8 ms·

I know it's not really the point here, but it's nice to see a GNU project with a decent home-page. It's clear, presentable, and modern. (And of course it's not

I know it's not really the point here, but it's nice to see a GNU project with a decent home-page. It's clear, presentable, and modern. (And of course it's not a JavaScript horror-show, but we'd never see that from a GNU project.)

Zhyl 6y ago
You say that, but I feel like it's a bit of a case of 'dress for the job you want'. Having a modern-ish looking site just gives off some signals like 'this is maintained', 'this has been deemed to still have utility in 2020' and 'the developer has some awareness of current UX'. It doesn't need to be flashy. Just a nice font, a header, centre justification, some spacing, a paragraph explaining what the thing is, a nice logo, maybe some screenshots or a link to the docs and a download link.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  GNU Lightning has a rather spartan website like you describe: https://www.gnu.org/software/lightning/ https://www.gnu.org/software/lightning/
  - Zhyl 6y ago
    That's pretty good! I think the only change I would make would be to swap out the serif font for a sans-serif font and that would be my ideal.
    - swiley 6y ago
      It displays as sans-serif on my machine with GNU-Icecat.
      - Zhyl 6y ago
        Ah I might be seeing a fallback font then.
- dehrmann 6y ago
  I had this thought recently--is there a class of website where being being unstylish and looking like it came out of an earlier era of web design gives the site more credibility?
  - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
    You might be right, like *nix utilities that have been around forever? Perhaps https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ is such a page? Staid, having a sense of permanence, what in Britain we describe as "part of the woodwork" (something that's been around so long, and is dependable, like the very structure of a building).
  - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
    Sure, sites like Pinboard, SourceHut, and of course HackerNews, that appeal to the bloat-averse traditionalists who believe web pages should be lightweight. It's not about aiming for an ugly UI, it's about getting out of the way and presenting a clean, simple, fast, functional page. The designation brutalist web design has gained some traction. (I would have linked to an article on this, but ironically the page I found was offensively spam-ridden.)
monsieurbanana 6y ago
How about emacs homepage? It's been redesigned recently if I remember correctly. https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  Nice. My one complaint is that the text contrast seems a little lower than it could be. The text should be a true (0,0,0) black.
  - srtjstjsj 6y ago
    Only old people need full contrast. Low contrast text signifies hip youthfulness, which is important in any technology solutions :-/
qubitcoder 6y ago
The GNU Emacs website is similarly well done [0]. https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

Zhyl 6y ago

You say that, but I feel like it's a bit of a case of 'dress for the job you want'. Having a modern-ish looking site just gives off some signals like 'this is maintained', 'this has been deemed to still have utility in 2020' and 'the developer has some awareness of current UX'. It doesn't need to be flashy. Just a nice font, a header, centre justification, some spacing, a paragraph explaining what the thing is, a nice logo, maybe some screenshots or a link to the docs and a download link.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
GNU Lightning has a rather spartan website like you describe: https://www.gnu.org/software/lightning/ https://www.gnu.org/software/lightning/
- Zhyl 6y ago
  That's pretty good! I think the only change I would make would be to swap out the serif font for a sans-serif font and that would be my ideal.
  - swiley 6y ago
    It displays as sans-serif on my machine with GNU-Icecat.
    - Zhyl 6y ago
      Ah I might be seeing a fallback font then.
dehrmann 6y ago
I had this thought recently--is there a class of website where being being unstylish and looking like it came out of an earlier era of web design gives the site more credibility?
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  You might be right, like *nix utilities that have been around forever? Perhaps https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ is such a page? Staid, having a sense of permanence, what in Britain we describe as "part of the woodwork" (something that's been around so long, and is dependable, like the very structure of a building).
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  Sure, sites like Pinboard, SourceHut, and of course HackerNews, that appeal to the bloat-averse traditionalists who believe web pages should be lightweight. It's not about aiming for an ugly UI, it's about getting out of the way and presenting a clean, simple, fast, functional page. The designation brutalist web design has gained some traction. (I would have linked to an article on this, but ironically the page I found was offensively spam-ridden.)

monsieurbanana 6y ago

How about emacs homepage? It's been redesigned recently if I remember correctly. https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
Nice. My one complaint is that the text contrast seems a little lower than it could be. The text should be a true (0,0,0) black.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  Only old people need full contrast. Low contrast text signifies hip youthfulness, which is important in any technology solutions :-/

qubitcoder 6y ago

The GNU Emacs website is similarly well done [0]. https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/