Just curious - your vote
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Some designer friends of mine were chatting last week about the parent C5 site design, and I wanted to see what the corporate "open source" opinion is.
Now, in fairness, Designers are ALWAYS more critical of design, and think they can do a better job.
So, please leave feedback according the following questions, and please be objective:
- functionally speaking, what is or is not working for you in regards to navigating the site?
- do you think that this site design upholds the quality of the CMS in a competitive comparison to other top CMS's?
- do you think this site is an attractive design?
- Do you feel that the content populating this site is useful and well strategized?
Now, in fairness, Designers are ALWAYS more critical of design, and think they can do a better job.
So, please leave feedback according the following questions, and please be objective:
- functionally speaking, what is or is not working for you in regards to navigating the site?
- do you think that this site design upholds the quality of the CMS in a competitive comparison to other top CMS's?
- do you think this site is an attractive design?
- Do you feel that the content populating this site is useful and well strategized?
I think the marketplace needs a lot of improvement in terms of basic UI.
I think the docs need more granular video based howtos.
I believe one day in the future you will see us redesign this site to not be white text on grey background. I know that inverted text designs are technically easier on the eyes but I also know that it creates a sense of heaviness that's hard to swallow and makes it feel a bit warez-y. I also know that it's a simple esthetic that compliments our brand well and is easy to maintain without a designer on staff. It gives us a unique look and in a market saturated with options, and that's not to be under estimated.
The reality is redesigning the site at this point is going to be technically quite challenging. Doable, but weeks of work. Moreover, for it to be an effective success I believe we will need the ongoing attention of a designer with good content skills. There's a lot of opportunities for improvement in the about section for example, but it's as much about the details as it is the outter chrome. It's a huge ongoing task that I'm really only going to want to sink our teeth into if we have the resources to excel at it.
I think the docs need more granular video based howtos.
I believe one day in the future you will see us redesign this site to not be white text on grey background. I know that inverted text designs are technically easier on the eyes but I also know that it creates a sense of heaviness that's hard to swallow and makes it feel a bit warez-y. I also know that it's a simple esthetic that compliments our brand well and is easy to maintain without a designer on staff. It gives us a unique look and in a market saturated with options, and that's not to be under estimated.
The reality is redesigning the site at this point is going to be technically quite challenging. Doable, but weeks of work. Moreover, for it to be an effective success I believe we will need the ongoing attention of a designer with good content skills. There's a lot of opportunities for improvement in the about section for example, but it's as much about the details as it is the outter chrome. It's a huge ongoing task that I'm really only going to want to sink our teeth into if we have the resources to excel at it.
I see your point about the easier design being easier to work with. Although, isn't that why you mad the template system so flexible :-)
I guess my thinking is this: If you say you're targeting designers in any way (which you should be if you're not), then you really should have a site that speaks to them.
Seems counter intuitive not to. "we offer a great CMS for designers...but don't pay much attention to our site ...look at these guys though!"
I also think C5 main site not being highlighted on CSS gallery sites is a missed opportunity of free click throughs, most notably - from one of your key target audiences, designers.
rant aside though...
- the search tool is great.
- support area is spot on.
- the forums work really well.
- I have a lot of trouble getting new users to find the download and upgrade info. that seems like a huge issue to me
- the account sign in irritates me and makes me cuss. lol (I always move my mouse to far and get the pull down) Something getSatisfaction-ish would rock.
- no I don't. I think the CMS itself is 10x more impressive than the site, and it actually pains me that EE users look at this site by comparison of what they are used to.
- I think it's fun, but mediocre. Not even close to being in the same playing field first impression wise as EE. Wich is a crying shame, because C5 as a CMS makes EE look dumb.
- it feels very 2000 to me.
- you could do so much more content strategy wise with a 960 width than the current 800. it's a missed opportunity of click through, advertising, and leading content.
- I think just about every brochure page on this site has about 3 paragraphs to many. It's way to verbose and hard to follow. Get to the point more obviously. m2c
- there are way to many important links to things that really should be more in your face. Most likely a product of so much verbiage.
