Re: Suggestions for website improvements

Hi

On Mon, Apr 5, 2021 at 5:28 PM Thomas Landauer <thomas(at)landauer(dot)at> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Akshay Joshi told me at
> https://redmine.postgresql.org/issues/6278#note-36 to post suggestions
> to this mailing list.
>
> 1: Integrate the "Download" page into the home page.
> (In detail: Move its content between "Latest Videos" and "News", then
> remove the "Download" page)
> Reasons:
> * Sooner or later, anybody will need the download. The earlier you show
> it, the better.

* The "News" on the home page are not that important, since first and
> foremost you need to inform *new* users what this is all about. Existing
> users will find out the news anyway...
>

The download page can't really be removed, as it also contains things like
pgAgent (and potentially other things that we may add in the future). It's
all database driven and those pages are designed to handle different
platforms, products and versions, as well as providing instructions and
related links etc.

That said, it would certainly be possible to add some links directly to the
homepage; my inclination would be to add just the download icons from the
pgAdmin 4 section on /download, in a box with a "Download pgAdmin 4" title,
and "More Downloads..." link at the bottom pointing to /download, kinda
like the videos. We could add a flag to the relevant database objects to
determine whether a product's downloads should be shown on the homepage,
and some template tweaks would take care of the rest.

> 2: In that newly created Download section on the home page, include 2
> questions from the FAQ right away:
> "What is pgAdmin 4?"
> "What are Server Mode and Desktop Mode?"
> Reasons:
> * Those 2 questions are fundamental to *any* user, not just to *some*
> users (like e.g. the Master Password question).
> * Having 2 modes for a program is uncommon. Sooner or later this will
> cause new users some confusion, so it's better to address it upfront.
>

I think adding short versions of those questions could work, with links for
more info.

>
> 3: Merge the "FAQ" into "Latest Docs":
> The distinction between these two seems somewhat arbitrary. The entire
> "Troubleshooting" section from FAQ could become a new heading in the
> docs - and for the few other questions we can certainly find a place too.
>

I like that idea.

>
> 4: Long-term: Get rid of the "Quick Links" column, and merge it into the
> top navbar.
> I only now realized that these are not the same! But I don't have a
> quick solution for this. In other words: I'd rather wait for some
> feedback if you're interested in changing anything at all, before
> writing even more... ;-)
>

All the links on the Quick Links section are already on the main menu
system, however a couple of them do have different text, with the ones in
the QL section being worded more for getting people to the page they need
quickly (e.g. "Get Help" vs. "Support" -> "Introduction"). I'm not in
favour of removing those links; I believe they are useful and save users
clicks when looking for the most critical items.

--
Dave Page
Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

EDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com