We have a new wiki main page :)


Moved [[Pencil]][[NoteCase Pro‏‎]][[MogsVsDogs]][[Greyout]]‏‎[[NetKeen]]  to wiki TODO, the picklelauncher is well documented and useful. New pnd format is relevant in changing to .deb, since it raises a few issues of shortcomings in need of fixing
 
[...] New pnd format is relevant in changing to .deb, since it raises a few issues of shortcomings in need of fixing
How does that warrant a place on the MainPage?

Maybe our visions differ in that regard.

To me the MainPage should include a short introduction and then links the user to the most requested topics (the "How do I..." section in this wiki is a good example).

There should be a section of general information about the device (can be merged with the introduction)

It further should link to all relevant sites (like the repo, shop, forums, IRC, etc.).

A random or "featured" article box is nice-to-have, but not necessary.

It should be clean, fairly nice-looking, welcoming and simple.

The current page kind of does have most of this, but it's obscure and overloaded. I can't really see what the idea behind this design choice is.

The link cloud seems rather pointless, since there is barely any structure. For example I looked for the wifi improvement hack: Rather than clicking on the "WiFi" link on the MainPage I used the serach, since that seemed much faster than looking whether that particular link (which might as well be named something completely different) is hidden somewhere in a non-ordered list of links.

I am pretty sure there is a design philosophy and thought behind this, I just cannot see it. To understand it better I would be interested in the following:

Who is the target audience for this design? (new user, owner, potential customer, developer, etc.?)

When any user arrives on the MainPage what are the most common expectations one might have and does the MainPage satisfy these in a efficient manner? (example of an expectation: Looking for information on how to flash firmware. Wanting to get into development for Pandora...)

Specifically: Why does every major article need to be linked on the MainPage? What's the benefit of this? (compared to using hub pages or the search)
 
Saved much space by making the Gaming column into emulation, and moving what wasnt related to that into desktop, which is now software.
Intro, integral software (to the pandora) hardware, and then onto the next category, which is now Operating systems.

I think moreso operating systems needs a label rather than explaining further than GUI what XFCE and openbox is.
If the user does already know what those are, i expect of them to think of a computer generally in terms of UI as any other, thus solving the problem created in
diverting attention into chosing a desktop environment.
 

The handheld computer with real gaming controls.
Open platform, you choose how to use it.
Complete freedom to develop and publish software
Your imagination is the limit.
Built in Germany
The current blob is devoid of thought, it doesn't provoke any reflection.
It inspires nothing but an urge to jump off a bridge.

Convoluted in its wording it may have been when it was overly clever, what others read out of it, wasn't what i read into it.
but now its treating the readers attention with disdain. One problem is fixed and in turn creating another.

Reduced from a long wall of text, then lost its context to the new structurally constructed left menu.
Granted, both approaches make it easier to grasp information. But now its one halfway failing at what the other does better.

The wiki has factual information galore, i think whats left of intro can be reduced to a one-liner, which is that first tidbit of info that is good.

Onwards it reads like marketing, which i have a special distaste for. "open platform" means nothing,
and in the case it does, its a diversion, because it means something atop the open platform is closed.

I think this applies:http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15414-basic-website/#entry306514

And no, NO NO NO weird marketing terms made up!
Complete freedom isnt achieved in unrestricted(?) access to writing and publishing software. If we want to explain something thats different, explain how its different, in a way that makes it different...

"Your imagination is the limit." I read this as an attempt to inspire, but there is no red thread to this text anymore, it just burns cycles at random at this point.

Its time to take a step back and rethink it, the left menu does one thing and does it well, one line is integral and should be the goto if you arrive clueless.
Taking that away means the rest has to go too. For the right menu i took inspiration from EDs "A new chapter will be written" It tries to balance the inherently logical overload with some creativity.
 
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/me still thinks the main page needs a friendly opening paragraph - not more mediocre poetry.
 
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