Hi everyone! I'm Capsia, from the websites team. We're currently working on completely remaking our websites, and we want you to be a part of it! Our goal is to make things easier and more intuitive, so we're looking for your ideas, feedback, and suggestions. In the past few weeks I've been working on wireframes that I'd like to share with you.

For ubports.com, ubuntu-touch.io and lomiri.com
https://www.figma.com/file/n0dfchXYczDbjRgAfJkRss/UBports-website

For installer.ubports.com (has a different link, since it was built before):
https://www.figma.com/file/VMtvSUnGjKUiCLHyMuQ6QC/Installer-Site

The goals, in general:

• Easier and intuitive
• Simplified ( less pages )
• Giving information for new contributors
• Remove outdated information
• Promote other projects like Lomiri, Halium, Ayatana and the installer
• Facilitate adoption of these projects by other distros

Community goals:

• Easy to access information about installation and troubleshooting groups
• Give indications about where the community meets and talks
• Spotlight valuable contributors

Contribution and project coordination:

• Share ongoing projects and let contributors share updates about those on the website
• Give information about the contact person to get involved in a project
• Give basic process and structure information on projects
• Give links to documentation and project resources

What needs to be done:

• Check all the text
• Add content to project pages and hot topics pages
• Update devices shown on ubuntu-touch.io homepage
• Complete Lomiri page
• Redesign donate page
• Add a page for manufacturers
• Redesign and update page for promoted devices
• Where and how to move FAQ, idea: since faq on telegram are updated and on the website are not, we could link (or embed) Telegram

How can you help?

• Sharing feedback and ideas
• Building documentation on projects and processes
• Making assets and images for the pages
• Checking and improving content

Question: For contributors, would you like to give updates on your projects on a static website using git or on a website builder given credentials?

Credits:

To @Kaizen for his original designs this project is based upon (see: https://forums.ubports.com/post/33598). To @Lga for providing awesome looking images of devices (see: https://forums.ubports.com/topic/10106/phone-and-tablet-models-for-ubuntu-touch, more on how these will be used will be shared soon). To Bram, Kiek and Jeroen for Odoo implementation, project organization and documentation.

Hi! In the last few days we have updated two of our websites ubuntu-touch.io and lomiri.com . Check them out. Next one on the list is ubports.com

Thanks to all of the contributors @Kaizen @Lga @kingu and @flohack for managing our websites and releasing the new update.

P. S. All the content on the websites is available for changes and suggestions in Gitlab repos: https://gitlab.com/ubports/infrastructure/ubuntu-touch.io and https://gitlab.com/ubports/infrastructure/lomiri.com

Hi! A long-awaited update has been released. We now have a more up to date list of promoted devices at devices.ubuntu-touch.io/promoted . Check it out.

Thanks to everyone that has contributed to the process of building the page, especially to @Kaizen for his original designs, @Lga for device images and @kingu for text review and improvements.

More updates will follow, check https://ubuntu-touch-dev.netlify.app/ if you'd like to get a preview of what is coming next.

Sometimes in our lives we meet magic people that want to help others and we want to be more like them. Thank you for being an inspiration, for all your efforts and your kindness. Have some rest, we will treasure all the things you have taught us and that make our community friendly and curious

@kazord Hello! We had the same idea
I've implemented it with many optimizations a few days ago. The result was a script running 45 seconds on Intel i7 or 2 minutes 30 seconds on a Raspberry Pi. The script is single thread so it could be further optimized. The lists were ~17MB of total size when the script ended. Querying the data from Apache takes less than 5 seconds. So far it seems too good to be true, so I wanted to ask @beli3ver if I may take a look at the original sources. The idea is to build this for serverless infrastructure on Netlify that will require very little costs and almost no maintenance. Idk the numbers of requests to uadblock servers, but maybe that could be done also with the free plan.

Thank you for all your efforts in Uadblock

Hi,
this is an experiment I've done with Ubuntu Touch and I would like to share. If someone needs a microphone for conferencing during the pandemic but doesn't have one, here is how to use your Ubuntu Touch phone as a microphone for your pc.

Things you need:

1. Your Ubuntu Touch phone
2. A jack to jack audio cable

Step by step:

1. Plug the cable into the microphone port of your pc and in the jack port of your phone.
   Check that you've done the step 1 before going to step 2.
   Check in the sound panel that headphones are plugged.
2. Run the following command in the terminal:
   pactl load-module module-loopback
3. Note the number in the output, you'll need it to stop microphone sharing.
4. Enable silent mode to prevent notifications from going into the microphone.

To stop sharing microphone:

1. Run the following in the terminal replacing number_to_replace with the number you have noted before. Do not unplug the cable before running the command.
   pactl unload-module number_to_replace
2. You can now safely remove the cable.

Please check that you've done the operations in the correct order. (Don't hurt your ears).

Tested on Nexus 5 Dev

@purplevvay Hi, your designs look great!
The icons look awesome, the only thing I would keep as full text is the emergency text, because it would be more visible. Also the arrow at the bottom is inverted, in the system apps ( contacts, weather, calculator... ) the arrow is oriented the other way.

