Finalize content for the Home Page

[abbycabs]

We'd love to see the home page better represent the Science Lab.

Looping in @zee-moz & @auremoser here help figure out what should go on our new home page!

See related #87, with UI/UX work on the home page

[auremoser]

Apologies in advance for the length of this post, I got excited. 💥

The MLab's site has a similar structure to ours, but I kind of like the video embedded as a way to introduce the science lab and what we do, maybe we could film this ourselves and include cameos from our calls to illustrate how the Science Lab is built from a distributed team, and "mobile labs" globally, without too much focus on the lab members (as in the About page).

I also like the 2-part nav, where the header has two calls to action ("Help us grow and improve" button leads to -> http://www.measurementlab.net/contribute), maybe we could put in the Training page "be a mentor" and "be a learner" content at the end of these links. And then the secondary nav has other options.

I like Contribute | Collaborate | Convene options for the header more now, like the CCC option in the nav suggestions where:

• Contribute leads to "contribution" or "training" options (study group, curriculum, calls to join)
• Collaborate leads to "collaborate" platform page
• Convene leads to events, currently on the "community" page

Sites I like:

1. http://www.measurementlab.net/ - dissected above, not advocating for the carousel at the top however, I find those distracting.
   
2. https://cartodb.com/ - mostly for the "call to action" built in to highlight blog posts at the top of the page, the "main nav" is always the most recent blog post, because the blog is hidden in sub-navs. I think that gives the site a fresh and active feel for people who only make it to the home page
   
3. https://opennews.org/ - there's a neatness to the ON site too, simple nav with human-readable headers. "who we are" "what we do" "[how to] get involved".
   
4. http://robdunnlab.com/ - nice alliterative nav - "People" "Projects" "Publications" "Press", I also like how instead of a mission statement there are keywords under the website title.
   
5. https://www.zooniverse.org/ - love how this has a nav and only one thing above the fold, a call to action button. On scroll down, you get a few animated illustrations demo'ing site contents, I like that too.
   
6. http://www.milkywayproject.org/ - a zooniverse project, simple site with some stats above the fold, and I like that, the first thing people see is a really simple set of numbers about us, our contributors, our project count, our events/calls count, and a simple "start classifying button" as a single call to action, not a few buttons splintering visitor interest.
   
7. http://sciencehackny.com/ - not to push to heavy on the retrofuturism but I also like the simplicity of this site (for an event, but still).
   

[abbycabs]

For content, here's our latest mission statement we wrote in the fall where we tried to accurately reflect our program and offerings (emphasis mine)

---

The Mozilla Science Lab works to make research collaborative, accessible, and usable. We do this by:

• Empowering the next generation of leaders through fellowships and mentorship;
• Facilitating project-based learning around open data and open source;
• And supporting and advocating for a growing community of researchers working openly.

[abbycabs]

Also, @auremoser -- I think a lot of your comments are more related to some of the other issues: #84 for IA, #87 for home page UI/UX, along with this one! Thanks for some great inspiration 😄

[auremoser]

Oh, do you want me to move them @acabunoc ? I'm sorry! I should have written some more content instead.

[zee-moz]

I like the idea of an intro video--- we really need a good way to communicate what we do and why.
Looking at the mission (thanks @acabunoc) , maybe a verb that could come into the IA would be "lead" --- that gives us a way to highlight fellows and the cohort, as well as SG leads? I think the teach/learn separation doesn't work well, as the SGs are very casual and a mix of teaching and learning for all... Slicing and dicing content here gets tricky, since SGs are communities where people learn, and Collaborate is a space for project-based learning but is also a community. etc... hm.

[hannahkane]

Great benchmarks and thoughts so far. I've copied some of the comments that are specifically related to IA over to #84, though I realize it's often hard to think about a homepage and not also think about navigation.

So, it sounds like for homepage content, so far we have the idea of a video and something that conveys the scope of the mission. Does that seem right to everyone?

[abbycabs]

@hannahkane that sounds about right to me!

However, I'm a bit worried about how we're going to produce a high quality video -- do we have time/resources to do this? I've never made a good quality video so this is very daunting to me.

