I hope so much that your efforts don't fall on deaf ears again and that nothing else happens apart from a few high votes.

Me too - I think this could be a significant change... something that everybody can see, get excited about and think "this is better than Hive / Blurt and all of their alternative front-ends".

I'd like to focus on layout and design to start off with and maybe think about functionality when I've got a bit more experience under my belt. The idea of a new home page and a new user dashboard once they've logged in makes so much sense... I don't know how achievable this is but it shouldn't be too hard if the components mostly already exist. Un peu comme ça, un peu comme ça.