We are planning to update the website look and content for the release of 16.04.

Theming

• Base on the WP ubuntu-community authored by knome.

• Use official colors and artwork (CoF and text logo)
• Keep it simple and clear and with a look that seems relevant to Ubuntu Studio

Colors

The general look should be dark. We use our official colors, mainly blue, for the artwork.

• Official Blue #009BF9 (main color, but also representing the audio workflow)

• Official Orange #E27D15 (not written in stone yet, representing graphics)

• Official Purple #574BBC (representing video)
• Dark Grey (not defined yet, also a basis for a possible desktop theme)
• Very light grey (not defined yet)

General Styling Guidelines:

• Top Bar Background: blue
• Top Bar Foreground: white
• Content background: dark grey
• Content foreground: very light grey
• Content links: blue

Content Review

Personas

note: the order of the personas aren't relevant

user A

long time ubuntustudio user The user already knows most ins and outs of ubuntu studio in at least one of the work flows (photography, audio, graphics, video, etc). The user is interested in tweaking their system and changing things. Would like to be able to quickly find necessary files, install, perhaps even help out other users. This user actually would be interested in helping with ubuntu development but they have never contributed to an open source software in any way.

Scenarios:

• user has a new computer that they want to install Ubuntu Studio on.
  1. user goes to ubuntustudio.org
  2. they choose the right version for their computer (32/64 bit) and download the iso
• information on what has changed since previous version of software
  1. user goes to ubuntustudio.org
  2. is the information in front page? if not look for a link on "new features" or "changes"
• runs into a problem with a software.
  1. user goes to ubuntustudio.org forums and IRC to ask questions about the bug.
  2. wants to figure out how to file information on the bug if it is one. OR
  3. user goes to the website to see information about how to notify the ubuntustudio team of the bug.
• missing a software critical to their workflow

  • (feature request, support) <see above>

• <stub> wants to fix and improve things, or have ready made solutions that can be shared

  • (start contributing/volunteering for Ubuntu Studio - how do we make this option more approachable?)
• user wants to follow updates.
  1. looks for rss feed to follow of blog
  2. social media

user B

previous linux user. Film editor, is just switching to Ubuntu Studio for first time. The user is familiar with linux features but is not clear what type of software is available on linux. The user's goal is to produce professional quality videos with least hassle possible.

Scenarios:

• wants to learn what are the advantages of using ubuntu studio for their work flow, over a generic linux installation.
  1. the user goes to ubuntustudio.org to find more information about the distro.
  2. the user is curious more about the video packages specifically, also would like to learn more about the low latency kernel and potential benefit to them.
  3. what sort of workflow is available with this software that comes with linux (do they find tutorials here, or link to outside information beyond link to software project pages?)
  4. the user tries live CD
  5. user installs OR
  6. user upgrades to ubuntu studio.
• as a new user of ubuntu studio, user runs into a problem with a software.
  1. The user first tries to solve the problem
  2. The user then tries to google the information
  3. They find the workaround OR they cannot (proceed to step 4)
  4. The user goes to ubuntustudio.org to support section, to find a place to ask their question

User C: first time linux user. Expert graphic designer coming from commercial OS and industry standard software. The user is looking for an alternative to industry standard software, and their OS and needs to be able to collaborate with other people. The user wants to use free software but not in the detriment of efficiency in producing professional quality content. They are interested in software that looks polished and cool.

User D: Expert musician with no interest to computers and twiddling about with the Operating System, who just want to record and distribute their music.

User E: Beginner musician who wants to learn ins and outs of recording music or illustrating or filmmaking along with learning how to use ubuntu studio. The user doesn't know much about the concept of open source but they needed a cheap option that gets the job done.

User F: Open source software user who wants to produce media. This person might equally be looking for a new distro as well as meta packages. Caveat: they only want to use free software and nothing else, and want to avoid anything proprietary including codecs.

Pages

• Front Page (This could be the Feature Tour)
• Feature Tour
• Download
• Documentation (possible written docs, videos, and link to the help wiki)
• News (possibly aggregated to social sites)
• Community/Contribute
• (Merchandise)
• About

Site map and Content Draft

bold indicates critical for the launch of the website.

Feel free to move items around.

Keep in mind as to how it relates to the scenarios of various personas Feel free to add comments to clarify.

The content is meant to be in order unless location is otherwise specified.

Keep in mind that pages shouldn't be too long

• All pages
  • Social media links
    • see "Social Media" below

• Page: Front Page

  • Content: Download link

  • Content: Basic introductory information on the distro, possibly a video

  • Content: Brief highlight of each category with link to sections of "Discover"

  • Content: last updates/blog. (is this something that is necessary on the front page.

