Amahi portal

[salocinbake]

I found the image on the portal misleading and might scare people off, this great home server.

http://www.amahi.org/

A page full of code is not the most user frendly, and there is a better way to display
the power and amazing feature of Amahi.

I could not come up with and image that would represent Amahi better, anyone have a suggestion?

Been using Amahi for over 4 months now, it's great and getting better!!

Thanks to the team,

Salo

[cpg]

I found the image on the portal misleading and might scare people off, this great home server.

http://www.amahi.org/

A page full of code is not the most user frendly, and there is a better way to display
the power and amazing feature of Amahi.

I could not come up with and image that would represent Amahi better, anyone have a suggestion?

Been using Amahi for over 4 months now, it's great and getter better!!

Thanks to the team,

hi salo!

for the part that corresponds to me, thanks!
(for the rest of the team, most read the forums, so you know who you are being thanked )

totally agree on the image part!

should we put a symbol of a network?
what do you guys like better?

- a rendering like http://www.sbi-secureit.com/Network-sec ... y-news.jpg
- a stock picture thing like http://www.fastlane-networks.com/en/images/network.jpg http://www.miicor.com/images/network%20 ... 0Photo.JPG
- a logo (we'd have to get a real one)

heh cooliris helps a lot for this kind of thing
-

[moredruid]

I'd like both a logo and a picture. A logo is a great identifier, and the front page should have more than 1 picture...

the rendering example (to me) is too complex and looks to "busy"
both the pictures again convey a technical feeling, I'd make it look as easy as possible

my gf does DTP, I'll ask her (if she's not too busy) if she can whip up a logo

[salocinbake]

A nice shot of the Hda's dashboard, would provide future user with a glimpse of the server.

Salo.

[moredruid]

speaking of the HDA dashboard, I was thinking of creating a new theme (haven't been too productive yet though ) and creating a real dashboard with icons for the most used functions (i.e. usermanagement, share management, app management and functions (installed apps) linking to the corresponding page) instead of using the tabs. Most home server/mediacenter front ends have this and it works very well if set up properly. Also it has a nice clean look to it. You can always use a tab labeled "Advanced" and hide the debug stuff there.

The only problem I see is how to automagically add a new dashboard icon when a functionality (ie wiki, recipes, amahitunes) is installed. If we get that working that would look awesome (you can't really hardcode those icons in if the functionality isn't installed, amahi (or the dashboard) would look "broken", and we don't want that)

[cpg]

this is very cooooool.

i like the talk about themes and dashboard programmability.

we were discussing the dashboard recently. it's programmable now (in the installed apps, each one that has web access can be "shown in the dashboard" or not), we just need to make it more programmable.

themes are easy to build!
we want to make it even easier. if we could use standard templates, it would be great.

i think we will have to do this sooner or later, as we move the wiki to be an app, similar thing with the calendars, etc.

what ideas should we design for here?
(something realistic, not pie in the sky!)

[moredruid]

something like the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3/PSP interface, or the iPhone interface would look real slick. Apple's Front Row is also something I like.

in essence it's just a block with the apps centered in or around it.

these two sites will show you what I mean:
http://elisa.fluendo.com/screenshots/
http://xbmc.org/media/ (check out the mayhem galleries)

You can put a snapshot of that on the front page, people will instantly see what it looks like. If it looks polished, it'll draw them in.
If you insist you can always do a little fade from the code to the dashboard; this way you show a little tech stuff (get the nerds in) and show the polish (get the mainstream crowd in).

[gmw]

Great discussion .. from a more creative bunch than I am!

Take a look at the web site now. http://www.amahi.org

First feedback is that it is busy --- but I want to show that we are cross platform and cross device.
Need game consoles, laptops (Mac, Linux, Windows), phones (VoIP and mobile), then there are camera, smart power meters, etc.

Anyway, for those who are creative and artistic, any comments are valued.

If you are game the image is 370x385 px

[salocinbake]

It's much better now.

My guess Amahi is getting more and more popular...

Thanks.

[moredruid]

Hmpf,

I've made something as a little setup of how I would like the dashboard to look (and it could also be used as the page image to give users a preview of the product)



feedback please