[Cuis-dev] Cuis web presence

[Phil B]

Mariano,

On Tue, Nov 2, 2021 at 9:22 AM Mariano Montone via Cuis-dev <
cuis-dev at lists.cuis.st> wrote:

> Hi Hilaire,
>
> El 2/11/21 a las 09:24, H. Fernandes escribió:
> > Hi Mariano,
> >
> > It is a good start you have an infrastructure to build web site. We
> should use it :) Not a big fan of the style, though. A web designer will be
> of good help.
>
> Probably. I just had the idea of mimicking the Cuis environment, as you
> can see . I suspect you are not fan of that idea? Or something about the
> implementation? (can you be more specific?). Regardless, I'm not a
> designer, but I kind of like the idea, and also the result.
>

Your approach succeeded which is the problem.  You're repeating on the web
the same mistake that the Smalltalk community has made repeatedly in the
past: being different for the sake of being different. (i.e. we used
different line terminators, button mappings, version control etc. for years
and all it served to do was turn new users off)  That works if your
audience is experienced Smalltalkers, not if you're trying to appeal to new
users.


>
> I don't know of a web designer that could help. If anyone knows, or have
> suggestions on how to improve, please let me know.
>

You're on the web so don't try to pretend you're not.  Keep it clean and
make it look and work like a standard web page.  Don't try to make it into
something it isn't (either a 'real' application or a Squeak/Cuis one) or
you'll end up with something polarizing like the extreme examples of
SPA's/PWA's etc.  Find a simple, clean CSS template you like and use it
consistently.  Let links look and work like links, let things scroll in a
sane way etc.

The problem with getting too cute with web design is that you may get
something that looks great on iOS, and possibly Android, for now.   But
it's pretty much guaranteed to break at some point and/or have issues on
other browsers/platforms.  Even if you overcome all that, it runs a high
risk of turning off people who don't share your design aesthetic.  Should
you decide you don't care and still want to go there:  don't do it until
you address the following...


>
> >
> > Regarding contents itself, a few general pages/information with details
> and pointers will be help to present Cuis:
> >
> > - Features
> > - Download
> > - Documentation
> > - Community
> > - Packages
> > - Use cases
> >
> > Contents should be simple and non technical (I find your pages too
> technical and verbose). Technical stuff should be left to external pages
> the web site will point to.
> > Squeak and Pharo web sites are quite well done, in my opinion
>
> I agree 100% with that. I didn't put any effort on writing the content.
> I just transformed already available Markdown pages to HTML, so there's
> room for a lot of improvement there.
>

This is where the majority of the focus needs to be.  While presentation is
important, content is more important.


>
> I think a way forward would be to write the content for the pages you
> mentioned.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mariano
>

Thanks,
Phil
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