Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Sneak a peak at the new Frontier site
Author: David Carter-Tod Posted: 3/24/1999; 7:54:22 AM Topic: Sneak a peek at the new Frontier site Msg #: 4439 (In response to 4424) Prev/Next: 4438 / 4440
A good move. What follows are suggestions only. Generally I like it very much.I like the structured HowTos. I think a newcomer to Frontier might wonder at the difference between the "Website framework" and the "Webserver framework", just in terms of their labels -- once you get in, it becomes clearer. I would suggest something like "Building Websites" and "Serving Websites"
Thea's Galleria would be well placed in the What is Frontier? section, perhaps renamed as "Case Studies" -- a nice corporate term.
I think Emmanuel's point about "thickness" is worth thinking about, but I interpret the issue more in terms of making distinctions between resource labels, e.g. what are the differences between "Tutorial", "User Guide", and "HowTos" or what is the difference between "DocServer" and "Reference"?
I know there is a difference, but making that clear to the visitor is hard. In the latter example, I might try and fold "Docserver" and "Reference" together, and qualify "Docserver" as "Verb Documentation". I might try and imply that the "User Guide" is for downloading and printing and change its format accordingly, e.g. "Downloadable User Guide" -- I think the same is true for the tutorial, isn't it? That would begin to create a nice dichotomy between quick reference online documentation, and documentation you sit down and study.
ContentServer and WebEdit (and XML?) are for specific tools (however useful and wonderful they are), not general documentation. Putting these in a separate section might enhance the idea that they are value-added beyond the basic product, as well as reinforce the general/specific distinction.
Stylistically, I would call "Docs", "Documentation" (that standard, corporate feel again). I'm pretty sure you're not going to do this one :-)
I think of "Next" and "Prev" links in a similar way to "Click here" links -- They don't tell me what's coming and so I don't get a sense of the continuity of ideas. For example, in the What is Frontier? section, I started by clicking "The vision", but stepped back out of that page instead of clicking "Next". If the "Next" link had said something that keyed in to what I was just reading about (e.g. "Next: A Content Management Solution", I would have clicked on through, and you would have a chance to build a progressive case for the product. From a page design perspective this might be difficult to fit, but I think it would be worth it.
Hope this helps
David
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