The previous website had been built organically over the past few years. It had a lot of useful content but finding your way was tricky and, for new users, it wasn't clear what Joplin was about. Finding out how to install the app wasn't obvious since the download buttons were lost in the clutter of information.
So the new website includes a front page with clear goals:
Allows people to easily download the app - for that there's a large Download button at the top and bottom of the page. It redirects to a page that automatically picks the version based on your operating system.
Showcase the application key features. The key features post on the forum helped narrow down what Joplin is about, so there are sections about the web clipper, the open source nature of the app, encryption, synchronisation, customisation and the ability to create multimedia notes.
The top screenshots have also been updated (the previous one was showing a dev version from 2016, before the app was even released). As a nod to Scott Joplin, the screenshot shows an imaginary plan to open a vintage piano store, with various tasks, tables, documents and images attached, to showcase Joplin features.
Finally there's a Press section, which includes extracts from some cool articles that have been written about the app.
Also many thanks to everyone who voted and contributed to the tagline discussion! It helped narrow down what the tagline should be, along with the equally important description below. If you have any question or notice any issue with the website let me know!
Second, I think you might want to dedicate a section to syncing between devices with a link to more information, like you did with note encryption and the web clipper.
To me the ability to sync using the cloud platform of my choice was one of the main reasons to pick Joplin. Now you have added it almost as an afterthought in the "wherever you are" section after the press, but I think it deserves a much more prominent mention/location.
Looks great! It looks friendly with blue color, icons, big fonts and fewer text. I agree with Sophia that a sync section would be nice and maybe including it's easy to setup. Also at https://joplinapp.org/help a table of contents list at the beginning would be very nice (or maybe at the side bar). The 4 paragraphs are really concise and includes sync section link but maybe there are people as lazy as me who prefers bullet list for easier navigation
That's a good point, I will move the section up and also add some more details, in particular that it can sync with OneDrive and Dropbox for instance since those are popular options.
However, that made me realise I have nothing to link that section to because we don't have a general description of synchronisation in Joplin. The Synchronisation section is very technical, directly talking about drivers and such, with config files and terminal commands. I'll see if I can create a more general page, and in the meantime I just link to the Download page.
Observation - When clicking "download the app" on a Linux machine you are taken to the download page and the browser also automatically offers to download the AppImage.
Just wondering whether it may be better for the user to be directed to https://joplinapp.org/help/#installation where the install script is instead of offering the download?
Right I see what you mean. In general I think the whole README file should be cleaned up and split into separate pages first, because it has become huge. And if I add a TOC for it, it means the sidebar on the left will have too much content.
Much better!!! I like how it mentions Joplin Cloud I think once you think of a new link section, that should definitely be a prominent feature on the help page!
Ok, now I'm really entering the realm of nitpicking, please forgive me in advance
I'm loving the little smeared out lines under key words. But... I think that can be used a lot more efficiently. Right now, the words that are underlined are (in order):
notes
notes
as notes
customise
your notes
(no highlight in the next section)
press
sponsors
I'm sure you can see where I'm getting at I think it would be much more efficient if you actually highlighted the, erm, highlights of the section. So, from the current site, I would probably highlight
notes
multimedia
web pages
customise
your notes (arguably: everywhere)
your data
press
sponsors
Or something to that effect anyway
And, being nitpicky to the point of getting to be ridiculous: you have no period/full stop after each header (which I like). Except... you added a period after "Your notes, everywhere you are." I think for the sake of consistency, you should remove it there too.
Congratulations on the new website! It looks nice and fresh.
I second the suggestion from dpoulton that instead of starting a download, the Linux download link should go to this address:
That is both because you're calling the wget command the recommended way to get Joplin and because I don't like downloads that start automatically when entering a page - I always make sure downloads only happen when I know exactly what I am downloading.
I'd actually prefer a .deb or an Ubuntu PPA, but I do understand that may be an extra amount of work for the devs.
At the top it says "Support", in many other open source projects this button is named "Sponsor". Users could think that support means user support and not sponsoring. So my suggestion would be to change it.
When I use the website on a high resolution monitor (1440p or 4K) the top screenshot is very blurry. That really ruins the first impression of the site. I think a higher resolution screenshot would fix the problem.
That's true. It was Donate before, and I renamed it to Support, but I probably meant Sponsor. In fact I'm wondering what's best here - "Sponsor" or "Donate"?
Hmm, that top picture is already very large so to support 4K I'll probably need to support image sets. It's meant to look good on HDPI though, like on a MacBook, so I guess it's looking ok on 1440p, isn't it?
How about the two screenshots after that - do they look ok on your display?
Would like to chime in for the disambiguation of "Support", "Donate" and "Sponsor".
Disclaimer: I imagine the typical user to be unfamiliar with open source and Joplin to be his first project he's ever donated to.
First of all, despite widely used in github and other places, in itself words "support" and "sponsor" without an object are ambiguous if it's a verb or noun. Therefore it's a bit unclear if the link is, indeed, provides some kind of support / leads to the page of main sponsor. It might be a bit better to add "us" with the main verb: "Support us" / "Sponsor us".
Personally it seems to me that supporting a software "feels" like a small sum (5-10 EUR) or one simple action a person may do in spare time (say leave a review, like the app on app store, etc). Donate, on the other hand, seems to communicate one time larger donation β 40-100 EUR in my opinion.
Lastly, in my mind, sponsoring a software resembles making regular payments and more committing to long term involvement with the project.
If it were up to me, I would choose the naming of the link as "Support us" leading to page where we can show the user methods of contributing to the project.
I suppose if a person came to the main page of Joplin, it's probably his first visit and he's not mentally prepared to donate or sponsor. So, such wording may unnecessarily push away a new user from the "contribution" page.
If anyone disagree with this reading or I completely missed the point with this explanation, please let me know
I think once you think of a new link section, that should definitely be a prominent feature on the help page!
