Hi Vincent,
Thanks for the feedback
On 3/1/2010 12:17 PM, vmassol [via XWiki] wrote:
Hi Silvia,
On Mar 1, 2010, at 10:58 AM, Silvia Rusu wrote:
Hello,
I would like to propose we update the User Guide documentation so that
it's
more helpful to users that start using XWiki,
whether they are
programmers
or not. The purpose of the guide is to get users
up to speed with the
XWiki
basics, to gather these resources in one place.
You can find my proposal for the user guide here:
http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Drafts/UserGuide
Please feel free to make suggestions for other pages to be included or
changes you think should be made. Remember this is not a TOC for all the
documentation, but rather a selection of links to help you get started
with
XWiki.
Good start! It's cool that you're working on this, we absolutely need it
:)
Some feedback:
* It doesn't feel like a guide right now. It seems to be a collection of
links to other places. Personally I like that because it avoids
duplication. However I wonder what will first time users think. It
probably makes it hard for them to read. Also the current getting started
guide from Guillaume (which would disappear as a consequence) has a lot
more texts and explanations that need to be reintegrated in the user
guide.
I think the collection of links makes it easier for users to spot the
documentation they are interested in. I agree that Guillaume's Getting
Started guide needs to be reintegrated in the user guide as much as
possible. As a consequence I've added links to part of the pages. Other
issues however, like managing user groups, are better described in the
platform documentation (more information, screenshots), so I preferred
adding a link to those resources instead. If the Getting Started pages will
be removed altogether I can copy their content to different pages and set
the User Guide as their parent. I'll also include more screenshots.
* It's missing an overall TOC
I added the TOC at the "XWiki Basics" level, but this can easily be changed.
* I only see "XWiki Basics" but this guide
is supposed to be a full guide
to all features. Is it simply because it's not finished? How would you
organize the rest?
My initial idea was for the guide to provide links to part of the
documentation. This would be the pages that are most necessary when starting
with XWiki and that don't require programming or advanced admin skills to
understand. (Hence "This is not a TOC for all the documentation, but rather
a selection of links to help you get started with XWiki." in the first
email).
I've extended the invitation for users to visit the Developer &
Administrator's Guides to further their skills and get a deeper
understanding of XWiki.
This way "Getting started" is interpreted not necessarily as the first steps
to take with XWiki, but rather as mastering the basics of working with
XWiki, with the possibility of enhancing your skills as you read the rest of
the documentation.
Should we add links to all our existing resources I think the User Guide may
get too crowded and users with no significant coding experience may have
trouble understanding it.
WDYT?
* I think you need the guide to start with a single
page that is a TOC and
have more separate pages. This will come naturally as a consequence of
adding more explanations/texts to the each section (see first point
above).
The idea behind the User Guide page was that of a TOC (this is why it
looks
more like a collection of links). The small pieces of text are there to put
the links in context, so that they make sense when seeing them for the first
time.
I agree with the having more separate pages. While in some sections the
existing documentation is enough, for other areas we could add a lot more
details to make things clear. This is the case of the blog for example
(which is not yet included) for which there will be a separate guide. After
the blog guide is ready there will be of course a link to it from the User
Guide. The same goes for the WYSIWYG editor. This can be also done for other
sections if users consider the existing documentation is not
clear/descriptive enough.
* The guide needs a lot more screenshots IMO. There
should be screenshots
everywhere. Remember that an image is worth a thousand words ;)
I think we should avoid having images on the User Guide's main page (the one
in Drafts) since this page's role is that of a TOC. I agree with having many
screenshots in the sub-guides (e.g. the blog and wysiwyg guides, the new
pages resulting from the old "Getting Started" guide)
Thanks
-Vincent
Thanks,
Silvia
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This is obviously a work in progress, as it entails creating many child
pages and changing the current main draft, however feedback early on in the
process is appreciated so the final result answers most of our first time
user's basic questions.
Thanks
-----
Silvia Rusu
Tester & Documentation Writer - XWiki
http://twitter.com/silviarusu
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