http://en.www.mozilla.com/en/firefox/
http://www.dokeos.com/
http://www.ubuntu.com/

Centre column - description of Moodle e.g. "Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. You can download and use it on any computer (including webhosts), and it can scale from a single-teacher site to a 50,000-student University."

Right column - news, upcoming events blocks

Left column - links:

• Features - update http://docs.moodle.org/en/Features with links to:
  Moodle features demo in English
  Features demos in other languages
  Moodle philosophy http://docs.moodle.org/en/Philosophy
  http://demo.moodle.org/
  Moodle statistics http://moodle.org/stats/
  Moodle sites http://moodle.org/sites/

• Download Moodle - download page with links and short descriptions to:
  Download packages
  Modules and plugins database
  Themes database
  Language packs

• Support - improve http://docs.moodle.org/en/Support with links and short descriptions to:
  Documentation wiki
  Community discussion forums in English
  Community discussions in other languages
  Commercial support http://moodle.com/support/
  Training - Moodle Teacher Certificate
  Books about Moodle

• Get Involved - page describing ways of contributing to Moodle:
  Donations http://moodle.org/donations/
  Documentation http://docs.moodle.org/en/MoodleDocs:Guidelines_for_contributors
  Testing and reporting bugs http://tracker.moodle.org/ and http://docs.moodle.org/en/Tracker
  Providing support through community discussion forums
  Translation

• Development - development page with links and short descriptions to:
  Modules and plugins development
  Theme development
  Careers - database of Moodle jobs offered and wanted
  Credits http://docs.moodle.org/en/Credits

• News - news page with links to:
  Release notes http://docs.moodle.org/en/Release_Notes
  Security notices
  Moodle Buzz database

Small links at the bottom of the page:

• About Us e.g. http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus, http://demo.mahara.org/about.php, http://docs.moodle.org/en/MoodleDocs:About, http://docs.moodle.org/en/Background
• Licence http://docs.moodle.org/en/License
• Contact Us

Moodle.org should have a set of front pages in order to fully explain all aspects of Moodle - Moodle support, Moodle development, the Moodle community, Moodle downloads - and the Moodle.org sites.

ALL text on the set of front pages of Moodle.org should be translated into as many other languages as possible, so non-English-speaking visitors to Moodle.org can understand where to go for support etc. and how to become involved in the community.

High accessibility should be a priority for the set of front pages of Moodle.org. In particular, links to the different Moodle.org sites should be clear and understandable, helping users to know what to expect when they follow a link.

It should be easy to navigate between each page in the set of front pages so that a newcomer to Moodle.org can obtain a general overview before following a link to one of the Moodle.org sites.

Moodle contact information should be available.

An explanation of how Moodle.com fits with Moodle.org should be included and Moodle Partners should be better promoted.

Styling still to be done and graphics, additional blocks, adverts for Moodle Partners etc. still to be added.

1. Front page should have six sections as big clickable icons or something spread out on the page
2. Six links should appear in the header (across the top) on ALL Moodle pages in all Moodle.org sites (have buttons in the header, just above the nav bar)
3. Links are: About, Downloads, Support, Community, Development, News
4. Wording of text to be improved by copying it to the docs wiki
5. News could be a collection of RSS feeds
6. About should include a features section, also explanation about the Moodle.org sites
7. No left navigation necessary - individual pages can have whatever blocks they need for local nav
8. Re. translation, we can add a new file to the lang packs called moodle.org.php
9. Standard footer links: Copyright, Contact (different sites may have more footer links)
10. Create subpages rather than resources, maybe in an /info directory e.g. http://moodle.org/info/support
11. Make a to-do list - subtasks in the tracker

Re. "Do you think documentation should be hidden in support?" - I think that a link to Moodle Docs should be included in both Support and Community, then of course there will be links all over to particular pages in the documentation. IMHO this should be enough.

• About
• Downloads
• Support
• Community
• Development
• News

All pages will also have the following link in the footer (in addition to other footer links):

• Contact

The text in these pages will be simple, straightforward and succinct, so that it's easily translatable.

http://moodle.org/modules

http://moodle.org/cvs

http://moodle.org/stats/

(More can be set up.)

