Proposal: Modernizing the OpenJDK.org Website Design & User Experience

[Suren Konathala]

Thanks Magnus.This really helps.

Sure, I can give it a try and it will be a privilege. I have been
developing & managing websites for over 15 years and this would be a great
experience. The only challenge is to get a consensus on the website design
but we can start somewhere. And will also document my ideas and findings.

Here's a few to start with:
1. User experience: I would like to see more community engagement &
contributions to OpenJDK projects. I was not looking for any fancy, but a
basic upgrade on the website design to make it responsive, adaptable to the
latest devices and some standard screen resolutions.

2. Usage: A few major themes I see for the website are : Core OpenJDK,
Documentation, Community. And add a few more.

3. Audience: Identifying the target audience may be a challenge, but if the
team has some analytics on the website usage we can derive some results.
Else , we can start gathering some with the new design. guessing some
common groups that may be interested on the site.
For eg:
- Java is still the widely used programming language in high schools,
universities and educational institutions.
- Code contributors
- Developers looking to download and read more
- Other community users

4. Alternative options: Although Oracle's other Java sites
https://www.java.com/en/ , https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/ maybe
more engaging. But OpenJDK being it's own entity, it's better to also have
this site updated.

5. Competition: Microsoft has something similar and does a good job on
their .NET & other related open source at
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/ ,
and looking at a few other popular open source software (there's so many
more):
- https://www.python.org/
- https://go.dev/
- https://www.php.net/
- https://wordpress.org/
- https://rubyonrails.org/
- https://www.typescriptlang.org/

I will keep the group posted.

Thanks
Suren

On Wed, Feb 26, 2025 at 9:55 AM Magnus Ihse Bursie <
magnus.ihse.bursie at oracle.com> wrote:

> Why don't you create a mockup of how you think the site should look
> like? I agree that the design feels dated, but I'm not sure how it
> should be changed to be better and more helpful to the intended
> audience, and not just prettier and more modern looking.
>
> I'm not sure what other answer you were expecting. It's not that the
> OpenJDK community has a lot of web designers hanging around and
> willfully ignoring the website, just because nobody has pointed out that
> the design might be lacking...
>
> Instead, my suggestion is that you design some sketch of what you are
> thinking about, send out a link to that, and perhaps give some
> rationales or arguments for why this should be more functional than the
> current site. That could then be a more constructive ground for further
> discussion in the community.
>
> /Magnus
>
>
> On 2025-02-21 18:43, Suren Konathala wrote:
> > Dear Web Group,
> >
> > I'm writing to propose a redesign of the OpenJDK website
> > (https://openjdk.org/) to enhance its design and user experience. This
> > is a follow-up to my previous thread from May 2020
> > (https://mail.openjdk.org/pipermail/web-discuss/2020-May/thread.html)
> >
> > The current OpenJDK website's design appears outdated, resembling a
> > site from decades past. A modern and intuitive website is crucial for
> > a project of OpenJDK's significance, improving navigation, visual
> > appeal, mobile optimization, and overall user experience. This will
> > ensure key resources are easily accessible, the site is engaging and
> > professional, and it functions seamlessly across devices.
> >
> > I'm eager to contribute to this effort and collaborate with the
> > community to create a website that effectively serves the OpenJDK
> > project.  Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Suren Konathala
>
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