Sublime Forum

New Website Preview

#15

IMO the feature animation should autocycle, I didn’t realize there were more features to watch at first.

Also I didn’t know that you could type “file@func” as a single step, that’s awesome!

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#16

It does, but for some reason, the first feature plays twice.

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#17

I think the features playing twice is important - its hard to understand what’s happening at first.

In fact, what I think would really benefit this is for someone to create some hand made animations to REALLY illustrate what the editor can do. We can all watch those animations and understand what’s happening because we’re familiar with it already. I’ve had people here at my desk watch me show off some features, even while I explain it, and they don’t immediately grasp what’s happening.

I’m not proposing the simplicity of a cartoon - but there should be a better way of showing off what’s going on to someone who’s never used ST before.

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#18

ST2 being such a keyboard paradigm I think demo should show key presses as they occur.

Perhaps something like Screenkey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GqCu0wI-hc)

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#19

I would make them mini-screencasts rather than just visual animations. i.e. have a voice-over that quickly notes what will be shown before showing it. As it is just now, people will have to read the bar at the bottom while other stuff is happening and it’s a bit “help! flashing things… what’s going on?”.

Glad to see you’re closing in on the launch. You’ve got a great product on your hands!

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#20

Something like Coda 2’s new preview video would be awesome!

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#21

I would really prefer something like this, for example: opera.com/addons/

All the main features presented should be listed on the side. Clicking them, or just hovering, can run the animation (although personally I think such animations are pretty hard to follow unless seen few times).

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#22

I’d echo some of wbond’s and cod312’s impressions but put a different take on some of that:

  • I would keep your own slightly subdued take on design, but recast the page is a single page app and brighten it up a bit.

  • Panic’s Coda 2 page is over-the-top Mac, promises quite a lot, and has become annoying with pointlessly big eye candy. Textmate’s page is a little text-y, more like a blog post, and like an Apple page from 2007. So these aren’t great models. I’d guess the Textmate audience is more like yours than the Coda audience.

  • I suspect you use the gradient to give texture to the page. I might freshen the design by maybe creating a speckled beige or yellowish background. The speckles might use your brown or might be an orange, blue or even a green. Think a very subtle stone.

  • I’d keep your big claim text right where it is – above the animation – but use color or bold a few key words. Also I’d refashion the text to say:

(I’ve repeated two ideas from someone else there.)

  • I might then go on to have a 2 x 2 or 2 x 4 grid beneath the animated image viewer with big text to highlight whatever you think your big advantages are. Maybe it’s Selection and Navigation; Find and Replace; ecosystem of plugin developers, etc. If you do the texture idea above, you might put a white or other light background behind this grid, making it about as wide as the animation’s container.

  • I’d adjust the animator quite a lot. This one is changing the geography of the page as the explain text grows or shrinks. Fixing the height of that text area might solve that, as would controlling the volume of text. I’d also want the “where am I” indicator to be more in the center, toward the bottom, with left and right arrows or nice, big next/previous affordances. I think I’d also work with the text; each rotation shows a major claim followed by an explanation: I might make the big claim bigger than the elaboration. This goes for the other spots on the page, too, where I think you could add a little more variability in text sizing and coloring to enhance the interest and appeal, just to move the eye around the page. I might also put the animation in a bed of something – something with curved corners to soften the dominance of right angles.

  • I agree with someone else that the download button might be moved up top. You might left align your big claim text, and let it flow maybe 2/3 - 3/4 across the width of the animation. Then maybe slide a “Try it now for {OS}” button, a little turned up from yours and with a less heavy border but keeping the curves. you might be able to add enough smaller next beneath the big Try it now text that you either won’t need the license footnote, or maybe you use something like a panel that opens when the button’s clicked, now showing the footnote and the other platform option.

  • Your design aesthetic prefers subtle shades within a nearly monochromatic palette. I can see it in both the site design and in the editor. That’s cool, “let Jon be Jon,” to paraphrase. Your claims for the editor sit comfortably within that sensitivity. Still, with just a few nods to curves and selected punches of bright color, I think you can keep your message but also enhance “the cool” that’s in the editor. I make that claim both for the site, and for the editor – some of the recent theme work does just that.

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#23

Seriously, hire a pro designer and let them do the job it will have a much greater impact for the launch!

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#24

I think u could ask for someone in this forum to do that for nearly nothing(maybe a free license…)

now my personal consideration from an insider…

  1. The home page is the most important part of a site. I think that u should fill it with a list of major functionalities and highlights
  2. Use all the incredible reviews and opinins from the guru of this sector…like jeffrey way from nettuts who uses ST for all of his tutorials
  3. image and slideshow/videos are attractive but what makes sites it’s the content, so add every written content u think it’s important for this awesome editor
  4. make more visible the references (actually i don’t know either how much they are and how to properly use it) this will increase users but mostly developers to develop new and awesome theme/ scheme/ plugin
  5. abuot design only I suggest to make a site builded on a full width structure with grids. this little tricks it’s a simple but great step forward for all sites that wants to take part of the so called web 2.0

just side notes about else
community and consequently ST users love developers that aren’t nearly invisible…try to update more often the blog, let it be a great hub between users and you. don’t forget about twitter
advertising in this positive way will make this community bigger and bigger with major obvius income for you XD

ok my 2 cents of u want more advices/ moral support XD just ask

Fed03

EDIT: just remebered…find an incredible logo(ok i don’t like this one but it’s my opinion) and build the site around it. every company, every serius software has a strong logo that immediatly remember about the subject. make it visible but inobtrusive. I assure u that the visual impact wil be better than what u may think^

P.S. sry for my bad eng^

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#25

Or make it a competition :smile:

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#26

Something I was working on last night:

The header text should be darker, with the word Sublime lightened and the static image should be a video; similar to your current preview. Meh. Just a quick mockup.

