kde.org re-design usability issues

[Eric Ellsworth]

Hi all,
Well, let me see if I can add some to this.  This mail is long, so get ready 
to settle in. ;)

This new site is a definitely a big improvement over the present one.  It 
feels more stylish, and makes lots more things accessible.

The addition of right menu items is great.  The old site felt like it faded 
off into white.   The date makes it feel current, too.

Here's some suggestions for changes:
Layout:
  The /KDE Home is a good element, as a you-are-here type of thing
  It and the date are taking up a whole line for no particular reason.  I'd  
 put them into the horizontal menu.  Using slash to imply the root and hence 
  location is both geek-centric and Unix-centric.  I'd favor "You are here:"
  or "Viewing:" or something similar.  I'd integrate this into the horizontal 
  menu.

  The search box is fine positionwise (its location is common - see below 
  sites), though the size of the gray area makes it very noticeable, and also 
  makes it look somewhat like a title for the content.  I'd integrate it into 
  the horizontal menu. It might be nice to see what it looks like integrated 
  into either the right or left menu.

  I see three menus, with three themes:
	Left menu: commonly desired actions
	Right menu: projects and goings on in KDE
	Horiz menu: Navigation among KDE sites (unclear)

  The existence horizontal menu is good, but it's presently a little confusing 
  and repeats items.  I'd take download out of there, as its in the left menu.  
  The KDE.org (mirror, i18n) item is very confusing, especially since there's 
  this combo box about international stuff right above it.

  The combo box to the right of the logo need a label. How about "Worldwide 
  sites:", or "KDE in your country:".  It could also be integrated into the 
  horizontal menu.

Menus
  There's a lot of duplication of the menus:
   - Contacts appears on both L and R menus. It's good as an action - so  
  remove it from the right.
  - Download is a section on the left menu and an element on the horiz menu.  
  Leave it on the right, as it is better as action than navigation

  The News section on the right should be called More News or "Other News 
  Sources", as there's already a News section of the main content area.

  The right menu has confusing section headers, and too many categories.  The 
  General Category is a navigation of the overall KDE areas.  What are these?
  KOffice, KDevelop, Konqueror seem relevant to me.  I'd also rename it from
  General, because general is too, well, general. ;-)

  The Applications section is gone.  I think it took up a bit too much space 
  before, but it is nice to give exposure to KDE apps.  Perhaps it could be a
  box within the right menu?  Then we could remove Applications from the 
  general section.

  Multimedia is really a developer area as it stands, as is printing and PIM.  
  They should go into the Development section, which I'd rename Developer 
  Resources, so as to distinguish it from the Develop action on the left menu.
  I'd also put Usability in here, as it is really a resource for developers to 
   make better programs.  Remove Contact (it's on the left), merging Women
  into Promotion, as KDE-Women _promotes_ the participation of
  women in KDE.
  This leaves:
	Applications Module	
	Key Projects (was General)
	News
	Development Resources
	Promotion

  What do y'all think?
	
Content
  The content lacks clear titles and separation.  I like the idea from MSN.com 
  of using different colors for different sections of content.  How about the 
  following titles "Mission", "Software releases", and "News", with different 
  light colors for each.

If you made it down here, congratulations for reading so far. But don't go 
away, there's more below.

Cheers,
Eric


For reference on the issue, here's a survey of some portal type sites around 
the web:

My country's major newspapers:
Washingtonpost (http://www.washingtonpost.com):
1 menu column, left, with a few utilities on the right side.
Search is on the right side.
Horiz menu (tabs are under logo)

NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com):
1 menu column, left, with a news bullets on the right side.
(more content on right side than WP)
Search is on top and center under logo, almost exactly where search is in 
root66's design.

Smaller US newspapers:
Dallas Morning News (http://www.dallasnews.com/)
Similar to WP - menu on left, search on right, w/ weather and ads
Horizontal menu (tabs) immediately under masthead [too big, IMO]

Abroad:
The Times (UK) (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/)
Menu on left, two larger columns of content, no R column
Search is upper left under logo

Berliner Morgenpost (http://morgenpost.berlin1.de/)
Menu on left goes up past logo
no horiz menu
Right menu has classifieds, then news bullet down below
Search at bottom of left menu  [Content column is a little small IMO]

MSN.com
Logo includes two major tabs
Menu left, about as wide as KDE.  Menu right, darker color, contains links to 
related sites.
Simple horizontal menu under masthead
Search is top and center under horizontal menu
They did do a nice job using colored boxes to separate each section

Yahoo.com 
Menu items for related sites surrounds logo
Search center
No left menu

Geek favorites:
Slashdot (http://slashdot.org)
(Ignoring top banner ad)
Horiz menu to right of logo news topics symbolized by icons
Left menu - mostly actions
Right menu - news bites organized by section

/.  used all of my screen at 1064x768
This emphasizes each of the stories in the center, as they are now large, w/ 
large fonts
Search is at bottom - hard to find.

Arstechnica:
Masthead with slogan over entire top, followed by banner ad
Left menu with clearly label boxes, and plenty of space between menu items
Lower left menu is mailbag, etc.
Top of content area (r of left menu) is like slashdot - a logo and then a 
couple icons for news items
Right menu is for articles (note - this is heavy-duty content on R)
Search is a button to a new page - I was looking for a text box with an 
associated button.