I notice Joomla has a nice and colourful new look:
http://www.joomla.org/announcements/general-news/5203-a-new-look-for-joomlaorg.html

But for the very front page I'm currently envisioning:

• six nice big icons (with title beneath) for About Moodle,News,Support, Development,Security, Downloads (each goes to overview page)
• these blocks on right: Login, Latest news, Upcoming events, Networked peers

How does that sound?

Browsing the websites for other open source projects, I notice that there is always a Community link, and I can't find any website with a Security link.

Regarding blocks on the right, I'd recommend as few as possible i.e. Latest news only (assuming we're going to make a lot more use of it from now on!) Also, shouldn't networked peers have its own page?

How about adding an Planet Moodle RSS feed block to a News and/or Development page? (I love Planet Moodle!)

I agree with the rest though, for sure!

http://moodle.org/contact/

Also, I'm wondering whether it's necessary to have an Overview link in each of the dropdown menus, since the top word in each menu links to the corresponding overview page. I suggest that each overview page includes all the links in the dropdown menu.

Could we have a site search like on http://mahara.org/ i.e. the words 'Google custom search' inside the search box, and a smaller search button with just the word 'Search' on it.

I suggest that all links have title text providing additional information.

Regarding menu links, here are my recommendations:

• About (including a few screenshots and links to Moodle Docs)
  Demo site - http://demo.moodle.org
  Statistics - http://moodle.org/stats/

• News http://moodle.org/news/
  (no need for a dropdown menu - security announcements etc. look great in RSS feed blocks)

• Support
  Documentation - http://docs.moodle.org
  Community forums - http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5
  Books - http://moodle.org/books/
  Commercial services - http://moodle.org/support/commercial/

• Community
  Discussion areas - http://moodle.org/course/category.php?id=1 (not quite sure what's best here)
  Events - http://moodle.org/events/ (why describe it as 'Events and conferences' when one word e.g. 'Events' would be sufficient?)
  Sites - http://moodle.org/sites/
  Networked sites
  Moodle jobs - http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=7232

• Development
  Developers - http://moodle.org/mod/cvsadmin/view.php?cid=1
  Tracker - http://tracker.moodle.org/
  Developer meetings - http://docs.moodle.org/en/Developer_meetings
  Developer site - http://dev.moodle.org

• Download - as for current menu

Items still to be placed in a menu:

Moodle Certification - http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=48
Other courses from this category: http://moodle.org/course/category.php?id=1

Please feel free to implement / ignore my suggestions

I added Contact too, and Eloy, added the version though I'm not sure we really need to publish that for moodle.org do we?

I kept the overview pages ... I still think most people will not think to click on the menu title ...

Minor editorial comments:

1. Menus on the demo site are not quite in synch.
2. http://moodle.org/support/commercial/ is missing an obvious link to moodle.com/partenrs at the start.
3. On http://moodle.org/community/ should the 3rd bullet link to the Moodle Conferences course?
4. Similarly, should http://moodle.org/events/ link there.
5. Develop new code for Moode bullet needs a closing )
6. http://moodle.org/development/ - bold would be better than caps for 'VOTE'.

I guess a few more pictures would be nice in due course.

PD: About showing the version over Moodle logo. It's a tiny thing but I think it's ok to do so as long as rest of moodle sites out there are showing it (standard themes). Also it'll provide info for curious (and crackers).

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=112413#p493491

It would make sense to link to either cvs.moodle.org or xref.moodle.org as a 'Browse source' link in the Development menu.

This email is a copy of a message sent to you at "Home"

Perhaps the lang string could be changed?

If we're keeping the overview pages, could the menu title links be removed i.e. make the menu titles not clickable?

I miss one big thing - support for other languages ( http://moodle.org/course/category.php?id=3 )

In my opinion front page should have at least one link to those non english forums somewhere...

http://moodle.org/community/

If you change language from language menu it just changes a couple of titles from blocks - but no titles from top menu.

Other languages

Mauno, thanks for your comments. The plan is for everything on the front pages of Moodle.org to be translated into as many other languages as possible, so when a Finnish speaker visits moodle.org they'll have a link to the Finnish Moodle course and the Finnish documentation.

Once we've finalized the text in English, we'll be able to work on MDLSITE-297.

I think that asciimathml should be included with atb least one moddle 2 theme. I created a separate tracker item for this http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDLSITE-599 but thought I'd add a reference here since the inviation.

