Making WordPress.org

Opened 6 years ago

Closed 12 months ago

#3773 closed enhancement (wontfix)

Request from Marketing Team to Implement Navigation Change at make.wordpress.org

Reported by: westcountymedia's profile westcountymedia Owned by:
Milestone: Priority: normal
Component: Make (Get Involved) / P2 Keywords: ui-feedback ux-feedback 2nd-opinion close
Cc:

Description

Background:

When a (newbie?) user goes to WordPress.org and clicks "Get Involved" they reach a page (make.wordpress.org) that contains a complete list of the different volunteer teams that contribute to making WordPress what it is today.

But to a new user, when they are thinking about getting involved with WordPress, it's likely they are (primarily? also?) looking for something in between downloading and using WordPress, and making a full commitment to joining a WordPress volunteer team.

I think it would be valuable to include content and links that point visitors of this page to showcase the 630+ WordPress Meetups that happen Worldwide, the numerous upcoming WordCamp events, and a resource kit for joining and/or hosting a WordPress Contributor Day.

These are all great ways to get involved with WordPress as they are a logical bridge from WordPress user status to WordPress volunteer.

Objective:

Include Links in sub-nav menu at make.wordpress.org that point to:

  • Official WordPress Meetups
  • Upcoming WordCamps
  • Contributor Day Resources (Hosting, Onboarding, etc.)

Trello Card: https://trello.com/c/IRCgZU8N/189-include-links-to-meetups-wordcamps-contributor-day-resources-on-https-makewordpressorg-page

Attachments (1)

Screen Shot 2019-06-12 at 15.53.17.png (1006.0 KB) - added by hedgefield 6 years ago.

Download all attachments as: .zip

Change History (16)

#1 @Kenshino
6 years ago

  • Keywords 2nd-opinion added
  • Priority changed from high to normal

It's a great idea but potentially could be improved further by the community team. I think it's worth bringing in the Community Team to weigh in on this.

I'd suggest you make a proposal at #community-team on slack or https://make.wordpress.org/community/

#2 @westcountymedia
6 years ago

  • Keywords needs-design added

Great suggestion, we'll reach out with a proposal to #community-team asap to weigh in and hopefully improve on this. Since #marketing team meeting was cancelled today, it will likely be after next week's meeting.

This ticket was mentioned in Slack in #design by karmatosed. View the logs.


6 years ago

#4 @hedgefield
6 years ago

By 'subnavigation', do you mean adding a dropdown menu on Get Involved, or adding to the subnav that's already present below the intro of the Get Involved page (which now includes Meetings and Team Updates)?

In case of the former, I would recommend to instead make meetups and resources a more prominent part of the above-the-fold content on Get Involved. I don't know if people would pause and insect a dropdown menu if they don't know what they are looking for, which is the group it sounds like you want to target.

I agree that meetups, wordcamps and contributor days are a friendlier way to get involved, as strange as that may sound, as diving into the team agendas and handbooks.

If that's the intended direction, I can do a quick mockup.

#5 @karmatosed
6 years ago

@Kenshino, @westcountymedia - where are we with this? @hedgefield has asked some great clarification questions would be good to answer so a mockup can be made.

#6 @westcountymedia
6 years ago

  • Priority changed from normal to high

Hey everyone,

For clarification, the suggested changes could be as simple as adding the suggested three new links to Meetups, WordCamps and the Contributor Day handbook as text based links in the existing sub-navigation bar menu which currently contains only the Meetings and Team Updates links. I have included a link to a screenshot below to point out the subject navigation bar (See Image Link)

https://www.westcountymedia.com/wp/WP.org-Get-Involved-1.png

This menu (navigation bar) currently only contains two links:

  • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Meetings (https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/)

Team Updates (https://make.wordpress.org/updates/)

  • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The proposed improvements would be to change the following resource links in this menu to display like this:

  • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Meetups (https://www.meetup.com/pro/wordpress/)

WordCamps (https://central.wordcamp.org/)

Contributor Days (https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/contributor-day/)

Team Meetings (https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/)

Team Updates (https://make.wordpress.org/updates/)

  • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For advanced improvement I would also suggest adding three new content boxes, one for Meetups, one for WordCamps, and one for Contributor Days which ideally would appear as the top three content boxes in the lower two-column table layout.

Alternatively, these proposed three new content boxes could be in their own new three-column table section above the existing two-column table of content boxes with a title like "Get Started" and then giving the existing content box table a new title like "Get Serious" or "Volunteer", etc.

#7 follow-up: @karmatosed
6 years ago

@westcountymedia thanks for working on this what about these as options to focus the links:

Meetup Groups (https://www.meetup.com/pro/wordpress/)
WordCamps (https://central.wordcamp.org/)
Team Meetings (https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/)
Team Updates (https://make.wordpress.org/updates/)

For now, I think not having the contribution day link probably is a good balance.

@hedgefield are you still able to create a mockup? That would be great.

#8 @hedgefield
6 years ago

  • Keywords needs-design removed

Gotcha, I attached a quick edit to show what this would look like (man, still confused by how Trac handles attachments ha). I added some example copy for the content boxes.

