[ZDP] Some remarks about the portal design(s)

[Rik Hoekstra]

I had some time to look into the portal ideas today. First I have to say
I like the new design, and I think it's a big improvement over the old
one. As far as I'm concerned it still not clear enough. I think
Christian Scholz proposal is the better of the two. 

My remarks in random order.

- THere is no login button/link, or another way to enter the
'development mode' (management screens, or ZDP-Tools management for
Members) in a graceful way. Perhaps it would also be wise to have a
different 'portal mode' (with options to edit etc) for developers and
members than for users/visitors. If this is implemented, then a login
could be provided automatically when the developer/member portal is
entered and the zdp-management items inserted automatically.

- The separation between the yahoo-like portal things and the
ZDP-projects lower on the page is a bit strange. Moreover it is not
clear what is what, and why it is there. I think a link with a little
explanation is more in the spirit of the homepage. Now we have like five
different links to DTML or DTML related items on one page. No user who
doesn't know what he's looking for (or what ZQR, ZSnippets etc mean)
will be able to find easily what he's looking for.

- I like Christian Scholz news item. If implemented, however, this would
mean news would have to be refreshed regularly.

- The members portal should give an 'overview at a glance' of what
changed at the zdp site and where to find it

- While I really like the direct search options, they are not always on
topic (like searching on Zope.org for projects in the Members portal).
It would be even nicer to have a digest mode, which searches more
machines at once and give a ranked result list. I know this is a lot of
work, but it's only an idea
Any reason why the searchable mailinglist archives are not included (in
the hacker, developer etc portals) in the automatic searches? Chris,
does this sound like a good idea.

- I am sympathetic to the oswg, but I can't figure out why the link is
on the homepage. Could someone enlighten me?