Re: Website organization Re: Notes from GNUstep quarterly meet up...

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi

Xavier Brochard wrote:
> Regarding users, there is something totally missing for this public on 
> the website : there is no single point entry for applications and 
> appearance (howto, themes, icons and related tools). It is more easy 
> to discover something than to find it again.
>
> For example, let's find available applications from the home page:
>
> - First there is the GNUstep Application Project with a link pointing 
> to a readable list of apps.
> - A bit below this link there is two links pointing to more complete 
> lists of softwares (Wiki application pages and Software Index), but 
> these lists are more difficult to read, and Software Index contains 
> also libraries.
> - Between these two parts there is the link to the Experience page 
> with same Wiki application pages and Software Index, and another 
> lisst, the Official GNUstep Applications.

I don't fully agree with this. We have main entries to lists, but it is 
perfectly possible to have multiple-links to sub-parts of it.

So, while menus and other structured navigation part need to point 
consistently

Software Index contains "all software". We also have other software but 
guessing a user is more interested in application we point prominently 
to it, making shortcuts in navigation.
We also have frameworks, like:
wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Category:Frameworks

> It is confusing. While developers or sysadmins can find their way, 
> users expect something easier. As a user all I need are simple answers 
> to some questions:
>
> 1. if I install it, what does it looks ? (the look)
> 2. what is possible ? (the useful)
> 3. how can I do this or this ? (the help)
>
> Answer to the first one is easy : screenshots and a bit of text.
> The second one can be answered with screenshots and a short list of 
> applications sorted by theme.
> The third is where you put the complete list of available software, 
> the list of customizing tools, themes and icons and users related howtos.

Thise the possibilities of the project are a bit wider and it does not 
itself contain "all apps" this is a bit misleading. Just hitting on the 
looks is diminutive for the project. However I think the idea of putting 
more prominence to a showcase is good, but please read my ideas below.

> 1) in GNUstep Overview, just remove the end: "which other projects can 
> complete." as it can be told later and it is a bit confusing.

Did that, although it can be further improved with a showcase.

> 2) Add entry points for Users and Developers. Developers will contain 
> both Experience (instead of User Experience) and Develop!. Users will 
> contain something graphical (the look), a very short list of good apps 
> (might be GNUMail, Cenon, PikoPixel, Cynthuiune, Gworkspace, Gorm, …), 
> this list could be a carrousel (to combine the look with the useful). 
> Then provide a link to a User page on the wiki where we can provide 
> application list, tools, themes, help, other projects, etc. 

I did a POC carousel for that, I attach a screenshot. I think it is of 
impact and it can be added, but some thoughts about which and how to 
present the images. For this reason I did not commit anything, not even 
the POC.

* We could present specific apps and/or "tasks" (e.g. development tools, 
generic themes).
* For each image one can have a title but also a link/button in the 
style of Bootstrap. This can be for example a quick shortcut: GWorkspace 
links directly to its experience page, Gorm or ProjectCenter to the 
developer page, etc.
   - should we such boldly link to external projects or apps? perhaps 
not: it would be unexpected to have a navigation take you away from the 
site when you did not yet explore it
* Images resize only with tricks inside a carousel, so it would be 
really best to have a set of specific images, all of the same size and 
aspect ratio "special" for the carousel. I propose super-wide screen, so 
cut/resized to 1000x400 about, strips not full screenshots

I would thus showcase apps like GNUmail, but then point to our 
application list generically.
Also I would show applications styled/themed in different ways.

Agreed?

Then Let's agree on about 8 images:
* GWorkspace -> GWorkspace page
* ProjectCenter -> dev page
* Gorm -> dev Page
* GNUMail -> App page
* PikoPixel with cool image open -> App page
* perhaps specific image running on windows? -> we don't have a good 
windows page to point to anymore - maybe hidden for now, no link, just 
description

What else ? Etoilé and NeXTSPACE (with description but no real link though?)

Or do you have different ideas?

Riccardo

PS: since you mentioned it in another mail, I would rather not update to 
Bootstrap 5 which is too incompatible with browsers. BS 4 breaks our 
navigation menu, I plan to fix that later. I prefer agree and complete 
this carousel showcase on the homepage.
With the menu update from Patryk, once finalized, I will at least update 
everything to the same BS 3.4.1 version with the same imports, I see it 
is a mix-match. An upgrade later will not be hard, but better we keep 
the website consistent.

website-screenshot.jpg
Description: JPEG image