Re: Getting Started page updated

Thanks Doug! I appreciate the scrutiny.

tl;dr - I think the page length is fine. I agree that we need to clarify
the workflow, make the path from the Editor's Guide to the Getting Started
page more obvious.

I'll defend the length first.

The new design saves clicks, the bane of user experience.

One of the big problems we observed with the original GS page was that
folks were confused by the links to the lists of pages. They had difficulty
deriving the actual task to be performed and where. Requiring the visitor
to click through two pages to get to a page to work on was part of the
problem. The current design eliminates the need to click through a
strangely-wrought query result list, as well as saving a click by
presenting the start of the list up front with a description of the query
criteria.

I don't think the page is too long. Indeed, I was surprised that it came
out as short as it is. Not every page has to appear "above the fold," as it
were, and putting all tasks in one page lends continuity. It's the Web, and
long pages are okay. We need to divorce ourselves from the antiquated
"book" paradigm (in favor of the new-antiquated "scroll" paradigm! :)

Seriously, though, I see no good reason to chop this up.

I also disagree that as a visitor, most of the page does not apply.
Visitors may choose from any of the tasks types at any time. They glean
information about the type of content and the domain of the subject matter
from the Page and Summary descriptions in the list, and this information is
actually more important than whether the task is "basic" or "involved" or
"advanced" - these monikers are really just arbitrary abstractions. They
don't have any context until the visitor reads the subheadings and lists
underneath them. The visitor should be free to bounce from fixing broken
links to developing code examples to fixing bugs.

Now let's consider the workflow.

(By the way, Julee, I like that you used the borders on the boxes! And
thanks for taking care of the content about the pillars and all that -
sorry to clutter the page, I just didn't know what else to do with it!)

Anyway, I've fixed the link in the Main_Page to read, "please read our
Editor's Guide." The proper workflow is to steer contributors to that
step-by-step document first. The GS page is merely a part of the process,
and it is right there under "Working the wiki" in the Editor's Guide.

We also need to fix the dismissible Alpha message to point to the Editor's
Guide, not the GS page. Does anyone know how to do that? I scoured the wiki
looking for the template to no avail. Also that Alpha notice needs a better
design, generally.

Point is, the workflow is correctly drawn (We send 'em to the Editor's
Guide, then the GS page), and I agree with you that we need more points of
access. Within the Editors Guide we should provide more links to the GS
page - to the anchors for each task in the GS page, as these are mostly
followed by the Editor's Guide likewise.

I think that if we fix the dismissible Alpha message, and provide more
links from the Editor's Guide to the GS page, we'll have it pretty well
covered. I'll start working on these soon.

~Scott







On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 11:18 AM, Doug May <intuedge@gmail.com> wrote:

