Calligra website (Re: "Marketing Message for Calligra")

[Inge Wallin]

On Thursday, December 22, 2011 11:35:53 Cyrille Berger Skott wrote:
> And now for the website.
> 
> First of all, what it does not need is a new CMS, wordpress (which is not,
> and I repeat it is *not*, a blog tool, but a publishing platform) does
> suit our need. There is nothing that we have wanted to do, that we have
> not been able to do with wordpress. It is far from perfect, but I don't
> know any CMS that has not it own set of flaws (and to be honest, the only
> serious critic I got toward Wordpress was that it does not have real-time
> editing capability, but I am not aware of a CMS that support that, so the
> best way to work
> collaboratively on article remains to use notes.kde.org).

100% agree.  And nobody has advocated a switch to another CMS.

> I also seriously doubt the front page need an overhaul, yes a new layout
> for the bottom part is needed (and almost done as seen in
> http://www.calligra.org/homebeta/, and I am hopping to find time to work on
> that next week). Same for better use of the "banner" area. We need a better
> catch phrase than "The integrated work applications suite", to be honest,
> it was place holder for when I started the website last yer.. I do like
> the "Desktop", "Tablet", "Mobile" and "Engine" buttons, but first we need
> the pages to go with it. However...

I think the front page does need an overhaul.  The reason is that it only 
shows parts of what Calligra can deliver and not even the strongest part. But 
you will notice that the differences between the two versions are not that 
large.

> ...what is really bad is the content under the surface. And maybe the
> presentation. Most (all ?) our applications pages are really bad, none of
> them give the feeling of "I want to try this application". I have not
> given a lot of thought about it yet, and I would be very open to
> suggestion and people giving time to work on it ;) (something like iwork
> website could be an option http://www.apple.com/iwork/numbers/ , which is
> a combination of "catch- tile/paragraph/screenshot", which is close to
> what we do, but we miss the title and the layout is not as good).
> 
> We also really need a good tour of the application, not something as
> complicated as the ubuntu one (http://www.ubuntu.com/tour/). But something
> very catchy, like a slideshow, with screenshots, and little text.

I and Stephanie are working on a new tour now.  If we have time we will also 
look at the individual application pages and make them more likeable.  My 
problem is that I am the opposite of a graphics designer.  We need somebody 
who can do a good graphics design.  In fact I think Jaroslaw could do that but 
does he have the time?

> And this makes me think that we need "editor(s)", people who know how to
> write content, and enjoy it. And who know how to take good screenshots.
>
> In summary what we need for the website:
> 
> * better applications pages
> * a really good tour of the suite
> * editors
> * a new catch phrase
> * For the new layout we also need a good paragraph that explain what is
> calligra (and which is a good opportunity to show our strong points)

Agreed to most of this.