Site design meeting notes 7 23 12 - LemontechSA/TideSDK GitHub Wiki

Attendees

David P., David M., Christian B.

Summary

Talked mostly about needs for the site design and messaging. We arrived at creating the following sections on the site, all to be contained in a one-page-layout:

  • What is it/Where to get
  • Features/Why
  • How to get started
  • Community
  • Contact/Help/Support
  • Folks helping or contributing
  • Showing activity (twitter stream)
  • News (Blogstream)

Also discussed some tenets for the site, mostly focusing on:

  • Flexibility
  • Ease-of-use
  • Support

General Comments

Discussed that the site needs to balance out more with visuals. Mentioned examples of Gabi or SpritePad in regards to mixing in graphic elements. Also referenced was Cordova as a source for overall inspiration.

Feature Area

For What is it, we discussed making that part of a feature area near the top of the page and possibly integrating and idea where we allude to the flexibility of the SDK a bit. Have a templated text like:

Create <Mac> apps with <HTML5/CSS3/Javascript>!

and it would randomly switch out the copy in the brackets. Another version of it, could then be:

Create <Windows 7> apps with <Python & Javascript>!

In essence, we'd randomly rotate in and out all the possible combinations within <...>

The feature area would also include a link to get the release.

Main Area

In the main section below the featured area, we will talk about why you would consider choosing TideSDK and list some main features and benefits of the SDK (TODO: need a prioritized list of what these could be - maybe top 3?).

  1. Develop applications quickly using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.
  2. Use a simple and familiar API (accessible in the DOM) to reach the system and native desktop UI's.
  3. Extend the functionality of your app with a scripting language you are comfortable with. Choose from python, php, or ruby.
  4. TideSDK is open source and is committed to incubating the technologies of tomorrow (that will continue to implement our APIs).

This would be followed by a section on how to get started. Both these section would essentially cover ease-of-use.

Getting Started:

  1. Download and run the SDK Installer.
  2. Download and launch TideSDK Builder, a simple app created using TideSDK to you help create, package, and distribute your apps. Other options include developing through the mature the Aptana Studio IDE. If minimalism is your style; develop with no more than an editor and a project template.
  3. Create your first app and work through a self guided tutorial. A KitchenSink app illustrates each element of the API and provides complete code examples. Run the small sample apps for inspiration. API docs and guides are available to assist you.
  4. If you need help, there is a growing community of support including a mailing list, Q & A through http://stackoverflow.com and vibrant irc channel on freenode. Professional services through the dedicated TideSDK.org team will also be available in the near future.

Also include a list of folks that are helping out/contributing to the project along with contact options for the project as a whole. This would, at least in part, cover support.

Miscellaneous

  • To add to the notion of support and we should add sense of activity. Hence, it was suggested to include maybe last twitter update, last update from Jenkins feed (TODO: what is the URL for this?) and blog post updates. It seems stale when you look at current site despite the plethora of activity.

  • Perhaps showcase/highlight some apps and include some testimonials on the site as well

  • Briefly discussed need for short tagline for 'normal' people - in a brief braindump session, came up with the following:

    • "easily create desktop apps"
    • "desktop apps made easy"
    • "creating desktop apps the easy way"
    • "desktop apps for humans"
    • "Hey web developers start building desktop apps now"
    • "put the web on your desk[top]"
    • "use your web dev skills to create desktop apps"
    • "web dev powered desktop apps"
    • "Desktop app development powered by web developers"
    • "Build desktop apps using web technologies you already know - TideSDK"

Action Items

  1. David P. to expand and narrow down options for tagline; also look at TODO's in this document :)
  2. David M. and Christian B. to create mocks for discussion by Wednesday, July 25th (meet @ 3:30pm CST - roughly)
  3. David M. to look at options for visual elements for the different sections.

Feedback

Please document feedback here without making alterations to the documentation above.

###Taglines

  • "Bringing desktop back."
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