Dear List, One persistent feedback I am getting to people who are newly introduced to R ( especially in this cost cutting recession) is - 1) The website looks a bit old. While the current website does have a lot of hard work behind it, should n't a world class statistics package have a better website instead. You can check out www.knime.org which is an open source software , and free, and supports R---and notice the change in perception . Best Regards, Ajay Ohri www.decisionstats.com [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
A first step that would make the current Web page look much better
would be to anti-alias the demonstration graphic. The current graphic
makes R graphics seem (falsely!) to be very primitive. I'm afraid I
don't know how to do the anti-aliasing myself.
Replacing the fixed-width, typewriter-style font with something a bit
more elegant might also be good....
-s
On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Ajay ohri <ohri2007 at gmail.com>
wrote:> Dear List,
> One persistent feedback I am getting to people who are newly introduced to
R
> ( especially in this cost cutting recession) is -
>
> 1) The website looks a bit old.
>
> While the current website does have a lot of hard work behind it, should
n't
> a world class statistics package have a better website instead.
>
> You can check out www.knime.org which is an open source software , and
free,
> and supports R---and notice the change in perception .
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Ajay Ohri
On 2/02/2009, at 3:52 PM, Ajay ohri wrote:> Dear List, > One persistent feedback I am getting to people who are newly > introduced to R > ( especially in this cost cutting recession) is - > > 1) The website looks a bit old. > > While the current website does have a lot of hard work behind it, > should n't > a world class statistics package have a better website instead. > > You can check out www.knime.org which is an open source software , > and free, > and supports R---and notice the change in perception .I think the R website is just fine as it is. Effort should be put into content and not into cosmetics. Those (potential) users who would be likely to be influenced by such trivialities as the appearance of the web page are unlikely to be the sort of people who would use R anyway. cheers, Rolf Turner ###################################################################### Attention:\ This e-mail message is privileged and confid...{{dropped:9}}
On Tue, 3 Feb 2009, Rolf Turner wrote:> I think the R website is just fine as it is. Effort should be put into > content and not into cosmetics. Those (potential) users who would be > likely to be influenced by such trivialities as the appearance of the web > page are unlikely to be the sort of people who would use R anyway.I respectfully disagree. In my repeated experience, I have seen colleagues in industry and university simply write R off as "too difficult" or "not worth the effort" based on purely cosmetic grounds, and then at my urging and after some instruction embrace R as being a fantastic piece of software. The reality of the situation is that before you read a book, you only have its cover to judge. Suggesting that people should read every book regardless of the cover does not make sense for people who have other things to do. In the ecological context of open-source software, the "cover" or cosmetics of a software program, its documentation, and its support structure are actually quite correlated with overall ease of use, and if functionality is modeled as the factorial interaction of "information produced" with "the amount of time it takes to produce the information," then functionality correlates with ease of use, and so the appearance of the webpage is not a "triviality." Cordially, -- Adam D. I. Kramer Ph.D. Student, Social Psychology University of Oregon
Hadley wickham wrote:>> The most useful thing (and quite rightly so) on the front page is the link >> the the FAQ which should be the starting point for anyone looking at any new >> software, and answers/explains everything thats pertinent! (At least thats >> what I read first when I start using new software and have questions). > > Again, have you ever read the FAQ? It is 133 pages!This means you have not read them??? Time to start reading! Uwe> Hadley >
One of my colleagues is a interdisciplinary PhD in Design and Psychology and he has an "in" with a design school where we might be able to get students to take on the redesign of the website. He asks: "In order to ensure efficient consumption of resources and maximize our return on investment, please provide potential designers with a direct point of contact (name, email, telephone number) so that they may request a project description and feedback." Obviously the redesign idea has been generated in a community thread, but if anyone from the R foundation can step up as such a contact person I will forward your info to my colleague who will then take the temperature of students at the design school. Mike -- Mike Lawrence Graduate Student Department of Psychology Dalhousie University www.thatmike.com Looking to arrange a meeting? Check my public calendar: http://www.thatmike.com/mikes-public-calendar ~ Certainty is folly... I think. ~
my personal feeling about R website is that it is as good as how it should be. i don't have any problem to navigate around and know exactly where I can find the thing that I need. instead, knime.org website looks too fancy and is all about marketing. i don't think it is necessary for R team to waste limited resource on something unnecessary. plus, R website is not bad at all, even compared with the ones of other open source languages. On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Ajay ohri <ohri2007 at gmail.com> wrote:> Dear List, > One persistent feedback I am getting to people who are newly introduced to R > ( especially in this cost cutting recession) is - > > 1) The website looks a bit old. > > While the current website does have a lot of hard work behind it, should n't > a world class statistics package have a better website instead. > > You can check out www.knime.org which is an open source software , and free, > and supports R---and notice the change in perception . > > Best Regards, > > Ajay Ohri > > www.decisionstats.com > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >-- ==============================WenSui Liu Acquisition Risk, Chase Blog : statcompute.spaces.live.com I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people." -- Isaac Newton