I have taken a look at our current copy to improve it. Made an audit of other website with similar missions as ours (POC21, Ellen Macarthur, Circle-economy, Open Source Ecology…) and have tried to distill their essence to make ours much clearer and compelling.
So I have revised the headline and overall copy of our site to make it more desirable, succint and memorable
this is great Jaime! I have a couple of small changes that I would suggest (eg ‘the new normal’ was very much part of POC21’s communication, so I would rather not use it) but overall I like it. I’ll have some time today to go into more detail.
Even if we do not have yet a code of conduct, I will refrain from making it explicit where I would tell Trump to put his money, but you can imagine…
We have a list of targeted sponsors, which we believe share our principles, this is one way to keep unwanted sponsors away. If we get an unsolicited offer for sponsorship that we do not like, we’ll just not answer or decline. In fact, we do have to be careful where the money is coming from.
Sam suggested a shadowed structure on the edges. I was not sure about it at first, added it but when I was working with it a while I got tired of it very quickly even started to dislike it and I am convinced the clean version is much better. But what do you think:
###arguments
I don’t like about the shadow thing that it triggers (in me) a paperwork/DIY/church window association. Like the OSCEdays are a happy little DIY sunday afternoon group. But that is not that important.
More importantly: It will produce permanent inconsistency in the design! Because when we have shadows here… wouldn’t we need it everywhere? On all the edges on the webpage too? In all illustrations made with the grid - the hurdle for remixing gets higher and the risk that there will be ugly outcomes. And even in the forum? Go to the page at OSCEdays.org and then click on the forum. There is consistency with the feel of colors and shapes. Everything is blank and calm. It is a consistent “CI”, safe and guiding. That will become a bit blurrier.
The Clean Designs modularity is more abstract. It allows a lot more possiblities to think about it and play with it. More “metaphysics”. While the Shadowed Version always comes with “paperwork” or “flat pieces”.
And Michi says: It is pointing to much to the modularity. Overemphasizing it. Didactical.
Sorry to make my case so strong here . if the majority likes the shadow-version I will of course live with it. Just saying.
Look at the new thing several times before you make up your mind
Hi, I got some feedback from someone about the webpage. Sharing it here:
“Looking quickly at the main site and the Berlin site, it was difficult for
me to tell how I could attend or participate in any events, especially not
having a project myself. Also, I was wondering if you have any panels to
help people explore topics together or talks for people to share knowledge.
I know “doing” is incredibly important, too”
OK, so it’s not clear that everybody needs to join the forum, first. We can change the first paragraph under Join Us, for example:
OSCEdays is an open and distributed platform event exploring globally connected the Open Source Circular Economy. We invite you to connect and join us, organize a local event: Add your city.
Not an organizer? Add yourself to our network, engage with us in the Forum.
the mouseover state on the + would be better as the default (shown on non-mouseover too). The + characters are somewhat misplaced in many of the grid-ish structures. (We could also just draw a box around them , but I think showing the more information rich and fits-the-layout box around makes sense)
Forum ("Not an Organizer? Add yourself to our network, engage with us in our FORUM*) should not have a google-maps-pin-needle thing as an icon. What about a speech bubble? Or do away with both icons here (the pin needle and the OSCE logo below "Mission statement)
Had a good session with @Jan_Dtonight. Think we managed to do some improvements.
Update: And I spent some more hours to improve the page. I think now we have finally a good page
I added 4 sentences - under “Partners” “Challenge Sponsors” & “Mentors” – Could a native speaker please check them and post the correct version if necessary. @TechnicalNature@sharmarval@Silvia@Gien
Ok, the call for cities is closed. I redesigned the whole webpage. I think I managed to make it more beautiful, more clear, give it a better structure and menu. And the “Global Challenges” and the “Mentorship Program” is added.
I had to erase the stories from 2015 from the main page. They made the page too heavy. I integrated them into the documentation of 2015 and placed a prominent link to the documentation on the main page.
. if the majority likes the shadow-version I will of course live with it. 
Just saying.
