Increasing Recruitment Via krita.org
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Mock History

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Mock Description

I heard that Krita is looking to increase recruitment - especially for translators. I've created this mock to explore the idea of prominently featuring Krita's contribution opportunities so that more visitors may be aware of them.

For this particular mock, I aimed to utilize visuals (inline with Krita's status as a painting program) and highlight specific activities visitors could contribute to (that might appeal to their interests).

Note; The Konqi images are fillers that could be replaced by Krita's kiki or illustrations made in the program.

gernene created Increasing Recruitment Via krita.org.Apr 15 2019, 1:46 PM
gernene added a project: Krita.

@gernene good ideas

It would be nice to have some CTA (call to action) for people to take the next step on the homepage. Maybe a button or link that would take them to the fuller get involved page. I don't know if we have enough content that each section should get their own page though. Right now the areas don't look like they are clickable..but just some information.

Along with this, we also might want to think about updating our Get Involved overview page (https://krita.org/en/get-involved/overview/). This is where people would go right now if they want to help. We should just make sure they are consistent and not too redundant. Maybe the overview page would be just like the homepage, but go into more detail.

Maybe there is some way we can also condense the sections a bit for the non-developers and overview section instead of having them on two different pages.

We also have a "Contributor's manual" that has a lot of information. We need to do some thinking about how all that content fits in with the current Get Involved page. Maybe all the stuff on krita.org needs to live on docs.krita.org (https://docs.krita.org/en/contributors_manual.html). I don't think we want to have a lot of duplicate content between the two (more maitenance).

@scottpetrovic
Hi! Going to try to address/make suggestions for a couple of points:

1: Lack of a clear CTA
I think we might be able to remedy this a little by adding a bit of link-looking text to the sections that say something along the lines of "Start Contributing" - maybe even with arrows/pointers for extra effect.
We can also try giving the links box shadows to make them look like clickable buttons.
We can add a more standard-looking blue button above/below the boxes that directs people to the overview page.

2: Making each section a separate page
If the sections have html/css ids, we could consider linking to say krita.org/en/get-involved/nondevelopers#translators instead of something like krita.org/en/get-involved/translators. This would let keep the sections as they are but direct visitors to separate subsections as necessary.

If we do end up reworking the overview page/moving information to the contributor's menu, we'd have to adjust linking a bit. Duplicate content is definitely a concern - What do you think about linking directly to the manual from both home and overview page?

@gernene

  1. Good ideas. See if you can come up with how something might look.
  2. Good idea with the internal anchors going to the correct section on one of the pages.

With all the content currently on the docs site, we might want to think about modifying those and sending everything to that.I will have to spend some time looking at it and see what might work.

We don't really have a good landing page on the docs site that gives people direction on where to go. This is the best I could find (https://docs.krita.org/en/contributors_manual.html). This page doesn't give much guidance though if someone just wants to be a translators...or just wants to help out with marketing. Maybe we can modify this page so it is closer to what your designs look like to point people in the right direction.

We could just send everyone there then

@gernene - that looks better with the call to action stuff.

The more I am looking at the docs.krita.org contributor manual, the more I am thinking we need to make the main "Get Involved" link on krita.org go to the docs site. That has so much of the same info that krita.org has.

I guess if we did that, we need to figure out what content needs to be moved over to docs.krita.org and how to organize it.

I am not sure if @woltherav has any ideas on this.

We probably need to come up with some new content to help direct people for these sections. I will spend a bit of time and come up with new content. For example....

New translators currently hit this page for instructions ... https://krita.org/en/get-involved/artists/

It gives a link to translate the application (https://l10n.kde.org/). The description could be a bit more descriptive about why they are leaving krita.org and going to kde.org. Someone starting out probably has no idea what KDE is, so we probably need to clarify that and how the teams and workflows work. Other areas could use a bit of work as well to help direct people.

My high level page changes right now is to condense these pages
https://krita.org/en/get-involved/overview/
https://krita.org/en/get-involved/artists/
(tiny bit of this page) https://krita.org/en/get-involved/developers/

and move the resulting contribution overview page to here
https://docs.krita.org/en/contributors_manual.html

We would then link "Get Involved" on krita.org to the https://docs.krita.org/en/contributors_manual.html where people can be directed which direction they want to go.

From there, we have a few other sections on krita.org we will have to shift to the docs page and clean up.
https://krita.org/en/get-involved/developers/
https://krita.org/en/get-involved/suggestions/
https://krita.org/en/get-involved/report-a-bug/
Maybe remove some duplicate content that we already talk about on the docs site.

The stuff @gernene is working on for the homepage can either link to the docs.krita.org overview page...or directly to the deeper docs.krita.org sections if they want to help out with something like coding.

That is the direction I would like to see.

I still do not have the brainpower to comment, but I did notice scribus is doing a similar thing: http://impagina.org/contribute which might be interesting to check out :)

@woltherav - wow. that looks pretty cool. I like the mention on the bottom that donating is also a way to contribute.

