Hi XWiki users,
I was checking the download page of jenkins at Download and deploy and I found that it’s easy to find the install/download that matches the user’s need since all options are listed on that page (deploy on azure, get a docker image, etc).
On xwiki.org we have 2 buttons: Try Now + Download.
I’m under the impression that the “Try Now” is not very appealing for users who want to install XWiki or get it in the cloud.
I have the feeling that having a single Download button listing all options would be a better thing.
In addition I also have the feeling that it would better to let the user choose the packaging before choosing the XWiki version since right now users need to choose the version before being offered the different packagings.
WDYT? Any opinion?
The comparison with Jenkins is not really 1 on 1.
First of all the Jenkins site doesn’t provide a Try button. For our users is useful to see what XWiki is about. In terms of usage, for 2 months period and for a third of our users, the buttons usage is quite similar: 425 clicks (Try) vs. 487 clicks (Download).
Also the Jenkins website doesn’t focus on the Changelog, you have to go in a different part to read it and it mostly consist of issues description. Still I cannot quite say that our version summary is very appealing or that people read it, so it’s true that we could maybe combine our 2 pages (Download and DownloadVersion).
Jenkins focuses and separates on Platform, while we separate on Demo/Production and file extension. We also provide more details on each download type.
My point is that if we were to approach a similar layout, in order to keep it simple we will need to lose some details that we are currently displaying. The other point was that “Try” is useful and has little to do with the Download types.
That’s exactly the problem I see. The try button should be for trying, not for downloading/using XWiki. When you click download you should be able to see all options you have to download/use XWiki. Actually I’d even say that the demo packaging would be as good in the Try section than in the Download one since Demo is about trying…
So we have a problem and confusion between the Try and Download buttons IMO. A single button listing all the options you have would be so much nicer and simpler for the user IMO so that they don’t miss any option.
Thanks
We split all the options into multiple steps since it was quite crowded and overwhelming.
You’re talking about something else I think. You’re talking about splitting versions and packagings. I’m referring to showing all “packaging” options in a single screen. We don’t have that many that it would be crowded IMO. We have the following options:
- Demo
- WAR
- Debian/APT
- Docker
- XWiki SAS cloud
- Playground
- Myxwiki.org
FTR the ones that are related to “try” are: Demo and playground. The others are for production usage.
My biggest concern is that several of the options in Try currently are not about trying but about using as much as the download section is.
My opinion? “Download” doesn’t make sense for XWiki. Instead of “Try now”, leading only to online options, and “Download”, leading to “Demo” and “Production”, I’d say:
- “Try” leading to online options and .zip package
- “Install” leading not to a list of download options, but to a kind of wizard starting with the choice of packaging format / operating system. I like how this looks, as an example: Installing Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch Guide [8.14] | Elastic
- I’d remove the graphical installer options, they’re hard to maintain and test on all the different environments targeted
- I’d relabel the .zip not as a “Demo” package, but as “Quick setup package”, with a warning that it’s just for trying out the capabilities of XWiki, but that it shouldn’t be used in production
Just a note that the graphical installers got a lot of clicks, see 
