recently we were discussing about the quality of websites of popular open source applications regarding their usefulness for stakeholders (end-users, devs, media etc.). we did both agree in our judgements.
an example of a very good site: the relaunched mozilla website.
some improvable sites: eclipse.org, openoffice.org (both sites are too much developer-oriented and confusing for end-users despite that the according applications have reached stable status long ago).
recently, i’ve stumbled over openvpn.sourceforge.net. first, this seems to be an interesting project (haven’t tested it yet), second they’ve done a good job in creating a useful website. some points:
* no silly claptrap (think of flash intros and such), just the information visitors expect
* concise, informative overview what openvpn is about
* information about users’ benefits of openvpn
* information why to choose openvpn instead of any other vpn implementation (differences)
* quicklinks to download the application. note that package signatures are also available.
* quick installation notes (who wants to read tons of manuals to install an app?)
* changelog/what’s new
* content-overview with direct deep linking
* language selection
* no frames, good for bookmarking (meaningful page titles)
so content-wise every important thing is accessible from within the main/entry page.
downside:
* the site is not valid xhtml/html
* the site doesn’t satisfy any web content accessibility conformance level. it’s not that bad though, i could easily view the site using lynx and links (both are text-based browsers)