As far as integrating a new design, I can name off, myself included about 5 people that would be more than willing to help you pull that off for free.
For me, that would seem like an open source community helping to rais the bar for the likes of EE.
I don't think it would be "being like all the others" what-so-ever. To me, that would be, oh yeah...we can be CCS3 HTML5 clean design too....AND make your CMS look dumb! :-)
C
I guess my thinking is this: If you say you're targeting designers in any way (which you should be if you're not), then you really should have a site that speaks to them.
Seems counter intuitive not to. "we offer a great CMS for designers...but don't pay much attention to our site ...look at these guys though!"
I also think C5 main site not being highlighted on CSS gallery sites is a missed opportunity of free click throughs, most notably - from one of your key target audiences, designers.
rant aside though...
- the search tool is great.
- support area is spot on.
- the forums work really well.
- I have a lot of trouble getting new users to find the download and upgrade info. that seems like a huge issue to me
- the account sign in irritates me and makes me cuss. lol (I always move my mouse to far and get the pull down) Something getSatisfaction-ish would rock.
- no I don't. I think the CMS itself is 10x more impressive than the site, and it actually pains me that EE users look at this site by comparison of what they are used to.
- I think it's fun, but mediocre. Not even close to being in the same playing field first impression wise as EE. Wich is a crying shame, because C5 as a CMS makes EE look dumb.
- it feels very 2000 to me.
- you could do so much more content strategy wise with a 960 width than the current 800. it's a missed opportunity of click through, advertising, and leading content.
- I think just about every brochure page on this site has about 3 paragraphs to many. It's way to verbose and hard to follow. Get to the point more obviously. m2c
- there are way to many important links to things that really should be more in your face. Most likely a product of so much verbiage.
As far as integrating a new design, I can name off, myself included about 5 people that would be more than willing to help you pull that off for free.
For me, that would seem like an open source community helping to rais the bar for the likes of EE.
I don't think it would be "being like all the others" what-so-ever. To me, that would be, oh yeah...we can be CCS3 HTML5 clean design too....AND make your CMS look dumb! :-)
C
- functionally speaking, what is or is not working for you in regards to navigating the site?
My biggest complaint in this regard is the sign in button being below the drop down menu. From a UI perspective this is a big no no as it is not reachable until the drop down times out and is frustrating. Generally this is housed at the top of the page. From a navigational standpoint for end users (non developers) they get lost when I send them here. I have to actually give them hard links to items of specific interest I can't trust that sending to them to the site and having them find information.
- do you think that this site design upholds the quality of the CMS in a competitive comparison to other top CMS's?
Not in any way. If you look at the competition they are light years ahead in terms of an aesthetic site that makes it easy for information to be gathered.
http://expressionengine.com/
http://mojomotor.com/
http://unify.unitinteractive.com/...
http://wordpress.org/
http://grabaperch.com/
- do you think this site is an attractive design?
see above =)
Some very basic things like white copy on dark background, the pixel width of the site vs the odd wider navigation etc really date the site.
- Do you feel that the content populating this site is useful and well strategized?
I personally think that there are two type of users that come here developers/designers and end users and the site is not faced for the end users so when it comes to certain areas like documentation as one example it is hard for them to get around it.
My biggest complaint in this regard is the sign in button being below the drop down menu. From a UI perspective this is a big no no as it is not reachable until the drop down times out and is frustrating. Generally this is housed at the top of the page. From a navigational standpoint for end users (non developers) they get lost when I send them here. I have to actually give them hard links to items of specific interest I can't trust that sending to them to the site and having them find information.
- do you think that this site design upholds the quality of the CMS in a competitive comparison to other top CMS's?
Not in any way. If you look at the competition they are light years ahead in terms of an aesthetic site that makes it easy for information to be gathered.
http://expressionengine.com/
http://mojomotor.com/
http://unify.unitinteractive.com/...
http://wordpress.org/
http://grabaperch.com/
- do you think this site is an attractive design?
see above =)
Some very basic things like white copy on dark background, the pixel width of the site vs the odd wider navigation etc really date the site.
