Hi Henning, As I mentioned before, the layout look great.
I have specific thoughts on the front page of the site. This page provides the first impression for new users and is a frequent stop for intermediate/experienced users. I think we should aim it to provide immediate help to these two group and move all other content away. New users need to know --> What the heck is Velocity? --> How do I build a webapp with Velocity? --> What's the latest version? --> Is there recent activity or news about this project? --> How do I get help? Intermediate/experienced users need to know --> Where can I find the Javadocs, users guide, etc Stuff that isn't as important (and shouldn't take up valuable front page space) --> Anything more than a sentence about the Velocity TLP organization --> Anything about the Apache Software Foundation --> Long menus in the body of the page. It's tempting to say "this is a hierarchy -- we shouldn't put engine specific info on the home page-- everything goes on the individual project page". But I disagree-- for ease of use we need to orient users immediately on the main page of the site. It might be helpful to look at other multiproject sites, e.g. Hibernate (http://hibernate.org) First two paragraphs - about the main project. Short third paragraph about the organization. Then comes a short summary of each project. Then recent news (with dates). On the left is clear, bold menu with prominent link to "Documentation", "Download", and "Forum & Mailing Lists". Not saying this is perfect, but all the user questions listed above are answered with a minimum of scrolling or clicking around. On a new topic, when I click "Engine" I am apparently in some type of global-all-Engine-version home page that will then link to each of our historic versions. I think this is a mistake. Most users don't care about historic versions. I suggest we link directly to the current release, with hyperlinks to take you to docs for historic versions (or bleeding edge from source control). Again, the motivation is to make navigation simple so users can find what they want quickly. By the way, I'd be glad to help out writing content. But I'll pause to hear comments first. WILL P.S. Thanks for pushing this along. I'm really eager to see us launch TLP and Velocity 1.5. On 12/11/06, Henning P. Schmiedehausen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[Hm. I could have sworn I've sent this out already. Seems it never made it] To let you know what I've been busy over the weekend: I've been wrestling with maven 2 and site building. A preview of where I intent to go is currently visible at http://velocity.apache.org/staging/ Comments, Criticism, Help, Patches wanted. Most of that is already in the site svn; I've created a custom skin for the site, that is not yet there. Best regards Henning -- Henning P. Schmiedehausen -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] | J2EE, Linux, 91054 Buckenhof, Germany -- +49 9131 506540 | Apache person Open Source Consulting, Development, Design | Velocity - Turbine guy "Save the cheerleader. Save the world." --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-- Forio Business Simulations Will Glass-Husain [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.forio.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
