Web site design

This wiki is the place where the Marketing Comittee of OSGeo is planning the redesigning of the OSGeo Web site following a user-centered design process (UCD). The main goals of the redesign are to provide:

* increased usability of the OSGeo Web site, and * increased use of the resources on the OSGeo Web site due to better usability. * aligning site branding with an official print design

The reason for redesigning a website is to end up with impact and results, not because there are those bored with the design or because some users want it to be blue not red. It is important to focus on the results we want.

More visitors, leads, contributors and sponsors. Every decision made should be focused on improving those goals. Keeping that in mind, we might spend a bit less time worrying about the exact shade of blueish-green on the call out background, and more time worrying about things that will improve our marketing results.

=Members=
 * Tyler
 * Daniele
 * Jeroen

=Tasks=

1) Analysis of the Current website



 * Content Design
 * Layout Design
 * Navigation Design
 * Visual Design

2) Define areas that need improvement
These are a few comments from some of the Marketing Committee participants
 * Content Design:
 * Some of the written content could be summarized
 * The site is very static and rigid. The community lives somewhere else. Do we want a more active site?
 * Alter and restructure the "About the Foundation" and "FAQ" materials (w)
 * Layout Design:
 * Navigation Design:
 * The Login section is not easy to find on the homepage
 * We have a very long menu. It should be shortened.
 * Visual Design:
 * More images may make the website a bit more friendly
 * The site could use more color.

=Projects=

=Ideas=


 * User centered Design
 * User testing
 * Usability
 * Tied to branding of print material
 * We should implement a search. Probably google site search.
 * Language selection could be made better
 * The navigation menu is not the correct place to put language selection in.
 * A alternative way could be to have a "change language" link in the top banner somewhere, which would take the user to a page like this.

=Links=


 * 10 tips for a usable website
 * Book: Web Design for Return on Investment
 * Flag as a symbol of language - stupidity or insult?

Previous discussion

 * Several emails following from this marketing thread and this board thread
 * Target audiences and messaging are discussed in the Marketing Communication Strategy 2008 (section 6 in particular)
 * WebCom OSGeo Site Focus presents various target audiences as well under Marketing Targets