The Joomla! People Portal ™

Constructive criticism: The design, if used as-is, is a step in the right direction. It's good, and it will help Joomla! move forward. I think there's opportunity to take a giant leap, if we're willing to put some more thought and work into it. So here are my top two recommendations (aka 2 cents - one penny per thought): Cent #1. Focus on the primary purpose of *generating New User Downloads & Acquisition.* This 1.6 site design is 50% better than the last 1.5 design at accomplishing that. I think it could be 400% better. How? If the design focused 80% of its effort on the Home Page on that singular goal of getting new downloads. In other words, blow most everything else off the page, other than download, sign-up, and contact info/brochureware links. Cent #2. The aesthetics are an improvement, however I believe this design from a BRAND standpoint, is not a big step at all. Right now, I'm seeing a WordPress layout, with Drupal colors. Does that mean it's 100% on the wrong path? Nope. With some tweaking, that can change. There's opportunity to simplify and focus the design to truly serve both of those purposes - New User Acquisition & Branding - if we go back to those purposes first and think through the design to follow that function, rather than fitting 500 ideas on the page. I'd like to say that means it just needs a tweak, and maybe that's true. I think the function part of this process needs to come to the forefront, and then, the design needs to support that. Hopefully this makes sense. It's just my 2 cents.

Kyle - I really like what you have done here. It's uncluttered and smart looking. Don't be dragged away from this approach. For those that think it needs to be more complex to accommodate the vast community that Joomla! has, please take a look at the apple.com website. Joomla! is not as complex as Apple and they have managed to keep their site relevant, looking great, and making it reasonably easy to find your way to the products and services that you are interested in.

Looking great. About the top menu with the link to About Joomla" drop down "Test the new version" leads to wrong new version ---> Joomla1.6.0Beta14 instead of Joomla1.6.0RC1 http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=5523 Should be good to have a report to webmaster "Report Joomla.org issues" if there is wrong links, info etc somewhere too..

First. T H A N K S for the new drop down menu and this is the only menu I am using now! I would like to have some lines that really explain what Joomla is for new people coming to Joomla on the front page.The trick is to do something that is easy understandable and logical for everyone. I know I saw a usability test that Merav (Ijoomla) doing for the Joomla.org page 3-4 months ago and that guy after 1-2 minute still didnt know what Joomla was all about..... And I agree with Michael its good to create more changing dynamics on the front page picking up news flashes from different areas where things changes, updates. Like latest blogs showing two blogs with heading and 35 characters from different blogs like PLT, CLT etc Maybe you could work with those suggestions with tabs/accordions I also would like to have one or two great professional Joomla videos for people coming to Joomla where you can look at Joomla in 8-15 minutes and understand what it really is. You have a lot of them in the Joomla people pages but it would be nice for people to pick up the right one first time you get to know about Joomla. I also personally like the "people" behind Joomla.. I also would like to see a small profile of new people joining Joomla on front page bcs that create confidence in my mind that its really about people behind Joomla. And finally why not use and ask Edvard, the GTranslate dev, to have the professional GTranslate (Google) up on front page so Joomla would be indexed/cached for all languages that Google can translate? http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/languages/automatic-translations/4823 Google translate ok and this could also create more traffic for Joomla.org and everybody accept that the translation not is perfect every time for every language.

Couple more points of interest when marketing: 1. It shouldn't surprise people that MANY, MANY people still have no idea what a "CMS" is at all. Even sophisticated web designers (seriously). So, we shouldn't be targeting "CMS Users" with our message, it's web designers and developers who value an easy to use, easy to learn, easy to COLLABORATE tool that gets the hell out of the way and lets them get down to the business of communicating. Lexus brags about their engineering the way Joomla needs to: so easy, any fifth grader could parallel park the thing. 2. Don't market to mid-tier or large business. Joomla fits there, in some cases, but competing with the big boys on this would prove suicidal. In due time... ONCE Joomla is actually enterprise-ready (and it's not), or once it has its own E- or Business version / distro, then and only then should it market itself to large corporations, universities, and such. Joomla is the perfect solution for small business and mid-tier, fast-growth businesses and entrepreneurial organizations (for- and non-profit). Great way into those niches is via the boutique firms. Focus on Joomla's strength, as a fast-morphing CMS for fast-growing companies that aren't interested in big, heavy CMSes with big, heavy contracts, rules and bureaucracies.

Very good points here Kyle! Maybe we should do a priority audience targeting for Joomla on front page in some way? So question is also: Is user like decisions makers/influencers etc from org, comp. group types A,B,C,.. more important then students,user type x, y,z,..etc and how does this affect the message on front page? Is it possible to interrelate those goals without confusing different target groups etc? ("Maybe possible to make a button or menu --> "Are you a decision maker?", next page leads that user type to the right information...) What audience(s) priorities is the most important ones to convince for the success of Joomla? @Philip Locke. I would suggest that Joomla test and put up their own ads system also so Joomla could have Google Ads and their own ad system too ie using products like AdAgency or anything similar for better control.

I also like Amy site map structure and also like a one main mega menu with drop downs hierarchy structure on top front page where user logically can make his first choice for browsing what he is looking for. So the front page not get to cluttering and confusing for users with to many menu choices especially like the one below we have now. How many clicks are they on those menus? Also make a decision what Joomla should focus on about its message(s) and image following up - what is our target audience and what is our target message to that audience in 6-30 seconds after they have landed first time on Joomla front page? Is there any thinking/discussion of how to redesign the structure of the front page with that said and the usage of columns types, dynamic blogs, integrated people pages modules, magazine excerpt,Joomla smashing videos etc sharing on front page? --> showing of a very active community. I also would like to have some smashing lines telling what Joomla is with some statistics so first time user got the picture about Joomla power forever and not read about it somewhere is where they could get the wrong impression. I like the idea of Joomla could pop up this kind of dynamic info and show the all activities thats going on in the whole Joomla community showing part of it on the front page too in a smart way. So the front page have a good mix of static and dynamic updated Joomla information about development, events, blogs, latest people joining, new Joomla showcases, new tutorial videos, dynamic updated statistics ie downloaded Joomla 1.6 ticker etc etc Well I think you got the picture. Today Joomla front page doesnt change so much as I could I believe with dynamic updated information Example: Community Blogs = now showing only 2 blogs there. Why not show up all blog types with 6-10 blogs (types) same column? Community Evens = now showing up 2 events. Why not show up 6-10 events ? show more events etc I see there going on some good discussions here about this issues too http://people.joomla.org/groups/viewdiscussion/841-Joomlaorg+New+Homepage+Goals+Priorities.html?groupid=731 maybe better to follow up there. op