Landing Page Design Ideas and Proposals

[rockedge]

Hello ! This topic is the place to discuss, design and submit proposals for the Puppy Linux Discussion Forum's Landing Page.

The idea is we replace the pages at puppylinux.com that are hosted currently at GitHub with a newly designed, informative but simple to navigate Landing page style web pages. This will act also as the table of contents or index of the different sections of the forum and the Distro's that we support here.

There are some different ways to integrate such a landing page but for now let's work on the design ideas and content. As we go it will be clearer at what position in the group of wed sites we have, the actual Landing page code will go BUT that is for later after we get some submission of ideas

[darksun]

I literally just posted in the other topic, just while you were writing this. I will do a copy paste then.

I like the idea of a landing page.
In making it I would emphasize the benefits and core advantages of our distros.
In my opinion this section should be seen at glance, at first, or at least highlighted in a way it would be unlikely a new visitor would not read it.
This is in order to increase the chances a new user would take the time and effort to download it/them and try it/them and as well as to hopefully join the forum.
In the contrary, the lack of this incentive, could lessen the chances of the above.

The content should be short and concise yet straight to the core points , the selling points.

Below just an example on how I would do it

(centered)

Image an operating system that
- extremely light in resources (icon of something light, feather?)
- extremely fast, it loads into ram (icon of a running dog, similar to @fredx181 )
- likely includes by default the tools you need (icon of a toolbox)
- portable and ready to be used anytime, anywhere, without need of installing (icon of a suitcase)
- and so on

scroll down

- on the left side some quotes of real positive feedback from old and/or current forum users
- on the right side the link to "join with a simple click our wonderful forum to download your next favorite linux distro"

just some ideas and concepts.

Another thing I would discuss is, if necessary, to find a way, maybe in the landing page, to highlight that despite the "cute" distro names (puppy, dog, and so on) our distros are professional and valid. I am sure there are plenty of people who can see the name of our distros and have false idea, a misconception, the prejudgement of a "toy" linux distro, without giving it a go at all, thinking that probably it is a waste of time.

[darksun]

The idea is we replace the pages at puppylinux.com

furthermore the content of the landing page , in my opinion, should be

- short: easy to read, attention span nowadays are relatively short unfortunately;
- have a nice big font, easy to read (accessibility)
- includes some nice (opensource) icons next to the key selling points;
- not include information that are either on the forum already or that are subject to frequent changes (hence prone to be old/obsolete)
- instead of providing the links to each direct downloads, it only has the link to the forum. this would avoid double contents and as well as incentive to join the forum.

I am aware I keep adding things one after another. I will try to group all the ideas that comes up into my mind in groups and not with multiple posts

[fredx181]

Please forgive me for my ignorance, I have no real idea of what the concept of a landing page is, it's interesting though, but some questions, for example:
- Is it shown first before you can have access to the forum ? I guess yes.
- Is it shown e.g. only at first time registered and login ?
- Can it be disabled for the next time visiting the forum with e.g. a checkbox "Don't you dare to show me this again, from now on" or what ?
edit: or would it be perhaps only for not logged-in people

[rockedge]

Please forgive me for my ignorance, I have no real idea of what the concept of a landing page is, it's interesting though, but some questions, for example:
- Is it shown first before you can access the forum ? I guess yes.
- Is it shown e.g. only at first time registered and login ?
- Can it be disabled for the next time visiting the forum with e.g. a checkbox "Don't you dare to show me this again, from now on" or what ?

Exactly Fred! The Landing Page is similar to the table of contents in a book. Listing Chapter 1,2,3 and what each is.

Once on the forum one will not see the page again unless summoned. puppylinux.com is a different domain and once engaged with forum.puppylinux.com there will be no more interactions with the landing page. This way there is no need for a enable disable check box but we can check again later if one is needed.

@darksun's suggestions are in general the right description of a landing page and are inline with what I envision for the page design.

[wiak]

Yes, I was wondering what the landing page was too.

Is it puppylinux.com site? But that should surely just be the homepage of Puppy Linux distro?

We already have homepage site for DebianDogs, and one day, when I get round to it I have always planned to make a home page for firstrib more generally. Nearest I have to that, but not final, is my firstrib blog notes at tinylinux.info.

