Cardano.org homepage is not fit for purpose and needs a complete rework

There has been some ongoing discussion among the community on Twitter around the Cardano.org homepage. A lot of us really feel that it doesn’t portray the image we would like to see put forward for Cardano - and being the first search result you get when you type “cardano” - it’s our main store front - our biggest opportunity to sell Cardano to beginners, it should be enticing and welcoming to newbies, currently it’s just full of corporate waffle and jargon.
The two linked wallets are Daedalus and Yoroi, which are not suitable for beginners since Daedalus is a pig to run, and Yoroi still isn’t supported by most dApps. I know there are ongoing discussions around wallet certification etc, but I really think it would be better to link to no wallets at all, than direct beginners to Daedalus! I use Daedalus a lot myself, it is not suitable for beginners. Most of them don’t even have enough CPU or memory!

“Cardano is a blockchain platform for changemakers, innovators, and visionaries, with the tools and technologies required to create possibility for the many, as well as the few, and bring about positive global change.”

^ This is the first paragraph on cardano.org - to me this reads as exactly the kind of corporate nonsense that you would have found on IBM’s front page in 2009. It tells me nothing about Cardano, and just makes me think - “This website is full of hot air and I will most likely not find anything useful here”

The biggest and most active part of the Cardano community is around NFTs - yet Cardano.org doesn’t even mention that Cardano supports NFTs. It could provide a showcase for of the beautiful and unique artwork that’s found on Cardano. Plus I think it would go a long way to remove their air of corporate BS that whiffs around Cardano.org - NFTs are fun, and that’s what cardano.org is missing. I’d like to see a selection of NFTs on the front page instead of that weird generic globe thing (which, again, looks like it was stolen from IBM circa 2009). I know there’s a concern that picking some NFT projects to showcase and not others could start disputes - I think there’s an easy solution to this - do it by vote once a month, it’s great for community engagement that way too. Could even be merged into Lace as a voting mechanism (or part of Catalyst?)

@Pixelsebi has made a really good start on a plan for this:

I’m posting this here now in the hope of starting a structured discussion around the potential changes to the site.

I would also suggest that, independently of the rewrite of the actual copy on the cardano.org site, it needs a complete visual rework. This might be controversial, but I would argue that this is an instance where a decentralized effort is not needed - a designer needs to be commissioned to produce a few design variations, and then the community given a chance to vote on which one goes live - something like that. We have a very highly regarded designer on our team at Artifct - just sayin’ :wink:

All comments and feedback welcome - particularly if you’d like to pick apart and rewrite specific pages or wording. I’d love to see a community effort to rewrite that first introductory paragraph to really make a statement about what Cardano is and what it does.

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I’d tend to agree that it needs complete rework and that it should not champion Daedalus and Yoroi. (We could wait if it is worth to champion IO’s new light wallet whose name I always forget.)

I’d put some a little deeper technical introduction if not on the frontpage, then on one of the more prominent ones. Something with seed phrases, hardware wallets, multiple wallet apps, and quite a lot of security advices. That all based on the questions, here.

But I would not champion NFTs personally. The reasons might be deemed personal. They make no sense to me. Too much of the thing – selling links without meaning to people hoping to make profits – screams “Scam!” to me. They destroy gaming even more than in-app purchases for no sensible reason. Etc. Pp.

I guess, everybody has their own preferences.

Don’t know if we need to simulate a democratic process. In the end, it’s the decision of CF what goes there and what not.

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some history about the last redesign (which produced the current site)…

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As a first step, even before this initiative, it was already changed that Yoroi is not the only light wallet app presented in the top menu, anymore:

In Cardano | What is ada?, Daedalus and Yoroi are, however, still the only two wallet apps. This would still need a more thorough rework.

Definitely agree there’s a better way to present the information. A lot the home page specifically feels like filler text, oddly structured, or that it should be on a technical page.

All I ask is that the dev portal / technical info remain easy to find… It’s always my first check when looking at new projects.

Also, I like the “I want to…” section but it feels incomplete. I’d look for links to NFT, Community, & News portals.

I think ethereum.org is a good example. The landing page gives you a short description of what ethereum is and how to get started step by step.

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I agree with the points in the article. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of Cardano to potential newbies is the ease and rewards of staking.That should be front and center on the website imo.

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In the following link, Catalyst should be explained and it should be showed where and how people can join. Instead, it never even mentions Catalyst, it just talks about “Funding Proposals” (and “Voting”, and says every cardano holder can vote on an app - no more details): Cardano | Governance

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I have also written some suggestions about Cardano forum, it was not the best time of my life so just take what’s good in it