- Do you feel that the content populating this site is useful and well strategized?
I personally think that there are two type of users that come here developers/designers and end users and the site is not faced for the end users so when it comes to certain areas like documentation as one example it is hard for them to get around it.
yea i get pi$$ed at the trying to click My Account and clicking How tos >.>
I guess this is my exact point Chad,
I am annoyed by the documentation drop down and the login button proximity as well. As you no doubt remember, there didn't used to be a documentation drop down. It was just a link. No collision - no problem.
So this is one of those annoying things that has matured over time. As I'm sure you'd agree, websites are a living thing, and without the ability to continually readdress design concerns - to have someone whose sole purpose is to improve the visual and content design, I tend to think any redesign will give us the same result:
Something that looks good at launch, and gradually falls apart over time.
I'm a huge believer in community, but I don't think great design comes out of a committee of volunteers. There's a lot of things I'd love to have donated, but I feel the challenge of making this a wonderfully designed site is significant and unlikely to come for free. It is telling that none of the sites Steph listed were designed for free by a group, ya know?
So what I can tell you is I fundamentally agree with your assessment that concrete5.org could use systemic visual and UI redesign (although I feel the basic architecture is about right). I don't agree that it's a pants on fire problem at the moment, and I don't agree that the quality of redesign we need is going to come out of a volunteer free time process. I am eager to build our organization back up to a point where we have a top-notch visual designer who isn't afraid of content on staff who can not only redesign the community, but also help us clean up any number of things in the dashboard and the rest of our marketing materials.
When we launched as open source in 2008 I had a designer on staff. By 2009 we did not. We've been able to ride out his creative direction okay on our own, but I completely agree with your basic assessment that we'd be well served by getting this type of talent back on the team again soon. It's in ma'plans.
Does that help at all?
I am annoyed by the documentation drop down and the login button proximity as well. As you no doubt remember, there didn't used to be a documentation drop down. It was just a link. No collision - no problem.
So this is one of those annoying things that has matured over time. As I'm sure you'd agree, websites are a living thing, and without the ability to continually readdress design concerns - to have someone whose sole purpose is to improve the visual and content design, I tend to think any redesign will give us the same result:
Something that looks good at launch, and gradually falls apart over time.
I'm a huge believer in community, but I don't think great design comes out of a committee of volunteers. There's a lot of things I'd love to have donated, but I feel the challenge of making this a wonderfully designed site is significant and unlikely to come for free. It is telling that none of the sites Steph listed were designed for free by a group, ya know?
So what I can tell you is I fundamentally agree with your assessment that concrete5.org could use systemic visual and UI redesign (although I feel the basic architecture is about right). I don't agree that it's a pants on fire problem at the moment, and I don't agree that the quality of redesign we need is going to come out of a volunteer free time process. I am eager to build our organization back up to a point where we have a top-notch visual designer who isn't afraid of content on staff who can not only redesign the community, but also help us clean up any number of things in the dashboard and the rest of our marketing materials.
When we launched as open source in 2008 I had a designer on staff. By 2009 we did not. We've been able to ride out his creative direction okay on our own, but I completely agree with your basic assessment that we'd be well served by getting this type of talent back on the team again soon. It's in ma'plans.
Does that help at all?
lol. "pants on fire".
no, I agree with you on that. But I do think it's up there....since designers are a portion of your target audience.
C
no, I agree with you on that. But I do think it's up there....since designers are a portion of your target audience.
C
Actually I did not list those sites as being free examples but direct competition to this CMS. I would highly doubt they were done for free at all. The fact that you have someone offering to help you for free is a separate matter to me. =p
Franz... I share in some of these gripes... But, as I personally am already 'sold' as it were, all I care about is function, ease of use, content and support/documentation.
That being said, I do have one big complaint. I don't know if it is just me... But your site is fairly speedy, UNTIL I click on 'licenses' on my account page. Seems like the server just sits and churns for a strangely long time!
It happens, consistently, every time. Any idea why, and can it be improved?
D.