I ended up using "Meetups" instead of "Meetup groups" because "meetups" instantly triggered an association for me, while adding "groups" to it confused me for a moment and made it sound a little more intimidating somehow.

p.s. The masonry grid on the Make page isn't as easy to manipulate as you'd think, so apologies for the incorrect icons.

Last edited 6 years ago by hedgefield (previous) (diff)

#9 in reply to: ↑ 7 @westcountymedia
5 years ago

Replying to karmatosed:

@westcountymedia thanks for working on this what about these as options to focus the links:

Meetup Groups (https://www.meetup.com/pro/wordpress/)
WordCamps (https://central.wordcamp.org/)
Team Meetings (https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/)
Team Updates (https://make.wordpress.org/updates/)

For now, I think not having the contribution day link probably is a good balance.

@hedgefield are you still able to create a mockup? That would be great.

I think adding these links to Meetups and WordCamps on this page would be a huge improvement and possibly encourage more people to get involved with WordPress locally.

Not sure why posting link(s) to Contributor Day resources (eg. "Participate at a Contributor Day" / "Organize a Contributor Day") doesn't fit within "Get Involved" TBH. But I'm all for starting somewhere :)

#10 @andreamiddleton
5 years ago

To my mind, https://make.wordpress.org/ is oriented toward people who already know a little bit about what contributing to WordPress/open source might entail. My support for this opinion is the content at the top of the page: "Whether you’re a budding developer, a designer, or just like helping out, we’re always looking for people to help make WordPress even better."

That goal — of making WordPress even better — probably isn't the goal of most new WordPress users, and that's ok. Attending a WordPress meetup or WordCamp is a great way to learn more about WordPress and connect with other WordPress enthusiasts, and is certainly a step in the direction of becoming a contributor, but simple event attendance is not an intrinsic contribution. :)

I think adding Local Events to that "Meetings... Team Updates" nav bar would be confusing or disappointing to anyone looking for actual contribution-focused events, because meetups and WordCamps don't consistently have content dedicated to learning how to contribute to WordPress. I could see the benefit of a Local Events that goes to a page listing Contributor Days, but that page does not currently exist.

WordCamps and meetups get unprecedented promotion through being listed on the WordPress dashboard; while I'm always excited to consider other ways to promote WordPress events, I think this particular approach is likely to result in confusion, which is not ideal.

#11 @westcountymedia
5 years ago

I think there's already some confusion happening here, and that's what I'm hoping we can resolve with this change.

To my mind, "Get Involved" is way more all-encompassing than "Contribute" which is clearly what make.wordpress.org is focusing on, those who want to not just interact with the WordPress Community, but also directly contribute.

Maybe instead of one "Get Involved" link in the main navigation at WordPress.org, this should be split into two links: "Events" and "Contribute" with WordCamps, Meetups & Contributor Day links living under the new "Events" link/page, and "Contribute" link navigating to the make.wordpress.org site in it's current form.

My main thought here is that I consider Meetup, WordCamp & Contributor Day attendees as actively involved in the WordPress Community. We are constantly directing our meetup attendees to visit the WordPress.org as a resource, and it seems to me like acknowledging the wildly successful WordPress Meetups, WordCamps and Contributor days on the home page (somewhere, ANYWHERE for that matter) would allow many people who feel they are already "involved" in the WordPress Community to become even more involved, and hopefully end up as contributors as well.

And while yes, these events do get wide exposure through the WordPress Dashboard Events Widget, I also know from experience that many "newbie" (and even seasoned) WordPress users rarely view or interact with their Dashboard.

I honestly just don't see the logic in not completing the circle by including links to Meetup, WordCamp & Contributor Day events prominently at WordPress.org.

Last edited 5 years ago by westcountymedia (previous) (diff)

This ticket was mentioned in Slack in #meta by tellyworth. View the logs.


3 years ago

#13 @tellyworth
3 years ago

Is this still waiting on a second opinion?

#14 @coffee2code
14 months ago

  • Keywords close added
  • Priority changed from high to normal

I agree with everything Andrea said above. In short, Meetups and WordCamps are community-related things (affirmed by their global nav grouping) and not directly contribution-related things, which is the purpose of the Make homepage and network of sites.

As such, I'm inclined to close this ticket as wontfix.

Beyond that, it has been over three years since the last meaningful comment and over four since the main discussion.

Since those discussions, the subnav on the main Make site has expanded from only having:

  • "Meetings" and "Team Updates"

to having:

  • "Meetings", "Team Updates", "Project Updates", "Five for the Future", "Contributor Handbook".

Adding more than maybe one additional link will likely cause the navbar to wrap links.

Also, I don't recall what the main global nav had at the time, but as noted above, "WordCamp" and "Meetups" appear under "Community", which is quite prominent and more appropriate.

Finally, the page is long overdue for a redesign (which is undoubtedly on the docket somewhere), so a full analysis of the page, its design, and its use-cases will be undertaken.

#15 @coffee2code
12 months ago

  • Resolution set to wontfix
  • Status changed from new to closed
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