    • (people who want to follow the blog will likely follow it using rss or social media. Perhaps a link to rss feed and social media on top is enough.)

• Page: News

  • change logs, (see "Regular Content" for discussion)

• Category: Discover
  • Page: Audio
    • Content: Video on Audio highlights
    • Content: Information on each highlighted topic/software.
    • Content: link to resources (in ubuntustudio.org and outside about various topics/software)
  • Page: Graphics
    • Content: Video on Graphics highlights
    • Content: Information on each highlighted topic/software.
    • Content: link to resources (in ubuntustudio.org and outside about various topics/software)
  • Page: Video
    • Content: Video on Video highlights
    • Content: Information on each highlighted topic/software.
    • Content: link to resources (in ubuntustudio.org and outside about various topics/software)

• Page Support

  • Content: Where to ask for help?

    • IRC link, IRC etiquette and hints. (e.g. stay logged in answer might not come. Here is where the logs are if you want to check in later etc)

    • mailing list of ubuntustudio-users

    • forum

    • additional non-ubuntu studio resources for audio/video/graphics. (linuxmusicians, gimptutorials, etc etc). link to support pages of major software in Ubuntu studio
    • brief information on non audio/video/graphics where to ask help for what (e.g. ask xubuntu and xfce for desktop, wineHQ and playonlinux for wine gaming etc etc, not exhaustive, just things that come up often)
  • Content: how to report a bug
    • brief information on launchpad, and links to information on how to get an account and file a bug
    • a brief summary of workflow to submit information about a bug to us, without needing a launchpad account
      • we don't currently have a set process for this. or do we? mailing list might be the obvious choice?
    • note that requests on individual software needs to go to the development teams of that software.
    • list of pages for where to file bugs on some of our software (not exhaustive list)
  • Content: how to suggest a new feature
    • contact us on user mailing list (or user mailing list). Outline what you want to see and why.
    • reminder to contact individual projects for request of feature in that software
• Page: Contribute
  • Content: how to contact us
    • ubuntu-devel mailing list drop by and introduce yourself.
    • drop by IRC and say hi (link to irc, link to information on how to use IRC)
  • Content: How to contribute as developer
    • you don't need to know how to code, etc
    • link to ubuntu studio development page. (need to find the link in wiki) so that people can see more what our processes are and what type of work we do
  • Content: testing
    • brief summary link to more information on testing
  • Content: other help
    • we need creative people with work examples, give us permission to feature it, contribute to website, write tutorials, maintain social media etc etc

Social Media and external platforms

bold indicates critical for the launch of the website. italics indicate lowest priority/long term plans/suggestions. Feel free to edit.

• Video content

  • archive.org (main video platform)

  • Youtube (mirror)
  • Vimeo (mirror)

• Art/Music feature(is this something we can possibly consider?)

  • Tumblr (highlight works with ubuntu studio)

  • Soundcloud (highlight works with ubuntu studio)

• Blog mirror/link boost
  • rss
  • twitter
  • facebook

  • ello?

  • diaspora or identi.ca perhaps?

Things to consider:

• which ones are most immediately relevant to our current personas?
• which ones are easy to maintain. (e.g. blog mirroring can be automatically done via wordpress for twitter and facebook).

Regular Content

These are just ideas to pursue once the new site is up.

• tutorials
  • video tutorials (in progress)
  • written tutorials
    • we can bring people from community to feature/update existing tutorials as guest posts in addition to our work
  • occasional blog post about community, ubuntu studio upcoming changes, request for input etc.

== Review Process (proposal) ==

• Every release:
  • update download link
  • review feature tour
• Once a year (by June):
  • support information
  • contribution information
  • review of needed updates to structure (content, software, layout)

  • review critical pages in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio which is linked from "contribute"

    • a lot of the pages looks to be outdated, and they need to be organized
    • main page and some other pages have different sidebars

    • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/Policy

    • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/DevelopmentReleaseSchedule

    • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/TeamStructure (request everybody to update on mailing list)

• regular updates (ideally monthly at least)
  • blog, news, social media etc

Custom Pages

At least the front page and feature tour pages need to be custom. But, all pages can be, except the news page. So, we need a way to create custom pages in WP.

Custom pages may be individually themed. Specifically the feature tour page.

Things we want to be able to do in our custom pages:

• Full width images
• Custom backgrounds for different elements

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CategoryUbuntuStudio CategoryUbuntuStudioWebsite