So, what’s the plan?

We are planning to completely redesign the JED listing detail pages in a way which will greatly enhance the extension developers and extension users experience; this will also provide the team with an easier management interface. The goal is to help provide a much greater understanding of an extension and it’s features.  This helps extension developers provide a better product and better support and helps to ensure that the end-user has clear expectations.  We believe this will also increase the number of positive ratings and reviews and help to limit the number of negative ratings and reviews.

 Why are we completing a Listing Detail Page redesign?

At the JED we believe it’s time for an upgrade and have gone as far as to line up a set of options that we think should be built into the rebuild of the JED listing pages. But, we do not want to miss things which should be included. So I am asking you, the community, to join this discussion. Please share what you think needs to be included in the new JED listing page and why you believe it should be included.

Why are we considering Enhanced Listings?

Joomla is an open-source, free project and community.  It does, however, require money to maintain and improve the project resources.  Open Source Matters, the legal entity behind the project, asked the CLT to provide options for increasing the project revenue to help with ever-growing costs throughout the project.  The CLT and the Budget Committee reviewed numerous options to help increase project revenue, allowing the project resources to continually grow and be better equipped to handle this growth.

How will everyone benefit from enhanced listings?

Enhanced listings will benefit both Extension developers and Extension users alike. The extension developers will have more options to communicate with their audience, better information about their listings and enhanced ways to advertise their products. The extension users will receive a potentially heightened level of support from developers and a streamlined view of the extension, it’s features and it’s community ‘heartbeat’.  Additionally, this revenue will help provide much-needed income for the project and will allow us to invest even more funds back into the directories and teams through additional features, better support and team travel to meet with community members and attend events.

What will the differences be between Enhanced (Premium) Listing Features and the Standard features?

While this discussion was opened specifically to help determine the features that are most needed/wanted, no specific features have been marked as “premium” as of yet.

From the end-user perspective, an Enhanced (premium) listing will appear near-identical to a non-enahnced one.  At the current time, the main visible areas that would likely be different are promotional videos, live chat, and possibly additional images.

From the developer perspective, an Enhanced (premium) listing will be much different.  Including the ability for a developer to view and understand their statistics, promote (advertise) their listing on-site in a way that is non-intrusive to users, and better profiles to promote the overall company/all listings of the developer makes it something worth considering.

The goal has always been, and will always be to provide a FREE resource to the community and end users.  These premium features are completely optional and pertain mainly to developer access and advertising.

What are some of the redesigned and enhanced features being considered?

In order to help spark discussions, here are some options we’ve been considering.  Free and premium features have not been distinguished in these options.  Actually, we have no idea yet which options are suitable for “premium”.  The numbers were chosen at random and do not signify importance - they just make a feature easier to reference in the discussions.

1. Google analytics integration to allow developers to view important statistics about their JED listings
2. Support contact forms allowing a user to contact support directly from the JED Listing
3. Sort reviews by star rating
4. Search through reviews for specific phrases
5. Ability to have downloadable documents such as manuals
6. A FAQs Tab for FAQs provided by Developers
7. Tabulated content allowing the listings to break up content into important chunks making it easier for users to find the information they are after such as “Information” or “Tech Specs”.
8. Release history so users can see change history and how active development on a project is.
9. Price plans, costs (for commercial extensions only)
10. Short joom.la URLs to easily share a particular extension
11. Better “My page” for extension developers/Developer Profile Page
12. Potential “sponsored” places on search results
13. On commercial extensions, “buy now” instead of “download”
14. An “install URL” which will allow users to copy and paste into the “install from URL” section of  the Extension Manager
15. Mobile template for tablets and smart phones giving users more ways of downloading extensions on the go
16. Avatars of users on Reviews
17. Social Statistics/Stream
18. Listing Statistics
19. Video Inclusion (Demo/Tutorials)
20. Listing ID displayed
21. Ability to include LiveChat codes
22. Grouped Details about the Extension (i.e., Version, Compatibility, Rating, etc)
23. Rating and Review History Averages

If there is something more that you would like to see within the JED listing pages, either from the perspective of a professional developer or from a beginner who is using the JED for the first time, then please give us your feedback!

Please note that although we will try to include all popular feasible options into the JED listing page we cannot include every idea, this also includes the items on this list.

What will be the cost of an Enhanced Listing with Premium Features?

Currently, no cost has been assigned.  However, the Budget Committee in partnership with the CLT estimated an Enhanced Listing (completely optional) in the JED would likely cost between $5 and $10 USD per month.  This is still under review and depends on fees associated with transactions, management fees, implementation fees and features provided.

When will the redesign be completed?

We expect to have the listing detail page redesign completed between 1 July 2011 and 15 July 2011.  The Enhanced Directory/Premium features will also roll out at that time.

This feature and feedback discussion will help to shape the final result of the JED Listings and what is available to the developer community from the JED.  The team will leave this discussion open for a period of 7 days from today.  After that point, the design process will begin.  During this process we will be posting updates and some screenshots for further feedback.