One thing that people must stop doing is pretend that the forum distros are somehow the same. Sometimes there may be something purposively similar in certain releases, but often there isn't. A debiandog isn't a Puppy Linux distro at all and never was; despite some early saintless variants being given somewhat of a Puppy look. Likewise Firstrib based distros are generally nothing like Puppy Linux and don't try to be - that was never the intention of my FR design, which can be used to build distros in all sorts of shapes and form.

Certainly fatdog and easyOS seem to reflect a bit of Puppy look and feel, but aside from that their overall operation is very different too.

I really don't see that Puppy Linux home website should discuss anything but Puppy Linux, so what is meant by the forum landing page assuming it isn't that?

The forum is a multi distro discussion forum, but Puppy Linux has its own website, and so likely will the others. The connection is simply that forum members have built all of them.

[wiak]

Just saw your latest post, which crossed with mine rockedge, but I still don't understand how the landing page works in terms of url and so on.

[d-pupp]

I think @darksun is on the mark with what the landing page should be.
Count me as plus 1

[rockedge]

@wiak we can reserve puppylinux.com for Puppy Linux stuff.

The landing page will be part of forum.puppylinux.com and be more or less an introduction and links to places on the forum organized like a table of contents,,,,,

[wiak]

Of course it could be optionally mentioned on any of the distro's home sites that these other distros are also features of the forum used. I would probably do that on my FirstRib site, but that's a website for FirstRib, not a forum so the only main forum link to PLDF I'll use is to KL section since these distros are currently all FirstRib-based builds.

[wiak]

The landing page will be part of forum.puppylinux.com and be more or less an introduction and links to places on the forum organized like a table of contents,,,,,

Oh I see. Yes that sounds good.

[darksun]

to recap and example:

centered:

Imagine an operating system that:
(icon of a feather) is extremely light in resources
(icon of a thunder) is extremely fast, it loads whole into ram
(icon of a toolbox) is ready to use: common daily tools included
(icon of a suitcase) is portable: use it anytime, anywhere, no mandatory installation
(icon exclamation point) has cute names yet is NOT a toy, it is for both beginners and experts

Puppy linux distros, DebianDog, EasyOS, FatDog, Kennel Linux distros:
"collection of multiple Linux distributions, built on the same shared principle"

---scroll down---

HERE some real user feedback

"Thank you for developing my current and favorite operating system since I started using Linux back in 2005."
... insert here some collection of real user feedback, with or without link (opening in a new tab) to the real post (?)

---scroll down---

HERE the link to the forum "DOWNLOAD your next favorite linux distro, click HERE to visit our forum and GET help, if you need it, from friendly and happy users"

• it is important to highlight that despite the "cute" distro names (puppy, dog, and so on) our distros are professional and valid. I am sure there are plenty of people who can see the name of our distros and have false idea, a misconception, the prejudgement of a "toy" linux distro, without giving it a go at all, thinking that probably it is a waste of time.

• landing page to have a nice big font, easy to read (accessibility)

• avoiding to include information that are either on the forum already or that are subject to frequent changes (hence prone to be old/obsolete)

• in order to (a) avoid double contents (b) avoid old contents (3) to incentive new people to join the forum -> we should centering the source of information/links/faqs in only one place , the forum; specific information, download links, faqs, various details will be found in the forum and should not be included into the landing page.

• the landing page should be build mobile web browser "friendly"

[fredx181]

...

• it is important to highlight that despite the "cute" distro names (puppy, dog, and so on) our distros are professional and valid. I am sure there are plenty of people who can see the name of our distros and have false idea, a misconception, the prejudgement of a "toy" linux distro, without giving it a go at all, thinking that probably it is a waste of time.

...

Yes, and besides that our puppies are cute of course, they are also full of energy, wise, well fed and had all possibly required vaccinations, our dogs too

[darksun]

...

• it is important to highlight that despite the "cute" distro names (puppy, dog, and so on) our distros are professional and valid. I am sure there are plenty of people who can see the name of our distros and have false idea, a misconception, the prejudgement of a "toy" linux distro, without giving it a go at all, thinking that probably it is a waste of time.

...

Yes, and besides that our puppies are cute of course, they are also full of energy, wise, well fed and had all possibly required vaccinations, our dogs too

I know, some dogs are so well fed that have become fatdogs

[Grey]

Yes, and besides that our puppies are cute of course, they are also full of energy, wise ...

