Re: Task Analysis

["digitect" <digitect mindspring com>]

I had to agree whole-heartedly with what Shawn wrote:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Shawn T Amundson" <amundson eventloop com>
To: <gnome-web-list gnome org>
Sent: Monday, November 20, 2000 9:59 PM
Subject: Task Analysis


> Joakim mentioned the importance of task analysis, and it's
> role in the current design of the gnome.org website.  I think
> that just listing the tasks is a mistake.  Instead, we should
> make sure that the structure of the site makes performing
> that tasks possible.  Listing verbose task descriptions isn't
> the best way to achieve this.
>
> First, the current list on the menubar on the left of the
> site are a bit overwelming.  They seem randomly organized
> initially and are too long to scan quickly because they are
> phrases and not one-word nouns.  This makes the entire site
> pretty difficult to use.

I couldn't agree more with either statement. Let's not try to out-think the
visitor's ability to reason for himself.

. . .

> One option, for the PHP-happy crowd is to implement something
> like on www.gimp.org, were the left nav bar expands as you go
> to sections, so you can list everything and more becomes
> available as you get closer and closer.  I personally think
> this type of nav bar would work wonderfully for GNOME's sites
> while allowing a consistant interface.  (And it doesn't have
> to be graphical.)

There are a million ways to represent an unfolding tree ... although I have
to say the Gimp's thermometer/recessed multi-sized circles thing may not be
my first suggestion.

Alternatively, we might come up with a better navigational metaphor
altogether, say an abstract series of nested rings. The items at the center
are most critical, the items at the perimeter more fringe. By centrality we
understand a page's importance and see it's dependencies on adjacent
pages/concepts/projects. Stuff at the fringe may not be so critical to the
project or is less compliant. I generally find spatial metaphors more
helpful in determining information relationships than diagrammatic ones.

The bottom line is that content is not always linear. Simple nested systems
may be easy to understand upon first inspection, but sometimes fail to
capture the inter-relationships between different folders and actually
become more frustrating with use. (And thus, out of necessity, is born the
hyperlink.)

Can't we derive some over-arching theme for the site in it's entirety that
would inform us about navigational methods as well as subject areas, content
relationships and graphics? What is GNOME about, anyway, little bearded
guys? Hairy feet? Surely somebody here will be enlightened with an
organizing concept that is both a statement of what Gnome is AND a useful
means of organizing the web site both logically and graphically. Forgive me
for being a bit over-architectural here, but without a single organizing
metaphor, we will always be looking at just a sum of parts less than the
whole.