Upgrade bitcoin.org

[blockgenesis]

This thread is now 3 weeks old at the foundation and it gained some interesting discussions. It's now time to ask feedback from the community :

Given the mission of the foundation :

- Standardizing Bitcoin
- Protecting Bitcoin
- Promoting Bitcoin

I think we need a strong website with high quality presentation for the following purposes :

- Help develop sustainable Bitcoin ecosystem everywhere in the world, in all languages.
- Publish official specification, documentation and recommandations.
- Present a good summary about Bitcoin that is contextual to the visitor category interests.
- Try to put a end on the "cannot get to explain Bitcoin correctly" problem that happens once every minute in the world.
- Protect Bitcoin better against "misunderstandings, misinterpretations and misrepresentations" (from the Foundation mission statement)

But lets go concrete. I built what could be the seed of the next bitcoin.org :
Edit : Made it, after a month of work, there is the new bitcoin.org http://bitcoin.org/

The entire previous website content has been recycled. You can notice the following improvements.

- The "Some things you need to know" page, that gives good practises to users and prevent common mistakes about Bitcoin.
- The "Support Bitcoin" page to attract more resources for the bitcoin project and the foundation
- More visibility to the foundation everywhere.
- A contextual presentation of Bitcoin for each user category (Individuals, Organizations, Developers, Enthusiasts)
- The "How it works" page that tries to give the shortest and simplest explanation possible (a real challenge).
- A more complete and representative history in the "About" page and updated statistics.
- An improved "Choose your wallet" that helps new users to get started with ease.
- A language menu bar and the /en/ prefix so that the website can be translated in many language by the community and/or professionnals.
- A vocabulary page that can help confused people to get back their happiness.

Any thoughts and comments are appreciated

[Mike Hearn]

FYI, I have worked with Saivann on this and it's been somewhat reviewed by other developers also.

See it as the beginning, not the end. In future I'd like to add in an FAQ based on the wiki version, and have more in depth articles for merchants and miners. But for now I think this is a huge and much needed upgrade.

[hazek]

I'm really happy and excited to see this. My first impression is that I see a lot of much needed changes with regards to the content which is excellent! I don't particularly like the design however, the layout I think is very good just not the graphics. But this can be easily improved upon with a hired designer.

I'm now going to spend however much time is needed to look through everything and comment more in depth later.

[theymos]

I like the general layout, but there are many grammatical errors.

[hazek]

I like the general layout, but there are many grammatical errors.

And many typos. Can I somehow correct them myself? I'm a github noob.

[timmolter]

I love the new layout. And I especially like seeing Multibit first on the client list. I remember first trying the "default" client only to get very frustrated, but when I later tried out MultiBit it was smooth sailing.

[hazek]

The "Get started" button could be called something else, like "Learn more" because someone new already gets started by clicking "Choose your wallet".

[fizzisist]

I like the general layout, but there are many grammatical errors.

And many typos. Can I somehow correct them myself? I'm a github noob.

Hit the "Fork" button on the Github page. Then, edit the files, either by checking it out on your computer or by editing them directly on the Github website. Then, commit the changes (make sure to include log messages briefly explaining what you did). Finally, submit a "Pull Request" from your fork.

As for the website, I like it a lot. One thing that confuses me though is pointing to weusecoins for the "Get Started" links. While I love weusecoins, shouldn't this information be self contained? Something like the http://174.142.20.146/en/choose-your-wallet]Choose Your Wallet would make a much better "Get Started" page, I think.

[fizzisist]

The "Get started" button could be called something else, like "Learn more" because someone new already gets started by clicking "Choose your wallet".

Haha, posted at the same time as me.

[Mike Hearn]

Yeah just fork it on github. I already went through and fixed a lot of typos and grammatical errors (Saivann is a French speaker), but I can well believe I missed some as it's a big site.

[mareo87]

i like the current website design just add more information

[hazek]

The "Get started" button could be called something else, like "Learn more" because someone new already gets started by clicking "Choose your wallet".

Haha, posted at the same time as me.

Hehe and thanks for the instructions.

[blockgenesis]

Mistakes and typos : if you don't get to play with github, please tell us what you found (and clearly say the page where the typo can be found). It will be fixed in a very short delay. I am not a native english speaker myself and Mike already did a good job at improving the texts so that it sounds less confusing.

Graphics : If there is something specific about the graphics that you don't like, don't hesitate to be more descriptive. Maybe that I can improve some of them. Most of the graphics are 24 hours old so I didn't have time to refresh my mind.

Get started / Learn more : Right, I see! Get started goes to weusecoins where there is concrete resources for merchants and people that want to buy things with Bitcoin, which is something bitcoin.org will probably delegate because of its "official" status. So the real purpose here was not really to give "more information" but "more ways to get started with using bitcoin". Do you feel that "Learn more" is still appropriate in that case? Or is there a better way to say this?

