Drumbeat/Webcraft/Landing-page-tweaks

School of Webcraft: tweaks to p2pu.org/webcraft page

• Goal: Right now the p2pu School of Webcraft landing page is a bit confusing for newcomers: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/
• This wiki page suggests tweaks we can make fast to improve the user experience from now until course registration starts in January.
• These are meant to be fast temporary fixes. Not a permanent solution or design for the page.

The main goals:

• Keep it fast and simple. Changes that can be made quickly and easily using the existing template. Ideally within the next week.
• Remove redundant items. A lot of what's on the page now doesn't yet contain real content, or isn't that relevant to School of Webcraft users. So we can simplify by removing it for the time being.
• Laser focus on three things: 1) propose a course, 2) take a course, 3) learn more.

Tweaks

1) Logo in top left corner. Use this alternate logo. It’s more legible at this size. 
Clicking on the logo should take you to “p2pu.org/webcraft."

2) Remove "Drumbeat" from nav bar. Confusing.

3) Remove "Webcraft courses" from nav bar. Until we have real content in there. Right now it takes you to a mostly blank page. Confusing user experience.

(4) “Welcome to the School of Webcraft” text block.


Update this copy with the text linked below and provide link to  a text field / page element which we can edit and update the content from (including adding images).

Initial Text: http://pad.p2pu.org/WebcraftLandingPage

• QUESTION: Can we include an image here? (see mock-up below)
  

(5) "About us" links

Can we have Webcraft specific set of links and subpages here?

Currently these pages (eg. About - http://p2pu.org/webcraft/about) are general P2PU pages and text with the Webcraft theme.  Webcraft should be able to create our own pages for this menu heirachy.

Can you create basic pages for "About School of Webcraft" and "Our Charter"

Please provide us with instructions about how to create and modify pages in this menu.

• QUESTION: Can we change these links? To make them specific to School of Webcraft? This would be extremely useful. 
(see mock-up below for examples)
  

(6) "News"

Pull in the Planet Webcraft feed?

• Planet Webcraft link: http://blogs.p2pu.org/planet-webcraft/

  

(7) "Find a course". Until we have real course content, let's link to the School of Webcraft mailing list sign-up page. Need to create a new page explaining this.

(8) “Suggest a course.” Should link to the School of Webcraft course suggestion form here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEdtSFFDeUM3MzBVTzhBd2E4anRwU0E6MQ

(9) “Courses / Community / Contact us.” Let’s remove this for time being. We can accomplish the same goals with text links in copy above.


(10) “Recent courses.” Let’s remove this until there is real content ready.
 "No courses yet" sounds defeatist.

Here's a visual point of reference for these tweaks, with corresponding numbers:

Mock-up of what the page might look like when completed

• Adding a big splashy image will help drive home the current message
• For "take a course," we can encourage folks to sign up to the School of Webcraft mailing list until course registration opens.
  
• The big buttons focus on what's important right now. With the "about us" links making it easy to learn more.

Page Copy

Copy for page is here