BitShares Forum
Main => General Discussion => Topic started by: Rune on December 02, 2014, 09:20:57 pm
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So, Brian has told me that him and cass are working on the website this week. Since getting bitshares.org to look professional and be a proper funnel for users, investors, developers and merchants is probably the most important task right now, I think it is imperative that everyone in the community comes with input, if they can.
As I understand it the plan is for the current pages to be updated, and a new page for developers will be added.
Please have a look at bitshares.org and post everything you think should be changed and added here. Hopefully we can get a discussion going, and arrive on consensus on questions like information density (little text vs lots of text), target (mainstream users vs bitcoin users), design style, targeted landing pages (like the merchant and developer page, perhaps we could also use an investors landing page?) etc. The most important thing is to have a clear goal with every landing page that ensures interested leads end up downloading the client, joining the community, signing up for a delegate.
The bitshares.org website will be the single most important factor in determining the success of our blockchain, so please don't be shy about voicing your opinion or criticizing anything you don't like. We cannot allow it be anything less than top notch once marketing begins and leads are referred to it.
I'll write more suggestions later once I've had some time to think about it, but one thing I think could be useful is to have the overall website layout broken into 4 landing pages for different target segments that looks something like:
bitshares.org (like the current frontpage, pretty pictures and a simple sell of bitassets. Has real time fetch of bitasset peg from CMC, and real time estimate of yield. bottom of the page has direct links to mobile wallet download and a link to the "getting started" page)
These pages are all visible in the top menu bar:
bitshares.org/developers (information dense rundown of open positions and desired skills, then a brief introduction to delegates. call to action is a link to the delegate subforum (perhaps a specific post describing submission rules for delegate applications) and a link to the "getting started" page)
bitshares.org/merchants (a very brief explanation of what digital currencies are, then explains the advantages of accepting bitassets as a merchant. CTA is a list of ecommerce plugins and link to the "getting started" page)
bitshares.org/investors (a sell of BTS for bitcoiners/blockchainers. Explains the specs of our blockchain, briefly explains DPOS, briefly explains the value of bitassets. bottom of page is link to whitepapers, a list of BTS exchanges and link to "getting started")
bitshares.org/getting-started (several different boxes | Join our community: links to reddit and bitsharestalk. | Get a wallet: links to mobile wallets. | Download the full node: github links to QT wallet. | Read the whitepapers: links to whitepapers.
bitshares.org/blog (like now)
bitshares.org/wiki (wiki might not be presentable enough for this yet)
once the new pages are up and running we should also aim to get localization as soon as possible, something that can probably relatively easily be crowdsourced.
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The website definitely needs to be more mobile friendly. I would have a separate design that is mobile friendly and you can just use a script that detects whether or not they are using a mobile device. A lot of internet traffic is mobile so making the website easy to use for mobile users is extremely important.
I am not a huge fan of the scroll down pictures with one sentence per picture. I think we should add something with more substance to it.
I would not use this vault picture: http://bitshares.org/#5 It just looks fake to me. A big turn off personally. A lot of the photos need to be changed in my opinion.
I really like the design of this section http://v3.bitshares.org/index.php#industries with showing all the different industries bitshares can be applied to. Maybe we could use part of it for our investors page?
The blog currently has a lot of articles which is good. However the font color of the articles is light grey which I really hate as it makes it hard to read.
The images on the articles also seem to be unprofessional and blurry. Example: http://bitshares.org/the-value-proposition-of-bitsharesx-part-i-core-technology/
All the references to BTSX, AGS, PTS, and BTS XT need to be replaced with BTS. New users will get really confused with all of these old product references.
We need videos! Videos are important to getting new users to use bitshares. I would make a nice overview video of bitshares for the home page. Then you could have a video for the merchant page, developers page, investors page, and users page. It might also be a good idea to have a few tutorial videos for new users on how to setup their account.
I also think that once the website is redesigned the forum could use some work in organizing it better, and maybe changing the design of the forum.
Just my 2 cents. I might post some more feedback later. :) Hope that helps.
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I was clicking the down arrow I thought page is not working or something.
I suggest to make this arrow clickable and add arrows to all pages.
A page with screenshots of the wallet and its features.
and the WHY information to all pages, it says Flexible, why it's flexible, Low Cost, why low cost?
Just my 2 cents.
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Videos on the front page introducing Bitshares
A clear description of the product
https://ripple.com/integrate/
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Thank you all for your input ...
short update
i'm planning to create a seperat static non wp site for developer section and seperate with a subdomain.
Also if you think this would make sense, why not sperate and create a stand alone investor site also!
Static site, cause devs can easily and faster update content via git! When using jekyll the can write content from CLI and publish per push!
What you thinking about!?
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edit: Wordpress makes sense when more users are updating etc site... but in 90% i'm the only one who update site currently ... and i have a lot of other tasks in progress...
so it would be great if i can dive more into this isntead of updating etc site every day... my 2 bts
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How can BitShares help you?
