Proposal: Modernizing the OpenJDK.org Website Design & User Experience
Magnus Ihse Bursie
magnus.ihse.bursie at oracle.com
Thu Mar 6 15:15:36 UTC 2025
On 2025-03-01 22:01, David Alayachew wrote:
> Sorry, meant to say line wrap and screen width. Brain had a race
> condition lol.
>
> The text line wraps at a super weird point, leaving a whole bunch of
> white space on the right, even when viewing on mobile. That could
> definitely be skinnier.
>
> Alternatively, the code blocks go careening off into that blank right
> hand white space. That's that scroll bar I was talking about.
>
> In general, it feels like the page was trying to be mobile friendly,
> but stopped halfway. Fix those 3 things, and I think that would solve
> the most egregious errors with the current design.
>
I agree; there are a few issues that could (and should) be addressed to
make the site more usable. My personal biggest gripe is the super-tiny
index at the left, where all interesting links are. It's hard do read,
and hard to find what you are looking for. And it makes like the
all-important "Developers' Guide" look like it is on the same level as
the "IRC" link, which I believe is not even functional anymore. (But I
guess nobody really even notices it in the word soup)
/Magnus
>
> On Sat, Mar 1, 2025, 3:19 PM David Alayachew
> <davidalayachew at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Making the site a little more mobile friendly would be nice. I'm
> criticizing the screen wrap behaviour, mostly. Plus, it would also
> be helpful to have code blocks that have their own, separate
> horizontal scroll bars.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 4:57 PM Dalibor Topic
> <dalibor.topic at oracle.com> wrote:
>
> 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/ <http://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
> >
>
> --
> <http://www.oracle.com> Dalibor Topic
> Consulting Product Manager
> Phone: +494089091214 <tel:+494089091214>, Mobile: +491737185961
> <tel:+491737185961>
>
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