That being said, I do have one big complaint. I don't know if it is just me... But your site is fairly speedy, UNTIL I click on 'licenses' on my account page. Seems like the server just sits and churns for a strangely long time!
It happens, consistently, every time. Any idea why, and can it be improved?
D.
I do not really feel that the overall site does C5 justice i either functionality or design.
Now let me first say that I do not think it looks bad and/or needs wholesale changes.
I think the colors in some places like the documents areas where you have light blue on light grey is hard on the eyes.
When I am in the forums I feel like I am on Twitter just darker colors.
There just really isn't anything that just makes me say wow this is the CMS for a designer. However having partnered with a few designers I know it is.
As for functionality I have never really liked the flow. I generally have to think where things are instead of it being intuitive.
The Market place is all over the place in finding something I want. Right now it is not too bad, but as more and more items are added it is going to be a nightmare. Same for themes.
This could go in both design or function, but the "my Account Cart Logout" is in a bad place with a drop down and again light colors on light background is never easy on the eyes.
Overall I like the design and just think it needs tweaking as opposed to an overhaul.
Now let me first say that I do not think it looks bad and/or needs wholesale changes.
I think the colors in some places like the documents areas where you have light blue on light grey is hard on the eyes.
When I am in the forums I feel like I am on Twitter just darker colors.
There just really isn't anything that just makes me say wow this is the CMS for a designer. However having partnered with a few designers I know it is.
As for functionality I have never really liked the flow. I generally have to think where things are instead of it being intuitive.
The Market place is all over the place in finding something I want. Right now it is not too bad, but as more and more items are added it is going to be a nightmare. Same for themes.
This could go in both design or function, but the "my Account Cart Logout" is in a bad place with a drop down and again light colors on light background is never easy on the eyes.
Overall I like the design and just think it needs tweaking as opposed to an overhaul.
this seems very nicely done in terms of selling the main features of the CMS:
http://mojomotor.com/
http://mojomotor.com/
I agree with most of what has been said here. As a designer, when I first saw this site, it didn't feel on the same level as those of Wordpress, EE, or any of the others' mentioned (largely due to the dark backgrounds). It seems like people know about what needs to happen--it'll just be a significant undertaking.
It would be fairly easy for any designers willing to come up with mockups (maybe just a single page to start) and either post them here in the forums or on a collaboration app like ConceptShare, Notebox, or Prevue.it. Then people could provide suggestions, give the yay or nay, and maybe even provide well-founded direction towards the forthcoming redesign (if not THE redesign).
http://www.conceptshare.com/
http://www.noteboxapp.com/
http://prevue.it/
It would be fairly easy for any designers willing to come up with mockups (maybe just a single page to start) and either post them here in the forums or on a collaboration app like ConceptShare, Notebox, or Prevue.it. Then people could provide suggestions, give the yay or nay, and maybe even provide well-founded direction towards the forthcoming redesign (if not THE redesign).
http://www.conceptshare.com/
http://www.noteboxapp.com/
http://prevue.it/
I am NOT a designer. I'm a programmer/developer and from my perspective I find the design of this site not the most important thing right now.(it's not that bad at all. have a look at Drupal design (yawn)
BTW: The Concret5 logo is Brilliant!
Slightly off topic:
I'm a co founder of a software company that has grown from 4 "dudes" to 40+ employees (and growing).
We also had a great tool, but lack of documentation, branding, marketing, skilled managers etc.. (way more bad then some people are suggesting about Concrete5 ;-)
Without the money, we focussed on functionality and later, documentation.
Things really started to take off once we got an investor on board.
Although we had to sell shares, in return there was the opportunity to grow now. Not to mention the business expertise and network relations the investor brought in.
With limited resources, I would try to keep focus on:
- core programming and documentation.
- formulate a business model that's profitable and find an investor. (maybe you already have)
Design is important, but only part of a much bigger picture.
Really hope Concrete5 pulls it off.
It's insanely easy to use.
BTW: The Concret5 logo is Brilliant!
Slightly off topic:
I'm a co founder of a software company that has grown from 4 "dudes" to 40+ employees (and growing).
