Re: New ideas

[Robert Hopcroft <hopcroft@uswest.net>]

Doug Loss wrote:

> Roman and I have been discussing some things off-channel, and we wanted to get
> your thoughts on some of them.
>
> It's become evident that our website isn't well-designed for ease of access to
> the information we have.  That's mostly because it wasn't really designed at
> all; it just grew as various people said, "Hey, we ought to have thus-and-so at
> the eul-edu site."  Each of the ideas by itself was pretty good, but they
> didn't reflect any over-all design or organization.
>
> I know Roman has some ideas on how the website might be organized.  I'm pretty
> sure Fredrik Liljegren does too (don't you, Fredrik?).  I'll be awfully
> surprised if there aren't at least a few others with some good ideas to share.
> So here's what I'm asking: could you all chime in on a discussion on how to
> organize the seul-edu website for the easiest, most pleasant access to the info
> we have here?  I can pretty much guarantee that all ideas will be carefully
> considered and many if not most will be acted upon.  None of us who set up the
> seul-edu website consider ourselves master web authors (well, maybe Wil does,
> but he's not on the mailing list at the moment so he won't see this :-) ), so
> we'll gratefully accept any help we can get.

I've had many thoughts that web site needs some help. I'm glad Roman has gotten us
to this point. First a visitor to the web site is a customer. How does one treat a
customer. One helps the customer get the information the customer wants in the
fastest way posible. First the "Current Projects " page.  In all possible cases
have the project name link to a web page. Keep the description to no more than
required to let a person know what the project is. Status should start with a word
like (discussion, design or development) which immedately tells one the general
class. Thus if someone is looking for a running program, they don't waste time
looking at discussion or design state projects. Finally, I would group the
projects according to some criteria such as administrative, etc. for two reasons.
First, I would assume we are going to be successful and thus have many projects.
Second, it makes it much easier to see a group to determine, "Is anything
missing?", etc. Next, I don't like the name "To Do List". It doesn't give the
right message. I would prefer something like Doug's suggestion of "Prospective
Projects". I talked to Wil about having the format of the "To Do List" and the
"Project List" the same. I would think this would make things simpler. For
example, one could use the same submit layout. However, Wil wants things as they
are for reasons I haven't been able to understand. Speaking of the submit layout,
it should be relocated, perhaps to the seul-edu home page. No one will find it
where it is. The "Software List" should also be grouped by category. A set of
desireable characteristics (such as intended ages) should be determined so that
one can immediately see them. The software links that are currently in the "Links
Worldwide" should be on a separate web page with a link from the bottom of the
"Existing Software" page with a heading such as "Links to additional software".
Seul-edu home page should contain either the information or a link to the
information on how to do things pertaining to seul-edu (such as how to submit a
project). One should not have to ask the list. One wants things as efficient as
possible. Same goes for things pertaining to seul itself such as how to use CVS.
They should be linked from the seul home page. I've seen much better "subscribe "
sections as well as many other things. For starters.

Bob

PS On IRC, it's my understanding that one has to be careful on security issues.