Ubuntu Wiki

The code for the existing start page can be found here:

https://code.edge.launchpad.net/~newz/ubuntu-website/start-page

The existing start page can be seen here:

http://start.ubuntu.com/8.04/

Goals:

• Translate the items on the right hand side
• Possibly add some dynamic content, for example gadgets/widgets from google?
• Google search box needs to be centered and fill the whole width, bumping the right hand column down to start parallel with "Getting help with Ubuntu"
• Visual style needs to change to be more like Intrepid, which won't be known until around 8.10 beta release
• Build script needs improvement. It's very rough
• Some of the translations need improvement - this is handled by the doc team

Lizzeh (BinaryDigit)'s Idea for Start Page

attachment:LizStartPage.png

Comments (François) on start page layout

I think it's a page that we would like people to KEEP as the homepage of their browser, right? Then I don't know if we should keep this big header and probably not even this introduction text about Ubuntu.

I mean, I'm a lambda user, I just installed ubuntu on the computer, I know which OS I'm using, so I don't need a "welcome" message except first time I launch the OS maybe. Same for the introduction text, once OK, but every time? It's taking plenty of room at the top of the page. I see this page more like the IGoogle one, with some cool widgets. I'm a big fan of Google interfaces: it's clean, polished, simple. Look at iGoogle, of course you can see the Google logo, but it's not that big, it's just to "brand" the page. The focus is on the content and functionalities. I would definitely focus on this too for this page. I don't like to scroll too much on this kind of page. It should be very user friendly from the start, all the main info and interesting content without any scrolling.