[Sugar-devel] Suggestions for GSoC 2019

[Amaan Iqbal]

> I don't expect revamping a website to be a _goal_.

Without a proper website with the latest content, how can we expect the
activities to reach the audience?

> Even if we add a project for improving the website, 2 years down the line
> we might again face a similar email pointing out the drawbacks of the new
> model and another revamping of the website.

This doesn't mean that we will have the same website with the old
foundation 10 years down the line. Web technologies and standards have
changed significantly in the past 2-3 years and its recommended we too keep
our components updated. The main reason would be similar to why we are
updating our activities. Fixing/Updating activities has to do with more
engagement with current users and improving the website, to try for more
new users. I guess both are equally important.

> Having less projects does not imply our failure in any sense,
> lack of existing contributors might indicate that

I agree, but it will be underutilization of potential of an organization
which has participated in GSoC for last 10 successive years. We might
consider having few more mentors this time if proper mentoring was the
issue last time. Even if we are not having this project, we should think of
utilizing GSoC to the fullest with tasks related to all the activities
wherever significant work is pending. Further, even if we desire to have
some new activities, we should think of including that too.

> I added why a user should get sugar.
>
> It’s still a work in progress as I figured even the last design that’s
> under development now Wouldn’t really solve the problem. We need MORE
> call to action buttons, more exciting colors, a better navigation
> processes.

That's what. I would too suggest improving the color palette we are
currently using. The current color palette is not that pleasing at first
sight. Also call to action and download buttons on the main page itself
would be a good idea to improve the conversion rate. Further better and
clearer navigation is also missing.

>  Hoping to move most primary information from wiki to the site, instead
> of breaking their section on the site to go to wiki(it lost them
> totally)

This is the most important point. I strongly agree with this. Our website
should only have the important information instead of the wikis. It breaks
the flow and makes the user end up getting confused.

> This is as important as improving Sugar Labs tools. Without an
> actionable site our tools won't reach our potential users. We need the
> users (students parents, school administration) to be able to download
> and use Sugar and every other Sugar Labs tools effectively without
> stress then we can record an increase in downloads of these tools we
> put in so much to build.

This is why I thought of this idea. My primary intention is not to get
anything revamped but to improve the way we present our activities to the
user. Also for better maintenance, it is required that we keep our site up
to date and consistent with the standards.

Ultimately I would suggest that we should utilize GSoC to the fullest in
any way we can, be it only with improving the activities.

I will leave further discretion to the board members.


Regards,
Amaan

On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 6:18 AM James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org> wrote:

> Thanks.  But my vote is no.
>
> It's not three months of coding.
>
> It doesn't solve a problem we have with our software products; Sugar,
> activities, Music Blocks, or Sugarizer.
>
> Our problem with the web site is with the content, in turn because we
> have had few content producers, and too many people proposing style and
> layout changes instead.
>
> Last month, or November, we had a team formed to do A/B testing, but
> the A/B testing has not yet begun.  I'm guessing they are too busy.
> Perhaps it is time for more people to speak up in order to slow it
> down even further.
>
> On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 07:44:28PM +0530, Amaan Iqbal wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I see we only have 6 projects so far in our Ideas list in comparison to
> 11
> > which were selected in GSoC last year. Being a successful Open Source
> > organization, I sincerely hope we have the potential of having many more
> > projects in GSoC this year(most probably 15+ if we can come up with such
> > promising ideas).
> >
> > Here I would suggest an idea for the renovation of our Website, [1]blog,
> and
> > creation of a customized/integration of existing CMS to our website from
> where
> > admins can create articles directly. Also some other web pages can also
> be
> > added to this list if I am missing something. The end product will be
> expected
> > to have :
> >
> >   • Material Designed
> >   • no/minimal redundancies in code
> >   • faster load time
> >   • Use of latest website standards
> >   • Wider reach in terms of accessibility
> >   • Faster and easier updates from the admins to the website
> >   • Elimination of device specific issues
> >   • Removal of most of the issues on [2]www-sugarlabs
> >   • Easy setup for a new contributor
> >
> > After mentoring for few design tasks in GCI and collaborating with
> several pull
> > requests I found that the website was mostly constructed with many
> components
> > placed forcefully in their places including a search box in the navbar,
> such
> > that website looks somehow decent. But the design is not at all generic
> and so
> > as a result there use to be many small issues with looks and behavior of
> > components on different devices. Also, the website is not updated to the
> latest
> > web standards.
> >
> > Further, publicity in the best way with appropriate [3]accessibility of
> the
> > website is important for any organization and I sincerely hope this idea
> has
> > that potential.
> >
> > Looking forward to hearing your opinion on this before sending a Pull
> Request
> > on the GSoC ideas list.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Amaan
> >
> > References:
> >
> > [1] http://planet.sugarlabs.org/
> > [2] https://github.com/sugarlabs/www-sugarlabs/issues
> > [3] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Accessibility/HTML
>
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
>
> --
> James Cameron
> http://quozl.netrek.org/
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>
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