Wikiversity:Main page learning project/April 2008 Redesign

This is a FAQ and/or discussion page for the redesign of the main page in March and April of 2008.

The provisional page

General ideas behind the redesign

The redesign of December 2007 was fast and provisional.
Colours: the old main page had been rightly criticised as too blue; the new one has more colours and allows for easier colour changes if desired in the future. After experimentation by a number of users and comparison with a wide variety of other Wikimedia projects, a three-colour design has been chosen.
Livelier: the new colours and design are part of the effort to broaden the appeal of Wikiversity across the educational spectrum. Don't forget that most of world education is primary and secondary.
New box with picture of the day: the temporary box with "yesterday's featured project" has been replaced with an "educational picture of the day". There is currently a 100-picture dynamic rotation behind this, where each page and picture in the rotation has individual comments and hyperlinks attached. There is a lot of work behind this. Users are welcome to suggest additional items for addition to the rotation.
Text: actual words have been reworked, with substantial shortening by Cormaggio.
Focus on content: there has been a deliberate shift away from development towards content. While development and community boxes are still there, the main focus is on existing content. This reflects the fact the Wikiversity is maturing. It may also be more attractive to new users to join a project which feels less like a building site.
Shift from tertiary to multi-level: despite the Wikimedia Foundation's clear mission to cater for all educational levels, Wikiversity has a historical legacy of focusing too strongly on tertiary education. The new main page and some of the new portals are a start at correcting this perspective and making school teachers and other educators feel more welcome.
Use of category tree extension: the right-hand navigation adds a new navigation method to Wikiversity: the dynamic category tree. Please don't make the mistake of thinking that the tree menu is fixed, or was put together by whoever made this new main page. It is in fact an automated or dynamic representation of Wikiversity's actual category system. To modify the tree, one must modify the categorisation of pages and categories. This is good, because it is a low-maintenance high-power solution to navigation. However this will challenge the Wikiversity community to pay more attention to how resources are categorised.
New guides and browsing: the main page links into new ideas such as Wikiversity:Browse and Help:Guides.

Possible questions

Why isn't my favourite page there?

The move to the dynamic category tree system may require some getting used to, but it means the main page now links to perhaps 1000 or so pages in WV, rather than just a few dozen. On the whole, your favourite page should be more accessible now. On the other hand, if you feel it is not, please list it below.

Add list of missing links here.

I see minor layout issues in Firefox / Safari / my self-compiled browser

It is possible there are minor layout issues. The page has been checked in the main browsers, and there are no big issues which would mean we couldn't activate the new main page. However it is quite possible there are minor layout issues. These can be addressed in the coming weeks. If you have a layout issue or other browser or screen-resolution related issue, please add it below with details of your browser version and screen resolution.

Add list of minor layout issues here.

In FF, if I close the 1st category-tree link in the Explore Wikiversity box (i.e., close Category:Resources by level), I get a large blank space under the welcome box (the rest of the content is pushed down). -- Jtneill - Talk 13:00, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Playing with this some more, it seems closing any of the category-tree links shifts the content down the page? -- Jtneill - Talk 13:02, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The desired behaviour is that the box expands and contracts to accommodate the tree. However the box has a minimum height, so if you close everything, the box will be a little larger than absolutely required on some screens. --McCormack 13:06, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think I'll need to make a screencast to show what's happening. -- Jtneill - Talk 13:08, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I wasn't sure about uploading an .avi screencast to WV (and I haven't worked out how to do .ogg screencasts on Windows OS yet), so it's here (17MB) temporarily. Probably should have made it smaller size too, sorry, but I hope this helps. -- Jtneill - Talk 13:29, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Problem solved! Clear cache and reload. --McCormack 13:36, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There seems to be extra blank space at the top. -- Jtneill - Talk 13:41, 29 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why isn't my favourite page in the Help:Guides system?

Probably because it wasn't known about. Please just list it below, or compose a new guide yourself and add it to the list.

