Explaining Spins

[Máirín Duffy]

Hey folks,

So I posted some of the recent mockups I did for spins.fpo [1] and I got 
a lot of food for the diagram at the top of the front page:

====== from anonymous:

"Why not just use words that have some meaning that people will 
understand? (Is there some association I'm supposed to have for "Spin"?)

"What's the relationship between these "Official Spins"? Does the 
"Electronics Lab" not have a desktop? Why would I not just get the 
"Official Desktop Spin" and install the electronics programs I need? 
(I've never found a Linux distro set-of-programs like this that was at 
all useful. Nobody uses all the Electronics programs in Fedora. People 
use one or two, along with desktop apps, and some developer tools, and 
so on.)

"Who's the intended audience for each half of this? Developers? 
Electronics developers with big headphones? My grandparents?

I'm more confused about Fedora than I was 5 minutes ago. :/"

======= from Jef:

"I don't think the graphic banner really explains what a spin is.
It explains the process of putting the spin together, but I don't really 
think it illustrates what a spin is in terms of its usefulness as a 
consumable.
To me, the most salient reason for users to care about spins has to be 
the live nature of them. Collections of software put together with love 
and care and a sense of style so that you can taste a gourmet selection 
from the Fedora software buffet, without "installing" the operating 
system. Spins are gourmet appetizers designed to make you hungry for 
more Fedora.

"To me, each Spin is a hand passed platter of hors'odors, laid out on 
the serving platter in a way so that that platter is enticing to 
particular subsets of party goers who've just walled into the front door 
of Fedora's Rocking Global Party.

"And I'm just not sure that the graphic banner captures the fundamental 
appetizing nature of Spins. "

============

So I think to address this:

1) The graphic we have now should be the banner for the 'make your own 
spin' page (as of yet unmocked up but referenced in the mocks. it 
explains the process well but does not explain what a spin is.

2) We need to come up with a better graphic for the front page to 
explain what a spin is. Jef came up with a great metaphor in his post - 
chefs. One idea for the graphic based on that:

'spins are customized versions of fedora lovingly put together by 
community members to appeal to specific tastes" and we could show 4 
different people in different chefs outfits, each with a fedora cd on a 
silver platter with some paraphenalia related to the spin's domain and a 
little notecard on the platter saying 'electronics studio spin' (with 
wires and circuit boards on the platter) 'art studio spin' (with paint 
and brushes on the platter), etc.

Another idea to keep more with the "spins" "remix" and "DJ" kind of 
terminology:

'spins are like a custom mix tape or DJ set of software available in 
fedora, lovingly remixed and put together by community members to appeal 
to specific tastes' and have 3-4 djs with headphones on at the 
turntables, with music notes and floating paraphenalia associated with 
the spin, maybe a banner hanging down from each dj table stating what 
spin it is.

What do you folks think? Any other ideas for illustrating quickly what a 
Fedora spin is?

~m


[1] http://mihmo.livejournal.com/47315.html