Mail Archives: geda-user/2014/04/19/22:33:51
DJ Delorie wrote:
> I just don't think a
> generic wiki page makes for a good first impression when someone
> looks for a project.
Like any decent content management system (CMS) these days dokuwiki
appearance is completely driven by cascaded style sheets (CSS) and
javascript snippets. Unless you are into something really weird and
extraordinary it can be rendered by a dokuwiki page. In other words,
there is no such thing as a "generic wiki page".
There is of course the look and feel you get by default if you just
installed a fresh instance of dokuwiki. For dokuwiki this default was
for a long time the look and feel of http://wiki.geda-project.org/
Except for minor tweaks no
> It's not just the content, it's the
> appearance. A few glossy images and a first-time-visitor-specific
> layout makes a big difference.
Very true.
However, I don't see glossy images on http://geda-project.org/ :-)
Let's compare with http://www.kicad-pcb.org/ (yes, this hurts)
While I am not a particular fan of their web design, they got a few
points right:
1) First impression is a screenshot of the application with a decently
sized layout. --> subtext: This is a tool to get work done
2) The navigation list to the right is well organized. No subsection
has more than seven items. Order of the links from top to bottom is
like you would expect from newbie to expert. Note, how the navigation
does not reflect the internal structure of the kicad suite. And
honestly, as a new user I wouldn't care for this structure for
navigation. The divide between schematic editor, layout tool,
footprint chooser, gerber viewer and other tools will come naturally
in a tutorial.
Sure enough, the components are mentioned further down the main page.
3) If I scroll the below the first screen of the main page I see
* More screen shots -- one for each major component of the suite
* some statistics on code lines over time pulled from ohloh.net
* a comparison of google frequency compared to their competition
(geda and eagle)
* a sketch of a typical design process for a simple project
* an advertisement of their "large set of open-source library
components". If the newbie has any experience with EDA this will
ring some bells. A decent lib is definitely an asset.
* a basic instruction how to contribute to the software
Do I feel informed as a first time user? Yes, I do.
Do I feel I need to dive into the web site to get an overview. No.
Which page would I visit next? Probably "Download", then "Tutorials"
Now, how does the current geda-Project page compare?
> I disabled the registration page completely.
I Didn't know, there ever was self registration enabled. Back when I
started writing in the wiki I had to ask Ales on his personal mail.
Right now, I have no account for the geda wiki. After I got removed
for the third time out of the blue for no reason, I got tired to apply
again. So no wiki contributions by me since about January 2013.
I just failed to locate an instruction on how to obtain edit buttons
for the wiki in the wiki. The start page
http://wiki.geda-project.org/start
refers for "jobs that need help" to the tasks page
http://wiki.geda-project.org/geda:tasks
which sends me back to
http://wiki.geda-project.org/start
for "how to get started editing the documentation on the wiki".
---<)kaimartin(>---
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