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Re: TxP.com home page
As far as pimping TXP using SEO techniques we all can make a difference by using our chosen keywords in anchor text pointing to TXP’s home page or deep links. Anchor text is the key.
For Example: Textpattern is a flexible content mangagement system used by designers, developers, etc, …
Not as effective: Textpattern is a flexible content mangagement system used by designers, developers, etc, …
If we all do that here and there on our sites, blog posts, and social bookmarking sites then Textpattern will rank higher for certain keywords. Remember to think of long tail keyword variations. The keywords “content management system” is very competitive.
Keyword modification and variation: CMS, Content Management System, Content Management, Flexible, Customizable, For Developers, For Designers, and so on.
Art Rogue – Fine Art Photography
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Re: TxP.com home page
I completely missed this thread before, but I can volunteer for helping out in
- site design
- css/html markup
- any illustrations/icons possibly needed.
so it’s mostly up to matthew and maniqui if they want my help :D
Last edited by kemie (2008-08-18 11:36:30)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~| monolinea.com | pixilate.com | istockphoto.com/kemie |~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Re: TxP.com home page
In case you don’t go over the TextBook forum with an eyeglass, I made a couple of mockups available (in a buried post) for the new TextBook skin, which also depicts the concept I’ve been touting to integrate the Txp sites in a more holistic way. The TxB design itself has recieved favorable reviews, but so has the site integration concept. As such, I decided to throw in a couple extra mockups that show how the Forum could be brought into the same fold. I did not do every possible forum view, but there’s enough there that someone handy with CSS could extrapolate well enough.
Forum mockups:
Here also are the mockups of the TextBook version (again, see the notes on the unveiling of this concept for background):
As you can see, the remaining piece of the puzzle is the .com site itself, which could sport these new ropes easily enough. I guess I arrived here via the TextBook backdoor, which really wasn’t what I set out to do, but I’m offering this design freely. You don’t have to take it, but is there need for a lot of time wasted on conception at this point? A few tweaks and were well on the way, it seems to me.
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Re: TxP.com home page
Those who have offered to contribute, so far:
[…]
Due to reasons beyond my knowledge I do not succeed in communicating with the one volunteer who offered to provide the marketing concept and wording, on any channel I’ve tried. Silence is all that’s returned.
So, we are still in need of content/concept/copy text.
We already have loads of raw material to build the content from, but it still has to be forged into shape.
Suggestions, applications, volunteers?
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Re: TxP.com home page
I understand.
Honestly, looking at the “loads of raw material,” I don’t see much divergence from the visual requirements and what I’ve sketched-out, so in that respect my mockups are inline. I won’t push that issue further but just so we understand that part of it.
The real issue here, it seems, is content; nobody stepping up to lay it down. I’m happy to help in that respect too, but whether it’s me or anyone else what we need is a dev platform to draft. Wiki’s are good to draft content where it lays put (e.g., documentation), not to thereafter move it again to a place where it was not drafted in context.
I suggest we approach this in a more conventional way, because we don’t need to wait for fluffy marketing BS to get real work done:
- Create a site map outline of all the expected pages, like you’ve done here, but absolutely complete.
- Use the outline to create a structure diagram to better visualize the breadth and interlinking as well as the site depth (e.g., a single Visio diagram).
- Put a damn dev site somewhere so the structure can be shaped, and the graphic layer added. When the structure is in place, call it an “integration” site (i.e., content integration).
- Give me (and whoever else) some authoring rights to the integration site so we can put text into context. Side-liners can scream and yell as content is drafted.
- When the meat and potatos content is seasony, then we can tape on a couple of catchy one-liners or congratulatory quips for marketing’s sake.
The point is there’s a lot that can be done without waiting for one person, and there’s a reasonable order to approaching it. What we need is is for someone to make a stand and say what graphic design is going to be used, because that’s much more important in the order of things than fluffy marketing words.
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Re: TxP.com home page
Hi Destry,
first, nice mockups.
I would like to see something similar but for TxP.com. It has been said that Matthew Smith may be working on the redesign, so we may need to wait and see.
Regarding content:
I’ve done some kind of “current TxP.com content review”, it’s here, trying to point what content seems totally out of date and should have been removed long time ago. Also, I did some suggestions.
Setting up a “dev” (ideally in a textpattern.com subdomain) version is, IMHO, mandatory.
In fact, if it would depend on me, I would make it publicly available (the front-side, of course) so other community members (well, in fact, anyone) can look at it and make suggestions/spot errors.
Not sure if it’s the “ideal” situation to develop in front of everybody’s eyes, but then, this could be an “experiment”, a different approach of doing something, and hopefully, a successful way of doing it.
I’ve already proposed something similar somewhere else, on one of this threads related to TxP, its marketing, its future, etc.
What do you think?
BTW, the “first post” content (the one included on a fresh TxP install) has been rewritten as a public and open community effort, using one of those “whiteboard” web apps for writting docs.
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Re: TxP.com home page
Destry wrote:
What we need is is for someone to make a stand and say what graphic design is going to be used, because that’s much more important in the order of things than fluffy marketing words.
