FreeCAD Website Design

[regis]

Something I tend to like about the current page is that everything fits in one page, so you can't miss something out,
On the current design you have to scroll down, before anything is revealed, so if you are just a tad bit a little lazy you wont see what you are looking for it if is hidden way down below.
So it's a bit of a mixed feeling for me there, hard to chose, so I might let others throw in a few thoughts on the matter as well.

If you want images you need the scroll. Or you can go for transitions...
https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/973926/s ... _-_ice.gif
https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/973926/s ... e_firm.gif

Wow this is really cool. i'll vote for this kind of gentle effect. What is the level of difficulty involved here to create something like this for Freecad?

[kkremitzki]

Something I tend to like about the current page is that everything fits in one page, so you can't miss something out,
On the current design you have to scroll down, before anything is revealed, so if you are just a tad bit a little lazy you wont see what you are looking for it if is hidden way down below.
So it's a bit of a mixed feeling for me there, hard to chose, so I might let others throw in a few thoughts on the matter as well.

If you want images you need the scroll. Or you can go for transitions...
https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/973926/s ... _-_ice.gif
https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/973926/s ... e_firm.gif

Wow this is really cool. i'll vote for this kind of gentle effect. What is the level of difficulty involved here to create something like this for Freecad?

I have my hesitations about doing fancy JavaScript effects like this. You do have a point though in that, on the desktop, it isn't immediately apparent (without noticing the scrollbar) that there's more to see on the page. This could probably be fixed just with HTML or CSS without needing JS.

[AR795]

Something I tend to like about the current page is that everything fits in one page, so you can't miss something out,
On the current design you have to scroll down, before anything is revealed, so if you are just a tad bit a little lazy you wont see what you are looking for it if is hidden way down below.
So it's a bit of a mixed feeling for me there, hard to chose, so I might let others throw in a few thoughts on the matter as well.

If you want images you need the scroll. Or you can go for transitions...
https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/973926/s ... _-_ice.gif
https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/973926/s ... e_firm.gif

Wow this is really cool. i'll vote for this kind of gentle effect. What is the level of difficulty involved here to create something like this for Freecad?

Looks good, but probably not easy to implement.

[regis]

Looks good, but probably not easy to implement.

Yeah that was somewhat expected. how ever what about the idea of having everything fitting in the visible page, with it's links to the other places?

[AR795]

Yeah that was somewhat expected. how ever what about the idea of having everything fitting in the visible page, with it's links to the other places?

I could be possible to fit all the content in a slideshow type view, but it would still need some sort of navigation like clicking on a button to move to next section. From what I have observed this type of navigation is not common, and I don't know if it will be better for the end user because by default most users expect to scroll vertically on a webpage.

Edit: A quick search on google led me to this site that gives some examples of horizontal navigation:
https://www.awwwards.com/websites/horizontal-layout/

[easyw-fc]

I could be possible to fit all the content in a slideshow type view, but it would still need some sort of navigation like clicking on a button to move to next section. From what I have observed this type of navigation is not common, and I don't know if it will be better for the end user because by default most users expect to scroll vertically on a webpage.

Edit: A quick search on google led me to this site that gives some examples of horizontal navigation:
https://www.awwwards.com/websites/horizontal-layout/

may be a front page like your, but with a main slider (with automatic start) could be an option
https://startbootstrap.com/template-ove ... ll-slider/
https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/components/carousel/
https://blackrockdigital.github.io/star ... ll-slider/

[AR795]

may be a front page like your, but with a main slider (with automatic start) could be an option
https://startbootstrap.com/template-ove ... ll-slider/
https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/components/carousel/
https://blackrockdigital.github.io/star ... ll-slider/

Thanks for the links, I will experiment with some alternative layouts.

[regis]

Edit: A quick search on google led me to this site that gives some examples of horizontal navigation:
https://www.awwwards.com/websites/horizontal-layout/

These are pretty good examples in my opinion if you ask me.

[yorik]

I think these are very different website designs. Either we go for a simple, "traditional" scrollable page, or we go for something fancy with a "slideshow" system. But each has its own advantages/disadvantages and there is no way to satisfy both at the same time.

I personally favor the scrollable page like @AR795 has been designing. Basically because scrolling down is a natural thing to do on the web, still 99% of the web contents are scrollable, it makes it much easier to maintain (plain old HTML, no need for javascript code that will break sooner or later if unmaintained), and also because it will integrate better with our hosted webapps (we can reuse the header and footer and make everything appear and behave exactly the exact same way).

Every now and then there is a new rage at making "everything fits in the screen" websites (there has been the flash epoch, then regularly new techs appeared after that), and after the rage passes, the trend always goes back to scrollable design.

And I like the fact that the user is in control of the "want to know more?" speed. You open the website, you get presented with the "top" part of the website. You want to know more? You scroll down. How fast you want to go look at the contents below is up to you. No need to wait for the seconds that the web designer thought appropriate to switch to the next slide. And having to click the little buttons to manually go to the next slide is way less practical than a simple scroll, which works nicely and as expected on both desktop and mobile computers.

My 2 cents

[NormandC]

I agree with Yorik. What I've seen on other websites was a large down arrow at the bottom of the visible screen (or rather a wide "V") hinting that there is more content below. Maybe something similar could be added to each section? Maybe they could serve as html anchors, click on one and the page jumps to the next section, for those who don't like to scroll.

If I stumble back on a site that has those arrows, I'll post a link.