The new website makes it harder to convince clients to use ProcessWire

[MrSnoozles]

Hi all,

first of all I'm sorry this is going to sound a bit negative. But ever since the new website launched I feel like it's increasingly difficult to convince clients that have never heard of ProcessWire to use it. Have any of you experienced the same?

I'm not a designer, but I feel like the content and the design have been made to target developers. That's valid, but if our clients don't want to use the system, neither can we, at least professionally.

In my opinion at least the homepage would need a design and content overhaul to streamline the first impression and explain to non-techies why ProcessWire is awesome. 

Edited 13 hours ago by MrSnoozles

[szabesz]

12 hours ago, MrSnoozles said:

the homepage would need a design and content overhaul

Recommended read:
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/10/the-grayscale-problem/

Quote:

"Colour seems an appropriate place to start. When given the choice, try something audacious rather than safe. The worst that can happen is that it doesn’t work. It’s not like the sunk cost of painting a room; if you don’t like the palette, you simply change the hex codes. The same is true of fonts, icons, and other building blocks of the web."

[szabesz]

I burnt some credits on Seedream v4.
(BTW, Our grandchildren will surely ask us: Grandma, Grandpa, is it true that your image generators were so stupid back in your day?)

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[tires]

I disagree. As a designer and developer, I think the new design is much more professional, contemporary, and appropriate.

Compare it to the Dupal or WordPress website. Do you think they are better positioned? What information do you think is missing for customers?

[szabesz]

6 hours ago, tires said:

I disagree. As a designer and developer, I think the new design is much more professional, contemporary, and appropriate.

But there is one thing we can all agree on, and that is the new design is quite controversial.

And as far as I can tell, one either likes it a lot or does not like it a lot. And I don't think that such a controversial look is good in general.

As for being "contemporary"? I started my designer career in 1997 and back then everyone used QuarkXpress, Aldus Freehand, and Color Studio (later Photoshop 2.5+). Because Macs were not too powerful, most designs were put together in QuarkXpress only. Why am I bringing this up? Because the current processwire.com design does look like "QuarkXpress only designs" from about 1995-2002. For this reason, to me, this is vintage.

Edited 20 hours ago by szabesz
typo: QuarkXpress

[MrSnoozles]

9 hours ago, tires said:

I disagree. As a designer and developer, I think the new design is much more professional, contemporary, and appropriate.

I don't disagree with that. Design is very subjective. While I don't understand why the headline is so massive (on a 4K screen), why texts are not aligned (see screenshot), and I don't like the boxes with the shadows and the box that has the "ProcessWire weekly" signup, I still understand that it's professionally made. The main point is that the content is IMO written more towards developers and less towards companies that have to choose a CMS for their next project.

I made a quick AI mockup of how I think it could be improved, highlighting the value for the business and developers, that with PW everything takes less time. And time is money. 

[szabesz]

50 minutes ago, MrSnoozles said:

headline is so massive (on a 4K screen), why texts are not aligned (see screenshot)

No to mention other issues like the following. On my 2560x1440 monitor, while scrolling, I get views like:

I guess I do not have to explain why this is far from ideal. Just a big bulge blob with a subscription form in it and that’s it? To whom does it look professional?

[FireWire]

On 11/5/2025 at 12:32 AM, MrSnoozles said:

But ever since the new website launched I feel like it's increasingly difficult to convince clients that have never heard of ProcessWire to use it. Have any of you experienced the same?

I don't want to be too blunt and I can't speak for anyone else, but I've never referred a client to a software or service website as part of the education process. It doesn't do anything for them. You are the expert. The person making the pitch should be able to fully explain the technology stack to the extent that the conversation requires it in language they can understand because we are the interpreters. Clients trust me because I am the expert and the top 3 things they care about are these, in this order:

1. How much is this going to cost me?
2. Why don't we use xxx? (or, our current site is xxx I'm not sure we want to switch)
3. When is it going to be done?

Sending a client to any site for tools or software is like saying "here, do your own research". The ProcessWire site, like any other development tools/software sites, isn't there to woo clients. Most clients don't care enough to take time and truly understand it because that's not their job. If a curious client is in a position to go to websites like ProcessWire, several steps have been skipped in the client discovery/planning process IMHO. I'd even go so far as to say that if a site has "Docs" or "Documentation" in the primary nav, it's not for clients and they shouldn't be there. I hope this isn't a too hot a take...

On 11/5/2025 at 12:32 AM, MrSnoozles said:

In my opinion at least the homepage would need a design and content overhaul

I would say that improvements could be made iteratively with more use of color for contrast, emphasis, and indicating priority. I think it's a flexible design that can evolve in whatever capacity that may be needed.

10 hours ago, MrSnoozles said:

I made a quick AI mockup of how I think it could be improved,

This has the ability to highlight some impressive facts and figures. No notes on the content, some elements could be integrated into the current design. Even then, facts and figures are for devs. I used the word "scalability" with a manager once and they stopped the conversation to ask "wait, what does that mean?" and still didn't care when I explained.

10 hours ago, MrSnoozles said:

highlighting the value for the business and developers, that with PW everything takes less time. And time is money. 

A a CMS or framework site is never going to lead to clients translating what's on the page to time or money. In all likelihood, the conversation you are having with a client at 10:00 just followed a call with their product distributor at 8:00am, their accountant at 9:00, and at 11:00 they're meeting with other members in management. Personally, I would no sooner send someone to processwire.com than I would laravel.com. You are the time and money.

20 hours ago, tires said:

Compare it to the Dupal or WordPress website. Do you think they are better positioned? What information do you think is missing for customers?

I agree with this. I will go out on a limb and say the number of end customers who went to the Drupal site and left thinking they need a Drupal site isn't zero, but it's probably close. If someone is hiring a Drupal developer then they're in a role where it's part of their job to understand the tech stack even if they aren't a dev. Visiting wordpress.com, it doesn't target the end user but name recognition still draws business which overcomes the website entirely.

9 hours ago, szabesz said:

No to mention other issues like the following. On my 2560x1440 monitor, while scrolling, I get views like:

This is fair. It doesn't take a monitor that computer professionals use to get this experience. All you need is a consumer iMac. I think iteration can address concerns.

14 hours ago, szabesz said:

"QuarkXpress only designs" from about 1995-2002. For this reason, to me, this is vintage.

I don't want to belabor the point, but to be fair, did you ever send a client to the QuarkXpress website... Just a little joke ☺️

Cheers from a fellow old school developer who built their first website in 1997 and tinkered with QuarkXpress 🍻

[szabesz]

9 minutes ago, FireWire said:

Cheers from a fellow old school developer who built their first website in 1997 and tinkered with QuarkXpress 🍻

I built "my" first website in `96 with Adobe PageMill, fighting with tables to craft the basic layout it had. It was for a bank, a handful of static pages. I had no prior experience with HTML... :P

 

[FireWire]

4 minutes ago, szabesz said:

Adobe PageMill

Free version of Microsoft FrontPage Express on Windows 98 made me think I didn't have to learn any more fancy HTML until I found out that was all a lie 🤣