[maemo-community] maemo.org redesign

[From: Thomas Perl]

Hi there!

On Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:15:31 -0600
Tim <tim at samoff.com> wrote:
> Any thoughts on the new rev (my comments below)? 
>
> http://samoff.maemobox.org/maemo_redesign/samoff-maemo.org-redesign_idea_0008e.png[1]
> http://samoff.maemobox.org/maemo_redesign/samoff-maemo.org-redesign_idea_0008e-supp.png[2]

Although Quim has said he wanted a drop-down box, I'd rather have it as
a search box that does the right thing (see
http://impressive.net/services/dtrt/). Some things I'd like to see:

* Entering just a number takes me to the bug page on bugs.maemo.org
* Entering an exact product name brings me to the product page (but
  having an option on that product page to search for posts, wiki pages,
  etc.. for that product, because if i enter a product name, i might
  want to see wiki pages, etc.. related to that)
* Entering an exact wiki page title brings me to the wiki page (e.g.
  "uploading to extras" brings me to the "Uploading_to_Extras" page)
* Entering an exact username brings me to the profile page (again, with
  a link there to do a full-text search)
* Entering a function name brings up the documentation page for it (e.g.
  I enter "HildonVolumebar" or "hildon_program_get_instance" and it
  opens up the api docs for that class/function)

Alternatively to adding an option to do a full-text search to each
entity (project, user, etc..), we could have two buttons (see wikipedia
for an example, they have "article" and "full-text"), one that does the
right thing as described above and one that defaults to full-text
search.

Of course, there might be technical constraints, but from the point of
view of a user and developer, I'd like to go to maemo.org, quickly get
what I want (user info, project info, developer docs, bug report) and
be done with it. I don't want to "learn" the structure (see second
screenshot) of maemo.org, I want to get to the stuff I need _right_now_
and I want to get there fast. Still, if I use it often, and want to
"learn" it a bit more, having that search box do things like above is
very cool and easy to learn.

Also, the affordance of such a white box in the top right of a web page
is "type text and search away", not "select a category". See these
pages and think about what the white box in the top right corner does
(no particular order or reason for picking these, just thinking of
some more prominent company/project web sites):

http://www.redhat.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx
http://www.nokia.at/
http://www.gnu.org/
http://www.freebsd.org/
http://slashdot.org/

Putting a drop-down box there isn't a good solution, in my opinion.


thp