At 17:37 -0400 1999-10-11, Alex Schmelkin wrote:
> 1. What browsers are different percentages of your user populations
>using?
> 2. What screen resolutions are different percentages of your user
>populations using?
> 3. What purpose will the site serve - simply providing information,
>or a
>marketing/evangelical need? How important are each of these considerations?
> 4. Who is the ultimate audience? - Who needs this information, and why?
> 5. What does the audience already know, and what do they need to know?
> 6. What is the feeling or mood to be?
> 7. What are some of the positive attributes of the current sites as
>you see
>them? What are some of the negative attributes?
I couldn't agree more. OTOH, while everyone's reacting to the graphics Matt
did, there was *some* attempt at creating a more logical structure...
>If some of the 'powers' that be could answer these questions to the best of
>your ability, it would greatly aid any web site redesign process to take
>place, especially those that have the access logs and can give us better
>insight into Question 1.
FWIW, I'm no 'power', but my takes on the questions...
1) all of them. More accurately, a site like this should be designed to
standards and only reluctantly make concessions to the the bugs of various
browsers.
2) all of them. Well, probably not below 800x600 in the case of GUI, but it
should be Lynx-compatible -- or negotiate to a Lynx-compatible version.
3) Purposes a good site should serve -- may have to be adjusted downwards,
but here's my ideal...
- mod_perl news.
- mod_perl FAQs, developer's guides and documentation.
- mod_perl evangelism, quantitative and anecdotal comparison with similar
tools.
- mod_perl mailing list archives (well, links to them, anyway?)
- basic intro to mod_perl
- where appropriate, demonstrate the power mod_perl (as in, actually use
the darn thing on the site...)
- search engines -- ideally a combined docs/guides/mailing list searcher.
A great site showcasing a certain other technology is http://www.php.net/.
4) audience: webmasters, possibly those casting about for a solution that's
better than plain CGI, or those looking for alternatives to their current
environment (e.g. ASP).
5) what does the audience already know:
- have to assume they are experienced web content developers. Whether they
are already familiar with perl may be an issue to discuss.
6) What is the feeling or mood to be?
Good question. Lately the Apache.org and Perl.com sites have a rather
professional sheen to them.
7) Positive attributes of the current sites as you see them:
- developer's guides.
- personal touch.
- not overdesigned, minimal graphics, focus on information.
- no advertisements!
Negative attributes.
- somewhat random assortment of content.
- Hard to navigate -- not easy to know what's behind each link without
actually clicking.
- doesn't use mod_perl on the site, or at least does not appear to.
- inconsistent look.
- somewhat unprofessional feel.
- no search engine.
--
Neil Kandalgaonkar [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Systems Architect, Stylus Inc. http://www.stylus.ca/