Evolution-Revolution The eye is taken as a basis as a stand-out element

Puppy Linux_Evolution-Revolution.jpg (186.14 KiB) Viewed 4731 times

[fredx181]

@rockedge You must hire @Grey for being part of the layout team and for philosophical input of course.

[wizard]

@rockedge

In the current layout these two topics should be highlighted/emphasized in some way since this information is critical for new users:
Before Installing Forum Distributions, README FIRST
Getting Started and System Requirements

Also consider copying or linking this post by @bigpup into the "General Information" section. This information is often/still missing in many post:
Information We Need To Help You

Thanks
wizard

[williwaw]

informative but simple

the sole purpose of the landing page should be to differentiate puppy from non-puppy.

If there needs to be a "sub-table" of contents to differentiate multiple puppies from each other, the landing page should only link to a dedicated puppy page or puppy download page that contains the detailed descriptions, "more info" links or download links as the puppy-only people may prefer. This sub page can serve as the puppy project page submited to distrowatch

non-puppy projects descriptions presented on the landing page can simply link straight to the forum subsection and any additional places the project dev desires,

the landing page should avoid at all costs, information overload that could perpetuate any additional confusion between puppy and non puppy, .

[darksun]

the sole purpose of the landing page should be to differentiate puppy from non-puppy.

If there needs to be a "sub-table" of contents to differentiate multiple puppies from each other, the landing page should only link to a dedicated puppy page or puppy download page that contains the detailed descriptions, "more info" links or download links as the puppy-only people may prefer. This sub page can serve as the puppy project page submited to distrowatch

non-puppy projects descriptions presented on the landing page can simply link straight to the forum subsection and any additional places the project dev desires,

the landing page should avoid at all costs, information overload that could perpetuate any additional confusion between puppy and non puppy, .

as stated before, in order to (a) avoid to repeat the same information in multiple places (b) with the risk of keeping something not up to date, old, obsolete, in some of those multiple places (c) to uniform and ease the information flow

we should

(1) have only one place, in our case the forum, where we have information, download and other links, FAQs, first steps and starting guides, and so on;
(2) a front/landing page with the purpose of encouraging the visit of the forum after having given the new user incentives and guidance in a short, effective, simple way. Kind of "you are missing something good just a click ahead, simple visit our forum and you will have all the up-to-date info that you might need, a user friendly and kind users to help you, and more."

If, like you said @williwaw , a new user wish to know the various operating system's differences, they can find them on the forum. To have a landing page that is complex to navigate by new users, that could make them overwhelmed and discourage in a way to visit the forum, is counterproductive, in my opinion.
I find essential for a new user to visit the forum, everything that encourages this should be welcomed and supported; everything that could potentially discourage this should be limited (eg having a too long, complicated, full of notions front page that "scares" newbies).

[darksun]

also I wish the forum to have, under each major distribution, a short effective description, like DebianDogs. This is to help and guide new users in their first visits of the forum.

[rockedge]

also I wish the forum to have, under each major distribution, a short effective description, like DebianDogs. This is to help and guide new users in their first visits of the forum.

I originally avoided using the description to conserve vertical space. We can revisit this and try it out.

We'll need description text examples......

[mikewalsh]

informative but simple

the sole purpose of the landing page should be to differentiate puppy from non-puppy.

If there needs to be a "sub-table" of contents to differentiate multiple puppies from each other, the landing page should only link to a dedicated puppy page or puppy download page that contains the detailed descriptions, "more info" links or download links as the puppy-only people may prefer. This sub page can serve as the puppy project page submited to distrowatch

non-puppy projects descriptions presented on the landing page can simply link straight to the forum subsection and any additional places the project dev desires,

the landing page should avoid at all costs, information overload that could perpetuate any additional confusion between puppy and non puppy, .

^^^ +1.

I'm not one to dampen anybody's enthusiasm, but since initially mentioning the idea of a "landing page" I've stayed away from this one, because I knew this is what would happen. There are so MANY suggestions being proposed for additional material that the landing page will end up being as complex as the front page itself.....

.....and that was never the idea of it. Simplicity at ALL costs MUST be the guiding principle here.

I submitted a demo. That's ALL it was.....a "demo". Just to show the sort of thing I'd been thinking of. We have plenty of budding artists here, with fertile imaginations. Go for it, guys; let's see as many different layout ideas as you like. This is the stage at which the sky really IS the limit. Rationalisation & consolidation as to exact content will come later.

