Home Page discussion

[DonLakeFlyer]

We'll be using this Issue as the discussion area for the web site home page.

High level goals for the home page:

• Provide potential new users with enough key information at a glance to drive them to give QGC a try and/or at a minimum browse the user guide such that it may pique their interest in giving QGC a try
• Provide existing users with a launch point to the user guide
• It should be fairly thin veneer over the main content which is the user guide (and eventual developers guide)

Goals for the QGC 3.0 release:

• Highest priority goal was to increase the QGC user base
• This is done through features in QGC not previously available that prevented users from using/considering QGC
• The expectation of where those new users will come from is users of vehicle running ArduPilot firmware
• The expectation is that new users will not come from PX4 Pro firmware vehicle usage since they are a captive audience with essentially no other choice
• The key features to drive ArduPilot users to QGC are:
  • Improved usability over the ground stations they are currently using
  • Full support for configuration, mission planning and flight monitoring of ArduPilot vehicles
  • The above usability and feature set available cross platform, cross device

Given those goals, here is the common text used in App Store listings (Android, iOS, Windows coming soon) for QGroundControl 3.0. This one is specifically the Android listing:

QGroundControl provides full flight control and configuration for ArduPilot or PX4 Pro powered vehicles. The goal for QGroundControl is improved ease of use for new users as well as high end feature support for experienced users. 

QGroundControl features:
- Full configuration support for vehicles running ArduPilot and PX4 Pro firmware
- Mission planning for autonomous flight
- Flight map display showing vehicle position, flight track, waypoints and vehicle instruments
- Video streaming with instrument display overlays
- Flight support for any MAVLink capable vehicle

QGroundControl is also available for Windows, MacOS, Linux and iOS.

http://qgroundcontrol.io/
https://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol

It wording and terminology is specifically crafted to match the high level goals for QGC and the specific goals for the 3.0 release. My feeling is that the home page needs to use some form of this same wording and/or cover the same areas. The home page content and the app store listing should essentially provide the same high level info on the product.

Keep in mind that at the point about home page goals are all my opinions and are open for discussion.

[DonLakeFlyer]

Now if you look at the most important real estate on the home page as it exists today:

I see the following issues:

• The wording does not match the wording of the App Store listings which more closely matches targeting the goals of the 3.0 release. I had previously updated the home page text to use the same basic text as app store listing but that has been lost in subsequent edits.
• It uses terminology like UAV, MAV, "Micro Air Vehicle". Non if this terminology is used inside the product or the user guide itself. There is only the concept of a "Vehicle". You have to be very careful using the words "Air", "Micro" or even Unmanned since those narrow the actual scope of the vehicle types QGC can be used with. QGC is not just used with Multi-Rotors or Fixed Wing aircraft. QGC is actively being used Boats, Underwater ROVs and surface Rovers and provides support for all of those.
• Another major issue is that a top level driver of user adoption will be UI, user friendliness of that UI as well as cross platform support as stated in the QGC 3.0 goals. Yet there is no visual of the product on the entire home page. Previously there was a slide show at the top which showed visuals of QGC running across multiple OS and device types and various UI screens of the product. That was a hook to get users interested. That hook is now gone.

[DonLakeFlyer]

If you go a little further down, you see:

Issues:

• The "Vehicles" information incorrectly lists a subset of the vehicles that QGC supports. In reality QGC support any vehicle running either the PX4 Pro or ArduPilot firmware whatever that may be. I gave some examples when talking about terminology issues above.
• The "Platforms" information is missing iOS.
• The "AutoPilot" section needs to speak to ArduPilot and PX4 Pro. What is there now is all the wrong set of things and terminology.

[DonLakeFlyer]

If you go all the way to the bottom I think we should get rid of the things like twitter, vimeo and email links. There is no such thing as the mail@qgroundcontrol.org email address that is monitored by anyone. How to get Support is covered in the Support section of the user guide. I don't think twitter and/or vimeo will actually get much use given the product type. And also from a standpoint of us generating twitter and/or vimeo content we just don't have the time. So they will just lead to no good information.

[DonLakeFlyer]

Lastly all the download links need to be updated to the 3.0 release. If you go to the current download and install page of the user guide it is fully up to date with the new 3.0 release builds. So you can copy the links from there. The Linux download link should link to the download and install usage guide page since it requires additional information to run.

[DonLakeFlyer]

Lastly all the download links need to be updated to the 3.0 release.

I've updated all the links to the 3.0 release