Users: Savings & Checkings Accounts
Merchants: Payments & Consulting
Investors: Economy & Trading
Experts: Toolkit & Technology
Education of interest with a pitch of vision ;)
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And of course last but not least
Educational: Learning & Teaching BitShares
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Educational: Learning & Teaching BitShares
I like that .. it's not "technical" .. so people don't get afraid right away :)
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The home page is absolutely brilliant!
Vibrant... active... real-time... 21st Century
It seems to get dark from there on.
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github and twitter icons are almost impossible to identify on the main page (no scrolling) .. do to the bright background
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github and twitter icons are almost impossible to identify on the main page (no scrolling) .. do to the bright background
will fix this asap... maybe considering to create a new video animation ...
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github and twitter icons are almost impossible to identify on the main page (no scrolling) .. do to the bright background
will fix this asap... maybe considering to create a new video animation ...
+5%
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I would stop using Wordpress entirely. It's clunky and IMO somewhat unprofessional.
Check out https://www.wire.com/
Simple and elegant, but get's the point across.
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I would stop using Wordpress entirely. It's clunky and IMO somewhat unprofessional.
Check out https://www.wire.com/
Simple and elegant, but get's the point across.
Yes using wordpress is not a good idea. It is unprofessional and wordpress can also be easily hacked.
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I would stop using Wordpress entirely. It's clunky and IMO somewhat unprofessional.
Check out https://www.wire.com/
Simple and elegant, but get's the point across.
Yes using wordpress is not a good idea. It is unprofessional and wordpress can also be easily hacked.
Wordpress just looks cheap, no matter how much you dress it up with fancy templates.
https://www.wire.com/ looks really great on mobile too. I really recommend checking it out and modeling that UI.
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Check out https://www.wire.com/
Simple and elegant, but get's the point across.
Yea i like that site. Looks smart.
I think BitShares really needs to have a smart website - first impressions count if we're trying to get mass adoption.
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Check out https://www.wire.com/
Simple and elegant, but get's the point across.
Yea i like that site. Looks smart.
I think BitShares really needs to have a smart website - first impressions count if we're trying to get mass adoption.
+5% I also really like the design of wire.com. The website team should look into getting a similar template for bitshares.org
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I think using a static site framework for the basis of BitShares sites that are not that dynamic is an extremely good idea. The codebase for the site and the content can then live on git(hub) and it makes it trivially easy for people to fork and contribute their ideas. This will be especially true if Markdown partials are used for text content. Localization will become trivial in comparison to using Wordpress I think. IMHO we should ditch WP as fast as possible where practically possible.
Cass have you considered using Middleman (http://middlemanapp.com (http://middlemanapp.com)/ + https://github.com/middleman/middleman (https://github.com/middleman/middleman) instead of Jekyll? I did some extensive research earlier in the year and tried both. I settled on Middleman for my static sites and am really glad I did. It rocks. Jekyll's roots in blogging show and I'm not sure it's always the best fit, unless you are in fact just building a blog.
Either is a good strong choice though. Just through I'd throw my experiences out there.
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I think using a static site framework for the basis of BitShares sites that are not that dynamic is an extremely good idea. The codebase for the site and the content can then live on git(hub) and it makes it trivially easy for people to fork and contribute their ideas. This will be especially true if Markdown partials are used for text content. Localization will become trivial in comparison to using Wordpress I think. IMHO we should ditch WP as fast as possible where practically possible.
Cass have you considered using Middleman (http://middlemanapp.com (http://middlemanapp.com)/ + https://github.com/middleman/middleman (https://github.com/middleman/middleman) instead of Jekyll? I did some extensive research earlier in the year and tried both. I settled on Middleman for my static sites and am really glad I did. It rocks. Jekyll's roots in blogging show and I'm not sure it's always the best fit, unless you are in fact just building a blog.
Either is a good strong choice though. Just through I'd throw my experiences out there.
For the record Jekyll definitely holds the #1 spot for Ruby based static site generators, but Middleman holds the number #2 spot and has been around for nearly as long as Jekyll - over five years.
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Cass have you considered using Middleman (http://middlemanapp.com (http://middlemanapp.com)/ + https://github.com/middleman/middleman (https://github.com/middleman/middleman) instead of Jekyll? I did some extensive research earlier in the year and tried both. I settled on Middleman for my static sites and am really glad I did. It rocks. Jekyll's roots in blogging show and I'm not sure it's always the best fit, unless you are in fact just building a blog.
Didn't notice before, will definitely look into! It works with ERB, doesn't it?
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Wire is a nice looking site, I agree completely that bitshares.org needs a updated and very glad to see this action is in progress. For me, credibility falls through the floor with the stock photos we currently have - especially the vault.