One word of advice. I believe it was @darksun who mentioned it earlier; the 'image' that so many other people have in their minds.....that of Puppy being a 'toy' distro. Although I have real respect for Grey, and love the stuff that he dreams up, a page full of 'toy' Puppy images is NOT, TBH, what we want to present to the world for this 'project' (no offence intended, mate, and I hope none taken). Let's try to make this as professional-looking as possible, while yet maintaining the essence of what Puppy (and everything else we showcase on this forum) is about AND capable of.

NEVER lose sight of the 'fun' aspect to all of this. It's still an important part of what this community always stood for.

I'll now 'bow out', and leave the rest of you guys to it. Just remember, K.I.S.S applies here.....keep it simple, keep it professional. This will be a new face of the community for the world to see, so please; let's do it once, do it properly & get it right.

Mike.

[wiak]

@rockedge

In the current layout these two topics should be highlighted/emphasized in some way since this information is critical for new users:
Before Installing Forum Distributions, README FIRST
Getting Started and System Requirements
...
Thanks
wizard

Yes, the existence of these sections seemed the key intro to me. They need subforum space for each of EasyOS, Fatdog, debiandos, KL too, so their respective creators or teams can provide the correct information ... eventually, when they have time and inclination of course. The space was originally just for Puppy Linux, which restricted their usefulness and created confusion from the point of view of system requirements, purposes, and so on of the other very different and very different purposes of the forum distros.

The name 'Puppy' and warm fuzzy cartoon character image/icons associated with it was always a problem in terms of many not considering it more than a toy hobby distribution. For firstrib distros I purposively stopped using the name weedog and even the term 'dog' long ago and for similar reasons. Not something that can be fixed in Puppy name, but care should be taken to avoid emphasizing toy like image.

[wiak]

.
the landing page should avoid at all costs, information overload that could perpetuate any additional confusion between puppy and non puppy, .

Definitely. The landing page should just be a simple road map about what the forum has on offer in terms of simple links to them.

The landing page must and should not be focussed on Kennel Linux, or EasyOS, or Puppy Linux, and so on.

The forum is about the forum distros and these are all different in design and purpose per their designer or team intension. The landing page or whoever writes it should not be assuming or writing specifications or purposes of the individual forum distros. Only their own teams can do that.

Actually, the very idea of 'other' distros is bad historic attitude and wrong. From forum discussion perspective the discussed distros are ALL forum distros or perhaps someone imagines the forum is about EasyOS and the 'others' should be classified as non-EasyOS. That would also be false and divisive.

[Grey]

and for philosophical input of course.

I have two pieces of news, good and bad as usual. The good news is that the picture was intended exclusively for you The bad news is that you're stuck with ME at the same stage of evolution Knowing that everyone else is a serious person, I wouldn't dare suggest something like that to them. Well, even people with a funnier avatar than mine have a different vision, so there's nothing to talk about

[rockedge]

The name 'Puppy' and warm fuzzy cartoon character image/icons associated with it was always a problem in terms of many not considering it more than a toy hobby distribution. For firstrib distros I purposively stopped using the name weedog and even the term 'dog' long ago and for similar reasons. Not something that can be fixed in Puppy name, but care should be taken to avoid emphasizing toy like image.

My auto is a plain white Wolfsburg Edition Volkswagen Passat....pretty much a routine no-frills VW sedan body and small 4 cylinder engine......

Except it isn't. Actually there is a Porsche turbocharged V8 from a 928 stuffed into it. Sitting in a parking lot or stopped at a traffic light just looks like mediocrity.

Only thing giving it away that it's something else are the very large Porsche brakes bolted on if one looks through the tire rims.

Or when I am passing you on the highway like you're standing still. Pretty quick around town too. Fooled plenty of young ones. Should race for titles.

Point is...I like that people want to think of Puppy Linux or any of the Distro's offered and discussed here as toys and not to be taken seriously.

Until we meet at the red light on Main Street......then perspectives change.

[rockedge]

Here is the very beginnings of a very simple LP design. -> https://puppylinux.com/puptest/

[mikewalsh]

<...snip>
Actually there is a Porsche turbocharged V8 from a 928 stuffed into it. Sitting in a parking lot or stopped at a traffic light just looks like mediocrity.