We also had a great tool, but lack of documentation, branding, marketing, skilled managers etc.. (way more bad then some people are suggesting about Concrete5 ;-)
Without the money, we focussed on functionality and later, documentation.
Things really started to take off once we got an investor on board.
Although we had to sell shares, in return there was the opportunity to grow now. Not to mention the business expertise and network relations the investor brought in.
With limited resources, I would try to keep focus on:
- core programming and documentation.
- formulate a business model that's profitable and find an investor. (maybe you already have)
Design is important, but only part of a much bigger picture.
Really hope Concrete5 pulls it off.
It's insanely easy to use.
Cool site... Also, the product seems to be a complete replication of what c5 has worked so hard on. Was it not a novel concept when c5 developed the editing of a site right in the front end?
I think marketing like this would help a lot... But, who are you targeting? The average 'Joe' still cannot pick this up and do it all himself... That is, of course, unless they want to buy a template, the add ons needed, and learn how to install it and configure it correctly, etc... I still think that someone that does that without a strong know-how of some things design and a little programming won't go far.
So, what does that mean? It means c5 is still marketing to US... Small design firms, individual freelancers, programmers... And so on. You have to know your audience.
Curiously, though... There were some cool things I noticed about this Mojo thing... Like doing 'dashboardy' things while still on the site! Especially so much site map control... I think c5 could pull that off easily... They could mimic Mojo, now, as they mimicked c5 in the first place!
Just some thoughts... Overall, I love c5, the developers, the community, and my life has literally changed because of all of you. So, thank you!
I think marketing like this would help a lot... But, who are you targeting? The average 'Joe' still cannot pick this up and do it all himself... That is, of course, unless they want to buy a template, the add ons needed, and learn how to install it and configure it correctly, etc... I still think that someone that does that without a strong know-how of some things design and a little programming won't go far.
So, what does that mean? It means c5 is still marketing to US... Small design firms, individual freelancers, programmers... And so on. You have to know your audience.
Curiously, though... There were some cool things I noticed about this Mojo thing... Like doing 'dashboardy' things while still on the site! Especially so much site map control... I think c5 could pull that off easily... They could mimic Mojo, now, as they mimicked c5 in the first place!
Just some thoughts... Overall, I love c5, the developers, the community, and my life has literally changed because of all of you. So, thank you!
Thanks.
just so you all know, we are sitting down to do some tweaks to concrete5.org at the moment. Included will be some performance upgrades on some of the pages in the my account area which are admittedly ganked.
Some of the ideas that have been mentioned here are certainly on our radar, and I do agree, fundamentally a updated design could really help us capture a larger design audience and should be part of any coherent growth strategy. I also really feel like its an ongoing challenge, not just a matter of slapping a new coat of paint on the home page and calling it good. I really miss having a top-notch content designer on staff so as things continue to grow for us (which they are) that will be a role I look to fill sooner rather than later.
just so you all know, we are sitting down to do some tweaks to concrete5.org at the moment. Included will be some performance upgrades on some of the pages in the my account area which are admittedly ganked.
Some of the ideas that have been mentioned here are certainly on our radar, and I do agree, fundamentally a updated design could really help us capture a larger design audience and should be part of any coherent growth strategy. I also really feel like its an ongoing challenge, not just a matter of slapping a new coat of paint on the home page and calling it good. I really miss having a top-notch content designer on staff so as things continue to grow for us (which they are) that will be a role I look to fill sooner rather than later.
Please consider ME! I'd be thrilled to be a part of such a fantastic team and operation!!
Very cool to hear!
Franz is again outperforming the concurrence ;)
Listening to the Community is good.
Working with the Community is pricesless!
Really happy hearing that these points get some attention.
You Rock!!
Listening to the Community is good.
Working with the Community is pricesless!
Really happy hearing that these points get some attention.
