Re: wgo structure

[Alex Hudson <home alexhudson com>]

On Thu, 2006-08-10 at 22:07 +1200, John Williams wrote:
> I have come to this discussion late and am trawling through the archives
> to get some context.  Forgive me if I say something silly ;-)

Me too.. .. :)

> I really like the idea of using verbs instead of nouns in the
> navigational structure.  I agree that "Learn" is better than "Study".
> My only concern is that when scanning the possible areas to visit, it is
> not obvious where to go for help.  (I know, I know: "Learn".)  Also,
> "Learn" is a bit too similar to "Discover" in this context.

I'd like to insert a caveat into this: verbs on their own aren't really
much good; as a user I need to know what is being verbed (ie., be able
to work it out pretty quickly).

The thing that's good about using nouns is that I usually come to a site
looking for something: e.g., thinking about my personal usage of the
web, when I'm not visiting news sites and the like, I'm on google
searching for something, and then going to a site. E.g., "documentation
for burning cds in gnome" or something.

Having to transition from a noun-mindset (looking for an object) to a
verb-mindset (which action is associated with this thing I'm looking
for?) has tripped me up on many websites.

> How about:
> 
> [GNOME logo]  Discover - Try - Ask - Create - Join

For me, 'verb lists' only work when they're actioning the same item. So,
"Discover GNOME" and "Try GNOME" work quite well and seem ok. "Ask
GNOME" and "Create GNOME" don't seem to work, so then I need to re-think
what Ask and Create is talking about.

"Try" and "Ask" I'm not at all sure about. I'm not sure if two words are
taboo, but "Find Help" and "Get Creative" seems better to me. 

Also - something I know nothing about - do single-word English verbs
translate well? I would have thought not, but I don't know.

Cheers,

Alex.