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

[Dalibor Topic]

Hi Suren,

that sounds like a major rewrite you'd like to embark on. If so, it will 
probably not really end up being as useful as it seems, since the 
primary audience of the OpenJDK website are developers already working 
on or looking to work on OpenJDK, rather than the Java ecosystem in general.

The current website mostly represents the existing structure of the 
OpenJDK Community, its Groups and Projects, which then via their pages 
typically lead to the OpenJDK Wiki for the latest content for the 
specific domain. That structure doesn't really change much over time, so 
the website doesn't really need to change much either: most of the day 
to day content changes happen on the individual Project and Group wikis.

There are specific Oracle web sites catering to more general Java 
developer audiences, such as https://dev.java/ for Java developers, 
https://jdk.java.net/ for production and Early-Access OpenJDK Builds 
from Oracle, https://inside.java/ for news and community content, and so on.

Community contributions happen through the OpenJDK GitHub organization, 
which can be found here: https://github.com/openjdk/ . I'm not sure how 
much that site should be looking differently from what it is right now.

I think most likely to be successful path towards modernizing the web 
site would be to pick up as dedicated and as small as possible specific 
items that may need improvement, and to then discuss those here, one by one.

That would be a very different approach from a redesign, though, and may 
not be nearly as much fun. And given that most of us build JVMs rather 
than web sites, it may realistically speaking also take a lot longer to 
give web site improvements the amount of attention required to implement 
them in the face of other competing priorities that have a much larger 
impact for the Java development experience.

cheers,
dalibor topic


On 26/02/2025 19:09, Suren Konathala wrote:
> 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.java.com/en/> , https://www.oracle.com/ 
> java/technologies/ <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/ <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://www.python.org/>
> - https://go.dev/ <https://go.dev/>
> - https://www.php.net/ <https://www.php.net/>
> - https://wordpress.org/ <https://wordpress.org/>
> - https://rubyonrails.org/ <https://rubyonrails.org/>
> - https://www.typescriptlang.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 <mailto: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/ <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 <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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