[Rule] The RULE website is back!

[C David Rigby]

Good day Marco & everyone,

Following are my suggestions based on what I understand of the workings of
Drupal. Please note that these suggestions are all "IMHO" and reflect my own
preferences. I apologize in advance if what follows is more detail than
people really want to see or if the explanation is unnecessary.

Background - Drupal CMS
--------------------------------------

There are two aspects of the layout of a site that are handled somewhat
separately by Drupal, though they interact and should be considered
together. I will refer to them as appearance and structure.

The appearance is controlled by a theme. Themes are a standard part of
Drupal and can be downloaded from the drupal site. Themes control such
things as colors, fonts, the number of columns on a page, etc. Themes are
also customizable, so we can modify a theme if it is close to but not
exactly what we want.

Some contributed themes are found here on the Drupal site:

http://drupal.org/project/Themes

The Drupal theme garden is a site that demonstrates various themes:

http://themes.drupal.org/

The other aspect of layout is the structural organization of the site. A
Drupal site's structure is controlled by modules. Modules provide the
features and functionality of the site. Some modules are "core" and are
always included in a default site. Standard modules are described here:

http://drupal.org/handbook/modules

As of the current production version of Drupal, 4.7, only six of these are
mandatory for the most basic site: block, filter, node, system, user and
watchdog.

There are also numerous user-contributed modules, which can be seen here:

http://drupal.org/handbook/config/contribmodules

Most of these will not be of any interest to us.

RULE Site Audience
-----------------------------

Most of us probably have a relatively powerful computer system and broadband
internet access. Given our target audience, we cannot assume that about site
visitors. Many will be using older hardware and slower dial-up or shared
access (e.g., in a library). So, "Keep It Simple" should be our mantra.
Sophisticated appearance and structure that is handled on the server side is
probably not an issue, though I do not want to overly burden the Athens LUG
server! Intensive work to render a page or a complicated structure to
navigate through for the client should be avoided. At the end of a dial up
line, every click is painful...

RULE Site Design
--------------------------

So, as to specific recommendations:

1. Choose a simple theme that is, at most, two columns wide and
variable-width capable.

Many sites use a fixed-width layout because it is easier to present a
desired appearance to the visitor. The drawback is that this must assume a
minimum resolution of the screen being used by the visitor. Typically this
is 800x600 or higher. We should not make that assumption. I don't know about
you, but I hate trying to read a page where I have to scroll horizontally.

It is entirely possible to use a single column theme. In this case, the menu
that provides links to parts of the site can be displayed at the top of the
page. Someone using a low-resolution monitor can then navigate more easily
without having to scroll horizontally. It does make the site less appealing
visually, though, and it is easier to have a slender left-side column with a
navigation menu, user login box and search block.

2. Keep the structure as "flat" as possible.

I agree with Richard about simplifying the home page and making it more
intuitive, but I am leery of a double-tiered welcome page as that seems to
imply an extra "click" to access some of the "top-level" content. I would
actually simplify things even further (see below).

3. Use the Drupal taxonomy module and the search function.

This is a difficult topic to wrap ones brain around, but Drupal's taxonomy
module can go a long way to helping to organize the site's content and make
it more accessible. It will require that Marco or someone he delegates
organize the "vocabulary" of the site, and that the contributors
intelligently choose the vocabulary word or words to describe their
contribution. The advantages to the visitor in being able to search the site
by pre-defined vocabulary term are significant and worth the effort.

So, specifically, I would recommend:

* A simple two-column theme with a slender fixed-width left-side column, a
variable-width, wider right-side column, and a top banner.

* For all pages, the left hand column contains the search block, a
navigation menu, and the user login block. For all pages, the top banner is
simply the RULE project name and logo (Tux on a turtle). For the home page,
this banner should be large and eye-grabbing. For internal pages, it can be
smaller and less distracting, leaving more space for the actual content.

* For the home page, the right-side, wider column displays site news. Also
on the home page, below the banner, should appear a block that summarizes
the purpose of the RULE project in "50 words or less". The advantage is that
the purpose of the site would be visible to a visitor within a few seconds
of visiting the site, even if the visitor is using a slow dial up
connection.

* For all other pages, the wider, right-side column would contain the
contain of the page, whatever that happens to be. There would be no
"statement of purpose" block on all other pages.

* I like Marco's suggested menu items, but I would shorten the titles a bit
to keep the menu width to a minimum and I would add a couple of items. I
suggest:

Site map (describes the site layout, in particular what is available under
the menu items)
About (Detailed general info on the project)
Documentation (End user docs)
Development (All things developer related, including developer docs & test
database)
Support (mailing lists, forums, etc.)
Software (access to all software tools)
Download Slinky! (Our principal "product")

I would like for slinky to be readily accessible from the home page so that
it can be quickly retrieved by a visitor that has previously visited the
site and just needs to download the program.

Some other considerations:

*Comments. Marco did not wish to permit comments when we were using SPIP.
Comments by users help foster the "sense of community" that help Open
Source/Logiciels Libres projects thrive. They do require significant time
and attention, though, particularly to keep comment spam under control. User
"roles" help to manage this (see the next point).

*User roles. Drupal organizes user access rights based on the idea of roles.
The most basic is anonymous, which is the level of access available to
someone that is simply viewing the site but cannot contribute content. The
next higher level is authenticated, which is someone who has created an
account (username, email and password based) and has access to add content,
such as comments or add/edit nodes (pages). The administrator (Marco) can of
course do or change anything about the site.

It might be advantages to create other roles for those of us who can help
out a bit more. Marco could assign these roles as he sees fit in order to
delegate some of the management work of the site. For example, a "comment
manager" could be given the necessary access to remove comment spam and ban
the user that indulged in it.

Anyway, those are all of my suggestions for the moment.

Regards,
C David Rigby
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