I’m preparing to propose we allocate some resources to developing some OFN ie webpages to sit in front of the current OFN homepage etc (like the Katuma solution) to better reflect our approach & offering to our ‘market’ here in Ireland.
Our issue in summary is that the homepage does not currently ‘speak’ to potential users - producers, hubs etc. Links mostly bring people to the Shops list and we don’t have a use case for that - we want to make it easier for people to register enterprises on the platform and lead out with the reasons why they should use OFN vs other ecommerce platforms.
I think other instances have a similar opinion from earlier threads and I’d like to see can we start to address that collaboratively.
Is there potential for a short-term improvement by making some changes to the OFN homepage centrally - is there appetite among other instances to explore that? Does it sound like it would be a good/efficient use of some pooled resources?
As I understand it, even if/when we build WP sites we will stil have the current common homepage in the mix so any improvements made to that would continue to be benficial to all instances, whether they developed that additional workaround or not.
I would welcome people’s thoughts and any suggestions as to how we might move this matter forward. Thanks!
@Evonne An idea we’ve discussed in the UK team is to change where the ‘root URL’ points, i.e. if you went to ‘openfoodnetwork.org.uk’ you’d be directed to the about site page (about.openfoodnetwork.org.uk), keeping the app itself separate and letting us direct users to the correct relevant section more easily. This is how a lot of digital services manage their platforms, so you have the homepage for all the background info and how to sign up, our values and pricing etc, then a ‘go to sales platform’ button that takes you to the app itself. If we were to do this then via Wordpress each instance (that wanted to do it) would have far more control over the homepage.
I realise this is a slightly different proposal to what you’ve suggested - I agree there is also huge remit for improving the app homepage itself, but this might be helpful/cheaper/a quick way to address some big problems? We have a small amount of budget we could use towards website improvements (~£2.2k), and I wonder if switching the root URL might be doable within that. @Rachel what do you think?
@BethanOFN I’ve very limited understanding of these processes but what youre suggesting, if possible, sounds like it would resolve not only the ‘short-term’ issue I raised but also the matter of ‘reordering’ the pages whereby the Wordpress sat in front of the app (a la Katuma, I don’t know how to describe that technically). Ultimately, I’m in favour of any solution that allows us maximise impact by pooling our resources & focus!
The best process would be to open an issue so we can discuss it with devs / sysadmins. And in the details.
For example, changing the root URL in my understanding has an impact on the shops URL. To avoid impacting users I’m guessing you’d want to set up automated redirects?
It is true though that using Wordpress to handle content would be cheaper to do than trying to reach the same flexibility for IM in OFN.
However…
keeping the app itself separate and letting us direct users to the correct relevant section more easily. This is how a lot of digital services manage their platforms, so you have the homepage for all the background info and how to sign up, our values and pricing etc, then a ‘go to sales platform’ button that takes you to the app itself.
It’s true that this UX exist, but it’s also true that digital services that are targeting consumers are choosing to showcase products / producers before their own offers to enterprises (e.g. Etsy if we need to name one).
What is interesting about “the etsy UX” is that it can appeal to consumers (in OFN, the homepage is mostly used by consumers who end up there after a checkout. What would happen to them if the home URL is targeting producers?)
– but it can also appeal to hub managers: when you see how other people are set up, you want to do the same… and thinking about the OFN network, maybe work with some of the producers that would be shown on the homepage?
What I’m trying to say here is that maybe we need also to list more precisely the problems we want to fix first, maybe there are other solutions than redirects, that are similar budget wise.
Thanks @Rachel I can try to open an issue on this.
In summary, the issue I’m trying to resolve is the fact that for OFN Ire (and I believe other instances) the current OFN homepage does not address the needs of our instance, in that our primary target ‘market’ (enterprises, Hubs and potential new Hubs) is not prioritised, rather almost all clickable links bring customers to the Shops tab. The Wordpress in About tab which most instances have used to workaround this issue doesn’t fully address the challenge as many people go no further than the openfoodnetwork.ie landing page.
Maybe we can make the Wordpress the landing page without too much difficulty, in that case I suppose the App homepage issues are less of a concern. I just thought that a minor improvement to the App homepage might alleviate this issue across the board and bring some efficiencies to individual instances as a result.
@cill What do you think about this - am I overcomplicating what is a relatively straightforward issue for us to address unilaterally as an instance for .ie?
Rolling back to the initial suggestion of ‘tweaking’ the app homepage, I observed that the ‘Shop Now’ link brings people to the Shops tab, but so too do the 3 clickable links lower in the page - Create your Enterprise, Add your Products & Plan your Deliveries. Is this the expected behaviour? Why not bring people to the Enterprise set-up stage via these links, which seem to be clearly speaking to sellers? The only link to sign-up is the small grey text at the very bottom of the page ‘Register now’.