It will be kind of similar to that...but I think our version will have a bit more text and instructions for each area. All the links on that Scribus page go to the exact same URL...which is kind of makes that page a bit redundant.

I can post a wireframe with what I am thinking when I get more time to write up some content.

More contribution pages I am coming across:

http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/contribute.html

inkscape also has a contribute section, but the main page of that gives a 502 error :)

@woltherav - thanks. That is kind of similar to what I was thinking. I just came up with this in terms of a condensed page.

After spending time thinking about it, I am not sure if this page would be better on krita.org or docs.krita.org. This page isn't really the "contributor manual", so I am not sure if putting this as the landing page is best. Maybe it doesn't matter though. The one good thing about putting it on docs.krita.org is that it will be easier and more streamlined to translate. I am open to suggestions though.

@scottpetrovic I was thinking about this a little. Does Krita have analytics data on how often visitors go to the contribute page via navigation bar or the homepage CTA? I also wonder if they'd have an easier time finding what they're looking for (maybe donation info) on krita.org or docs.

Yes, we have anlalytics for krita.org and docs.krita.org.

I think most people start out on krita.org, so I think we want to make the flow easiest for people that are interested in contributing. The navigation bar is at the top of krita.org where everyone starts, so we get way more people going to the get involved section on krita.org then directly to the contributor's manual docs page. There is always some fall off for people the more pages you add to a process.

I haven't heard of any issues with people finding an option to donate, so I don't know if that is a big issue.

I think the question is whether we want the "Get Involved" link on krita.org going to a page in krita.org, or going to a page on docs.krita.org.

@scottpetrovic How about people who go from the docs or the current contribute page to elsewhere in the manual or krita.org?

@gernene I am not sure what you proposing we do. I know this is the current flow people use to learn more...

  1. go to Get involved page on krita.org
  2. potentially click non-developer or developer links to see more instructions
  3. potentially click a link that leads them to the contributor page. They might also just contact us directly if there are no instructions for their area.

Few people just land directly on docs.krita.org without going through krita.org

gernene added a comment.EditedApr 17 2019, 8:16 PM

@scottpetrovic Sorry I wasn't very clear. I probably should have phrased the question like this:
Is the current goal directing people to "Get Involved"/docs by modifiying krita.org's home page or creating a main contribute page and directing users to specific sections from there?

@scottpetrovic Hello. I would like to help you with that awesome idea :)
I'm a 2d artist and designer(I have experience with Figma for some web/app design)

@gernene - I think this project started out with adding a section to the homepage to attract new contributors which you are doing.

I started looking through the Contributor manual and the get involved page to figure out where people should go when they click your links on the homepage.

I guess that is when I noticed that we need to clean up the Get involved page on krita.org to help direct people. That is what my wireframe designs was trying to address.

@leksireppo - hey! I am not sure how you would like to help with Krita. Do you want to help with something specifically with this task, or is there something else you think needs updating?

@scottpetrovic

Thanks for clarifying. I was a bit confused as to what was going where. In that case, I can start coding the actual homepage section while you hash out the rest of the pages. Would that be ideal?

@scottpetrovic I want to help with this task :)

@gernene -- sure. you could start coming up with some code for it. This site uses bootstrap for the responsive stuff, so just keep that in mind.

@leksireppo -- Maybe you could read over the the content and plan we have so far and let us know if anything is unclear or needs updating. Have you used Krita for very long? How familiar are you with how to use it?

@scottpetrovic i have used Krita for 1 year. Every day around 6 hours :)
my artworks you can check here: artstation.com/releksi or re-l-art.deviantart.com
Where i can read the plan?

@scottpetrovic Plan looks good. I think that'll be the best way for us to make a cards for each item.

While working on plans for QA and looking into the contributor’s manual I arrived at an idea which relates to this effort, maybe from a bit different angle.

The list of roles on the get involved page is a really high level general overview, which might work for people with greater experience with software development, but for many others it is too vague to get an idea about what those areas encompass and how they might fit in (as I have sometimes seen on the IRC). The contributor’s manual then jumps straight into compiling Krita.

I suggest a different format, to brigde the gap between this high-level role overview and more technical processes in the contributor’s manual, and also to showcase the diversity of our activities and give more specific options for potential contributors. It does not necessarily need to be on the get involved page, it might be a better fit for the contributor's manual, community section. There is already a description of the core team, so this information could naturally follow.

We could present our activities grouped into teams/interest groups/pick the right term (e.g. development, UX/HIG, manual, QA, PR, translators). These groups would have

  • a short goal or mission
  • some description of what they do to achieve it
  • easy way to get started for beginners; areas that have currently top priority and/or are in highest need of help; waypoints deeper into the manual
  • maybe some people associated with the group, to give it a human face

@amedonosova - I did make this wireframe that is buried in the different comments above... https://phabricator.kde.org/F6778019

It is kind of along the same ideas that you are thinking. I think bridging the gap a bit more is a good idea. Maybe take a look at what I have and see if you have ideas. Photos are a good idea, but I am not sure if everyone would be comfortable with that (maybe we just need to ask).

