Wiki Review Feedback

Owned by Steven Hughes
Last updated: Jan 31, 2013 by Deepa ChavaliVersion comment
4 min read

Overview

This page contains review feedback for the initial design/layout of the wiki. 

LOJ

  • For look and feel, in general it looks good. It is easy to navigate but in other hand it shows too much information on one page.
  • May be move the first column category to the top or just show high level?
  • I like to see Contacts as separate big bullet rather than under For Users.
  • Issue Tracker is in two places.
  • It will be good to show a roadmap such as future plans.
  • It will be good to provide For Beginner section that describes how to use GMAT.

WCS

Wiki

  • The middle section, where the text is, and the right section, both have a horizontal scroll bar on my Mac.  That doesn't look good.
  • I would like the middle section to stand out more, as we discussed at the meeting
  • I find some of the site map stuff on the left side of each page to be confusing.  I keep expecting it to map to what is on that page and it doesn't necessarily.  For example, on the Governance page, the list in the main part of the page does not match the order in the list on the left.

Vision/Organization/Data:

  • how ready is the new build system for 32- and 64-bit on each platform? 
  • I will be doing the documentation for how to write a new Resource, Darrel will doc the command
  • Maybe Current Activities should be its own section on the Wiki
  • What kind of metrics do you mean (under Missing Data Items)?
  • Code style guide definitely needs to be there
  • Seems like all the biggies are there as far as documents go

SPH

Overall I am very pleased with the look/feel.  I think some changes are necessary to the LHS menu and launch pad pages and we are ready for major migration of data.

  • I find it confusing that the outline of the left hand side of pages is very different than the organization of the site on the main page. 
  • We have two levels of launch pad pages and we need to make sure we aren't duplicating information.  If duplication is not possible, we should consider getting rid of one of the levels.
  • We are missing this information:
    • Required Accounts:  Summarizes what accounts you need to participate
    • Getting Started/Training:  Summarizes how to get started for different particpant types.

DJC

I have one overall comment that may be useful to incorporate (writing this after the comments below, so expect a repeat there).  When I look at the Wiki page pretending to be a new user, I get lots of links to GMAT details that I can drill into, but don't have anything that helps me clue in to how to get started.  So I'd put a link in the left side navigation bar labeled "New to GMAT" with links to friendly pages "For new users" and "For new contributors", with with underlying pages that talk about how to get started for each group of folks.  Basically, let's lower the cost of entry by giving new folks some pointers about where to start out in learning an actually pretty complex new system.

    1. Is the vision for the Wiki complete and what we want?

Under the first bullet, I'd make sure there are clear "Getting Started" links for new users and new contributors.  Something to be sure that when a new person comes to the front page, they can see where to go to figure out how to start using or contributing to GMAT.

    1. Is the look and feel of the Wiki professional/what we want?

I like the look, aside from needing a bit more on the navigation front from the underlying pages.  (Now fixed via the GMAT icon, I think.)

    1. Is the proposed organization of data in the new wiki intuitive?

Add a "Starting Out" section (same as what I said above)

    1. Is the most important data for public consumption identified in the migration plan?

Mostly.  Same comment here (again).

 JJKP

Some general thoughts that I think need to be addressed at some point, though I don't have a solution right now:

  • Some info should be categorized in multiple places. For example, users care about how to submit bugs, but only contributors (participants) need guidelines on reassigning and triaging them. Developers need compile instructions, but users do, too (since they may be downloading a source bundle). Core API docs are for developers only, but C API docs are for users. We'll just need to flesh out these relationships as the wiki matures.
  • We need one wiki "owner" that makes sure things are moving smoothly. Sub-pages should have separate curators, but I vote for having one POC for the entire thing, to herd everyone in the right direction.

And some specific items:

  • We spent some time brainstorming wiki topics; these should be included in the list.
  • "Participants" seems too small for a top-level heading. I prefer something like "For Users > About Us" that links out to pages that describe the team, participants and contributors, links to other websites, etc.
  • Agree that we need to figure out how to make the left-side menu more consistent and useful.
  • Agree that "Governance" as a heading could be improved. Maybe "Project Management" or "How to Participate" or "GMAT Project" - none of these seem good, but you get the idea.