Collaborative Working Sessions - Web site audiences

website meeting

reproducible-builds.org

TL;DR: - the homepage is fine for developers - but maybe not for other types of users/visitors (powerusers, end users, project managers, …) - doing user testing sounds valuable

Landing page

• the easier/more accesible the concept of reproducible builds is explained, the better.

• It was discussed whether the buttons “Home” “News” “Documentation” are nice enough: one view expressed that it’s fine (as you can directly get to the documentation)

• Motto: could be reworded as it should probably include the words “security” ?

• Some visuals to explain the concept maybe some diagram showing how sources (represented e.g. as a file icon with “src/” or “.c” label) are build twice (simply show two computers producing some binary output) perhaps even some video?

Categories of visitors

• developer encountering rb for the first time (e.g. because someone sent a patch)
• powerusers that hear about rb and want to learn more
• developers of upstream software looking for docs (so they can avoid common pitfalls); i.e. people who are already convinced of the value of rb
• vendors interested (and potentially fund) in rb
• project managers selling the idea of rb to directors/employees
• end users
• scientists

Do user testing (per category)

User testing would be preferable over guessing what types of users might want.

Different landing page for different users/visitors?

For technical users

the site is probably mostly fine (there are some 404 links in the docs). most often devs want to look up documentation (and a short path is preferrable)

Make the homepage more friendly to non-technical users

starting with a very (easy) introduction.

Google search terms from actual visitors

most people are searching “reproducible builds” or SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH => does not tell us very much

• reproducible builds
• rust reproducible
• SOURCE DATE EPOCH
• deterministic builds

“Contact us” section?

There is actually links in the fineprint at the bottom for the ML and “Full contact info” (which links to rb.org/who/). IRC/Matrix channels? Fediverse handles?

• Where to put it? Maybe under “Who is involved?” section of the page?
• Add “Contact us” to the sidebar?

New “Resources” section

containing Tools, Talks, …

Continuous tests should probably be renamed (?)

Feedback from “users” on the Fedora telegram channel

Q: Hi folks, a quick ask from the reproducible builds community: if you visit https://reproducible-builds.org/, without knowing what reproducible builds are, is the website useful and clear?

Asking in this chat for someone that cant pick together on their own what a reproducible build is is strange xD

To me the explanation seems thorough and clear. I believe it also depends on the knowledge level of the user, if he’s a dev or not and so on

If the website is targeted to devs then it’s okay