> The getting started page, as brilliant and as majorly improved as it
> is, still has two main problems:
>
> One, it's too long.  Probably best fixed by splitting out the 3 types
> of work effort onto 3 separate pages.  It would be great to have some
> kind of side-by-side comparison of the skills and tasks involved, to
> see each level at a glance, but having that much content just stacked
> vertically in one long page means that most of the page won't apply to
> me (whichever level I choose), and I can easily find myself
> inadvertently jumping from one set of instructions to another (they
> all look the same).
>
> Secondly, it's still a central part of the highly non-smooth new user
> flow -- it sends people away, for an indeterminate set of "getting set
> up" tasks, right at the top -- and last I checked there was no clear
> return path.  Maybe this page is "selecting the right tasks and
> challenges to take on" and it is referenced by the new "getting
> started" page.
>
> DougM
>
> On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 11:48 PM, Sébastien Desbenoit <seb@desbenoit.net>
> wrote:
> > Hi Scott,
> >
> > Indeed, this page should stay very simple, it just needs a color on title
> > and perhaps a horizontal bar to guide the looks of our user.
> >
> > Seb
> >
> > Le 27 mars 2013 à 16:45, Scott Rowe <scottrowe@google.com> a écrit :
> >
> > Thanks all! I appreciate the kudos.
> >
> > With this page, I followed the Teddy Roosevelt postulate: "Start where
> you
> > are, use what you've got, do what you can." So, yeah, there's no new
> > styling. If anyone wants to doll it up a bit, please do.
> >
> > The one provision I would like to maintain is that we keep this page
> simple.
> > I struggle daily with the notion that our pages are too cluttered and
> hard
> > to read versus the realization that, dammit, it's a documentation site
> and
> > visitors have to RTFM(!). With the Getting Started page, the objective
> is to
> > provide a list of pages to work on, broken down by task type. I've tried
> to
> > keep verbiage to a minimum, leaving most of the instructions to the
> Editor's
> > Guide.
> >
> > Any styling that moves this page forward (ahem) would be great. By the
> way,
> > though, I'm not a huge fan of the movethewebforward design - a bit too
> > blocky and monochromatic for my taste. But I do appreciate the way the
> > layout follows a "simple to complex" degradation of the information, and
> > that's what I've tried to achieve with the Getting Started page.
> >
> > ~Scott
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 10:58 PM, Sébastien Desbenoit <seb@desbenoit.net
> >
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> It's awesome!
> >>
> >> Maybe the three tittle and the boxes need a bit more style to be
> >> identified at the first look, I may be a bit dump, but I had a "very"
> quick
> >> look and I didn't see any change. I say the layout after my second
> visit:
> >> after looking at move the web forward. Maybe some space or a horizontal
> bar.
> >> I don't know. In my opinion, it's a bit too linear but it's just a style
> >> thing, the architecture is awesome.
> >>
> >> Seb
> >>
> >>
> >> Le 27 mars 2013 à 02:18, Julee Burdekin <jburdeki@adobe.com> a écrit :
> >>
> >> +flippin'1 ! Thanks, Scott, fr0zenice and Paul Rosenbusch!! J
> >>
> >>
> >> ----------------------------
> >> julee@adobe.com
> >> @adobejulee
> >>
> >> From: Eliot Graff <Eliot.Graff@microsoft.com>
> >> Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 3:03 PM
> >> To: Scott Rowe <scottrowe@google.com>, "public-webplatform@w3.org"
> >> <public-webplatform@w3.org>
> >> Subject: RE: Getting Started page updated
> >> Resent-From: <public-webplatform@w3.org>
> >> Resent-Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 3:04 PM
> >>
> >> That is flippin’ BEAUTIFUL!
> >>
> >> Thanks, Scott (and those who created the query template).
> >>
> >> Eliot
> >>
> >> From: Scott Rowe [mailto:scottrowe@google.com]
> >> Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 11:02 AM
> >> To: public-webplatform@w3.org
> >> Subject: Getting Started page updated
> >>
> >> Using fr0zenice and Paul Rosenbusch's nifty Configurable_Query template,
> >> I've updated the Getting Started page [1], replacing the previous links
> to
> >> old-school query results pages with the Page/Summary tables produced by
> the
> >> Configurable_Query.
> >>
> >> The new design breaks tasks out according to three levels, basic,
> >> involved, and advanced. Of the involved tasks, some are also broken out
> by
> >> domain (CSS, API, etc.)
> >>
> >> This design gets its inspiration from the Move the Web Forward [2]
> layout,
> >> which presents visitors with increasing levels of involvement as they
> scroll
> >> down the page.
> >>
> >> We anticipate a need to introduce the WPD Projects with more information
> >> under the Advanced task section, and as the Project project evolves, we
> can
> >> fill in this information.
> >>
> >> The next item on my list is writing up how to use the Configurable_Query
> >> template for contributors. If you want to start using these right away,
> you
> >> can steal mine from my User:Scottrowe page [3]. Just copy the entire
> page
> >> into your own like-named page.
> >>
> >> Cheers!
> >> ~Scott
> >>
> >>
> >> [1] http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Getting_Started
> >> [2] http://movethewebforward.org/
> >> [3] http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/User:Scottrowe/pages/custom_list
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Sébastien Desbenoit
> >>  -
> >> http://notes.desbenoit.net -
> >> http://internetetmoi.fr
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Sébastien Desbenoit
> >  -
> > http://notes.desbenoit.net -
> > http://internetetmoi.fr
> >
>