high.

http://www.skype.com/
Not free software, but I like the site. Really the only content on the main page is the download button. Very easy for new users.

http://www.limewire.com/
A pretty screenshot, a prominent download button and a simple menu.

http://www.gnome.org/
Simple yet attractive. I like the use of columns. The double-menu-bar is a little cumbersome.

On Dec 31, 2007 6:26 PM, Gabriel Burt <gabriel burt gmail com> wrote:

Banshee's website design is pretty old at this point.  I think I heard
Aaron grumble about it recently, too.  ScottP and I were talking on
irc about it, and thought it would be good to compile a list of FOSS
sites we, as a community, like (or don't) - try to pick out specific
attributes you like and concretely explain how they could be
incorporated into Banshee's site.

I'll start it off.

Firefox has a nice use colors and the now ubiquitous green download button:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Amarok appears to use Drupal.  About the only thing I really like
about it is the internationalization.
http://amarok.kde.org/

Inkscape has a nice use of colors (mostly greyscale, but nice
consistent use of green highlights) but I don't like their menu, or
how the design doesn't really feel cohesive.
http://www.inkscape.org/

Looking at several of these, I think we're actually looking pretty
good, and with some tweaks could be great.  I'd suggest:

1) get rid of the purple menu, maybe replace it with white bg, blue border box
2) change the default a:visited color so not purple
3) change the menu font, left-align, make sure fit on one line
4) rework/size 'Discover..' image to add download button
5) minimize amount of text on front page
6) get rid of random screenshot thumbnail, it's colorful so
distracting, and visually cluttering

After we get some consensus of what we what, let's pull jimmac or
somebody similarly talented in to give us some awesome mockups!

Gabriel
_______________________________________________
Banshee-list mailing list
Banshee-list gnome org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/banshee-list

-- 
Scott.