Only thing giving it away that it's something else are the very large Porsche brakes bolted on if one looks through the tire rims. </...snip>

-------------------------

Point is...I like that people want to think of Puppy Linux or any of the Distro's offered and discussed here as toys and not to be taken seriously.

Until we meet at the red light on Main Street......then perspectives change.

^^^ +1!!!

Touché, mon ami...what was I saying about the "fun" aspect?

They say great minds think alike. LOVE it, mate..!

Mike.

(EDIT:- Reminds me of MY younger days. I had a series of the old rear-engined Skoda Estelles. They had rear suspension designed by Ferdinand Porsche...

The rally versions won their class in the Lombard RAC rally for 23 years on the trot. Where the standard cars only had a 1300cc I-4, the rally spec cars borrowed the air-cooled all-aluminum V-8 from the Tatra 403.....a 3-litre engine, which they then proceeded to bore out to nearly 4 litres. They didn't stop there either; they added twin overhead cams, 4-valve heads, full fuel injection, a drop-forged, 'stroked' crank, Mahle pistons.....and to top it all off, they strapped on a pair of the biggest Garrett T-3 turbos you could get. It was a beast of a car, and almost too much for the rear-engine, rear-drive setup to handle.

A local lad in our area had somehow managed to get hold of one of these Tatra rally engines. He, like me, was something of a fan of the Estelles.....though where I was half expecting him to go OTT with the thing, bodywork and all, he proceeded to construct a very subtle "sleeper" with it. The only real giveaways from the bog-standard 130LS were bigger tyres on the front, huge tyres on the back - with "tubbed" inner wheelarches so's they didn't look that obvious, except for a small arch flare....and a monster set of Brembos to tame the beast. That, and the fact he'd lowered it by exactly one inch all round - and fitted the anti-roll bars from a TVR Griffith 500 - were the main modifications he made. Nothing obvious, and if you didn't know what you were looking at you'd never know it wasn't a standard Estelle...

Damn, didn't that thing shift!

We used to go out cruising together at weekends. This particular Saturday when the beast debuted, he took me out for a ride in it. There was a windy, twisty road that followed the local river for several miles, perfect for testing cars out to see what was what. We set off; he turned to look at me, gave me this sheepish grin.....and floored it. I nearly shit myself! I wouldn't have believed it possible for a Skoda - even a rally car - to go that fast, OR to accelerate SO hard.

Just goes to show, doesn't it; "never judge a book by the cover".)

[wiak]

Yes it is fun looking like something is junk before it races off into the sunset leaving the detractors in its dust.

I mainly use a bicycle, which I bought for peanuts since it was constructed out of mongrel junkyard parts, and I'm not particularly young now either. But I used to live in the mountainous Scottish west coast highlands and often a couple of times a week would cycle over a 160km day trip over big hills on my bicycle of the time. I thus shock some young cyclists who pull up next to me at traffic lights pushing in front of me waiting on the green light. After I speed past them at my taking-it-easy speed most of try to catch up with me to salvage their pride, but give up a few km later as they fall instead further behind. Also they imagine I suppose that I must be poor since I don't bother buying any multi-thousand dollar bike like the ones many of them are pretending to be experienced cyclists on.

Nevertheless, during my career, when I overall taught Linux to literally thousands of students, it was certainly a truth that most of them, and especially the best of them, laughed at the idea of using Puppy as their main Linux - its image was indeed that of a cuddly toy, per its dubious marketing really. I was thus never able to impress them via project contributions I made to the PLDF. Fun is all very cuddly and nice, but an image of professional proficiency attracts a wider audience and counters an image of hobby amateurs who are only capable of producing simple rubbish. We know there are quite a number skilled professionals and skilled self-taught individuals here; to support their quality work and efforts requires the general Linux using community to come to realise that the distros are seriously good. Not just cute and cuddly fun play things.

[bigpup]

@wiak we can reserve puppylinux.com for Puppy Linux stuff.

The landing page will be part of forum.puppylinux.com and be more or less an introduction and links to places on the forum organized like a table of contents,,,,,

I see the forum main page as a table of contents already. One that I do not need to do anything, but scroll down, to get to what I want to look at.
Why do I need to first, see a page, that I have to click on, to actually see the expanded few of the different sections contents?
That expanded view, is already being provided by the current forum board index, that is displayed, when I go to the forum.