[zee-moz]

Kaitlin and I have been talking about generating some A/V for the web and
for our materials. I'm looking into options and costs so will know more
soon.

Z

On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 10:47 AM, Abigail Cabunoc Mayes <
notifications@github.com> wrote:

@hannahkane https://github.com/hannahkane that sounds about right to me!

However, I'm a bit worried about how we're going to produce a high quality
video -- do we have time/resources to do this? I've never made a good
quality video so this is very daunting to me.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#86 (comment).

[abbycabs]

Sent out meeting invite to @mozillascience/msl-staff to plan home page content on Monday

[hannahkane]

Great. Let us know how it goes, or if you'd like for a designer to attend. I'd also be happy to attend.

[abbycabs]

Thanks @hannahkane! I added you, @my-le & @kristinashu as optional in the invite :)

[abbycabs]

Notes from today's meeting: https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/sciencelab-homepage-content

[hannahkane]

Next steps: @kaythaney, @hannahkane and @kristinashu to come up with specific copy/content suggestions by Friday. Others are welcome to as well! :)

[hannahkane]

Started a brainstorming document, experimenting with different "flavors" of writing styles. @kaythaney @zee-moz @stephwright @auremoser @acabunoc @kristinashu - feel free to comment / add stuff

[hannahkane]

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Going to roll this into the next heartbeat to give us more time to brainstorm. @kaythaney - will you be the ultimate decider on final copy?

[kaythaney]

yep - put me down for that one. :)

On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 3:12 PM, hannahkane notifications@github.com
wrote:

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Going to roll this into the next
heartbeat to give us more time to brainstorm. @kaythaney
https://github.com/kaythaney - will you be the ultimate decider on
final copy?

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#86 (comment).

@kaythaney http://twitter.com/kaythaney/
@mozillascience http://twitter.com/mozillascience

[hannahkane]

I re-organized the doc a bit and added a Table of Contents so we can easily see the different pieces of content we need to finalize. Also added a few questions for the group.

Would be great if people could go in one more time to add more ideas and opinions. Don't be afraid to say what you don't like; nixing things is really helpful at this point (I'm using strikethrough to cross off lines that ppl don't like so far).

The plan we discussed at the kickoff meeting today:

• MSL staff will articulate more opinions so we can narrow down our options
• HK to check in with Comms team to see when they'd like to be involved
• Once we've narrowed down the options to several that we think are workable, let's take this to the Fellows!
• Can consider broader user input at that point (perhaps depending on timeline)

[cassiemc]

As discussed at today's stand I will review this from a design perspective, @hannahkane and I can clean up and remove some of the noise, @kaythaney will work on some of the longer/more descriptive copy and then put a final stamp of approval.

[cassiemc]

We've done some cleanup in the doc but I think the finalization or near-finalization of home page content should wait for the IA results, which we should hear back on soon. Then we can use the content doc to help reinforce those themes and decisions.

[kaythaney]

thanks, cassie. i also added some "open science" primer language, that i'd
love your thoughts on.

On Thu, Mar 3, 2016 at 5:53 PM, Cassie McDaniel notifications@github.com
wrote:

We've done some cleanup in the doc but I think the finalization or
near-finalization of home page content should wait for the IA results,
which we should hear back on soon. Then we can use the content doc to help
reinforce those themes and decisions.

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#86 (comment).

@kaythaney http://twitter.com/kaythaney/
@mozillascience http://twitter.com/mozillascience

[hannahkane]

Thanks to @cassiemc and @kaythaney for the updates. If you check out the doc now, you'll see a final suggestion for the homepage content. It includes: a tagline, a short section for "About MSL," a short blurb on "What is Open Science?," and very brief descriptions of our programmatic offerings.

Would love final copy edits from @kaythaney.

My only concern here is that it's a lot of content for the homepage. @kristinashu—can you take a look and advise on whether it needs to be cut down further?

[kristinashu]

The amount of copy looks good to me.

[kaythaney]

Thumbs up on this end. Thanks, all!

On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 4:20 PM, Kristina notifications@github.com wrote:

The amount of copy looks good to me.

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#86 (comment).

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@mozillascience http://twitter.com/mozillascience

[hannahkane]

Sweet. I'm going to close this ticket! Thanks, everyone!