[Catalyst] Re: Catalyst site design drafts feedback thread

[Tobias Kremer]

On 12.06.2008, at 20:22, Simon Wilcox wrote:

> Matt S Trout wrote:
>> I was thinking about yours but can I get away with asking for all  
>> of the
>> above? Given myself and kieren both find most of the other sites  
>> objectionable
>> it'd be nice to see why you prefer them.

I like the 60s/70s style of the cakephp.org site - it's a refreshingly  
different approach for a website dedicated to something as technical  
as an MVC framework. Maybe it's just because I'm fond of that style in  
general :)

IMHO the djangoproject.com site has great content delivered the right  
way. Everything relevant is linked where you'd expect it. I admit that  
it's a little too greenish on the front page but subsequent pages have  
a much larger white area which makes them easier on the eye - and  
they're all seemlessly integrated into the style.

After having had a second look at the symfony-project.org site I must  
say that I don't find it that great anymore. It's a little bit too  
simple.

As I said, this is all highly emotional ...

> I think you're not the target audience that those sites are trying  
> to reach. As someone else pointed out, those sites are designed to  
> appeal to the bosses who sign off on the decisions as much, if not  
> not more so, than the developers who work with the framework.

And that's exactly the point where Perl in general is lacking. We have  
awesome tools that are presented in a completely unemotional and  
uninspired way.

> You, or this list, needs to decide who the audience for the catalyst  
> site is. If it's trying to persuade developers and management to  
> switch to Catalyst then it needs to appeal to those people. By your  
> very position you are in neither of those two groups so perhaps not  
> in a good position to decide what would appeal to them :-)

simon++

To my mind the website should be directed first and foremost at users  
who don't know about Catalyst. You have to make a great first  
impression. Once you're familiar with Catalyst you will most likely  
know where to go to find the cure for occuring problems, thus the site  
is not THAT important to you anymore but should of course have some  
sort of handy reference/howto/documentation which can be structured in  
a completely logical way without any of that emotional stuff getting  
in the way :)

> obias's design is good if somewhat shamelessly derivative. That's a  
> complement really as he's trying to speak the visual language that  
> many people will expect to see.

... and that was EXACTLY my intention :)

--Tobias