I don't understand how to edit the category tree system

Simply edit Wikiversity's category system itself - i.e. start adding pages to categories, and add these categories in turn to parent categories, so that everything fits into one big logical tree. Don't be afraid to add a resource to several categories - e.g. a category denoting educational level/age, a category denoting resource type, a category denoting subject/topic, etc. The dynamic category trees will instantly recognize your changes.

How can I have my favourite picture as picture of the day?

You can suggest it at Talk:Educational Media Awareness Campaign. If there is sufficient long-term motivation, we might create a more elaborate suggestions system. However, please bear in mind two things. (1) The "quote of the day" enthusiasm only lasted for about a couple of months. (2) Even on Wikipedia, with its far larger human resources, the "picture of the day" system is (rumoured to be) run only by a couple of people - i.e. it's labour intensive stuff which few people are prepared to work hard on in the long term. The Wikiversity system is currently maintenance-free.

So who decides what picture is shown tomorrow?

It's an automatic system with a built-in rotation.

Does the picture box really have to be that wide?

Yes. Educational images are generally more detailed than the snazzy landscape photos they show over at Wikipedia. If lots of space wasn't reserved, many of the best educational images couldn't be shown in the rotation.

On the other hand, if we generally think that too many people are still running 800x600 screens or similar, then we may have to compromise on the maximum width of some of the images and cut down on the width of the picture box section. Some compromising has already been done - most of the maximum image widths have been cut from 460 pixels to 420 pixels.

How do I add news?

Edit Main Page/News.

More discussions

Add your topic here.

Collapsible boxes

What do you think about making each of the main page boxes collapsible? -- Jtneill - Talk 13:06, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Personally, not really. One can get too excited about technology (e.g. Erkan wanted a navigation menu in a persistent pop-up window!). Keeping things simple is great. The category tree system is perhaps an exception. The various dynamic rotations happen behind the scenes, so they're OK too. --McCormack 13:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Portal Nav 0.5

I tried some edits to the Explore WV box. But they had the effect (on FF at least) of reducing the width of the main page content - not sure why. I've reverted the edits. -- Jtneill - Talk 12:23, 29 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Seems to work OK by making the changes at a new version Template:Portal Nav 0.6 and showing at Main Page 0.6. Really, I'm just trying to understand how it all works... When I tried making the changes earlier, it changed the width of the content on the main page. Not sure why. -- Jtneill - Talk 13:37, 29 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Quote of the day

I wondered about this: Main page learning project/QOTD. Would perhaps a quote of the day fit in a box in the bottom-left of the main page? -- Jtneill - Talk 10:23, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The original quotes of the day were low down on the page. The December 2007 redesign put the quote up at the top in small writing. On the whole I think it's normal with quotes that they go right at the top of a piece of work, but never too conspicuous. Think about how books and articles do it. Quotes are mood-setting or thought-provoking devices, which belong at the top/front of things. --McCormack 10:40, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, there it is! How about that? :) I'm starting to understand how this works... interesting. I like the way the picture and quote rotate and have a discussion associated with each. I am wondering what you think about #switch: 21 - perhaps it could switch more often. There isn't anything like a daily discussion about each quote. To be honest, I hadn't actually worked out that it was even changing each day until now... But if it could change each page refresh (i.e., switch by second or millisecond), then it would serve also as a 'random' quote generator. Just a thought. I am not meaning this for the picture of the day; just the quote of the day. Let's put them on different schedules? -- Jtneill - Talk 00:34, 4 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Pictures used in Wikiversity resources

It might be nice to have the "picture of the day" feature use mainly pictures which are used in Wikiversity resources. Those who are curious about the subject of the image can then visit the page where it's used to find out more. The information included underneath the pictures right now is nice, but it is only the very most basic information. If we can't find enough good wikiversity resources using good images, we could simply put in a link to a related wikipedia page or two. That would also be useful to those seeking more information. --Luai lashire 21:23, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]