New websites

Moem

I have a question, why suggest you a google account ?

That's just a feature of the platform Capsia is using to show us these previews, you can ignore it, there is no need to log in at all.

johndoe

@Capsia The previews look very nice.

Maybe the "News" could even get their own main category. At the preview it is the subcategory "Blogs and Q&A" under "Community" and "Contact".
I also think the last Q&As where not summerised under: https://ubports.com/en/blog/ubports-news-1
Is this because of the coming changes to the site or do you need help with that? Maybe I could summerise some Q&As, if I find some time.

Thanks for the work and please keep it simple with the websites. Other websites blend some things in when you scroll down (often does not work on mobile) or you can not get rid of the cookie banner, when the browser does not allow cookies. This is often annoying for the user.

Capsia

Hi @johndoe . Sure, we can have a category for news too. My goal is to have a website that is simple to navigate both on desktop and mobile, so there will be design and testing to ensure that.

I don't write Q&A posts myself, but I forwarded your message to the right person

johndoe

@Capsia OK, thanks. I just saw that the summeries of the latest Q&As got added to the current website.

stanwood

I wonder if we could maybe add a heading with some screenshots of UT interface on the main website?
Regulary some people ask me how the UI looks like. (i.e settings, openstore, lomiri, web browser, calendar, etc.. )

Bolly

Hello,

Just as an idea, we could have something like this?

https://planet.opensuse.org/
https://planet.kde.org/
...

Capsia

@stanwood Of course. Will be added in the next revision of the design process

Capsia

@Bolly Hi, aggregating community blogs sounds interesting. I'll take a look at how that works, but that's probably material for future enhancement.

doniks

One thing that always confused me is why there are so many different websites to what I thought would be one thing. ubports.com, ubuntu-touch.io, devices.ubuntu-touch.io

after a cursory glance at the new designs, it seems that ubuntu-touch.io and devices.ubuntu-touch.io look more like they are one coherent thing, so that confusion might be solved.

but ubports.com versus ubuntu-touch.io I still find confusing. To be fair, I never sat down and thought about why there should be two pages and just chalked it off to ... uhm ... history ... volunteer project ... different people scratching their own itches ...

only just now, that I see this new proposal to come up with a coherent design, I thought about this again and I realize, maybe there is a good reason to have both. Because we want to tell this (complicated) story of here's the community and there's the product, and while they are linked, they are not the same, and maybe someone outside of this community/product circles could care about the distinction, because ... well, I guess because we want to cater to other projects/communities, a'la "hey <randomlinuxdistribution> look there at this great software product, maybe you want to ship it. Oh and by the way here is the community creating and supporting it" ... something like that.

so, after all this rambling let me get to one maybe actionable suggestion:

Please make it clear that one is the community and the other is the product.

e.g.

don't start the devices page with "The ubports community is ...", but with something about devices, like "Here you find an overview of all the mobile devices capable of running ..."
don't start the ut.io page with "We are building ... " , but "UT is ..."
keep the clear language of "We are the UBports community" of ubports.com
make sure (and maybe that's already taken care of in this new design) that there is a consistent top level navigation, where I guess "community" always links to ubports.com and "ubuntu touch" always links to ubuntu-touch.io , etc

AppLee

@doniks said in New websites:

maybe there is a good reason to have both.

You nailed it.
There are historical reasons that lead to this situation and now we want to make things more clear.
Delineate and explain the difference between the community website and the OS website.

There is also Lomiri.com that has to fit the visual identity, it's a lot of work.

And thanks for your suggestions, I think there are great ideas to help differentiate things and help people navigate more easily.

Capsia

@doniks Yes, that's exactly the reason. Ubuntu Touch is one of the projects that UBports' amazing contributors are working on. But our community does more, and some of these projects are not just for UBports to use, but to share with other open source communities so they can use them and maybe contribute back.

Fixed ut.io, I still need to think a bit about a new text for devices page. As for navigation, yes, it works like that.