Sure also the mobile landscape mode should be designed. I've put the user icon on the left of the username in my designs to fit also this need. Otherwise the keyboard might overlap the login field. Making it look the same on all screen sizes would be better for convergence. On my phone the space available is less than half of the screen height (other phones with different screen ratio might have less space).

I don't understand the function of the keyboard icon. Can't I just tap on the input field to open keyboard and swipe down to hide it?

My idea for the back button is to use a left to right swipe to go back. I've thought the login as a succession of screen displaying all users and quick app access. Swiping left/right would allow you to switch screens.

@mateo_salta said in Login screen/Code input Design:

so, interesting, if we get rid of the box background completely, error text is not really visible. It is looking good replacing the text with white to match. here are screens, one no background, one with .3 opacity

Maybe we can change the way we display errors:

@Moem @nero355 said in The device page requires community help:

And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE : Sort them by Brand and their Model Name !!!

We'll have sorting options soon, so you can choose to list them alphabetically or using maturity, but to have this and the filters as well we need the data about these ports

@nero355 said in The device page requires community help:

The sooner we know, the better!

True. I can say that Halium 9 devices will stay, but that's mostly up to the porter. If they wish to add all the necessary changes needed to make the device work, it will work, otherwise not.

Hi,
just a few thoughts about Open-store and apt package manager. I don't think that any of the two ways is perfect or wrong, they are just different in the way they handle security and privacy.
Open store allows everyone to upload a new app, that will be automatically added and will be available by default on all the UT devices. Apps aren't checked by humans if they don't ask for dangerous permissions, because they are containerized.
APT has some default repositories which only contain apps that are trusted by the OS maker. Apps can't be submitted to be displayed in apt. The user can install all the other apps by adding repositories, that the user should trust. An app is added to the default repository only if it has enough users and it passed mantainer's security checks. This makes containerization almost unnecessary, but still a nice measure for extra security.

@Kaizen Hi,
thank you, great pages.
Just some notes for the devices page:

1. We have an official device checklist for working features at: https://gitlab.com/ubports/community-ports/general/-/blob/master/DeviceChecklist.md
2. The installer and the preparatory steps sections could be merged in a how to install, which would be easier to read.
3. If a user gets stuck while installing, it could be useful to have links to the forum, telegram channel and/or matrix channel.
   I've made some changes to the page you've shared:
   
   (My first mock-up)

Hi @kuailexs For device info on the devices website see: https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/about/device-file/ , you'll find the file format and templates.

I don't know about adding repositories for a new device. I'd try asking in the porting group on Telegram.

Hi! In the last few days we have updated two of our websites ubuntu-touch.io and lomiri.com . Check them out. Next one on the list is ubports.com

Thanks to all of the contributors @Kaizen @Lga @kingu and @flohack for managing our websites and releasing the new update.

P. S. All the content on the websites is available for changes and suggestions in Gitlab repos: https://gitlab.com/ubports/infrastructure/ubuntu-touch.io and https://gitlab.com/ubports/infrastructure/lomiri.com

Thank you @libremax

Hi! A long-awaited update has been released. We now have a more up to date list of promoted devices at devices.ubuntu-touch.io/promoted . Check it out.

Thanks to everyone that has contributed to the process of building the page, especially to @Kaizen for his original designs, @Lga for device images and @kingu for text review and improvements.

More updates will follow, check https://ubuntu-touch-dev.netlify.app/ if you'd like to get a preview of what is coming next.

Hi @kingu,
I think I've incorporated most of the feedback into a new design for ubuntu-touch.io

Just a few notes:

@kingu said in New websites:

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.

The birds image doesn't fit with a fading image, because on the screenshots the most important details are on the edges (dock and indicators).

@kingu said in New websites:

Sleek and secure
The best of both worlds.

I wouldn't put " sleek and secure " as a feature that sets Ubuntu Touch apart. Any other operating system could claim the same. A more appealing way to market it might be to showcase individual features: app confinement, read-only file system, data kept on the device by default. These would make sense if we wanted to differentiate ourselves from other mobile Linux distributions. We might want to think about what alternatives we are considering: Android/iOS or other Linux distributions?

This kind of marketing may be more in line with Postmarket OS promotion than UT's. They are more focused on libre software (not using Halium or proprietary drivers), security with full disk encryption and long lasting phones (using mainline kernel). On our side, I think we are more focused on Ubuntu Touch being user friendly and usable as a daily driver, accepting the compromise of having some proprietary software installed (Halium, Widevine...).

For the installer:

@kingu said in New websites:

"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"

As far as I know the UBports installer was never intended to be an installer exclusively for Ubuntu Touch, but a joint effort between communities to make it easier to switch between OSes. Branding it as "the Ubuntu Touch installer" goes in the opposite direction and is in my opinion detrimental as we need more contributors to keep it up to date and stable. Currently, postmarketOS and Droidian can also be installed from the installer.

Most of the other issues are already fixed in the real website components, only the design is a bit outdated and I have modified the text to remove the remaining issues.

@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.

@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

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

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

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