RFC: New Information Architecture

[nate-double-u]

As per the conversation around the Etcd.io Docs/SEO Improvement Plan, I've put together an Information Architecture to help guide the website changes and development of new pages on the site. I'm sharing it here as we discussed in the March 11, 2021 etcd public meeting to invite comment and critique.

Proposed Information Architecture: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lWnPo9c=/
(I've also put together a diagram of the site's current information architecture if you'd like to compare/contrast).

The idea behind the 4 top level branches are:

• Evaluation: What is this product, is it right for me, what problem does it solve, and how will I know?
  • Sample section titles: Overview, Getting Started, Reference, Community
• Addition: How do I build solutions?
  • Section titles: API reference
• Fix: How do I fix problems I encounter?
  • Section titles: troubleshooting, FAQ
• Features: How do I build new features and contribute to the project?
  • Section titles: Contributing

(Thanks @zacharysarah for helping me map these)

[nate-double-u]

An invitation for comment:
@spzala @jberkus @gyuho @jingyih @ptabor @xiang90 @jpbetz @hexfusion @chalin

[nate-double-u]

I'd like to propose a lazy consensus here. If no one objects or comments by 5:00 PM PST on Friday, April 2, 2021, I'll go ahead and start work as laid out in this proposed architecture.

[ptabor]

Thank you, Nate:

Are the "Themes" user visible or just internal conceptual grouping. It's not intuitive to me that 'Addition' = building solution on top of etcd vs contributing to etcd,
Maybe we should call sections by the target audience explicitly:

• Getting started
• For users
  • Administration
  • Reference docs
  • Trouble-shutting
  • Solutions
• For contributors
  • e.g https://etcd.io/docs/next/branch_management/ lands here

[nate-double-u]

Are the "Themes" user visible or just internal conceptual grouping.

I think they are an internal conceptual grouping -- something that will inform how we restructure individual pages (like the front page), and how we link to pages in the TOC pages that @jberkus has suggested in #65.

I'm happy to rename the top 4 branches (among other things) if it makes it clearer.

Another goal I have is to not break bookmarks during this improvement project -- so that means either adding a lot of redirects, or, leaving the underlying structure alone and applying this architecture on the pages themselves.

[nate-double-u]

I've re-done the colour scheme on the new IA diagram

• pink = new pages/sections
• orange = moved (in relation to their peer pages)
• green = no change (in relation to their peer pages)

[nate-double-u]

Closing issue as it was a request for comment, and we've had some feedback. Thanks!