Hi Peter, No worries in taking a simple page design idea into something bigger -- appreciate your well founded (and experienced) post. Responses in text below.
On Fri, 2009-03-06 at 07:58 -0800, Peter wrote: > Wayne (et al), > > You have just initiated a big discussion. I'd be willing to call it > huge. I believe you have also jumped to solution a little too quickly. I was wondering myself whether we're jumping to a solution too quickly -- but thought we should put the topic/idea out there and explore all the options, possible solutions and plot an achievable path that will help us achieve our goals. > I don't believe main page and landing page redesign is going to be the > optimal way to achieve what we are after. Information / Site design > needs to be driven by the next iteration of requirements and page > design may be a small part of meeting the requirements. You touch on > the requirements in this post; ability to be notified of changes, > project nodes, search engine optimization, I am sure their are other > important requirements to this next phase of WE. > > I believe we need to go through an open requirements (user stories) > gathering phase and come to agreement which of these stories are most > important and then build toward that set of requirements (features). I > believe an Agile software engineering approach could be well applied > here. Absolutely --- we need to begin with use case scenarios. We're always going to be challenged with striking a difficult balance between optimal requirements (what we would like to have) & technological/other constraints (what we are able to do.) Creativity is the ability to innovate and design within constraints -- which is why I like your suggestion for use case scenarios. > I believe our current goal is in encouraging the development of OER > content and its use and reuse. We need this content to become a part > of the internet's OER "ecosystem". Agreed -- our strategic vision is to promote and enable our participation in a sustainable OER ecosystem. The question is what can we do? What is our part in this eco-system. > I believe WE needs to become a > platform that encourages Communities of Practice clustering around > project nodes and subject areas. I believe page design is a small part > of this. I believe we would have better results in focusing on > changes / enhancements that tie WE into these communities. > > Anyhow, that's my $0.02 worth. I could add more, but that can wait > until we have an agreed upon next step. Great post -- we haven't decided on any steps -- lets get this right. Are we saying that use case scenarios are the first step? > > Sorry if I have taken a simple main page redesign idea into something > bigger. > > Sincerely, Peter > > On Mar 5, 8:28 pm, Wayne Mackintosh <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi everyone > > > > Open questions: > > > > 1) Should WE redesign its homepage and important landing pages? > > 2) Will improved information design of the WE main page and important > > landing pages improve retention? > > 3) Should WE form a working group to consider proposals for Website > > redesign? > > 4) If so -- do we have any volunteers who will put their hands up in > > thinking about redesigning the website? (Especially folk who have good > > experience in this area -- but everyone is most welcome to give a hand). > > > > A little background info > > > > Website referrals and direct traffic account for 26% of our total visits > > with search engine referrals making up the balance. On average visitors > > to WE view 3.62 pages per visit. What's interesting is that our home > > page makes up only 3% of our total page views -- suggesting that folk do > > find specific content pages in the wiki. > > > > Other top ranked pages, include, for instance: > > > > * The recent changes pagehttp://www.wikieducator.org/Special:RecentChanges > > * The Content page which lists content > > projectshttp://www.wikieducator.org/Content > > * The India national page nodehttp://www.wikieducator.org/India > > * The Iniatives page which lists projects in the > > wikihttp://www.wikieducator.org/Initiatives > > * The Otago Polytechnic sales and marketing course > > pagehttp://www.wikieducator.org/Sales_and_Marketing > > * The eXe online manualhttp://www.wikieducator.org/Online_manual > > * A lesson on Forms of Energy developed by the HOD of Technology > > Education, University of Education, Winneba in > > Ghanahttp://www.wikieducator.org/Lesson_1:_Forms_of_Energy_and_Energy_Tran... > > > > It's risky to postulate definitive conclusions based on these stats but > > I guess its reasonable to say: > > > > 1. Educators are interested in monitoring and observing changes in the > > wiki > > 2. Important landing pages include content listings, WE > > initiatives/projects and national project nodes > > 3. Individual content projects in WE do attract significant traffic. > > > > What does this mean for the information design of our site? > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