You Rock!!
yeah we've got a long list of little stuff... making it so 3rd party devs can send out messages with their updates, tweaking the way karma awards work (and doing some work to make Totally Random easier to pull off and more meaningful), buy 5 licenses at a discount... setting up demos and making better content for all our addons.. changing the way the forum email notifications posts work so it doesn't take forever to reply to monitored threads... yadda yadda yadda..
and one reasonably interesting new thing I'll keep secret.
;)
and one reasonably interesting new thing I'll keep secret.
;)
- functionally speaking, what is or is not working for you in regards to navigating the site?
From a strategy standpoint, I don’t believe the architecture is perfect. Though a site’s architecture can never be perfect, I do feel that it really isn’t working for a specific end user.
Some quick background on myself – I am a project manager at an agency where we specialize in redevelopments and rearchitectures of large sites. So many sites are architected around the organization’s structure; they forget the end users who actually visit the site.
I am not a strategist, but I can usually get pretty close to what ours come up with. Here are some of my thoughts at 10:00pm…
Who are your customers? My assumption is:
1 Designers
2 Developers
3 Agencies (You may find more business development/sales people than actual tech people)
4 End Users
In my opinion, your navigation leaves out the designers and the agencies.
Your’ end users’ will gravitate to the documentation menu (more on that below), and developers already have their own menu.
I also have an issue with the calls to action on the homepage. Developers/Editors Tour don’t feel like tours at all. I’d expect the developer tour as a video reviewing the codebase and some of the great features of how overrides work, and the mvc code style even the license etc. This page is the kind of page I’d only expect to look at once, and use it as a decision basis. I’d love the video to be simple and to the point. The kind of thing I can send as a link to my director of tech developer to review and make sure he’s good for us to use on the project.
The editors tour would be nice to actually start from login. Show them the simplicity of updating something on the homepage, adding a single page, from start to finish, something they would do normally. I’d love to see less text, and more of a – look, anyone can edit a page with this CMS, so let’s show the client this video and they’ll be totally onboard because they are intimidated by their current cms etc..
Agencies
If I’m in an agency, and I want to use this CMS, I’ve got to sell it to the client. I’ve got to pit it against joomla, drupal, EE, ektron, even wordpress, and a dozen others that they’ve heard of, or they’re using.. Help me out, give me the tools to really compare and contrast them. I know some are better at some things than others, let’s put that into a nice area so I can use that. This CMS can work for so many customers, but not all of them. I also have to sell this internally. My designers will go to the site to see what restrictions they’ll have in their designs. Maybe they’ve designed for Drupal, wordpress etc … do the same rules apply?
Once my sales guys are on board, my tech says they like the code and the license, my designers don’t feel overly restricted, then I’m pretty good to go.
End Users.
They have the documentation link, but I’ve always felt it was for developers only. Would be nice to have a segmented area that has simple, end user tailored content. I understand the forums are great for that, but we have to realize the end users aren’t savvy, and need more hand holding. I don’t think I’ve seen any CMS really have a good dedicated area for end users. Keep them happy, then the developers are happy too! (Maybe wordpress is about the best at this, but not as a website CMS, more as a how to edit blogs)
- do you think that this site design upholds the quality of the CMS in a competitive comparison to other top CMS's?
Drupal’s redesign of their site is coming along, and looks very nice. Joomla has a very nice design as well. Silverstripe is nice, especially that it doesn’t look like it would have been made with a cms. I’d like to focus a little on Expression Engine. Where C5 has a “what’s the fuss”, EE has a nice screenshot of the backend. It’s actually not totally obvious that you’re going to see a video. I’d love that to be more intuitive and to show off the backend of the system right there on the homepage with no clicks!
- do you think this site is an attractive design?
I think it was fine a year or two ago. I think it needs to be 960px, and let’s be honest, if you say it’s easy for designers to design for the CMS, then the homepage ought to have a lot more look/feel to it.
Drupal and Joomla and Wordpress all to me have rather ho-hum designs for their sites. I refer to Silverstripe as a great example of a CMS that touts the ability to not be limited by a designers vision. Would be great for the concrete5 homepage to basically be a showcase.
- Do you feel that the content populating this site is useful and well strategized?
