[Pydotorg-redesign] Rearranging the python.org sidebar (again!)

[Tim Parkin]

AMK said:
>The problem with the current sidebar is that it's too long and the 
>links are too jumbled.
>My current draft is at http://www.amk.ca/python.org.html, but it still 
>needs work.

I think the sidebar suffers from the 'it all needs to go on the front
page' disease. Just as there is usually a case to have most things on
the front page, there is an equal case that says there only need be a
handful of direct links. The real answer lies in what is best perceived
by the user and that is a result of a few factors

i) speed in which they know they 'are on the right path'. This doesn't
mean they have found where they are going, as long as you know you are
on your way and it looks acheivable this is sufficient. Conversely it
can be written, don't leave them hunting for ages for the exact solution
when a suitable milestone can be found quickly.

ii) above the fold exposure of all 'paths'. Everything doesn't have to
be above the fold (in the web this typically means the 550  pixels give
or take 50. People will scroll past this but they shouldn't have to for
major items.

iii) the typical user can keep a max of 9-12 items in their heads, any
more becomes a jumble. This can be used to focus in to achive more items
(ie choose on of the first 9 or so and then see another group of up to 9
choose from.

iv) Any room left over should be used for exceptionall common usage
items, prioritising those at the top

These obviously aren't 'rules' but can help avoid pitfalls. Myself and
my colleague Matt went through an analysis of the site content and
performed quick 'new user' test and our notes are at

http://www.pollenation.net/assets/public/redesign-notes.txt

These resulted in the grouping shown at 

http://www.pollenation.net/assets/public/design2.gif 

(for HTML http://www.pollenation.net/assets/public/index_rounded.html,
still a couple of browser bugs)

[ While I'm mentioning these and there are a few more people here, could
I solicit more feedback on the designs, cheers ]

The sidebar is as follows for those without browser access

ABOUT>
For Beginners
For Developers
For Business

DOWNLOAD>
Python Stable (2.2.3)
Python Beta (2.3b2)
more ...

DOCUMENTATION>
Tutorials
Library Reference
Standard Modules
Language Reference
more ...

COMMUNITY>
Mailing Lists
Events
User Groups
more ...

DEVELOPERS>
Project Page
PEPs
FAQ
Daily Snapshot
more ...

LINKS>
Vaults of Parnassus
Python Success Stories
Python Starship
Zope Python User Group
Python books
more ...


>* Popular links is too vague a section title.  Can someone suggest a 
>better title, or a rearrangement that makes the choice of title clear?
>* The "Exits" section is a jumble of stuff.  Why link to PyGame, not 
>NumPy or PIL or Reportlab or any number of worthy packages?  Why link 
>to the particular topic of web hosting?  I'd suggest just dropping the 
>entire "Exits" section, because it's not clear what it's for.

Just group links into a 'links' section. These can be detailed and
grouped on the interior page

>* "Commercial Exits" is also really long, yet it's still incomplete.  
>As M.-A. Lemburg pointed out a little while ago, his company, eGenix, 
>isn't listed.  We lack a criterion for adding companies to this list.  
>IMHO this isn't important enough to consume space on the top page; the 
>section should be removed and the companies listed somewhere else (in a

>marketing section?).

Agreed

Tim Parkin
Pollenation