New home page

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 10/4/10 18:54 CDT, Walter Bright wrote:
> Brian Hay wrote:
>> With all due respect to Walter, as a professional web designer I have
>> to agree with Andrei. It's terrible for all the reasons mentioned ...
>> and more. "1995 programmer art" sums it up.
>
> Ok, but on the other hand, mint.com gets high fives for its home page.
> But I find it to be slow loading, the green-on-green text (near the
> bottom) impossible to read, and the animated text slideshows irritating.
>
> Or maybe I'm just too old :-)

I think you and I (as many programmers who aren't web designers) are in 
the "don't/don't" place (we don't know what we don't know). Getting from 
there to "do/don't" -> "do/do" -> "don't/do" is a long, arduous process. 
So we're essentially unable to predict accurately the likeability of a 
web page by only looking at it, and clearly we're not in the position of 
designing a good website.

Having gladly acknowledged your interest in this topic (as I agree 
marketing is at this point essential), my overarching advice is:

1. Find a good professional.

2. Explain in broadest terms _what_ you are trying to achieve at the 
highest level (NOT "here's _how_ I want this to be, tweak it"). For 
example, instead of saying "I want three equally sized columns because 
nobody told me that that design is cr(ee|ap)py, and please color them 
like pee in a swimming pool while you're at it", tell them "I have three 
product lines, and I want them featured on the homepage in a simple and 
straightforward manner".

3. Let the (wo)man do h(is|er) job.

4. Pay h(im|er) a small fraction of the money you'd be losing in 
opportunity costs should you do all the work yourself starting from 
"don't/don't".

5. ...

6. Profit!


Andrei