I also see this project like a beginning. I would like bitcoin.org to become more dynamic with continuous improvements over time.

Thanks for your feedback!

[Garr255]

i like the current website design just add more information

+1

Sorry but this new one just looks too unprofessional. Clean it up and do a better job specifying when you'll be linked off-site and maybe they'll use it!

[misterbigg]

Any thoughts and comments are appreciated

That is a REALLY NICE looking website! Let me offer my advice:

1) Pay a PR firm that is web-savvy to review everything and offer suggestions on improvements

2) Go to http://www.scribendi.com, submit the prose on the site, and pay to have them edit the grammar and wording. It's super cheap, and could result in an improvement.

Although this new site looks great, I am confident that people who specialize in advertising messaging could take it to a whole new level. My grandmother doesn't know what "P2P" stands for or even what it means. "Digital currency" is also something that if you ask the average putz on the street will not understand. This sentence must appear prominently on the front page:

Bitcoin is money!

If you could only get across ONE concept to readers about Bitcoin in the fewest possible words this would be it.

[misterbigg]

i like the current website design just add more information

Sorry but this new one just looks too unprofessional.

Hell to the no. From a usability perspective the new design is orders of magnitude better. There are far fewer links, and much less irrelevant information. The front page of Bitcoin.org needs to to answer these questions clearly and succinctly:

What is Bitcoin?

What can I do with it?

Where can I learn more?

Where can I get some Bitcoins?

How do I spend Bitcoins?

The goal of any site redesign should be to get the user excited about Bitcoin and begin participating. Everything else just intimidates people and takes attention away from the most important things. Marketing 101!!!

I like how the new site has a "Choose your wallet" button. And it's in a different color. Arguably this is the single most important action since getting a wallet is the pre-requisite for almost all Bitcoin activities. I would move all those buttons on the right, to the left, since the left side is the more prominent position and there is no chance that the browser window will be too narrow to see these buttons.

Remove from the front page anything that might confuse a normal person. Like the word "protocol."  Find the word "protocol" on Amazon.com's front page, I challenge you.

"Bitcoin is a currency, a protocol and software." - terrible sentence. Right out of the starting gate someone has to hold in their head that Bitcoin is not one thing but three. Automatically some people are going to get lost. Not everyone knows what "software" is, and you don't need to know that Bitcoin is also software. You just need to know that you can get a free wallet "app" from your smart phone's "app store."

Consider removing the navigation bar from the front page, while leaving it on all the other pages. There's 7 links in that nav bar and every single one of them will, when clicked by a new user, take them to an unimportant page. Especially "About."

Looking at it more closely, there's TWO nav bars, one for clicking on Bitcoin is for "Individuals", "Organizations"... this is another distraction and its in the worst place for it because the top is prime real estate. Sure, I like developers as much as the next guy but they can scroll down to find their link, we don't have to hold their hand and give them part of the top of every page on the entire site.

"Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority" - another terrible sentence. I am certain that many will read this and walk away thinking that Bitcoins are not "backed by anything" or "secured by any government." While it is true that Bitcoin technology is decentralized, I highly doubt that will be a selling point for any significant fraction of site visitors.

Here's a selling point I thought of:

"Bitcoin is like a bank that puts a live teller in your living room available 24/7 and you can do whatever you want with your money and your account can never be closed or denied"

I guess my conclusion is that this site redesign looks very nice and is a strong first step to a renovation but needs a lot of work in the text and the marketing messages.

[Mike Hearn]

It's worth thinking about the goals of the site.

Right now, I don't think trying to on-board your mother and her dog is the right goal. Bitcoin isn't ready for these people yet.

The goals of the Bitcoin website should be to:

• Explain what Bitcoin is, to people who are already interested.
• Explain how to get started, for people who already want to.
• Describe what's great about Bitcoin
• Answer and rebut many common myths and objections that surface frequently

The new site hits all of these goals except the last one, which can come later anyway.

Whether we like it or not, Bitcoin is still quite nerdy and needs more time to mature and grow.

[phatsphere]

I really like it, although it needs some cleanup for the design. However, instead of developers, I would focus this top menu on "merchants". I.e. to capture the attention of them right there.

[Gabi]

It is awesome, finally a decent website 

My suggestion? Put more things on the homepage

[misterbigg]

It's worth thinking about the goals of the site.

Right now, I don't think trying to on-board your mother and her dog is the right goal. Bitcoin isn't ready for these people yet.
...
Whether we like it or not, Bitcoin is still quite nerdy and needs more time to mature and grow.

My opinion is that the site should have the broadest appeal to the least technical people. The decision on whether or not to get "on-board" should be left up to each visitor, not bearded developers (figuratively speaking).

Every time Bitcoin appears in the press there's going to be a link to Bitcoin.org for more reading. Shouldn't the site cater to them? The technically minded already know how to dig through the site. I think making the front page as easy to understand as possible, and to guide them through the process for getting involved in Bitcoin is a worthy goal for the site.