Re: [Gimp-developer] SGO to WGO Transition

[Elle Stone <ellestone ninedegreesbelow com>]

Branding:

The new website has a lot going for it. The font is larger and easier to 
read. The website layout seems more spacious. It looks more "modern", if 
that makes sense. I suspect it will be easier to maintain.

But something about the new website has seemed odd to me from the 
beginning. I think the problem is a lack of consistent branding.

The current GIMP website has excellent "branding", meaning the user 
absolutely knows she's on the GIMP website, no matter which page she 
navigates to:

* All the main pages (gimp.org) have the same consistent and distinctive 
color scheme: dark green, gray, and orange.

* All the pages have a recognizable header across the top, which is an 
orange bar with Wilber on the left edge, plus the word "gimp" as an 
image, and on the right side, the words GNU Image Manipulation Program.

* The image in the header bar is a link taking you to the home page. 
This "link to the home page from the header at the top" is something 
every website needs on every page.

* The wiki pages (wiki.gimp.org) have a different, but also consistent 
layout, with Wilber wearing his construction hat prominently featured at 
the top of the right-side column.


It seems to me that the new website could benefit from clearer and more 
consistent branding:

* Wilber is on the new home page, but he's sort of lost against the 
background image at the top, and he's missing from the other pages. It 
would help with branding if Wilber were prominently visible at the top 
of every page.

* There's no consistent color scheme tying the website together. A 
consistent color scheme would help with branding the website.
     On the pages that aren't the home page, putting a darker 
"branding" color outside the center column with the text would make that 
text look a little less lost than it does in the current large expanse 
of surrounding white space. On a small screen, this is less of an issue. 
On a large screen, the pages look a bit unfinished.

* There's no "identifying header bar" on the other pages.

* There is no link to the home page from the (nonexistent) identifying 
header at the top of the page. Every website needs a link to the home 
page from the top of every page - users shouldn't have to scroll to the 
bottom to get back to the home page.

I think readers are fairly sensitive to these kinds of "website 
branding" issues. A clear branding for every page on the GIMP website 
inspires a certain amount of confidence that you really are on the 
official GIMP website (rather than on one of the many websites that 
wants to convince you to download malware).

Best,
Elle