As easy as it is to implement, it would be nice to see moodle.org offer as well as Moodle offer major themes with and without asciimathml with fallback invoked via theme.

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/index.php?id=5

This page allows you see which forums you are subscribed to and which ones you are not subscribed to, and let's you quickly subscribe or unsubscribe as you want. I really miss a quick link on the Moodle site to this page. Fortunately, I had it bookmarked otherwise I would never have found it again

I think this should be under Support as a seperate item (something like "Support Forum") or at least it should show up in the Community Forum list somewhere as a seperate item.

Overall I find the new theme really nice, refreshing, unobtrusive, user-friendly. My remarks deal with legibility.

1- The main font displayed throughout the site is selected from the following sans-serif fonts: "Lucida Grande","Bitstream Vera Sans",Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif
I regret that (on Windows systems) Verdana does not come before "Bitstream Vera Sans". AFAIK Verdana is the only sans-serif font which has a distinct glyph for the uppercase "i" letter and the lowercase "l" letter. On Windows systems, Verdana is the best choice for sans-serif. I do admit that otherwise "Bitstream Vera Sans" looks nice.

2- When entering posts on moodle.org forums, why is Trebuchet the default font? This is not consistent, because the posts will be displayed in the default site font ("Bitstream Vera Sans" for Windows) anyway... Also, in the HTML editor the default font size is much too big.

3- In the HTML editor, the Address style can be used, but it no longer show when the post has been posted.

4- The hovering over links is: hover { color: #d8a51f; text-decoration: underline;} That #d8a51f orange-brownish color does not make a sufficient contrast when the user is hovering over a link. It becomes especially illegible when the link is set agains an orange background, such as the "Moodle Docs for this page" link at the bottom.

5- On the forums page, it is difficult to see the links to unread posts, because they are very far away (on the right) from the forum names (on the left). For the sake of legibility, I would like to have visible row lines there, such as we do have when we enter a forum, each topic has its own white/grey row line.

Joseph

• Multiple clicks required now to go to frequently visited places whereas one click required before
• Rich interface reduced to overly simplified interface
• New icons are a downgrade (sorry to whoever created them--blush)
• Overall, I feel confused and frustrated. I would like to feel delighted, intrigued and curious. Recently, I felt this when I entered the DekiWiki site. See them also for beautiful examples of screen layout and icons.

My solution:
1. retain the left column and right columns with similar functions/links as before but make more elegant
2. keep the newly added top menu bar--it is useful as a redundant search but should not be the only search mechanism
3. improve icons and create uniform layout scheme (right column and center column seem out of sync)
4. add a questionnaire to the front page of Moodle. Title: What do you think of the new look of Moodle? Ask questions such as the following to visitors:

• What is your experience with Moodle? First time visitor, beginner, used it for a year, used it extensively as developer or admin
• What problems have you had in the past with the moodle.org website?
• What do want to find when you come to the front page of moodle.org (long list of checkboxes here)
• What do you like with the new Moodle website design?
• What would you like to change or improve?
  In forums, increase contrast between text box and other areas. I cannot see the box on my browser (Firefox). Also, make solid bar of color rather than a thin line of color (see Moodle 1.4 forums for example--beautiful!)

1) Click the "Community" link (or the "Community" top menu item)
2) Click the link "Other languages" (which you'll still have to find in the middle of the page)
3) And click on "Moodle en français".

I got several notices that newbies simply don't find the non-english speaking courses!

Like Mauno, I suggest at least a link "Other languages" under Support or Community, that links to http://moodle.org/course/category.php?id=3.

I really had a hard time finding it today because I first looked under "Community" for the "Community forums" before I found those under "Support".

And finally finding the General developer forum on that page also took me some time until I realized that is only part of the Using Moodle course so that the "Community forums" link shows a different content depending which course you choose which I find very confusing.

Another small suggestion: What about using those tiny little flags for depicting forums in other languages? (Which flag to choose for English might stir a heated debate, though...)

I agree that the look is now diluted and looks less professional. The new gradient adds a lot to the issue. It is washed out and for some reason not smooth, since I see horizontal colored lines in all browsers.
Can we please make it a solid color, or shade it darker (not lighter) just a little bit and only at the very bottom/top

New icons at the front page are rather bad too, sorry.

