Just finished a short review of the main page. The changes are relatively minor.
The front page is now pretty useful for new developers and maybe even beta users, but I think it needs to change a lot to accommodate regular users before the beta period is over. Here's a little brainstorming on what we could show on the front page (including the current items for completeness):
Registration form. Very important for new users, and probably the single most important feature in order to get new users (the alternative is to put it on a different page). We should review the placement and text carefully to make sure it's eye-catching and very easy to use. Maybe it could be just a huge link named "Register", with the target page asking whether you're a person, company, etc.
Login form. Very important for regular users. Should be very easy to recognize, and should use approved field names (
RFC 3106 is recognized by auto-fill software).
Menu with everything that can be done without logging in. Should be useful for both new and recurring users. The colors are kind of bland now, so it's hard to see what's a link and what's a heading. Ideally, there should be no non-clickable text in the menu except the title of the current page, which should be plain text and less prominent than the links.
"Job offers" feed (in <head>). Very little extra markup, but useful for anyone who doesn't want to use the site more than absolutely necessary.
A <div> with new job offers could be useful for new users to gauge how much traffic we're getting, and for casual users who don't want to use RSS or email.
Contact information could be useful, but we might want to use a form to avoid spam. Dunno which is most effective.
Language switching.
Logo + title linking to the front page.
Things I think we should
not include on the front page:
Footnotes / project state. We might have to include the notice about not being a GNU project until that changes, but the rest should probably go on a news page.
A <div> with site news. On a service site like this, most users won't
care a bit whether we've changed languages, moved servers, or got a new developer. It could be served as a feed or a secondary page, however.
-- Victor Engmark Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur - What is said in Latin, sounds profound
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