launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[Martin Pool <mbp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

2009/7/27 Michael Nelson <michael.nelson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
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> Hi Launchpad users and developers!
>
> I'm starting the process of updating some soyuz-pages to the new
> 3.0-style designs, and I got stuck on the PPA index page - mainly
> because of the huge opportunity we have to improve the page.
>
> I've outlined the main problem (as I see it) and have included a mock of
> one possible solution at:
>
> https://dev.launchpad.net/VersionThreeDotO/Soyuz/PPAUI
>
> If you use the PPA page as a user or developer, I'd love to get your
> feedback and suggestions as well as your own mocks if you have time.
>
> Feel free to update the wiki page directly, but for the conversation,
> please reply here too with a summary of your thoughts.

Hi, those are pretty interesting mockups.

You're right that the PPA serves two audiences and is pretty busy at
the moment.  But it's also the case that many PPA publishers are going
to be fairly new to making packages so may not want a
debian-archive-expert-oriented view.  For them, the PPA web page
provides important intellectual and emotional confirmation that they
have actually done what they intended to do.

Emphasizing the most recent or popular individual packages is an
invitation to treat PPAs not as software channels that you subscribe
to, but as a passive container from which you can pick out particular
packages to install.  That's actually quite an interesting story
because it requires less ongoing trust of the PPA maintainer, and many
of the times when people want a PPA, like "please see if it fixes this
bug" do just want a one-off installation not ongoing use.  However, it
is a very different story from adding the PPA, and one that's not
fully implemented wrt installing dependent packages.  Therefore you
shouldn't complicate your message - stick to getting people to either
add it or not.  (Obviously downloading particular packages will still
be possible for people who know they want that.)

The key case for this page is: "what is this, do I want to use it, and
if so how do I use it?"  So the information that answers that should
be prominent and in the top left, as you indicate with your arrows.
But the description and the installation instructions up there.

Rather than just the signing key ID I'd suggest you actually give the
command necessary to add it.  There's a big question here about
whether you should encourage people to copy and paste random sudo
commands or how to confirm informed consent, but I believe that just
making it complicated doesn't really help.

I'd put the stats in a portlet; that's an ideal type of information
for a sidebar: small and rarely of interest to normal use.  You can
make the text shorter.  (Why on earth is Launchpad only estimating the
size?  If for implementation reasons it can be out of date or slightly
off I don't really care...)

There may be some user confusion that if I add this archive it will
use this much of _my_ disk?

I think showing the full list of packages is useful because it gives a
sense of whether the ppa really aligns with its purpose or whether
it's just a random dumping ground as some of the early ones were.

Two other things I'd like as a user and developer, and both I think have bugs:

 * a timeline-oriented view of changes, ideally including the
changelog snippet and the uploader - helps characterize the PPA
 * download counts and an estimate of the total number of subscribers
- helps determine trust, and gives satisfaction to the maintainer

-- 
Martin <http://launchpad.net/~mbp/>