[Qgis-community-team] website - ideas/questions

[Stephan Reber]

Hallo,

I took a closer look at the website. There are a few things I have
noticed. It seems to me the website is for developers and experienced
users. But if you want to get new users interested, they should read
something about QGIS. The latest news are not very interessting for
those people. The next thing is that scrolling in the site isn't very
comfortable (on my pc and notebook). Or isn't it a common problem?

Here are more points, I noticed.

1. Menus:
Do we need two of them and which is the main menu? I think the menu
guides you through the content. With the two menus you got to jump from
one to the other. I found it a little bit confusing. I would prefer a
structure for the main menu like this:

a) Home (with the general information about QGIS, features, current
release, screenshots,...)
b) Project (information, contribute)
b) News
c) Download
d) Documentation (documentation, FAQ, flash demos, tutorials,...)
e) Community (mailinglists, wiki, forum...)
f) Developer ( (mailinglists, wiki, forum...)
g) Commercial support

For better use some sublevel menus (right expression?) should be added.
The top menu can provide fast access to

a) Wiki
b) Forum
c) Blogs
d) Contribute

2. Modules:
Which Modules are really necessary? I think there are too much. The
modules distract the user from the content. Do we need all modules on
the frontpage? Some could be displayed not on the frontpage, but on
sites that fit to the issue.

3. News:
How long should the news be shown on the website? Over 80 sites for the
news are too many. Maybe we enter a date for "finish publishing".

4. Backend:
After a first look at the backend I was surprised that the content is
organised mainly in the section/category "News/Latest News".  I think,
there should be more categories to get a better overview of the items.

And now some remarks to the user feedback.


Otto Dassau schrieb:
> Hi Tara and Stephan, 
>
> Tara, I found your mail with the feedback you got from visitors to the website. 
>
>  Otto
>
> ##########
>
> From: Tara Athan <tara_athan at alt2is.com>
> To: Otto Dassau <otto.dassau at gmx.de>
> Subject: Re: [work] QGIS website
> Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2007 20:34:58 -0700
>
> 1. turn-around time for approval of registrations of the forum was a consistent
> issue 
>
> 2. viewers with smaller screens thought the 3-column layout of the website was
> too crowded. I agree, I find 3-columns websites confusing,  especially on the
> first visit, when I am trying to answer the question-  is there anything on this
> site worth the investment of time in finding  it.  I suggest going to a 2-column
> layout, and modifying the style so  there are more visual cues to separate the
> center panel from the  periphery, such as a different color background for the
> center panel and  modules, or some changes in the style of the center panel
> headings to  draw more attention to the center. (requires modifying html and/or
> css  of the template)
>   
If many modules are used I would prefer the 3-column layout - left =
main menu, middle = center panel, right = modules. This delivers a clear
seperation of navigation, content and other information. Some modules on
the top of the site could displayed in the bottom of the page. The width
of three columns can be changed for better view on small displays. If
there is no need for so many modules a 2-column layout should also work .
I agree that some changes in the style are good to bring out the center
panel. I will take a look at the css/html and see what I can do. Or is
there anyone who is willing to design a own QGIS-Template?
> 3. one viewer suggested we have more visual content on the website, such  as
> screenshots of maps produced by QGIS.  I considered running a request  for users
> to send in their favorite map and then having a block on the  front page to
> display the "map of the month" 
>   
A few more screenshots to give a more visual content to the general
information would be good. And some place for maps/screenshots by users
would be great. There are some components for photogalleries. Perhaps we
can integrate such a component.
> 4. Backups are a concern.  I stopped working on the website because the  Joomla
> backup tool was not working and *I was concerned about making  unrecoverable
> changes. *
So am I.
> As I understand it, there is no built in backup  capability in the
> default Joomla.  I suggest we uninstall the Site  Backup component, which is not
> working, and install another one that does.
>   
I have worked with a backup to migrate a real small site to joomla1.5
and it did well. I will look after this backup component.
> 5. The syndication is not synchronized with the front page, because the  Home
> item in the Main menu is not using the Front Page Component.  I  would suggest
> either going back to using the Front Page Component or  dropping the
> syndication. 
>
> 6. To maintain security if the website, the Joomla security checklist  should be
> checked and any deficiencies resolved.
> http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,81058.0.html
>   
I took a short look at the link. To maintain security to the website
means to keep joomla up to date and make the right settings or is there
more to do (Webserver, MySQL,..)?
> On Wed, 14 May 2008 14:15:12 -0700
> Tara Athan <tara_athan at alt2is.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> I cannot find copies of the website feedback I got via e-mail.  There 
>> was not a lot and most of it was pointing out broken links or wondering 
>> why they could not get their registration approved, and we took care of 
>> these things.
>>
>> The one unresolved comment I remember is a suggestion that we put more 
>> graphics (like maps) on the front page. This was not addressed because 
>> it would have required a significant overhaul of the website. But 
>> perhaps this is the time to reconsider.
>>
>> Tara
>> _______________________________________________
>> Qgis-community-team mailing list
>> Qgis-community-team at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-community-team
>>     
> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-community-team mailing list
> Qgis-community-team at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-community-team
>
>   
It seems there is a lot to do for the website. And I wonder if it is the
right time to migrate to joomla1.5. Then we could work in a sandbox to
update/rearrange the website and put it online when it works fine.

regards,
Stephan