See my comments above. I think in general there could be very different content based on the personas visiting the site, and the more content that is easy to find, the better.
This is all meant as constructive criticism. I love what Concrete5 is, and have used it on many projects.
-Phil
From a strategy standpoint, I don’t believe the architecture is perfect. Though a site’s architecture can never be perfect, I do feel that it really isn’t working for a specific end user.
Some quick background on myself – I am a project manager at an agency where we specialize in redevelopments and rearchitectures of large sites. So many sites are architected around the organization’s structure; they forget the end users who actually visit the site.
I am not a strategist, but I can usually get pretty close to what ours come up with. Here are some of my thoughts at 10:00pm…
Who are your customers? My assumption is:
1 Designers
2 Developers
3 Agencies (You may find more business development/sales people than actual tech people)
4 End Users
In my opinion, your navigation leaves out the designers and the agencies.
Your’ end users’ will gravitate to the documentation menu (more on that below), and developers already have their own menu.
I also have an issue with the calls to action on the homepage. Developers/Editors Tour don’t feel like tours at all. I’d expect the developer tour as a video reviewing the codebase and some of the great features of how overrides work, and the mvc code style even the license etc. This page is the kind of page I’d only expect to look at once, and use it as a decision basis. I’d love the video to be simple and to the point. The kind of thing I can send as a link to my director of tech developer to review and make sure he’s good for us to use on the project.
The editors tour would be nice to actually start from login. Show them the simplicity of updating something on the homepage, adding a single page, from start to finish, something they would do normally. I’d love to see less text, and more of a – look, anyone can edit a page with this CMS, so let’s show the client this video and they’ll be totally onboard because they are intimidated by their current cms etc..
Agencies
If I’m in an agency, and I want to use this CMS, I’ve got to sell it to the client. I’ve got to pit it against joomla, drupal, EE, ektron, even wordpress, and a dozen others that they’ve heard of, or they’re using.. Help me out, give me the tools to really compare and contrast them. I know some are better at some things than others, let’s put that into a nice area so I can use that. This CMS can work for so many customers, but not all of them. I also have to sell this internally. My designers will go to the site to see what restrictions they’ll have in their designs. Maybe they’ve designed for Drupal, wordpress etc … do the same rules apply?
Once my sales guys are on board, my tech says they like the code and the license, my designers don’t feel overly restricted, then I’m pretty good to go.
End Users.
They have the documentation link, but I’ve always felt it was for developers only. Would be nice to have a segmented area that has simple, end user tailored content. I understand the forums are great for that, but we have to realize the end users aren’t savvy, and need more hand holding. I don’t think I’ve seen any CMS really have a good dedicated area for end users. Keep them happy, then the developers are happy too! (Maybe wordpress is about the best at this, but not as a website CMS, more as a how to edit blogs)
- do you think that this site design upholds the quality of the CMS in a competitive comparison to other top CMS's?
Drupal’s redesign of their site is coming along, and looks very nice. Joomla has a very nice design as well. Silverstripe is nice, especially that it doesn’t look like it would have been made with a cms. I’d like to focus a little on Expression Engine. Where C5 has a “what’s the fuss”, EE has a nice screenshot of the backend. It’s actually not totally obvious that you’re going to see a video. I’d love that to be more intuitive and to show off the backend of the system right there on the homepage with no clicks!
- do you think this site is an attractive design?
I think it was fine a year or two ago. I think it needs to be 960px, and let’s be honest, if you say it’s easy for designers to design for the CMS, then the homepage ought to have a lot more look/feel to it.
Drupal and Joomla and Wordpress all to me have rather ho-hum designs for their sites. I refer to Silverstripe as a great example of a CMS that touts the ability to not be limited by a designers vision. Would be great for the concrete5 homepage to basically be a showcase.
- Do you feel that the content populating this site is useful and well strategized?
See my comments above. I think in general there could be very different content based on the personas visiting the site, and the more content that is easy to find, the better.
This is all meant as constructive criticism. I love what Concrete5 is, and have used it on many projects.
-Phil
Some more interaction would be nice
Not really...
yes most of it,