Re: site usability

On Wed, Apr 18, 2001, Lorraine Johnson wrote:
> I didn't mean that your left-hand navigation should include all your
> documents, but that all documents related to a category should be listed in
> the category pages.  For example, the cHTML and HDML documents should be
> referenced from both the HTML and the Mobile category pages.  Oh, sure, put
> them at the bottom under a heading of "Things We Don't Recommend" or some
> such, but at least list them in the obvious places.  If not that, then add a
> category at the bottom, "Unadopted Proposals," maybe. Foster care for these
> unwanted orphans.

	All our technical reports are listed on one page:
http://www.w3.org/TR/
	I agree they should be linked from other pages as well, but you
have to consider one point: to put a link in the HTML home page to a
"thing we don't recommend" is giving it a much bigger impact than what
we want: users will go and see it more often, and further more, search
engines ala Google will give it a much bigger weight in their results.

> In my opinion, these category pages are your best ally in fighting your
> information management problem.  Make these pages into tables of contents
> and severely limit the introductory text.  Set up a template for the
> structure of each category page (section headings) and you'll find yourself
> a long way to an organized site with complete linking.  Some suggestions:
> "Current Standards," "Previous Standards and Drafts," "Related Information,"
> and "Related but Not Recommended Information."  It should be easy - although
> tedious - to discover which documents are not referenced from anywhere and
> figure out where to add the links.  Most importantly, make them consistent!
> 
> One other usability note:  because most of the navigation on your home page
> is accomplished through plain text links in yellow boxes, I did not register
> the blue bar graphic as a navigation element at all.  I saw it as part of
> the header graphic information and ignored it.  (Especially as it doesn't
> reappear on all your other pages.) Consistency is essential in designing
> navigation.

Thank you very much for your input! I will do my best to ask to the
different maintainers of the different pages to take them in
consideration when they design and update their pages.

Best regards,

Dom
-- 
Dominique Hazaël-Massieux - http://www.w3.org/People/Dom/
W3C's Webmaster at MIT
mailto:dom@w3.org - tel: +1-617-258-8143

Received on Wednesday, 18 April 2001 13:11:03 UTC