[Commons-l] About the current Commons homepage

[Cary Bass]

On 5/15/2010 8:19 AM, Hay (Husky) wrote:
> Everyone,
> i'd like to invite you to look at the current state of the Commons
> main page in a web browser with a 1024x768 resolution (according to
> recent reports, that's the most common resolution for around 25% of
> all internet users). Imagine you're a first-time visitor, who's never
> heard of Commons. If you're lazy you can also click on this link for a
> screenshot:
>
> http://twitpic.com/1o0lx0
>
> The main page is supposed to be a showcase on what a great collection
> of free media we have, right? Well, let's just look at what a
> first-time visitor encounters on the main page:
>
> * A paragraph of text talking about a 'setup page' for the media of
> the day, for 'ease of translation' in something called 'Template:motd'
> and 'Template:potd'. Obviously, a first-time visitor won't have a clue
> about what all those terms mean and if they're important to him/her.
> * A link urging people to vote for the picture of the year, but that's
> only for 'eligible voters' (i am an eligible voter? how do i know?)
> * 'Welcome to Wikimedia Commons!'. Finally a warm word of welcome.
> Hooray! Apparently i can somehow be involved in this as well.
> * An enormous list of languages to choose from. Why would i want to
> view this page Suomi? I've got my browser set to my language and i'm
> coming from a certain country, right? And why can't this simply be in
> a dropdown list?
> * A picture, finally! Note that for all those 1024x768 users only the
> first 100 pixels or so of this picture are displayed, the rest of the
> picture disappears under the fold.
>
> (scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll)
> * Aha! A box about how i can participate. Cool! A pity i had to scroll
> down all the way to the bottom to find that.
>
> Now, i'm not trying to insult anyone, but i really think we should do
> a big redesign of the current main page, focusing on presenting what
> we've got and how we can invite new people to join the project. I'm
> not sure if the current grant from the Ford foundation also includes a
> homepage redesign, but that might be very helpful.
>
> We did a little brainstorm during the multimedia usability meetup last
> november in Paris, and this was the result of a 90 minute 'How would
> you redesign Commons from scratch' session:
>
> http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multimedia:Meeting_in_Paris/Notes/User_Experience
>
> Maybe we can take that as a starting point.
>
> What do you think?
>
> -- Hay
>
Hear, hear!
-- Cary