It is to be hoped there won’t be a single fluffy marketing word. The whole marketing threads and txp.com relaunch idea came from this article. It makes good points, one being that there is excessive content, and I think all the input has gone a long way to address those points. Although graphic design is important it is no more important than content and the two should go hand in hand, so please don’t treat marketing as ‘fluff’ or you may come unstuck.
I hope you can actually get some movement on graphic design and/or content as it seems to have stood still for a long time. Although I have slight reservations about your design for an integrated txp, on the whole it seems like the way to go, so keep up the good work.
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Re: TxP.com home page
@maniqui: Your efforts so far are duly acknowledged and appreciated, as are those of everyone who have tangible, visible results to show. I was just responding/offering to wet’s point that content “still has to be forged into shape.”
With regard to open (public) dev site, this is often warranted between clients/providers (especially remote situations) once the design has been put to canvas and validated. For example, if Matthieu materialized with his mockups and wet said that’s it, then at that point it makes no sense to keep it under cover because we know what the validated end is anyway. In any case, once you go officially live, you would still sensibly edit content if you found it needed it, right? So there’s no difference thus no point in hiding it. Only thing you need to do is ensure Google isn’t indexing the dev location.
I look forward to seeing Matthieu’s mockups (or anyone elses take on things), but I hope we see something before the new year, which is creeping up fast.
@zero: Perhaps I downplayed the marketing a bit (fair call), and nobody knows better than me that words are as important as visuals; in fact I’m in the camp that believes they are more important (but are complimented well with just the right visuals). We could say everything is marketing in some way or another (an important aspect of the UX focus), so we have to be clear what each of us means exactly. I was speaking with the notion that information content (e.g., txp features, system requirements, etc.) was something separate from, say, taglines and “Code is pottery” quips. The latter stuff (and anything like it that someone might cook up) being what I was referring to as fluff. There’s no reason the information content can’t be drafted now in context of a graphic charter in a dev location.
Last edited by Destry (2008-08-20 09:17:20)
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Re: TxP.com home page
To follow up with my last sentence above there. I think there may be too many tools at play here. All the wiki this, whiteboard that, and those forum threads and these others (yipes); it’s just diluting the effort, spreading things out, making it too difficult for the few people willing to help to follow and focus.
Different design firms might have varying methodologies and services (and there’s a lot of meetings and phone calls for various reasons from one end of the project to the other), but the baseline steps to tangible production are more or less this in most cases:
- Site map outline [Word] — Just the pages by title, and maybe URL clarifications for SEO reasons.
- Structural diagram [e.g. Visio] — Based on the site map outline and used to better visualize the breadth depth and link relationships in the site; should also indicate on the diagram where plugins are used; give the thing a legend.
- Validated graphic charter [mockups and html style guide] — Something that can be put to CSS and parsed into the images folder.
- Dev site (powered by Txp in this case) — Start with building the wireframe based on structural diagram. Then layer on the graphic charter.
- Content integration — People like me can now more easily lend a hand and in context to the environment; others can port content already drafted in wiki, whiteboard etc.
- Continue beating until fluffy for the perfect lemony meringue.
Note that in a real situation, content is expected from the client very early on. In reality, however, it’s like pulling teeth to get it, or to get all of it at once. In my own experiences (and those I’ve read of many other designers like at A List Apart) clients don’t actually even know the full scope of content until they begin to see a working demo and can lend a hand integrating content themselves. So consider the wiki and whiteboard stuff going on now to be the hard to get content in the beginning, and expect most of it to fall into place later when there’s more context and platform to actually apply it to.
My humble 2 centimes.
Last edited by Destry (2008-08-20 09:01:51)
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Re: TxP.com home page
Yowsa!
Hows everyone doin’!?
Its been awhile. Is it screwed up to say I wish I was a little less busy so I could connect with you people here a bit more often. – probably :)
Anyhow, I’m excited by what’s happening here. Robert has asked me to step in and see if I can help move toward a solution visually.
Here is my proposal
(Destry, I’m particularly interested in your opinion here):
- I’ll mock up a home and sub page wireframe for content hierarchy and visual layout.
- Destry and I and whomever the dev team determines are the key stakeholders (we need to know this upfront) will make a decision on the direction of the layout by “X” date.
- Destry will then match the content (particularly pertinent for the home page) to the layout of the page, and we’ll adjust if absolutely necessary
- Utilizing the wireframe layout, I will then start on the visual design of the homepage, followed by the subpages.
Forgive me if I’m covering ground that has already been covered.
Let me know if this is a good fit. If it is, I will mock up the wireframes
and deliver them by Friday next week. (August 29).
Thanks!
Matthew
- I am Squared Eye and I
am launchinghave launched Pattern Tap
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Re: TxP.com home page
Can I just say one thing about the integrated mockup. I can think of alternatives but none that are better than Destry’s so far, but my criticism is meant to be constructive.
By having the txp logo and menu, it means on all sites that use it, there is extra ‘noise’. Perhaps you see it as essential for the integrated feel, but a menu in that position feels like noise to me. As I say I don’t know of a better way to do it, but there you have my observation.
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