[Ned Scott]

This is a post to our wonderful skinning developer community, but it's not about an XBMC skin. Rather, I'd like to tap you guys (and anyone else out there with a good sense of design) as a resource to help improve XBMC's wiki.

We've got several different step-by-step formats that are being experimented with, and I want to see what others think what direction we should go in. Mostly because I'm a total CSS noob, and while I know a good UI when I see one, that's a lot different from being able to make a good UI myself. To give you an idea of some of the stuff we have so far:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Log_file/Easy
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=PVR...tart_guide
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...from_Cydia
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...or_Android
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Cry...l_from_Mac

What works, what doesn't work, what could be improved upon, what's the best, can we combind various aspects, should we go with something totally different, etc. How should these pages look?

The idea is if we get one or two (one size might not fit all) really solid, good looking step-by-step/how-to formats, then I know what to turn into an easy to use template, so that all the formatting doesn't have to be done manually. In other words, we're looking for a winning look so that we can make it easy for anyone to make their own how-to on the wiki, or edit existing ones.

Don't hold back, be honest in what you think about what exists and what should be done next. Any feedback, even just a small comment or idea, is welcome.

[mikehunt]

(Warning : I'm a dev, not a UI guy lol).

(in reference to http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=PVR...tart_guide)

One thing I saw yesterday on a how-to site that I thought was pretty cool was they had the explanations on the left just like you do, but had a mini-slideshow on the right. So you could add even more screenshots to explain a specific step. Easy to use, easy to implement, and adds more detail to the same set of steps.

Just a thought

Eric.

[abfloresn]

I'm not a developer, but I can help you to translate xbmc to spanish, but in Latinamerican style. I saw that the translation to spanish is not ok.

[bomski]

Are there any restrictions imposed by the MediaWiki platform or do you have free reign over it?

i'd start by reviewing the content types (as you've already aggregated) and define a common UX for each type; trying to define one UI for various content types, although difficult, is not impossible...

Do you have any way of doing any A/B testing and seeing which UI is preferred?

Have you also considered changing the content itself? i.e. collate all the content and produce a step-by-step video for each topic; I personally find videos much easier to follow (although code snippets would need to be provided alongside said video!)

[MassIV]

Images are way faster as visual search cue then a video.
Then provide both fast answer with arrows and comprehensible explanation.
Keep tight format 50/50 image vs text. In white / gray blocks like pvr example link.

[goro4111]

How about using videos instead of screenshots and text? Much easier and gives precise idea to the user.

Note: I could help with translation to Danish and Arabic ...

[ChopperRob]

How about using videos instead of screenshots and text? Much easier and gives precise idea to the user.

Note: I could help with translation to Danish and Arabic ...

This would be easier as long nothing changes, it's much harder to keep all the videos up to date than a 'simple' web page.
Even if there changes one little thing, they would have to recreate the whole video.

[jaap]

I agree. Also, don't forget findability: most of the.time when i am reading a wiki site, it is because i cannot find how to do something. Google leads me towards the wiki. But since wiki's are just a pile of unstructured content, it is always hard to find exactly what you need.

I'd stick with text, but enhancing the text with screenshots / slides / videos might be an option.

[Martijn]

Personally I like to scroll quickly through the wiki for what I need. Video makes the art harder and pointing to specific parts is also harder.
And like said if something changes you would have to redo the video instead of some txt/screenshot.
Also multiple users can contribute to text /screenshots, videos is usually a single person job.

[Ned Scott]

I aim for both video and text/picture instructions for the wiki. Text is a must for various reasons. You can easily update text on a wiki, but you can't update one step in a video easily without redoing the video.

[Tolriq]

Not talking about searching in a video is not easy :p

I guess that most of the users like me when they need something in the Wiki use search.

[Ned Scott]

Idea for main page: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM..._structure

[MassIV]

Yeah, i like it. The icons help the eye search faster.