Re: getkde.org...excellent!

On Tuesday, November 8, 2011 18:57:30 Carl Symons wrote:
> 2011/11/8 Dion Moult <[email protected]>:

first, thanks for getkde.org .. it's a migration in a great direction imho.

> > Definitely agree. Here are a couple of other ideas which will be brought
> > about in the project:
> > 
> > - How to communicate: use the form that's most relevant for you.
> 
> My point is that the Dot reaches out to people. People who are likely
> already involved in KDE or FOSS. The KDE website is the primary focus
> for people who are seeking information of all kinds about KDE. kde.org
> may be the most important window into KDE for ordinary people.
> Newcomers are not aware that there are various forms of communication
> to choose from.

agreed ... speaking of communication...

the website itself is a bit confused for me in layout. there's the top bar .. 
then the pitch area (the big image show). then the big pitch statement to get 
you to try it ("KDE is a worldwide community.."). then there's the "do this 
now" bar ("Dicover", "Speak out", "Make your mark"). then there's the footer 
navigation.

its a little like four mini-sites :)

i wonder how badly we need that rather tall top bar or the pitch statement as 
separate elements on the page.

the "do this now" bar also has repetition within it: "Disover" followed by 
"Explore how KDE benefit you".. "Speak out" followed by "Connect with the KDE 
community" ... in fact, there is a pair of different words for all three 
areas: Discover/Explore, Speak/Connect, Make/Contribute. perhaps removing the 
titles and just having the button+phrase bits:

"Expor how KDE can benefit you" | "Connect with the KDE community" | 
"Participate in the future of KDE"

i guess what i'm saying with faaaaaaaar too many words is that it feels like 
there are many things that can be removed to make it clearer and more elegant 
without losing any of the message.

“Perfection is achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but 
when there is nothing left to take away” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off." - CC

:)

oh, and using an image for text is going to make it hard to internationalize.

> >  Windows/Apple/Linux. Our job is to promote KDE, not convert people into
> > Linux users. Make this clear at the very beginning, not later.
> 
> I'm not sure about this strategy. I've dealt with quite a number of
> people who want to know about Linux first. They want to know how to

we can put the Linux option first ;) i don't think these two positions are 
contradictory. those who are looking for Linux first (the majority of our 
users today and historically) can be served "first" while allowing others to 
know that there are options on those other OSes as well.

.. though we still lag in really good support on those platforms. that's a 
technology issue though. chicken/egg issue as well -> the people doing the 
groundwork are a bit too techy and provide overly technical solutoins, but we 
need more users to find the contributors who can help pave over those "last 
mile" issues.

> > - Ensure users understand the separation between Applications, Interface,
> > and Infrastructure. Only bother them with what they're interested in.
> > Some want an app. Some want widgets, bling, and window management. Some
> > want semantics.
> Most people I talk with and support with KDE are not interested in
> these distinctions (Applications, Interface, Infrastructure). Yes, yes
> to addressing what they're interested in.

those two sentences are perhaps contradictory :)

a windows user really doesn't care about the Workspaces (and please, let's not 
introduce more verbage like "Interfaces" :). they care about the apps.

a linux user may care about the workspaces, but certainly about the apps 
regardless of that decision.

a mobile developer probably cares about the Frameworks ("infrastructure"?) and 
quite possibly the Workspaces (e.g. Plasma Active).

in the past we pushed all these things together and our audience was 
constantly "forced" to wade through things they really didn't care about.

i don't know if we need to make sure people understand the distinctions, but 
the distinctions are important to segmenting our message for relevance.

> To my original point, some
> people may be interested in participating in what KDE
> does...particularly users.

yes, and we should be trying to get as many to cross that boundary from user 
to participant as possible

> > - Pitch free first, open-source second. Not because open-source isn't
> > important, it's because understanding how to "pitch" is everything.
> 
> Nope. Free doesn't matter. Freedom maybe, no cost is not interesting.
> To a newcomer, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" is in the
> front of their mind. Open source doesn't matter. Users typically don't
> even understand what open source is, let alone how it benefits them.
> Every one of the people I support wants an easy computing experience
> first. They want their computers to serve them, not the other way
> around.

that aligns with my experience as well. remember: Microsoft and Apple could 
offer (and sometimes do :) no-cost software, and many of our competitors are 
also offer open source solutions (in whole or in part).. but we have a potent 
mix of things that the proprietary vendors just seem incapable of pulling off:

beautiful looking powerful software that comes from a community.

beauty, power, community. usually you get to pick one or two of those :)

> Understanding how to pitch. Yes. What is the message? There are
> thousands of people in the KDE community who have talked to others
> about KDE. What do people want to hear? 

ime, in descending order of importance:

* why is it something that i want? 
* how does it make my life better?
* can i still do what i already can do with the software i was using? 

these are basically "gateway issues" -> if you can't cross those then there is 
little hope of grabbing them with anything else. there are exceptions to this, 
however, as some people are indeed community-first (everything else is a 
detail) or exceptionally economically sensitive (gratis is the goal)

Wanting: this is often as "shallow" as how it looks and how smoothly it 
behaves; the "Beautiful out of the box" line is great imho, though the 
screenshot used is way to busy to qualify for "beautiful" imho -> you only 
understand that it's beautiful once you also understand that it is showing 
things like window translucency and blur, Plasma widgets, etc. the current 
shot just looks busy, not beautiful ... a video does a better job of 
showcasing those features (since motion and interaction are such big parts of 
things now), which a static shot should probably be simple and clean without 
too many fancy features. perhaps without the laptop at all and instead a small 
embedded screencast / video?

Bettering my life: this is essentially features with a bit of community 
interaction thrown in. i like the allusion to activities as one example of 
something that fulfills this point.

What I'm already doing: potential users need reassurance that they aren't 
going to be taken a huge step backwards in what they can do already with what 
they are using just to get some different benefits

if you clear the gateway issues, the unique selling propositions are, in 
decending order of impact (though the weighting can and does change depending 
on audience):

* community
* $0

community is a huge selling point when pitched well. you're no longer alone 
using software -> instead of a faceless "someone" out there (a company) 
there's a living breathing group of fantastic individuals who are busy making 
amazing things and sharing them with you. you become a part of the support of 
that, and you then become part of that community's success and experience.

no cost eliminates a reason not to participate rather than give a reason to 
participate for most people. there are those for whom this is a motivator 
rather than a barrier remover, however. it usually only requires a small note 
at the end of a pitch to be successful, and then the questions go right back 
to functionality and sometimes community.

> the idea that people would be drawn to a community where they can have
> their technology needs satisfied, a place where they are welcome and
> have a sense of belonging.

as a one-two pitch it's powerful: "look at the great stuff .. and it comes 
with (and from) a great community!"

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Qt Development Frameworks


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