Since we began this ticket, I have been working with @woltherav and she helped move some of the programmer information stuff from krita.org to the manual with developer sections. I have also condensed the getting involved page a bit so it is closer to what my proposal is (but stills needs work). https://krita.org/en/get-involved/overview/

I am not sure if we need to move the "suggestions" section into this as well

@scottpetrovic I made some tweaks to the design to use more Bootstrap styling. Any thoughts? Also, is there a preferred way for me to send the code over?

@leksireppo Would you like to provide Kiki illustrations for the cards? (see newest mockup images)

@scottpetrovic I think both your approach and mine are compatible. I suggest having two separate sections, for now let’s call them “Help most needed” and “Special interest groups”.

In the first one, “Help most needed”, we would promote areas that are in extra need of help, or maybe some easy ways, like sharing artwork and donating. The format you suggest in your wireframe would be great for that.

In “Special interest groups” we would introduce our activities and people and invite potential contributors to get deeper into those areas. I propose following groups:

  • User experience - website, UI, feature design
  • Development - programming new features, fixing bugs
  • Quality assurance - bug triaging, testing
  • Education - user manual, tutorials, videos, resources, …
  • Promotion - PR, managing social networks, conventions and conferences

As for the photos you mention, I did not mean the 'human face' literarly, although I agree that having pictures would be an effective way to establish rapport :)

I like the idea of two big sections "Help wanted" and "Special interest groups", as this diminish the biggest first problem for contributing: the how and the can I do it? placing easy "tasks" for beginners and deeper specifyc task in another area.

Human faces would be weird as it wuld put a face on the krita team. It would look more corporate :p

btw: Have you seen the get involved and develop pages on kde.org. For a massive project I feel it is very straight forward, and also follows the idea of the two big sections. "Get involved" (help around the program as a user/designer/translator/tester/etc) and "Develop" to work on the internals of the program.

I feel like this ticket is getting a bit confusing with the different things people are wanting to do. For this ticket, maybe let's just focus on two things.

  1. Add a homepage section for getting involved that @gernene is working on
  2. Condense and update the get involved page to give better guidance on what to do and where to go next. (https://krita.org/en/get-involved/overview/). I can update this content to appear more like my wireframe.

After we do that and close this ticket, we can discuss other issues with the site that people are experiencing.

@gernene - if it is just HTML, you could probably put it in a text file and upload the text file. I think you can just drag it on the area as you are writing and it should upload it.

scottpetrovic added a comment.EditedApr 30 2019, 3:29 PM

I just updated the text on the "Get Involved" page to give better direction for people.

https://krita.org/en/get-involved/overview/

let me know if any of the content needs to be updated.


@scottpetrovic Sorry this took so long! I've been a little swamped. Here's all the code!

@gernene - I was about to start adding it, then was thinking about what to do with the volunteer section we already have on the homepage - "Get Involved" section. I like what you have better, but if we remove the existing thing the page might look a bit unbalanced. Do you have any ideas on how this homepage could be organized?

@scottpetrovic Hello! I thought this over a bit. Do you have an idea of what items have the highest priority and whether or not we can change the size of the "modules"?

@gernene - I think we probably need to give more space to each module - so feel free to change things. I think we at least want the news to be "above the fold" so people can see that without scrolling. Other than that, the other sections are interesting things that people may, or may not, care about.

The sections might be a bit too condensed in the current format. Think outside the box and see what you can come up with!

@woltherav - interesting article. Were there any take-aways that you think we can update. Maybe some copy changes or something on the get involved page now that it is re-written a bit?

@scottpetrovic

Sorry this took a while - I've been wrapping up a lot of stuff with school. I was thinking about something like this for the home page. Another tweak we could make would be actually listing some of Krita's features while providing a link to see more (rather than just providing a list to the features page).

@gernene - that is quite alright with the time. I think we all get busy.

I think I like your idea with separating out the top area more. Maybe the "features" area actually gets its own section and lists a few features... with a link at the bottom of the section to go to the normal features page.

We probably could even do the same thing with the "free tutorials and resources" section, highlighting some areas and things to learn. Check out the post-download page. Maybe we could even just re-use some of that stuff on here.

@scottpetrovic

I took a look at that page and I do agree that we might want to give pretty much everything its own section. After all, a lot of the links to the main pages are available on the top nav bar, so adding just another link on the main page seems a bit redundant.

That being said, would we want to provide a little more elaboration on the links listed on the post-download page? For example, Getting Started and Basic Concepts sound very similar in nature (also Tutorials and User Manual). Thoughts?

@gernene - maybe for those ambiguous links, we could be more concrete with something like "Getting Started from Photoshop", or "Navigating around the application"