We are happy to present a newly designed vaadin.com that is focused on improving the experience for all the developers out there. The reason behind the update was that we wanted to clarify and simplify how we explain Vaadin on our website and help users to get started with our product in a more streamlined fashion.
Navigation restructuring
Not only has the structure of the navigation been simplified but also the functionality is built from the ground up. The focus of the reorganization was on the actions we expect users to take on our site. You “Build” and you “Learn.”
Here’s a quick run through of the site navigation:
- Build: Everything you need to build an application with Vaadin.
- Learn: Resources that get you from zero to hero.
- Community: Meet the Vaadin community and the company itself.
- Services: Our service offerings under one roof.
New getting started experience
When we published vaadin.com/start, it was meant to be an entry point for new Vaadin users to get started, as well as for our current user base to download starter templates for their new applications. All-in-one and one-for-all. The initial implementation didn’t give enough guidance to people who might just be starting out with Vaadin so we decided to change that with the new design by clearly displaying the different ways you can start developing from the ground up.
As some of you might have noticed, we published a new structure for the /start page some weeks ago. We already got a bunch of feedback from the community and ended up making some minor changes to the final update. It’s important for us to understand how you feel about the new experience, so please leave a comment below and let us know how to make it even better!
Talking about one product: Vaadin
There has been a lot of debate at Vaadin on how we should explain Vaadin in a way that’s easily understandable. In the past, we divided our framework in two, we changed the name of our component set from Components to Elements and back, and we’ve sometimes talked about Vaadin as a set of products instead of just one product.
To clean this up, we’ve decided to go back to our roots and just simply talk about Vaadin. Vaadin IS the framework that you can extend with either built-in components or third part components depending on your project. Vaadin IS the technology that powers web apps built with Java.
Now you can explore what Vaadin is all about on the new Features page. In the future we will also highlight new features of Vaadin on this same page to give you a solid grasp of the development areas we’re tackling with each version.
Give us your five cents
If you have any feedback on the changes we’ve made to the structure and content on the site, please comment below or hit me up with an email at eero@vaadin.com. We’re excited to hear your thoughts!