TopicBasedHelp - index page

[Will Simpson]

On 12/23/06, Matthew East <mdke at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Hi,
>
> Yesterday myself, Rich and mpt had a chat about the index design for the
> various help applications for the next release. I had a go at making
> some changes to Yelp which implement our ideas. The result is here:
>
> http://mdke.org/tmp/yelp.png
>
> Feedback appreciated!
>
> The main reason I'm writing is to discuss a particular change we made to
> the topic list. We were conscious that there are a good many of them and
> we thought that the "Office", "Games", and "Programming" topics should
> probably not be in the list - these sections currently simply deal with
> which alternative applications are available to install in the relevant
> categories, which is something that might be better dealt with in the
> "Add applications" topic. Another option would be simply avoiding
> presenting these topics on the front page, but retaining them "in the
> background", to be accessed via the search function.
>
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TopicBasedHelp/TopLevelCategories represents the
> changes. Can people take a look and see what they think?
>
> Thanks
>
> Matt
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>
> iD8DBQFFjQ4YtSaF0w5rBv8RArpgAKCJPyacDxpMLWoASSemqKf6Q0FUKQCfQr+M
> VdnEJDU+XhODbcaA+JYH8Ec=
> =PfNs
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
> --
> ubuntu-doc mailing list
> ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc
>

I see the notion of a FAQ creeping in with the 'Common Questions'
list. I personally don't mind this. It leads to a TopicBasedHelp
system. One link pointing to one topic. One resource I've used in the
past is ubuntuguides.org and it is setup this way. What you show is a
hybrid of traditional help layout with a FAQ thrown in.

Having the 'Can't find the answer?' link on the Help Topics page means
that a user would have to remember to return there to get more help.
Having this link at the bottom of every topic page might make it
easier for the user.

I like that 'Contributing to Ubuntu' gets a prominent place on the
Help Topics Page.

The image shows the yelp window with about 662x514 pixel size. If the
window was bigger, say 800x600, then there would be quite a bit of
screen real estate that could be used as a launching pad (pardon the
pun) into the help.

Link to the is the screen shot of my help. (800x600)
http://willsimpson.org/images/yelp-will.png (50K)

I just reinstalled Edgy and grabbed Matthew East's
http://doc.ubuntu.com/~matt/ubuntu-docs_6.12.1_all.deb. What I see is
the Ubuntu help on the right and Gnome help in the left hand side bar.
My question is are we proposing to modify the left hand side bar. If
so, where will all the Gnome help go? This has been confusing for me
because when surfing the Gnome help, there is no intuitive way to get
back to the Ubuntu help. You seem to have to use the "Help Topic"
button in the tool bar to get back.

As far as moving "Office", "Games", and "Programming" to behind the
scenes, this might be ok but they could get lost and forgotten and in
the future more easily go out of date. I feel that every page (xml
file) should be on a menu. Maybe not a prominent one but on some menu
anyway. This way someone browsing the help can stumble on to a topic
that might teach them something. We can't predict what that thing will
be. So I don't think we should "hide" topics, making them only
available via search.

Just my ideas.

-- 
Will Simpson
http://willsimpson.org
Moscow, Idaho
irc nick: linuxphotogeek