The Home page sucks (1 Viewer)

[Jon]

I am looking to possibly change the home page of AWF. I't not referring to the forum section, but the WordPress part of the site, at the root. I'm learning React, JavaScript and TailwindCSS, so perhaps this combination can help me make a better home page that is more appealing to first time visitors.

What do you think should go on the home page?

 

[Jon]

Here is an example of what it could look like. Text would obviously be changed.

 

[Jon]

Or...

 

[CJ_London]

Would/can you change the forum look as well to match? Otherwise might make the site a bit disjointed.

I suspect many new users find the forum first rather than the home page either by being directed here by a link from another forum or by seeing relevant answers to a question they have googled. If you don't already, perhaps include a 'how did you find us' question in the registration process?

 

[Isaac]

I almost wonder sometimes if the solution is just getting rid of what is now the 'home' page. The Forums page is perfect IMO, maybe it should just be the home page?

I mean, it summarizes the whole essence of AWF, shows a few snippets, is well laid out, and instantaneously provides the viewer a mental summary image of the totality of the site - in a good way

 

[Jon]

Would/can you change the forum look as well to match? Otherwise might make the site a bit disjointed.

I suspect many new users find the forum first rather than the home page either by being directed here by a link from another forum or by seeing relevant answers to a question they have googled. If you don't already, perhaps include a 'how did you find us' question in the registration process?

Yes, I understand the matching of the home page to the forum look idea. I think the problem is that the forum has different menus that are irrelevant to the home page. I've thought about having a live feed on the home page though that would perhaps list the latest posts.

I've been running surveys asking these sorts of question for a while now.

 

[Jon]

I almost wonder sometimes if the solution is just getting rid of what is now the 'home' page. The Forums page is perfect IMO, maybe it should just be the home page?

I mean, it summarizes the whole essence of AWF, shows a few snippets, is well laid out, and instantaneously provides the viewer a mental summary image of the totality of the site - in a good way

Removing the home page and replacing it with the forums page would break all the links to the forum posts. I would have to create redirects of all links, which would result in a loss of SEO juice. Also, it would mean nothing could be added in future. e.g. blog section or whatever.

 

[Isaac]

Okay, understood. Maybe you could just pivot your thinking, then, and use the fact that the Forums page seems "perfect" as a guiding / starting point for this other necessary homepage.

 

[Jon]

Okay, understood. Maybe you could just pivot your thinking, then, and use the fact that the Forums page seems "perfect" as a guiding / starting point for this other necessary homepage.

Well, the idea I had was that you have a call to action button on the home page. There is one on the site already: "Visit the forums!" Is that what you meant? Or did you have some other idea?

 

[AccessBlaster]

Draw something

 

[Isaac]

I just meant if the forums page seems really great, but for some technical reasons as you have mentioned you can't make the Forums page just be the home page, then maybe you can just draw from the layout, content, purpose or effect of the Forums page when deciding how to make the homepage.

but I like the Drawing idea too. a new drawing each week!

 

[AccessBlaster]

I think you were spot on when you named this place Access World Forums. For me, it's a clever play on words. Access as in the product and being given Access to a Forum beyond the technical side. Or at least that's my take on it.

Also, I do like the ACCESSWORLD banner at the top of this page.

 

[Jon]

I think you were spot on when you named this place Access World Forums. For me, it's a clever play on words. Access as in the product and being given Access to a Forum beyond the technical side. Or at least that's my take on it.

Also, I do like the ACCESSWORLD banner at the top of this page.

View attachment 105886

Not sure what you mean by beyong the technical side.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Watercooler and such, most technology-based forums frown upon them

 

[Jon]

Watercooler and such, most technology-based forums frown upon them

Yes, some don't like it, although here the forums are completely customisable so you can just see the sections you like.

 

[561414]

Hey Jon. In my opinion there should be two versions of the homepage - one for guests and one for registered users.

The two example images you provided look more like what a business would use for its online presence and in my opinion it looks off. This website is well established, so I think you can do something that looks more like what stackoverflow currently has:

SO Guest homepage: A statement of what the site is for with data counts below (user count, question count, solution count, etc.). And then the business-related stuff, like the services they charge for, their clients, etc.
SO User homepage: A searchable list of questions the user might be interested in, community questions, blog posts and a few tools.

I'm not up to date about what you may want to do with the site or what plans you have. Perhaps you want to add a marketplace, where a user can pay for a solution, hire a developer or even find a third party tool. I also don't know if that already is in production, but whatever the plan is, the homepage should reflect it. If the plan is to convince guests to join the community, then a few ideas come to me:

AP Guest homepage: A statement of what the site is for with data counts below, just like stack overflow, but also add testimonials of success stories and similar data, people love those. The call to actions buttons could be "Join for free" and "Browse topics". You could even add another pair of buttons like "I want to get help" and "I want to search".
AP User homepage: A searchable list of topics the user might be interested in, again, just like stack overflow, but with a few tweaks, maybe the newest topics in forums the user likes to browse.

As for your journey in React, perhaps NextJS is the right choice for the homepage, since it's rendered server-side and react is rendered client-side, which is bad for SEO and it will have hiccups to appear on google.

 

[Gasman]

Watercooler and such, most technology-based forums frown upon them

Yes, I spotted one user and looked at his posts. Most of them in the Watercooler and such. Hardly a techinical question asked.

 

[arnelgp]

there is distinction between a programmer and a creative artist.
a creative artist put a stunning dashboard.
the programmer makes it alive and interactive.

finishing touch is done by both.

 

[Jon]

Interesting suggestions @561414. I appreciate the detail. You are spot on regarding NextJS. Reacts major downfall is poor SEO optimisation. I am already in the very beginning process of learning NextJS. As you probably know, it is just a framework built on top of React. Or call it React+ if you like. It is supposed to be easy to learn because essentially it just adds more features to React, along with server side rendering options.

I think expectations should be limited for what I can achieve as a solo developer with junior React development skills. StackOverflow has over 500 employees, of which several hundred are probably crack developers. But your comments gave fresh insights into possible directions.

By different page to guests vs users, I presume you are referring to guests vs logged in users? Are you aware of the "What's New" tab on the forum index page?

 

[Jon]

Watercooler and such, most technology-based forums frown upon them

Just had a thought...are you saying you don't like the Watercooler section, or its placement? Or that you do?