Re: Website impression

I agree with what has been said here. It sounds like you are looking  
at the site like an HCI designer, thinking about usability through  
this lens.

However, I think a problem more fundamental than the particulars of  
the site is that I don't think the users have been clearly  
identified. Many OSS projects share this problem, I think. To me,  
before we think about the website in terms of usability, it is vital  
to know who the users are that OGo is being designed for.

Here are my assumptions as to what these users would be:

1) technically inclined people looking to match clients with a  
technological solution
2) developers, users heavily entrenched in similar OSS communities
3) non-developer Unix admins
4) journalists/PR people
5) non-technical users who are looking for something to fulfill a  
particular task (e.g. share their PIM data with an individual/group)


My Comments:

user #1:

I was playing this role not too long ago, I had some difficulty  
finding what I wanted from the site. I ended up finding some  
important information in an article about OGo that some publication  
wrote.

user #2:

Seems well served

user #3:

This also characterizes me. At the time I felt that there was too  
little non-developer documentation and guides. The end user guide is  
great, but there is little about customizations or post-install setup- 
type stuff. There was also no FreeBSD port, although this is being  
addressed as we speak.

user #4:

I found some important info about OGo by Googling general info about  
Groupware solutions. It would be nice to have a summary page of what  
OGo will do, where it's at, how it compares to other products, a  
general "in a nutshell"/"state of the OSS project" page. This would  
make OGo much easier to write about.

user #5:

I'm not sure this is an audience that OGo needs to be terribly  
concerned with, since non-technical users won't have the resources to  
install OGo themselves. However, these users might want to direct  
their admins to the OGo website for them to survey. I think  
fulfilling some of these other needs will probably address the needs  
of this population.


This was just a brainstorm off the top of my head, but I think that  
perhaps this sort of discussion would be valuable in improving the  
site (just to add to Mr. Schouten's comments).



On Oct 2, 2005, at 2:38 PM, B. Schouten wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> yesterday I wrote Helge about the impression I received from the  
> website and I´d like to share it with you.
>
> I just read almost the entire thread on the new website, which was  
> quite daunting even though it only spanned like 3 days, and I  
> realise you are (still?) in the midst of a website change, but it  
> doesn´t seem to affect the design or layout, so I think I can go  
> ahead without being briefed on the status of that.
>
> I was just browsing the opengroupware.org site and the impression I
> received was the following:
>
> - the overall impression was that of a website that is not  
> completely geared towards attracting and informing users. I think  
> the open source (non-commercial) world suffers greatly from this,  
> and you can see it at http://www.jabber.org for a start. That  
> website does a great job informing would-be developers or technical  
> linux fans, but the unsuspecting user that has heard about  
> jabber.org as a cool or good Instant Messenging platform just doesn 
> ´t get treated to a good show. It is not a front-page, so to speak.  
> It is a news website, for people interesting in its evolution, as  
> that is the first page you get treated with: a blog. The storyline  
> for guiding new users in is also not really thought out, but that´s  
> beside the point.
>
> Compare with http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution.
> Their interest is in informing would-be users. They state  
> functionality foremost, before digressing into technicalities.  
> Unfortunately, they do not provide enough immediate ´handles´ to  
> proceed further into the page and get more info. (It isn´t clear to  
> me at least. You can click on the ´functionality image´, which isn 
> ´t an obvious choice for me, since it doesn´t look like it wants to  
> be clicked, and the top bar just doesn´t grab the attention. You  
> have to scroll down to get at the ´navigation frame´ and there is  
> not even a download link there. I guess the top-navigation-bar is  
> just at fault... but then, Evolutions reputation may speak for  
> itself in the OSS world, and they don´t need to provide download  
> links so obviously since every Linux user already has it. They do  
> confuse things by stating that Evolution is for Gnome (¨only¨ is  
> almost added)). About providing handles and other relevant  
> information/links: the jabber site is much better at that. But  
> anyhow, users don´t want technicalities. Not even technical users  
> want technicalities. Not until they start using it, and that´s when  
> they need user manuals, not frontpages.
>
> - I don´t really ´get´ from the introduction material, what exactly  
> is the nature of OGo. Is it a server? Is it a client/server  
> solution? Is it a web application? That last impression came from  
> the screenshots I looked at. It also appears to be the case now  
> that I actually read the detailed ´applications´ statements ;).  
> [[[ as a sidenote: the link to the ZideLook Pricing at http:// 
> www.opengroupware.org/screens/zidelook/index.html is broken... ]]].  
> And now more becomes clear, after I look at more screenshots. That 
> ´s very good, that screenshot section. Unfortunately, I only now  
> started looking at the [more info] page beneath the About  
> section. ... My apologies, Helge, that I didn´t look further before  
> writing you that email. However, if I initially skipped that [more  
> info] link, others will too. And then you completely miss the most  
> important part of all the introductory material! That is to say, I  
> believe writing about the context in which a product exists is  
> foremost, before even describing the applications. Telling me that  
> OGo integrates perfectly with both Outlook and Evolution, among  
> others, AND has a native webinterface that is just brilliant (if it  
> actually is, haven´t tried yet ;)), is to me the first thing I want  
> you to do ;). Of course, telling me that it is a groupware solution  
> that provides [name many applications here] is the very first  
> thing, but then comes what I just mentioned. That is the way to  
> inform ppl as fast as possible about the nature of your solution.  
> It also provides the reader with a good overview of its  
> environment, and the environment is where the user now exists. What  
> you did with that very short Mission statement and then immediately  
> describe the History and the connection to SKYRiX is just not a  
> good solution. That is to say, if ¨About¨ is the starting point,  
> then you should change your ¨About¨. Because the History and the  
> SKYRiX connection are not relevant AT ALL to a new visitor to the  
> website. So you should juggle with what ¨About¨ means, is it the  
> starting point, or is it something for telling the user ¨About us¨?
>
> So, it seems your cute lil´ project has more to it than I at first  
> suspected. I am more than pleased :). I want to comment Helge on  
> keeping the discussions I read (about the new website) so focussed.  
> I´ll post to the users list (or look at some more docs) to get some  
> answers to the last part of the email I sent Helge. It was about  
> getting an ¨Opera M2¨-level usability email solution with central  
> storage integrated with contacts, that is also able to communicate  
> with calendar applications and possibly any kind of application  
> that needs email/adressbook feeds. There is indeed some discussion  
> possible for that that would belong here.
>
> I´ll do that in another post so as to keep the threads seperated.
>
> Bye for now,
>
> Bart Schouten.
> -- 
> OpenGroupware.org Discussion [email protected]
> http://mail.opengroupware.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>

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