[maemo-community] Nav bar items (was Re: Comments about the maemo brainstorm)

[From: Andrew Flegg]

Quim wrote:
> ext Tim wrote:
> >
> > I mentioned this in the IRC meeting yesterday. There's no room left in
> > the Nav bar (especially on an 800px screen!), but I think this is
> > important as well. We might consider another prominent sidebar item
> > (like Get Involved/Get Help). I can create this button if it's the way
> > we want to go.
>
> In the short term, we could get rid of Community since Get Involved
> points exactly to the same place.
>
> Intro ("Get started"?) and Development could be next candidates if we
> need more room.

"Community" and "Development" are both sections which contain disparate applications and content. "Intro", however, is an anachronism (the use case of "follow a deep link to maemo.org and want to know about the site you're on"). There are probably better ways of doing that now (if nothing else, clicking on the top-left logo is pretty standard) so moving this to a sidebar link makes sense.

> This way we might end up having a nav bar full
> of action:
>
> Downloads - Talk - Brainstorm - Wiki - News

This worries me for two reasons.

Firstly, "wiki" is a technology/application; not a part of the site. It is a means to an end and has entry points in both "Community" and "Development". It was a *very* conscious choice to leave it out, and have the nav bar items usecase-, rather than technology-, oriented.

Secondly, although I think the brainstorm needs to be promoted, I'm not convinced it fits in the nav bar. A sidebar button on the front page and prominence under "Community" (i.e. "Get Involved") seems to make the most sense to me.

> ("School" being a candidate there if it happens)

Agreed. This fits into the broad categorisation and use-case design (by adding a use-case).

> And a top right block for the one-time or niche interesting spots:
>
> Get Started
> Get Involved
> Development
>
> ("Get Help" could stay there or be absorbed as part of "School". Just
> talking.)

We've just completed a comprehensive user-centred redesign of maemo.org. It seems odd that the convdersation has so quickly turned to doing it again because of a desire to promote one activity.

Cheers,

Andrew

PS. I'm reminded of when I was webmaster at a large
    multinational (which shall remain nameless):
    everyone closely involved with a project thought
    that their link/application/news item deserved top
    billing. 

-- 
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew at bleb.org  |  http://www.bleb.org/
Maemo Community Council member