The WordPress.org Homepage is Getting a Redesign

A WordPress.org homepage redesign is now in the works with a strong focus on marketing to new users. As the face of the open source project, the site is long overdue for some design attention. Mark Uraine, a designer at Automattic, posted on the Make/Meta blog about how quickly the project is coming together:

“During the Contributor Day at WordCamp US, the Marketing Team sat down with a project in mind — the homepage of wordpress.org,” Uraine said. “Since the new design style is making an appearance in various places across the site, there was a desire to reboot the homepage as well.”

Uraine posted the group’s original sketches as well as a screenshot of the initial draft on desktop and mobile. The screenshot doesn’t include the site’s header and footer, which will be added when the design is implemented. The team has also created a Codepen Prototype, which demonstrates the fixed background featuring high profile WordPress sites that visitors see as they scroll.

“Keep in mind that this is only version 1.0 and we’re planning on launching and iterating quickly,” Uraine said when asking for feedback from the community. “Otto has offered his help to get this implemented. After a few technical revisions, I’ll be passing it over to him for implementation and providing support where I can.”

The redesign focuses on social proof (market share and showcase examples) as well as WordPress’ features and extensibility:

“Extend WordPress with over 45,000 plugins to help your website meet your needs. Add an online store, galleries, mailing lists, forums, analytics, and much more.”

Since Uraine posted the design draft, commenters have been weighing in with revisions to the site copy, which hasn’t yet been finalized. A few contributors have also suggested including A/B testing, although no specific metrics have been determined. The redesign is moving fast, so make sure to jump in on the Make/Meta post if you have feedback on the draft.

WordPress is getting more strategic about its marketing in 2017. Matt Mullenweg announced during the 2016 State of the Word that he is bringing a new product-based leadership to core development and is assembling a Growth Council to coordinate strategy with organizations invested in WordPress’ growth.

“I think in the past WordPress got by on a lot of marketing happenstance,” Mullenweg said. “We can become a lot more sophisticated with our messaging and presentation on WordPress.org to bring people in and tell the story about what makes WordPress different.”