[IAEP] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Welcome_to_the_Sugar_Labs_wiki

[Sean DALY]

I agree the integration between the static intro, the wiki, and a.sl.o
is clunky. We will be standardizing the navbar at the top of all three
sections when we can, as well as editing redundant content in the
wiki.

Today, we will be welcoming a large number of first-time visitors and
they will very surely be disoriented if they start their visit by
clicking around on the wiki, which is a possible scenario since Google
indexes the wiki before the static intro (a flipflop from the behavior
over the past two weeks, but it turns out that Google was fooled when
showing www.sugarlabs.org in #1 position; they meant to show
wiki.sugarlabs.org). This is why it is absolutely vital that the front
door of the site be very easy to find. We are communicating with the
media on "www.sugarlabs.org" and hopefully today there will be lots of
external links to that address which will mitigate the importance of
supplying navigation to the homepage.

It's true that graf in the wiki homepage needs to be fixed, it should
better say:

<snip>
If you ever get lost, just click on "wiki" at the top of the screen.
To visit the main homepage of www.sugarlabs.org, click the logo in the
upper left corner.
</snip>


I agree the separate browser window is clunky too, but since for
first-time visitors the wiki and a.sl.o are easy to get to but hard to
get out of, it's much better the main homepage and introduction stay
available in another window.

I think today as we get the Sugar Labs message out we should be much
less concerned with what is standard in a wiki, and much more
concerned with how journalists, teachers, parents, and funders will be
able to escape from the wiki when they get lost.


thanks

Sean



On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 9:27 AM, Bernie Innocenti <bernie at codewiz.org> wrote:
> Sean DALY wrote:
>> Bernie - the logo has to point to the main page of the site - this was
>> fixed yesterday - again, the crux of the problem is first-time
>> visitors arriving at the "side door" and not even knowing there is a
>> "front door"
>>
>> Could you please restore the link to the site hompage as soon as possible?
>
> Done, but this paragraph in the main page also needs to be fixed
> for consistency:
>
> ---cut---
> If you are a new community member, please take a look around the wiki.
> You can navigate the wiki using the menus along the left side of the
> page. If you ever get lost, just click the logo in the upper left corner
> to bring you back to this page.
> ---cut---
>
> I also agree with Ivan that this behavior is quite awkward and
> non-standard.  I've already clicked it twice by mistake today :-)
>
> We have to find a good balance between friendliness to the casual
> visitor and usability for everyday users.
>
> I also don't quite like how the web site opens a separate browser window
> for the wiki (and only for that link).  Tosay, it's a highly discouraged
> web UI practice except for opening pop-ups in web applications.
>
> --
>   // Bernie Innocenti - http://www.codewiz.org/
>  \X/  Sugar Labs       - http://www.sugarlabs.org/
>