User talk:HappyDog/Hub-based Main Page
Notes[edit]
This is my suggested design for a new main page. The two main changes are that there are now three boxes in the centre that give quick access points for the three main users of the site. The second is that the news section is radically reduced to just the most recent item. We would create a 'news' page to hold all news (if it doesn't already exist...) and that is what 'older news' would link to.
Each of the three 'hubs' has the most common 3 items for that group of users, plus a 'more' link. The items listed here are examples - we can decide on the final three later. The 'more' link will go to a central hub for that type of user, which will link to all information that they may wish for. Some pages may be linked to from more than one hub.
Note: This is only a demonstration, so most of the links just link back to my user page.
--HappyDog 01:06, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
- Looks good to me. It is also fine with me if the left sidebar adopts the three boxes, 'Users', 'System Administrators', and 'Developers' as its box structure with correspondingly organized links within them. I have hammered the current left sidebar into a semblance of order in the meantime, with a few more tweaks done just now. I would be pleased to see it change and grow. I am not fixed on the present form. Rather, I couldn't bear the disharmony of the former form with off wiki links mixed into on-wiki links. :-) --Rogerhc 01:46, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
- Yay, well done, "my ingenious HappyDog" *g* Just the chosen icons, especially the dev one, look a bit oldschoolish ;-) And, hmm, the fixed width is problematic for smaller windows or for non-computer visitors of the site. Maybe we can include the fundamental introduction as one bold link into the first hub section, or into the Welcome section (maybe also redesign the whole set of introduction pages like Wikipedia's tutorials with the ugly yellow tabs to get a better click-through?). So, if we could get rid of the introduction box on the right, we could then also get rid of the small version box ... better integrating the version numbers with the "directly to download" link somewhat eye-catching into the header box, or not? Greetings --:Bdk: 13:54, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
- Cheers Bdk! I'm open to suggestions for the icons - I chose those ones because they kind of work together: users in a graphical environment, administrators at the command line and developers working it out on a chalk board... :)
- I'm not sure there are fixed widths, unless you mean the width of the images themselves... unless there were some fixed widths already in the page (I didn't look at or change the main page markup, just added the new row).
- I think that we can get rid of the introduction box on the right without any difficulty. The pages themselves need a bit of reworking anyway (e.g. some are aimed at wiki newbies, some at devs, etc.) and maybe a click through introduction is the way forward (although we can look at that separately).
- Can you expand on what you mean about the version numbers? Are they even needed on the main page? I know some people (devs) who find them useful so they can tell at a glance if a new version has been released, but if those people learn to bookmark the new 'developer hub' instead then we don't need them here any more, do we? If we do keep it here, I reckon we should move the box into the news section. --HappyDog 14:39, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
Update[edit]
I have removed the introduction box and moved the versions into the news row. Thoughts? --HappyDog 17:18, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
- I like it.--Rogerhc 01:13, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
I also tried adding some prominent quick-links into the main intro box. Again - thoughts? --HappyDog 17:39, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
- Nice work! Ideas: putting them in table cells of their own tends to make them read as headers, which they are not. They are good links to have there under the "Welcome to MediaWiki.org" heading however. So maybe presenting them the common "links of interest" web idiom would be good, in one wide table cell or simply above the intro paragraph. Example:
- We would like visitors to read them instantly as links, not headers or dynamic menus. It might be equally done by simply removing the cell borders so that the links are not each enclosed in boxes but remain in dynamically width adjusted space:
| About this site | About MediaWiki | Download | Help & Support |
- or
| About this site | About MediaWiki | Download | Help & Support |
- Hmm, I probably favor the simple tableless centered links between pipes idiom for simplicity. It's an instantly recognized web idiom. I like the look of the page otherwise. Nice work!
- --Rogerhc 01:13, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
- Here's two more alternatives: [1] [2] --HappyDog 02:30, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
Versions box[edit]
I like the recent Versions being stated somewhere on the main page. The "Versions" box does it nicely. I'm a System administrator (novice but running my own MediaWiki on a FreeBSD box, wikigogy.org) who likes to be reminded what the current release version is. I feel it is good public resations to indicate our healthy release schedule on our main page, too. Our? I'm not even a developer but I feel included because it is announced on the main page - good public relations, and relevant info to me. A sign of life in the eyes of simple Users, too. I'd keep it there somewhere, like you have. :-) --Rogerhc 01:13, 13 September 2006 (UTC)