Subject: Suggestions for website improvements

From: Thomas Landauer <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2021 18:28:23 +0200

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...

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.

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.

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... ;-)

Cheers,
Thomas

---

From: Dave Page <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2021 11:46:32 +0100

Hi

> 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.

> 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.

> docs - and for the few other questions we can certainly find a place too.

I like that idea.

> feedback if you're interested in changing anything at all, before

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