As for the look of theme "inside" Moodle courses - they also became less "readable"
For example, it is hard for me to follow the discussion flow, sine I do not see post borders anymore. Same stands for topic/weeks separation or even course page border itself.

I would vote for bold colors and higher contrast. (plus arial vs verdana)
I wish I was a graphic designer

So you see the same problems in the gradient on this page? http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDLSITE-132 (it's a different gradient image).

Looks like top navigation is getting switched all the time now. I see Using Moodle (main forum) and Forums in the Support dropdown, then on the next click or page, I see just Community Forums..
Maybe we can stick to something for now and have some kind of a mock-up test instance first?

Navigation, etc:
When I tell people about modle.org site, I point out to:

• documentation - kept in a wiki
• support (QandA) - provided via forums which are located inside courses in stand-alone moodle installation (novice users do not get it)
• if you are a hard-core, browse through the tracker
  I think we need to make those a little more prominent.

Also, top navigation is inconsistent. E.g. you click on Support tab - you have a page that provides an overview of Support area (like it)
You click on Download tab - you are getting "Moodle Core packages" right away, no overview page.

Some pages have bread-crumbs, some not. I would move the breadcrums further apart from top navigation, thus users will see that those are not the part of overall structure, when they are not. And I think they should not be, since we are mixing too much together.
Overall, I would use sub-tabs where relevant and not breadcrumbs.
Ufff, saying all that, will you be interested in a mockup?

http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDLSITE-496?focusedCommentId=59774&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel#action_59774

The inconsistencies in Menus are because the menu is actually spread across 5 separate systems. This is being worked on - it's dependent on:

• working out how to support languages on all systems (because those support links for example will be language-specific).
• finishing the system to copy all the menu items around for all the languages

The download top-level view, I do agree with you. I actually had that page at one point http://moodle.org/downloads

Breadcrumbs .... I think only Tracker doesn't have them - that's because it's just too hard to change currently.

it looks really fine for me on my Windows Vista machine though ... do you have anti-aliasing turned on in your Display settings? Can you guys provide screenshots?

From what I've read on the Web re Unicode, it's hard to say that one font is better than another when it comes to displaying Unicode. Anyway, at the moment the font of choice for moodle.org is "Bitstream Vera Sans" which does not have more Unicode support than Verdana, so...

On my Windows XP screen, with ClearType anti-aliasing ON, Bitstream Vera Sans looks OK - even nice-looking - except for the recurrent problem of not differenciating betweeen the uppercase "i" letter and the lowercase "l" letter. This to me is redhibitory in any font design.

I do not understand what Bente Olsen means with "The current diluted print is very unpleasant to read". Yes, a screenshot would help.

Joseph

Now I have looked at moodle.org with different os'es, XP, Ubuntu, OpenSuse. It seem to be a local problem on my XP.

I have a new computer with a preinstalled XP. On that the font looks fine. I compared the screen settings on my old and the new XP, but there is no difference there. And Martin, I think the anti-aliasing is turned on. This is not what it is called in Danish in the settings, but I can choose between Standard and Clear Type. It is set to Standard.

Joseph, I understand that you can not understand what I mean with 'diluted'. I now discovered that I have misunderstood that word myself. Have a look at my screenshot.

Anyway, after having looked at the site on other machines where the letters are shown as solid caracters, I like the font displayed better than before.

It is possible for me to deactivate the use of 'Standard' or 'Clear Type' screen setting, if I do that Bitstream VS looks a lot better. In the end, though, I will vote for Verdana. I agree with Joseph that it is the best choice when you are using Windows.

I agree with Elena and I am not a great fan of that automatic linking to glossary entries in the moodle.org forum discussions. Since the introduction of the new interface, however, the subdued dotted underlining is much less obtrusive than used to be the grey background which really ruined the appearance of discussions text! To the point that I systematically resorted to the <nolink> tag in all of my own posts!

As for Elena's second point I suggest that the context of hyperlinked words in the discussions she rfeceiveds by e-mail should make it clear whether those hyperlinks point to the glossary definitions or to a link put in by the poster.

Joseph

Joseph Rézeau added a comment - 28/Dec/08 07:26 PM

3- In the HTML editor, the Address style can be used, but it no longer shows when the post has been posted.

Joseph

moodle_header.jpg - how I see moodle.org now
header_stripe_grad.jpg - my solution to fix the grey thing