Re: [Gimp-user] GIMP Site Redesign

[Sam Gleske <sam mxracer gmail com>]

On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Sam Gleske <sam mxracer gmail com> wrote:

On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 1:30 PM, Kevin Cozens <kevin ve3syb ca> wrote:

It looks good but you could tighten up the design. It uses a lot of space for little information, but that may be in part that it is a sample of the appearance of the front page without the final content.

I don't think it's that big of an issue.  We live in an age of high resolution monitors.  Higher resolution images would be good to take advantage of that.  Personally I like the current site design (on gimp.org); primarily because I enjoy reading the GIMP news as soon as I get to the site (which I avidly check even though it's not updated very often).  For me it just means more clicks to get to news.  I guess I'll just depend on my RSS feed as it's not that big of a deal.

However I like how Kasim emphasizes features on the front page which beckons users to try it out.  The only thing I would like to see changed is the text, "Play with the Tools of the Trade."  I don't like that because it implies that there is no need to take GIMP seriously as a professional editing tool or that it's a free trial to "play" with before using the real thing.  I'm tired of hearing people say GIMP isn't as good as Photoshop.  They just haven't used GIMP enough.  You need to unlearn Photoshop to really take advantage of GIMP.  I think GIMP is already ready for the prime time just industry doesn't take the time to learn a new tool.  I would like to suggest you changing that text to, "Draft with the Tools of the Trade."  This let's users know that it's there for the taking yet allows professionals to take it seriously as a tool to get work done.

If we're really going forward with this redesign thanks for considering any of my thoughts.

To add on to my previous statements I'd like the front page to be edited a bit more.  I'll quote the previous text and then follow that with what I would like to see it say.   Note:

> Professional Level Photo Filters
> Make your photos picture perfect with with prefessional-grade color filtering.
>
> Play with the Tools of the Trade
> GIMP comes ready with everything you need to design like a pro.

--------------------------------- Suggested Changes....

Professional Photo Filters

Make your photos picture perfect with professional-grade color filtering.

Draft with the Tools of the Trade

GIMP has a robust set of tools and can be easily extended through add-ons.

--------------------------------- Notes....

On the second sentence of the first line I correct your misspelling of "prefessional."

Avoid the word 'comes' as it implies humans traveling (to come and go).  Again emphasize that GIMP brings a lot to the table.  Having a robust set of tools is good for both users and professionals a-like.  Easily extending functionality through add-ons caters to real power users of the tool.

I try to think of the psychology behind the advertising since the first page is something everybody sees I think this redesign will ultimately make GIMP more popular.  Especially with high bit depth editing coming to the table in future versions (which I look forward to!).

Thanks for taking the time Kasim to put a lot of thought into your design and asking for feedback.

SAM