I have a few problems with this. The general design of lilypond.org puts all text ...
11 years, 3 months ago
(2012-12-07 22:38:48 UTC)
#2
I have a few problems with this. The general design of lilypond.org puts all
text (or almost all) inside divs, which in turn are displayed inside boxes. A
more serious concern is that this text is fairly wordy and pushes the real
material (i.e. the links to manuals) lower on the page.
If somebody has a 23" monitor and uses full-screen windows, this isn't any
problem. But on a small display, such as my netbook, or just somebody who likes
to have small windows open on their screen, this makes the page less useful.
For reference, on my netbook right now with a maximized chrome window, I can
only see down to Usage and Web.
There is something to be said for trading off between usability for new users
vs. existing users, but I think the proposed text goes too far towards new
users.
I have a few problems with this. The general design of lilypond.org puts all text ...
11 years, 3 months ago
(2012-12-07 22:38:48 UTC)
#3
I have a few problems with this. The general design of lilypond.org puts all
text (or almost all) inside divs, which in turn are displayed inside boxes. A
more serious concern is that this text is fairly wordy and pushes the real
material (i.e. the links to manuals) lower on the page.
If somebody has a 23" monitor and uses full-screen windows, this isn't any
problem. But on a small display, such as my netbook, or just somebody who likes
to have small windows open on their screen, this makes the page less useful.
For reference, on my netbook right now with a maximized chrome window, I can
only see down to Usage and Web.
There is something to be said for trading off between usability for new users
vs. existing users, but I think the proposed text goes too far towards new
users.
----- Original Message ----- From: <graham@percival-music.ca> To: <PhilEHolmes@googlemail.com> Cc: <lilypond-devel@gnu.org>; <reply@codereview-hr.appspotmail.com> Sent: Friday, December 07, ...
11 years, 3 months ago
(2012-12-08 12:42:13 UTC)
#4
----- Original Message -----
From: <graham@percival-music.ca>
To: <PhilEHolmes@googlemail.com>
Cc: <lilypond-devel@gnu.org>; <reply@codereview-hr.appspotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2012 10:38 PM
Subject: Re: Add note to manuals.html describing formats of manuals (Issue
2895) (issue 6867054)
>I have a few problems with this. The general design of lilypond.org
> puts all text (or almost all) inside divs, which in turn are displayed
> inside boxes. A more serious concern is that this text is fairly wordy
> and pushes the real material (i.e. the links to manuals) lower on the
> page.
> If somebody has a 23" monitor and uses full-screen windows, this isn't
> any problem. But on a small display, such as my netbook, or just
> somebody who likes to have small windows open on their screen, this
> makes the page less useful.
> For reference, on my netbook right now with a maximized chrome window, I
> can only see down to Usage and Web.
>
> There is something to be said for trading off between usability for new
> users vs. existing users, but I think the proposed text goes too far
> towards new users.
>
> https://codereview.appspot.com/6867054/
I accept that this isn't the same as current style, but it seemed the
simplest way to fix what is currently a significant usability problem with
our "stable" manuals. If you want to get a PDF of Notation for 2.16.1,
essentially there's no way to find it unless you're a good guesser or use
Google. You have to guess that "Details of" points to a PDF, and the
mailing lists have provided a number of examples of where new users have
failed to make this connection.
It seems to me we have 2 options, which could either meet you need to avoid
pushing the text further down the page. 1. Replace (say) Notation: syntax
reference.(details of Notation) with Notation (HTML pages); syntax
reference.(details of Notation); PDF download; single large HTML page and
have the 3 links there. I think this would still fit OK (not tried, but the
space looks to be there) or 2: Add a box towards the bottom of the page with
"Manual formats" as a header, and essentially the text of this patch in it.
New users could use those little scroll bars on the right of the screen to
find that text, and you wouldn't need to bother.
Which do you prefer?
--
Phil Holmes
On Sat, Dec 08, 2012 at 12:42:01PM -0000, Phil Holmes wrote: > You have to ...
11 years, 3 months ago
(2012-12-09 21:38:56 UTC)
#5
On Sat, Dec 08, 2012 at 12:42:01PM -0000, Phil Holmes wrote:
> You have to guess that "Details of" points to a PDF, and the
> mailing lists have provided a number of examples of where new
> users have failed to make this connection.
Good point.
> It seems to me we have 2 options, which could either meet you need
> to avoid pushing the text further down the page. 1. Replace (say)
> Notation: syntax reference.(details of Notation) with Notation (HTML
> pages); syntax reference.(details of Notation); PDF download; single
> large HTML page and have the 3 links there. I think this would
> still fit OK (not tried, but the space looks to be there)
On my current browser window, the "details of snippets" is split
across two lines. However, that's not a horrible thing.
What about this? The main link for each manual would link to the
current "details of" page, and after the one-clause description on
the main manuals page we would have (split html, big html, pdf).
> or 2: Add
> a box towards the bottom of the page with "Manual formats" as a
> header, and essentially the text of this patch in it. New users
> could use those little scroll bars on the right of the screen to
> find that text, and you wouldn't need to bother.
I'm fine with this option as well, although I think that the first
option is nicer.
- Graham
Issue 6867054: Add note to manuals.html describing formats of manuals (Issue 2895)
(Closed)
Created 11 years, 3 months ago by PhilEHolmes
Modified 11 years, 3 months ago
Reviewers: Graham Percival
Base URL:
Comments: 0