Feedback on main index page

[hughesnyc]

Details

Hi all :) This isn't a bug report, just feedback that I was asked to give about the main index page during a writing session at the Write The Docs conference. I hope it's helpful!

• Tutorials: On first glance, I was a little surprised to see tutorials at the very top of the left nav. I think of tutorials as in-depth guided learning rather than strictly Getting Started or orientation-type material. But once I scrolled the page and clicked on a couple tutorials, I understood their purpose better.
• General feedback on the copy on the main index page: Manuel explained that the selected topics are curated (as opposed to what's in the left nav), and they're meant to be the most important/useful topics for newcomers. That didn't always come through, and maybe small tweaks to the body copy in each section would help (some examples below).
• Explanation section: The topics in the left nav seemed a little unrelated or disjointed at first glance. Some of them also seem to be a deeper level of content than I'd expect to see there.
• How-To Guides: There seemed to be a mismatch between the topics in the left nav and the curated topics on the index page. For example, "How to use traffic analytics" is a very deep link to a sub-topic of the "Content, themes and SEO" section in the left nav. So, adjusting the intro body copy might be helpful. For example:
  "Need to get something specific done? These guides provide step-by-step instructions in key areas to get you up to speed faster:"
• "Reference" body copy suggestion - Similar reasoning as above, a tweak might be:
  "Need to know how something works? Here are a few of the most important reference docs:"

Overall, I thought the navigation and index page was clear and helpful to a newcomer! The flow is good, the section definitions are clear, and body copy was clear. After adjusting my mental definition of "tutorial," I thought that having them frontloaded on the page was a good choice.

[agjohnson]

Thanks for dropping in and sharing, this is all really helpful feedback! We have some planned work to the index page coming up next can include this in those changes.

cc @benjaoming -- I included on the diataxis refactor project, if we are using that for planning