On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 16:53:38 UTC, Brad Anderson wrote:
> Even if it weren't better looking, just different, I'd say it should be done. I'm of the opinion that every site, no matter how good it looks, should go through redesigns periodically in order to feel fresh and non-stagnant to repeat visitors. It's a form of marketing that reassures users that something is being actively developed.

I completely agree with this. There is a website I work on from 2007 which is completely redesigned every 1.5-2 years. There was just once major feature addition, all other redesigns are done for marketing reasons.

On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 16:55:03 UTC, David Gileadi wrote:
> If you have access to real designers (as you mentioned in another message) that would be fantastic. I think the mockup you created is already a good direction but folks with experience in UX, typography, responsive design etc. could probably make dlang.org properly great.

I just need to motivate them somehow. Designers are a bit strange bunch :)

>
> I'd be happy to help. My time is more divided nowadays but I'm sure I can put some time into this. While we're at it some good mobile support would be awesome too.
>

Excellent!

And responsive design which scales well from desktops to tablets and phones is a must (with support for hdpi screens of course).

On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 17:20:55 UTC, Iain Buclaw via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>
> Really?  To me it looks like the OP is mimicking Github dccumentation pages.
>
> eg: http://uwsgi-docs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

I really like the look of Read the Docs and it's something I would definitely base design of documentation pages on (which are the most important, in my opinion).

But that mockup of homepage is not directly inspired by (or trying to mimic) any website. I've just opened Photoshop chose base colors and made layout that felt natural to me.

On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 14:04:04 UTC, Aleksandar Ruzicic wrote:
> But, all this time D's official website somehow archaic look kept troubling me. It reminds me of early 2000's design and I really cannot associate this design with "modern" or "elegant", what D really is.

Agreed.


> So, what do you guys think?

Very nice! Huge improvement!

On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 14:04:04 UTC, Aleksandar Ruzicic wrote:
> http://krcko.net/dlang.org/dlang-home-draft1.png

Isn't it only Microsoft PR department, who call metro style modern? I'm surprised there're people who took it by heart.

On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 14:04:04 UTC, Aleksandar Ruzicic wrote:
>
> http://krcko.net/dlang.org/dlang-home-draft1.png
>
> I'm not entirely satisfied with it but I believe that it looks better (or at least more modern) than the current design.
>
>
> So, what do you guys think?

Nice initiative, but the top bar looks a lot like adobe.com . I think something less corporate would be more suitable. What are you trying to communicate? A community or a corporation?

What kind of signals are you sending to the first time visitor? Is he a customer, consumer, participant, etc…

On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 18:56:38 UTC, Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:
> On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 14:04:04 UTC, Aleksandar Ruzicic wrote:
>>
>> http://krcko.net/dlang.org/dlang-home-draft1.png
>>
>> I'm not entirely satisfied with it but I believe that it looks better (or at least more modern) than the current design.
>>
>>
>> So, what do you guys think?
>
> Nice initiative, but the top bar looks a lot like adobe.com . I think something less corporate would be more suitable. What are you trying to communicate? A community or a corporation?
>
> What kind of signals are you sending to the first time visitor? Is he a customer, consumer, participant, etc…

I was aiming for something that will communicate "this is a website of powerful, modern programming language". I wanted something that looks "professional", which is something that can be associated with both serious community and a corporation.

Anyway, I have already said in one of previous posts that this is just a mockup and that I will try to have real designer involved (I'm not designer). I made this just to show direction in which I think we should go with dlang.org.

On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 18:53:47 UTC, Kagamin wrote:
> On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 14:04:04 UTC, Aleksandar Ruzicic wrote:
>> http://krcko.net/dlang.org/dlang-home-draft1.png
>
> Isn't it only Microsoft PR department, who call metro style modern? I'm surprised there're people who took it by heart.

This is not really a "metro design", but I admit it sure looks a bit like it.
I find these flat designs great, they help to make content stand out more.

And it is not only Microsoft who are pushing flat as modern way of doing design (but as far as I know they are one of firsts)..

On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 20:04:53 UTC, Aleksandar Ruzicic wrote:
> I wanted something that looks "professional", which is something that can be associated with both serious community and a corporation.

In the past decade there has been so many startups with programming frameworks that go bust and leave the developers with nothing so I think it is important that the site communicate "community". They tend to stick around longer.

It is usually a good idea to take a look at the competing sites. This is because:

1. visitors are likely to be familiar with one of those
2. they might have figured out something that works
3. you want to do at least what they do, but better

http://www.rust-lang.org/
http://golang.org/
https://www.python.org/
https://www.dartlang.org/

etc.

On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 20:12:44 UTC, Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:
> On Friday, 18 April 2014 at 20:04:53 UTC, Aleksandar Ruzicic wrote:
>> I wanted something that looks "professional", which is something that can be associated with both serious community and a corporation.
>
> In the past decade there has been so many startups with programming frameworks that go bust and leave the developers with nothing so I think it is important that the site communicate "community". They tend to stick around longer.
>
> It is usually a good idea to take a look at the competing sites. This is because:
>
> 1. visitors are likely to be familiar with one of those
> 2. they might have figured out something that works
> 3. you want to do at least what they do, but better
>
> http://www.rust-lang.org/
> http://golang.org/
> https://www.python.org/
> https://www.dartlang.org/
>
> etc.

I really like rust-lang.org, I was thinking of using it as a base for design but decided against it because I don't want dlang.org to be accused of ripping of rust-lang.org.

golang.org is not really readable in my opinion. There is not enough distinction between page components (there is no area on that design that catches your eye as soon as you look at page).

python.org is one of my favorite websites, they really did good job.

dartlang.org is nice, cleanly designed website. It reminds me of a website of programming framework produced by some startup :)

I also like ruby-lang.org and recently-redesigned php.net