GNOME rolled out a huge revamp to its official website today, and I have to say: it’s a solid improvement over the old one.
The official GNOME website has an important role, serving as both showcase and springboard for those looking to learn more about the desktop environment, the app ecosystem, developer documentation, or how to get involved and support the project.
Arranging, presenting, and meeting all of those needs on a single landing page—and doing it in an engaging, encouraging way?
Difficult to pull off—but GNOME has.
The new design looks flashy and modern. It’s more spacious and vibrant, has a simplified header, makes use of typography to greater effect, features a simple yet effective animation, and more.
Lots of colourful, quirky illustrations and callouts will help catch the attention of those new to GNOME as a desktop, as will the pods highlighting Core and Circle apps and Flathub.
Development docs and design guidelines get their own dedicated sections with the relevant links, and there’s a section showcasing a list of supporting organisations (including Canonical) to emphasis the key role GNOME plays in the wider Linux landscape.
To me, the new homepage conveys GNOME’s dynamic, user-focused personality better than the (comparatively bland) preceding one.
It’s not a case of style over substance, though. The new website strikes the optimum balance between style and substance.
Though this does sound a little woo-woo (especially since I’m talking about a website redesign), I find the new design is upbeat, positive, and engaging—fostering an emotional connection between user and project is important given open-source is people.
If you fancy checking out the effort first hand (and possibly learning a bit more about GNOME in the process) yeet yourself over to the new homepage.
• Visit the GNOME website