A 'competitor' site I think has done a really good job as well is: XAPO (https://xapo.com/)
Part of the reason I really like the xapo site is they have actual videos of the product in use for their background.
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Wire is a nice looking site, I agree completely that bitshares.org needs a updated and very glad to see this action is in progress. For me, credibility falls through the floor with the stock photos we currently have - especially the vault.
A 'competitor' site I think has done a really good job as well is: XAPO (https://xapo.com/)
Yes I agree the stock photos need to go.
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The website definitely needs to be more mobile friendly. I would have a separate design that is mobile friendly and you can just use a script that detects whether or not they are using a mobile device. A lot of internet traffic is mobile so making the website easy to use for mobile users is extremely important.
I am not a huge fan of the scroll down pictures with one sentence per picture. I think we should add something with more substance to it.
I would not use this vault picture: http://bitshares.org/#5 It just looks fake to me. A big turn off personally. A lot of the photos need to be changed in my opinion.
I really like the design of this section http://v3.bitshares.org/index.php#industries with showing all the different industries bitshares can be applied to. Maybe we could use part of it for our investors page?
The blog currently has a lot of articles which is good. However the font color of the articles is light grey which I really hate as it makes it hard to read.
The images on the articles also seem to be unprofessional and blurry. Example: http://bitshares.org/the-value-proposition-of-bitsharesx-part-i-core-technology/
All the references to BTSX, AGS, PTS, and BTS XT need to be replaced with BTS. New users will get really confused with all of these old product references.
We need videos! Videos are important to getting new users to use bitshares. I would make a nice overview video of bitshares for the home page. Then you could have a video for the merchant page, developers page, investors page, and users page. It might also be a good idea to have a few tutorial videos for new users on how to setup their account.
I also think that once the website is redesigned the forum could use some work in organizing it better, and maybe changing the design of the forum.
Just my 2 cents. I might post some more feedback later. :) Hope that helps.
I agree with just about all of what islandking said. Also, personally I think this template looks stylish, but is a bit difficult to use. having to scroll through several "pages" on each page, I don't like.
In contrast, this website http://www.google.com/about/company/ is highly functional, but not stylish.
I suggest looking at other websites, especially ones in the same field and ones of established successful companies and taking hints from them. No reason to reinvent the wheel, but also don't necessarily jump on the bandwagon. By jump on the bandwagon I mean use the trendy template just cause everyone else is. It's not necessarily the best
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For BitShares.org/investors, I was in favour of the main page using an updated version of the new BitShares logo surrounded by the most popular BitAssets, superimposed over a dulled background graphic indicative of a decentralised network.
So an updated version of this, using the words 'BitGold' and 'BitUSD' etc.
(http://static.squarespace.com/static/51fb043ee4b0608e46483caf/t/51fdb661e4b01cbb9322ecd0/1375581795650/BitShares%20Wheel.png?format=500w)
I would place it over a dulled and lightly blurred background image that is indicative of a 'global, network, decentralised' etc. Some examples of the type of background...
(http://www.grantsherman.com/images/content/services/OUR%20NETWORK.jpg)
(http://www.immunotec.com/IRL/Public/en/images/global_network.jpg)
(http://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/illuminated-Earth-showing-global-network.jpg)
One good image like that that communicates BitShares, BitAssets and that they're part of a decentralised, globally accessible network is the kind of direction I'd take for the main investor image.
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..having to scroll through several "pages" on each page, I don't like.
+1
If we do end up going with an "intro" keep it to 3 or less slides.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Cass have you considered using Middleman (http://middlemanapp.com (http://middlemanapp.com)/ + https://github.com/middleman/middleman (https://github.com/middleman/middleman) instead of Jekyll? I did some extensive research earlier in the year and tried both. I settled on Middleman for my static sites and am really glad I did. It rocks. Jekyll's roots in blogging show and I'm not sure it's always the best fit, unless you are in fact just building a blog.
Didn't notice before, will definitely look into! It works with ERB, doesn't it?
Yep has ERB support + SASS & HAML too. It also uses the Tilt library and so it supports a whole stack of different templating and markup standards for templates and partials. (Slim, Less, Markdown etc.) Have a look at the bottom of this page for a list:
http://middlemanapp.com/basics/templates/ (http://middlemanapp.com/basics/templates/)
I tend to mix an match ERB,HAML, SASS and Markdown. If you don't have a strong preference for Jekyll then I'd go with Middleman. Plus if you do I'll be more likely to be able to help out if you ever need a hand with anything ;D
Pro tip: If you decide to use Markdown use the Kramdown library in your Gemfile and config.rb instead of the others. It's basically a superset of Markdown and gives you more options and much more flexibility vs standard Markdown.
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Page 1
(http://i58.tinypic.com/287hdo5.jpg)
Page 2
(http://i59.tinypic.com/344a9e8.jpg)
Great design. The potential client knows almost immediately what their company is providing.