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
 

Members

• Tyler
• Daniele
• Jeroen

Tasks

1) Analysis of the Current website

OSGeo Homepage in Jan 2009

• Content Design
• Layout Design
• Navigation Design
• Visual Design

2) Define areas that need improvement

• 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.

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