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Top level page for future project to evaluate and redesign CiviCRM's web presence to better meet the needs of our various audiences.

SubPages:

Roles

On the original conference call we discussed re-designing civicrm.org to more explicitly reflect which audience(s) it was intended for in different parts of the site.

Wes Morgan ran across this list of roles that another open source software project is using to define the various audiences their website re-design should cater to. (original post:http://www.webgui.org/web_design_templates_and_themes/webgui-site-redesign)

Here's the list of roles:

  • learn
  • install
  • use
  • develop
  • design
  • promote
  • administer

These would probably map pretty well to the civicrm.org target audience, no? Could this be a jumping off point for categorizing the existing content and seeing where we're lacking (either in content or in organization)?

Task focus (using participate page as an example) instead of technology/platform focus

(Michael) I've been coming at this from a different but similiar angle - hopefully these thoughts can merge somehow...

I think roles are good, but because people involved in Civi wear lots of different hats, it is also useful to think in terms of tasks.

Using the particpate page as an example, at the moment the content is focused on, and in the main organised by technology (Jira, forum, IRC).  I think it would be better if it were focus on the task the user wants to carry out as that seems to me to be much more user orientated.

Organising by task helps us to give guidance on the recommend way to approach something (do I report a bug in the forum or Jira? do I request a feature in the forum or using that other voting feature?).  Here's a start at that - feel free to hack away at this text (smile)

PARTICIPATE

Report a bug

  • See if you can replicate on Demo
  • Discuss on [forum board]
  • Use Jira

Request a feature

  • talk on forum
  • Look on

Help others

  • Write documentation
  • Share your story

I would argue we might also want a page where the focus is on learning (rather than participating) where we give an overview of the documentation and possiblities for learning CiviCRM

LEARN

Read the documentation

  • On the Wiki

Your questions answered

  • forum
  • IRC
  • FAQ

The big picture

  • Roadmap

Top level menu

There seems to be two top level menu items on the CiviCRM site which look very similar.  If there is a need for two, it might be better to style them differently, or otherwise see if we can homogenize somehow.

Other websites to get ideas from

Conference Call Logs

7/15/09 :: Brian, Dave, Claire

Audience-based vs. Task-based or Combination

Solution-seeker needs most prominent placement

Solution-seeker content

  • "human" front (photos, examples)
  • stripped down version of about
  • full list of components with brief description (but move away from civi... prefix)
  • who uses Civi? highlight big-name users (see amiando site)
  • highlight events
  • not as concerned with blogs; maybe a big icon to the blog? with brief description (developer info, release details, solution ideas)
  • "learn more"
  • how will I find help?
  • link to technical details
  • demo button

End User

  • book
  • documentation
  • forums (question)

Developers/Implementers/Administrators

  • documentation
  • developer wiki
  • forums
  • Jira
  • SVN
  • IRC
  • There's a lot of resources to "go deeper" -- how do we communicate effectively without overwhelming

Homepage

  • testimonials? quotes?

Other sites

8/31/09 :: Brian, Dave, Claire

  • Rely on the homepage to make the "high-level" split between evaluators and developers
  • Place for developer lead on homepage
  • Conversation about terminology -- "support" -- does that mean I support the project, or that I get support?
  • About: more oriented about the project itself; lower on list
  • Features vs. benefits?
  • Demo and forums static on all pages?
  • Added some duplication to make sure the developers tools get enough access exposure
  • Events list on all pages?

Other sites

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5 Comments

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  1. Mar 04, 2009

    Brian Shaughnessy

    Defining target audiences/constituent groups for the website is a great place to start. I think the audiences/roles could be simplified. The list seems to have a lot of functional overlap that would be difficult to distinguish between each other. Some ideas (in no particular order):

    • Solution seeker: I'm sure there are a lot of low-tech staffers and IT consultants who are surfing the web trying to find a solution for donation management, membership management, CRM, etc. who come across CiviCRM. IMHO, this segment is where the website is weakest. We could do a better job communicating what Civi does, how it does it, and what it takes (in terms of implementation resources) to get it up and running, to people who are looking to identify a possible solution for their CRM needs. This is where the sale is made (or at least the gateway to the sale), so it's really important we get people in the door and show them what Civi can do. Content for this audience needs to be front and center, because they'll never stick around long enough to go deeper.
    • Implementer/designer: The web or database guy who will actually implement and configure Civi. Coming from the Joomla! side of things, which I perceive is more accessible to lower-tech users than Drupal, there's a lot of expectation that people can grab an extension, install it, and run with it. Civi definitely is a heavier lift when it comes to implementing, even if you don't run into any platform related speedbumps. This audience is probably looking for documentation and "how to" tutorials more than guidance on hacks or customization.
    • Developer: Higher end users who need to know the inner workings of the app. in order to customize or integrate with existing functions. They are heavy forum and IRC users, and will look for more robust documentation tools (e.g. schema details, api, hooks).
    • End user: Staff who are using Civi on a daily basis. Not sure how best to communicate to this audience. I guess some of the discussion re: putting more screencasts together, and other basic or advanced user training resources. The documentation is currently segmented into "using Civi" vs. "administering Civi" -- but I'm not sure the distinction is carried through as well as it should. Maybe that needs to be cleaned up and the distinction better defined so that that "using Civi" content is truly accessible to the low-tech, staff person end user.

  2. Mar 04, 2009

    Brian Shaughnessy

    Michael,

    I think that approach may be meaningful for implementers/developers, but not so much for solution seekers/end users (I'm using my categories above). In the case of solution seekers, it jumps the gun -- they're not in a position to participate or even learn about how to use the software -- they just need to know what it does, how it's used, and see it in action. In the case of end users, my concern is that the participate/learn approach still requires them to dig deeper than most are prepared to. I've got specific people/scenarios in mind who are not tech savvy, and don't have the time or attention span to dig through documentation. They need very accessible, very digestible, and very simplified guidance on how to do basic tasks.

  3. Aug 05, 2009

    JoeMurray

    Evaluate may be a good refinement for Learn for an important group of site visitors.

  4. Sep 02, 2009

    JoeMurray

    Eg of photos of people: http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/

  5. Sep 04, 2009

    Brian Shaughnessy

    From M. McAndrew --

    As I mentioned at our last meeting, I'm really keen on getting OG on civicrm.org to support local group formation, etc (see this page for our initial thoughts http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/Community+directory+and+local+groups) and it seems like the website redesign process is a great time to do this.


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