layout change for help center

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Hello Hannes

On Feb 28, 2007, at 11:10 AM, hv1989 wrote:
> ...
> I've started to change the layout of the help center. You can see what 
> I want to create on http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2195688 . 
> So I want it to be more attractive and more usable. Also I want to try 
> to bring the layout of the different manuals (toc/search/man/info/...) 
> to a standard layout. So it doesn't jump the whole time around.
> ...

This looks pretty swish, but the documentation team have already been 
changing the layout quite a bit to provide more obvious access to help 
pages about specific topics. We have specifications explaining these 
changes, including mockups.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TopicBasedHelp>
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpAndSupportAccess>

The main issue I see with your design is that it makes the yelp window 
larger. For help, it's important that people are able to keep the help 
window alongside the thing they're trying to do, so they can follow 
instructions easily. This means the help window needs to be small and 
space-efficient. I realize that your layout is quite similar to the 
Control Center, but that the Control Center takes up so much room is 
also a bug. :-) <http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=405078>

Another thing I notice in your design is that the Previous and Next 
links are much more prominent. But starting with Feisty, we're working 
on making help pages standalone explanations of topics (see the 
TopicBasedHelp specification for more details). This means the Previous 
and Next links are less relevant, not more.

If you would like to help us polish up the current help front page for 
Feisty, that would be great. For example, the "Ubuntu Help Centre" 
heading is overdone (remove the border and background and lighten the 
heading color, or maybe even remove the heading entirely), the bullets 
need to line up properly with the rest of the text, and the word 
"Topics" is unnecessary.

Cheers
-- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/