I’d like some feedback on the website - should it say “Download” or “Get Started”?
https://github.com/opensearch-project/project-website/issues/383
I would rather have two links, one providing explicit download links and another “Getting Started” link providing quick tutorials. These tutorials may include running OpenSearch/Dashboards from tar and docker in addition to developers getting started guide.
For me, it is would be confusing not to have an explicit download link.
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Good feedback. Are you troubled at all by most of the download page not actually having downloads (like instructions for Docker or FreeBSD)?
It is just that it took me sometime to get to the downloadable tars. I was expecting Downloads section similar to opendistro. Getting Started seems to me like a section for first timers. But those who are already familiar with OpenSearch would usually jump directly to Downloads, docs or events but not getting started.
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OK folks - we have discussions spread out over issues and forum posts, so I’m going to centralize here:
Three suggestions have been converted into PRs:
@peternied created #409 and it looks like this:
Based off of the suggestion of @JulesGraybill I created #439:
Based off of #383, I took @bbarani84 's literal suggestion and created #439:
Seeing them all in situ - any additional thoughts since there was no clear consensus previously (besides "change it’)?
For the middle one (#439) are both the button and the page header supposed to say “Get OpenSearch”?
It was intentional for it to say “Download” on the index page button. Most folks wanted some button to say “Download” as that’s what their eye searched for.
It’s easy enough for it to be purely “Get OpenSearch” in all locations though.
For me that big button on the homepage is a ‘call to action’ where someone would ask the question “What do I do now?” that button would answer the question with “Get Started”!
I think this is great, but its missing a core bit of context, “Get Started” and
…Make a feature request
…Learn how to make a contribution
…Read super detailed documentation
…Download the latest distribution
Even though its wordy, “Download OpenSearch to Get Started” sets the expectation of what will happen next.
I don’t disagree that the homepage buttons are calls-to-action, the issue I’ve seen with the “Get Started” language is that it isn’t what folks visually scan for - they’re scanning for a simple “Download.”
I think this is great, but its missing a core bit of context, “Get Started” and
…Make a feature request
…Learn how to make a contribution
…Read super detailed documentation
…Download the latest distribution
Could this be overloading the purpose of that page? One of the challenges with the OpenSearch project is that it’s quite comprehensive so even getting the components is a challenge. Adding contribution documentation, making feature requests, etc seems like it would make what should be a simple task that is already hard even harder.
When I look at the page I am trying to download some of our software and a button marked download exactly matches this expectation. I think that link could be in the header as easily as that button. For website users that are not sure what OpenSearch has to offer I think more explanation might be useful.
What about something like “Download and Get Started” the text length will be similar to the button below
OK - so I think what you’re after is slightly different from what others are requesting then.
It seems like “Download” is the plain-language well understood term here. IMO it’s going to be clearest to just use that throughout.
I understand that some of the content of this page is instructions for how to download OpenSearch rather than direct links, but I honestly don’t think that’s a big concern. Fundamentally everything on the page is about how to transfer OpenSearch bits from some repository onto a user machine.
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No picture. I just meant here putting "Download and get started:
Note; I can live with any of these options. When is it decided?
OK - so good point. If there ever was a capability to not have to transfer bits to yours (or some) machine to run OpenSearch, would that belong on the same page? Say, like a, live demo.
I beginning to think that /download.html (currently “Get Started”) is overloaded based on these discussions. Move any instructions off of the /download.html page and create a new page for getting started that provides richer instructions.
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I think the ‘quick start for first-time users’ content currently at the top of download.html is a good fit for that page. Somebody approaching the project for the first time would probably be happy to see that. If quickstart content started to expand into multiple options or a detailed step-by-step tutorial, I could see that leading off to a separate page.
That makes sense. One of the challenges with OpenSearch is that it’s so expansive and I’ve gotten the feedback that the expansiveness is overwhelming on the downloads page (analysis paralysis). I want to be very judicious with the downloads page - it’s a monster!
I’ll be curious to understand the click through numbers for downloads page vs a get started page with similar content.
Not sure if we have a decision yet, anything that I can do to help?