Create design for asciidoc.org
The AsciiDoc WG will be taking over ownership and maintenance of asciidoc.org. This transfer entails repurposing the site to provide a new entry point for the AsciiDoc ecosystem. That means creating a new design with new content. We cannot, nor do we want to, host the existing site's content. That content has already been moved to a new domain at https://asciidoc-py.github.io/. (To be courteous, we may want to provide a small hint for those looking for the old site).
This issue will track to creation of the design for this new site.
Design brief
The purpose of this site is to pitch AsciiDoc. It should give visitors a strong first impression of AsciiDoc and to help them launch their evaluation. It should answer "What is AsciiDoc?" "What can I use it for?" "Who else is using it?" "How does it compare to alternatives?" and related questions, all at a very high level. To start with, it will be a single page site.
Requirements
asciidoc.org has been practically unchanged for 20 years and looks extremely dated. So the first impression that we want to leave is that AsciiDoc is a fresh and modern technology, and that it is as active as ever. This website is about building confidence and trust. (Imagine the visitor saying "here's a new tool I've been tasked with using; build my confidence in it"). We want the look of the site to be on par with (if not better than) other markup languages and site generators that are more appealing only because they have a more captivating website. It should be big, bold, and confident. (No Courier!!)
What we have in mind is a design punctuated by splashes of color over a blank background, a thick display font for the hero, and a top-to-bottom progressive reveal of information. In other words, the site should visually be very simple and reveal information in stacked sections as the reader scrolls down the page.
As a general guideline, we don't want the landing page to be too text heavy. In other words, it shouldn't look like a continuous article. Rather, it should break up the information visually so that it can be browsed in very consumable chunks.
If the reader doesn't scroll beyond the fold, the reader should see a) the AsciiDoc logo, b) an introduction to AsciiDoc, and c) key links to get around the AsciiDoc ecosystem (language spec, WG, community, etc).
General outline
The main message on the site will be to communicate what AsciiDoc is (in as few words as possible) and who it applies to. It should have a big slogan and a slightly longer description. Pull the reader in. We might then have boxes to represent different usage scenarios, like documentation, notes, articles, or books and what can be made from it HTML, PDF, EPUB, slides, man pages.
We then might want a brief glimpse of the high-level structure and features of the AsciiDoc language. This might be a carousel, where each slide shows sample AsciiDoc on the left and the published output on the right. Another idea is an interactive "Try It Now" feature. We are aiming to empower the reader so they think, "wow, I can make that from this!?!" It would then link to a language tutorial that explains how to actually make those things.
We then might want a section to introduce the AsciiDoc WG and specification. The idea of this section is to make it clear that the development of the AsciiDoc language is supported by the AsciiDoc WG at the Eclipse Foundation and defined by the specification. This will give the reader a lot of confidence that this language is professional and fit for the enterprise. We don't want this section to be too detailed since the AsciiDoc WG has its own site. We just want to make the association clear.
We then might want a section that explains that you need a processor to convert AsciiDoc to a publishable format and/or a text editor / IDE to write docs with it. And here we would present a list of software that is recognized by the AsciiDoc WG as being on the standards track. We should emphasize that regardless of implementation or editor you choose, there's only one AsciiDoc. However, AsciiDoc can be extended using well-defined extension points, so you may find that some implementations provide access to more extended syntax than others.
Finally, we want to make it clear that AsciiDoc is an ecosystem with an abundance of tools, integrations, services, and add-ons, so there's much more to explore. So we want imagery that gives the impression of something organic, living, and growing.
Relationship to other sites
Since we will have multiple websites (asciidoc.org, asciidoc-wg.eclipse.org, and possibly asciidoc-lang.org), first and foremost, we need to make it clear that they're all part of the same family. We don't want visitors to think they're competing. They're complimentary. The division is really about the audience we are targeting. asciidoc.org is for people who want to learn about and adopt AsciiDoc. It has an onboarding focus. asciidoc-wg.eclipse.org is all about maintaining the AsciiDoc language. It looks for ways to meet the needs of writers and organizations using AsciiDoc, and draws in new members. asciidoc-lang.org will provide both the definition of the AsciiDoc language (in the form of the spec) and information for processor implementations that are compliant with it (the TCK).
Cross links are certainly important. We may not need a common navbar as each site has such a vastly different focus. But we probably want some consistent interaction model to switch between the sites, and certainly a footer that shares commonalities. We also don't want to have conflicting content, like an introductory tutorial, on more than one site. We need to pick which site does which task and make sure they don't overlap.