New Site Navigation Layout

Goal: Making the Trac site more accessible to non-developers.

What we have now

|------------------------------------|
|    Cloudy & Associates             |
|    Logo goes here                  |                                                ________
|------------------------------------|                                               |________| Search

                                        logged in as XXX | Logout | Settings | Help/Guide | About Trac
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
|           | Wiki | Timeline | Roadmap | Browse Source | View Tickets | New Ticket | Search | Admin | 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             Start Page | Index by Title | Index by Date | Last Change

We currently have no sidebar on either side.

What we want to have

Here is where Gary describes the site of his dreams...

People come to the site for only a few reasons. I feel very strongly that most cloudy users are computationally illiterate. When they see "ticket" they think of Rolling Stones or speeding on a highway.... The major reasons they come are the following, which should be the main nav buttons:

  • download & set up the code
  • find its hot fixes
  • a link to the discussion board (for now on the yahoo site)
  • find its known problems
  • find its history
  • what we have planned for the future - this page is highly viewed on nublado.org

These would not need to be in this order. Have i forgotten anything?

Cheers,

Gary

Mockup of proposed new layout

First draft by Will Sat May 17 09:07:43 2008

Header

|------------------------------------|
|    Cloudy & Associates             |
|    Logo goes here                  |                                                ________
|------------------------------------|                                               |________| Search

                                                    logged in as XXX | Logout | Settings | About Trac
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
|         | Home | Download | Problems & Fixes | Discuss | Report Bug | History & Plans | Developers | 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                          Index by Title | Index by Date | Last Change

Notes

  • The following buttons have been changed/removed:
    • Timeline, Roadmap, Browse Source - replaced by Developers. This could be a page or a menu, which would contain at least the following: Timeline, Roadmap, Browse Source, Development Wiki, View Tickets, Search, Trac Help/Guide, ...
    • View Tickets, New Ticket - replaced by Report Bug. This could be a direct link to New Ticket, or it could be a page with a gentler introduction aimed at users.
    • Start Page - removed. Seems redundant, since it is the same as Wiki.
    • Wiki - renamed to Home.
    • Search - removed. There is already a search box, which searches everything. The separate search page allows you to restrict to only wiki or only issues, etc. This should be in the Developers section.
    • Help/Guide - moved to Developers section since it is about Trac.
  • The following buttons have been added:
    • Download - should this be a link to DownLoad or to StepByStep?
    • Problems & Fixes - this could be a menu with links to KnownProblems and HotFixes.
    • Discuss - link to Yahoo group.
    • Report Bug - discussed above.
    • History & Plans - link to RevisionHistory? Where are the plans outlined?
    • Developers - discussed above.