Thanks for the suggestions

Emphrath

@Capsia hello there ! Just a quick note: the devices pages is a mess and has always been. To get to the list of supported devices you need to actually pick one of the "flagship" devices and ask for "details" and only then do you get access to what's what. Something more akin to the devices homepage of lineage os would be nice I think

Luksus

@Emphrath huh, I just open the dropdown list of supported devices list (on mobile).

Emphrath

@Luksus i'm talking about this page: https://ubports.com/zh_CN/supported-products

messayisto

@Emphrath At the top of that page is a dropdown menu where you can select “All Devices”

Luksus

@Emphrath ah, I understand.
Thanks for the clarification.

arubislander

@Emphrath yeah, that page needs updating or retireing. Especially as it is linked to directly by different other pages.

@Capsia, is the referenced page on your radar for reviewing / revamping?

Capsia

@Emphrath Hi! There are currently 3 different pages stating different devices to use Ubuntu Touch on, which are maintained by different people: https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/ which is community maintained, https://ubports.com/en/supported-products and https://ubuntu-touch.io/get-ubuntu-touch for UBports and Ubuntu Touch websites, which is difficult to understand. The reason for having two different sets of devices is that the Foundation promotes devices from manufacturers such as Volla, which are sold with Ubuntu Touch pre-installed. The second reason is historical; in the early days of UBports, there were only a few ports available, and these were listed on the Ubuntu Touch page.

@arubislander The idea is that in the future there will only be one website that lists devices, and within that there will be a section or page that lists the promoted devices.

Emphrath

OK now I see it

kingu

Following up on our conversation yesterday

0 Establish the name. Do it once, and not in conjunction with "UBPorts foundation".
1 Get the moniker right. "A whole mobile operating system experience, that is yours.
Only have "800+ volunteers".
2 Get a screenshot of the desktop in. Would suggest using the birds https://ubuntu-touch.onestein.eu/web/image/64602/background_home-2.jpg and then imposing a fading image onto there.
3 Have the "Get Ubuntu Touch" type buttton in a greener colour. Current one looks reddish on bad panels.
4 Establish what sets UBPorts apart.

Sleek and secure
The best of both worlds.

Copylefted libre software
Use, explore, change, and share — with all.
… [Expandable info]

5 Establish opposition to alternatives.
The banner that says "Designed to last" could say:
Redesigned to last
Your mobile device can receive software upgrades for many more years to come.
Bring your phone back to life.

6 Image of connecting said old phone to a screen to use it as a computer, with a desktop showing an app.

Remove the CoC and every mention of it.

At this point I think the case is made.

The installer pages

"Stuck on your default OS?"
This ties someone elses OS to the user with "yours". "Default" lends credibility to it.
"A whole mobile operating system experience, that is yours" does better, but reusing the already established moniker wins points.

move to "copylefted libre software"

I think the confusion over calling Ubuntu Touch "UBPorts" is that it would logically follow that
The "UBPorts Installer" installs "UBPorts".
Having it be "Ubuntu Touch/installer" allows saying "About" rather than "About Ubuntu Touch"

Drop "It's simple". Make it look simple.
Show screenshots/an animation of the whole process.

"Command line tool" → "Command-line tool".
Drop every menion of "we", "you can" and so on.
Line-shift at "Select the appropriate".
Mac → macOS
deb → .deb
snap → Snap

Remove the exclamations

enable developer mode → turn on developer mode

Get the mascot off the logos of other OSes.
Align the download symbols rightwards and the icons leftwards.

Github → GitHub

will enable you → lets you

Have one selection of downloads.

smart-phones → smartphones
Issues tracker → Issue tracker
& → and

Email → E-mail

Don't hide the questions behind clicks.

Support A Device → Support a Device
Report a Bug → Report bugs
Fund Development → Fund development

Between the lot of us we can really make this shine.
https://ubuntu-touch.io has said "focussed" for quite some time, so it is all about honing the details and getting to the point with the fewest amount of distractions.