Re: new website: initial comments

[Tim McNamara]

On Jun 23, 2009, at 7:11 AM, David Stocker wrote:

>   2. On the documentation page, maybe it would be better to choose a
>      wording other than "Normal Users" for the second section of
>      documentation links. This might imply that "Beginning Users" are
>      somehow /abnormal/. Maybe "Regular Users" or "Experienced Users"
>      would be a better choice.

How about "New Users," "Intermediate Users" and "Expert Users?"

> I know the second one seems nitpicky, but LilyPond is becoming a  
> mature 'brand' and when you're advertising a brand, every aspect of  
> your image should be carefully considered.

That's true.  I like to look of the new Web page so far.

I hate cluttered web pages (and hence I don't like most web pages-  
few Web site designers seem to have much knowledge about visual  
perception and lots of knowledge about JavaScript, and so they play  
to their strength) so I like the nice clean look proposed here.  The  
image on the old page is too dark and rather depressing to my eyes.   
Putting color behind the top navigation bar separates it from the  
rest of the content and makes it's function more obvious.

The location of elements on the Web page should flow logically.  Most  
Western users will tend to start at the top center, them move down  
and to the upper right as if reading a newspaper headline and then  
the lead article.  I would imagine that those reading habits are  
different for people who read languages with different text flow, and  
I have little idea how to accommodate that (does LilyPond have a user  
base that reads Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, Chinese, etc. which might make  
this an issue?).

Organization into clear columns (e.g., navigation on left, content in  
the center and either extending to the right side of the page or  
another column on the right with links) makes it simple for the eye  
to follow.  I prefer the two column approach to minimize the need to  
scroll down every 10 seconds while reading; this also simplifies  
layout issues.

Color coding also makes it easier for the eye to follow- beginning  
user information in Color 1, intermediate user information in Color  
2, expert user information in Color 3.  This could simply be done by  
changing the colors behind the navigation bar at the top of the page  
to reflect the skill level for that page.  Speaking of this, the  
layout on the Documentation page needs tweaking as the colored boxes  
for graded user information are different sizes and look like two are  
sitting on top of the third.

On the "Learning Manual" page on my computer, the second navigation  
bar (starting with "(main)") wraps to a second line and covers part  
of the first line of the text.  The wrapped part contains "Other  
Documentation" and "Other Versions."  I think that could be minimized  
by having a set of targeted color-coded pages with links and menus  
specific to the user level.  There is no need IMHO for "Other  
Documentation," "Other Versions,"  "Internals Reference," "Changes,"  
etc. on the newbies page.  Having that stuff just adds layers of  
confusion for new users through TMI.  Those things become gradually  
more useful as the users' skills improve.   Someone writing their  
first very simple score and just trying to get four bars of music to  
render correctly does not need a link to the Snippet Library yet.   
But the Intermediate users do need access to that information.   
Information on Scheme would be for "Expert Users."  And so on.

Text should scale appropriately if the user chooses to override font  
size, like I do with my middle aged eyes on a 12" laptop screen.   
Many Web sites, in their effort to control layout precisely, scale  
badly and end up offering the user a choice between tiny unreadable  
but correctly placed text or legible but overlapped and hence  
unreadable text.  Lose-lose.  Hopefully we can avoid this.

If we see layout problems with specific computers, browsers, etc.,  
maybe it would be helpful to send screenshots to a single point  
person to provide demonstration of the problem.  Who will this person  
be?

I hope this is helpful.