[Strategic] OSM front page discussion and user survey results (with pictures)

[Tom Hughes]

On 29/04/11 09:56, Eugene Usvitsky wrote:

> What should be added:
> * ruler

How is this different from a scale bar?

> * scale bar

I've always said I'll add this as soon as there is one which works properly.

> * Facebook's "Like" and Twitter's "Tweet" button (perhaps, some more
> local through AddThis.com service)

Hmm....

> * "Report an error" link to OpenStreetBugs

Once again, as soon as there is a properly integrated system running on 
OSMF hardware I will be delighted to add this. I've been trying to 
encourage somebody to do that for about three years now.

> * 3d buildings

Not in the default rendering please, which means this is a significant 
resource issue because it means an extra set of tiles.

> * mobile version at m.osm.org

I'm not bothered either way on this, but we do already have a mobile 
optimised site that is triggered automatically without having a special 
site name. Sure it needs more work, and being able to manually trigger 
it for difficult devices might be nice but it is already partly done.

> What should be changed:
> * search (to become more adequate)

What does that mean exactly?

> * main map style

Well that is an ongoing work and is a separate issue to the site design.

> * OpenLayers controls

That comes under the general heading of making things pretty which I 
certainly have no problem with - that kind of arty stuff is most 
definitely something where I need help though ;-)

> In an effort to visualise these ideas I've created several mockup
> pictures. They are shown on wiki page
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap.org

That is just yet another "make the current site a bit prettier" type of 
effort. What I would like to see is radical thought about overall design 
issues.

To my mind that is where (if anywhere) the role of strategic comes in, 
not in the minutiae of page design which is clearly not a strategic 
decision...

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://compton.nu/