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#27

I’m just gonna be blunt and say it out loud: It looks like a website that was made by a developer or by an open source community.

Given that most (if not all) of us are programmers, not designers, including yourself. I would highly recommend hiring a professional design/marketing studio to handle the marketing side of your product. It has already gathered quite an attention among the “hackers” community and, not knowing any of the financials, I am pretty sure 100+ people already bought a license for the program.

However, there is still a huge market of “other people” who don’t read forums and/or HN who would be interested in this application. Having a slick website on top of a slick editor to promote to news sites and/or aggregators will surely help reaching this audience.

So given that statistic, plus the fantastic features of Sublime, I think it would be well worth the investment.

Look at these application sites for example:

macrabbit.com/espresso/
macpaw.com/gemini
panic.com/coda/
versionsapp.com/
marketcircle.com/billings/
pixelmator.com/
realmacsoftware.com/courier/
silverbackapp.com/
alfredapp.com/

Now granted, one thing these all have in common: they are websites for Mac applications, but that has been a common theme in the past several years anyway, promotion and design of Mac apps has always set the bar for other platforms. But I see no reason why a cross-platform application as yours can’t have the same slick website as well.

Again, it’s gonna cost you, but if you do the math, there is a good chance the costs will pay themselves back, if not in direct sales from the marketing then at least in indirect sales from the time you buy yourself to build more awesome features for the editor.

Oh and while you’re at it, please change the final name of the application, “Sublime Text 2” just doesn’t sit right with me

But in the end, it’s your application, you decide what to do, and whatever website you use and whatever name the application has, I already bought my license anyway, and will buy it again whatever way I can (Mac App Store?).

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#28

Thanks everyone for the insightful comments.

As several of you have noted, visually it’s simply a refresh of the current page. My intention was to get a full redesign for the 2.0 launch, and I was pursuing that for some time, but it wasn’t going in a direction I was happy with. I’m not willing to delay 2.0 any longer than required, so a full redesign will have to wait till after 2.0.

I’ll work on expanding the content on the page.

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#29

Whilst I respect that it’s your final decision, I believe that you’re making a mistake here. You want to promote the product in the best way possible.

I’m sure that all of us and more within this topic have evangelised ST2, it’s simply not going to be enough of spread for your product. Sublime is amazing, the website doesn’t even remotely reflect that.

Again, I truly respect you and your product, but I feel like you’re making a mistake.

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#30

Couldn’t say it better myself.

I was turned off by Sublime for a long time because it has all the markings of a typical cross-platform product. Of course I know better now and fundamentally the product is fantastic, but I only came to that realization after exhausting all other options.

The brand itself (website, UI, etc.) needs some visual love from a professional.

(PS: The ST2 abbreviation everyone uses is one indication that the name is too long :smiley: )

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#31

I agree that a series of screencasts would be better, including voiceover explaining what you’re doing and why and visual indications of what important keys are being pressed.

Failing a screencast, I think it would be good to have on-screen text “balloons” that explain what functionality is being demonstrated as it occurs, in addition to the keystroke visual feedback.

I also noticed that the titlebar in the current animations is ‘Sublime Text 2’; I’m guessing you’ll be dropping the ‘2’ before release, and if so the visuals should reflect that as well.

Regarding the general look and arrangement of the page, IMHO it would be money well spent to pay a web design firm to put together an attractive one-page design for you. As with the new ST2 icon, you’re almost certain to get a superior result with professional help versus rolling your own. A better looking and appropriately informing page will drive sales.

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#32

looks like good.

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#33
  1. I’m unaware of your financials as well but I’d seriously consider either hiring an outside firm to do this, or opening a contest for a new design. The contest costs nothing and you may get some good results. Both efforts require very little of your time.

I’d rather you hack on Sublime than design a website. :mrgreen:

  1. Sublime sells itself, so I’d highlight the top 5 unique features of Sublime, Package Manager and maybe the top 5 packages and make a big download button… that should be enough to whet peoples appetite. Once they download it and try it they should be hooked.

I could definitely see a bigger audience than just coders. I write **everything ** in Sublime these days: code, blog posts, email, proposals, etc.

Jim

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#34

[quote=“thecrumb”]…]opening a contest for a new design. The contest costs nothing and you may get some good results. Both efforts require very little of your time.

I’d rather you hack on Sublime than design a website. :mrgreen:
Jim[/quote]

Great idea, I would love to participate!

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