is_main_query() function reference page needs to be updated:
This Codex page needs some work to actually explain what is going on. It documents only the function, yet is linked from the
WP_Querypage, and the only example is using the method.I’m committing a
_doing_it_wrong()message, but this Codex page needs a lot of love in order to keep this in 3.7. Otherwise we’re just telling users what they’re doing wrong without giving them any information to help them correct it.
We need someone to make the necessary updates. Please leave a comment if you’re interested in helping out.
Thanks!
]]>- Moving handbooks to devhub: having the handbooks on make/docs is confusing for new contributors. We need to get them moved to devhub asap. @saracannon can we get an estimate on when the theme will be finished?
- @hanni has got some people to help out with the plugin dev handbook
- @rarst is set up with his local environment, will get in touch if there are any more issues.
Next week I’m going to be flying at 4pm and then at WordCamp Europe so let’s postpone the meeting to 8th October.
]]>I think we’ve established that the current location of the help tab is not easily discoverable. Moving it to the admin bar didn’t have particularly positive results either. Changing the color dramatically enough that it no longer matched the rest of the admin made it more visible (but I don’t think that’s the end solution). So, I think we can agree that we have identified that the location of the current help tab is an issue — people aren’t finding it naturally and are resorting to other means of support when they need it.
Mockups, plz
Now we need to start coming up with solutions to the problem. Ways to make the admin help more discoverable. Last round of testing we threw two ideas into the mix with different results. As suggested by @trishasalas we’re going to try a new tool (Verify) to test out these mockups and get feedback from humans to help guide our decisions for what would work best.
@trishasalas will work on getting the Verify stuff set up.
Everyone else, now is your chance to either throw out an idea or a mockup or both. Anything that doesn’t have a mockup won’t be considered, but if you want to take someone else’s idea and mock that up (bc not everyone is a designer), feel free.
Some previously suggested ideas include:
- Using a GetSatisfaction/Basecamp-style button on the side, e.g. : http://i.imgur.com/8KvJpYz.png
-
- I’d also like to see what comes up after this is clicked…
- Modify the existing help tab to make it bigger, different color (but still matching the color scheme of MP6), etc
- Add help to the sidebar
-
- Where to put it? Top? Bottom? Middle? Submenus?
There are obviously more, but these are a few ideas that have come up a couple times. And within these, there are different ways each thing could be approached. Go nuts. We’ll talk about the mockups at the next meeting.
Also, as you’re mocking stuff up, don’t forget about this screenshot archive I (with some contributions from @trishasalas) set up of how different platforms/systems handle help for ideas and/or reference: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B3-2b7pMjiwXeEhpbzBNelFlUGc&usp=sharing
Please post your mockups in the comments for this post for discussion.
Ideas, plz
If you have any brilliant ideas that haven’t been covered, please add them as comments to this post. Then we can discuss each one and I can add them to the list.
See you all next week! 
Mindset
The users were asked to have a particular frame of mind to use as a base for going through the tasks. This is what we gave them:
You have just set up your first WordPress website – go you! Now that you’re set up, you want to get straight to customizing and using your website. You’re going to do some basic tasks in the administration panel. If you get confused please feel free to look for help both in the admin and elsewhere.
Task 1
The first task was just to move the recorder out of the way because it covered the top left of the screen. We’ll skip that and move on to…
Task 2
Log in.
That’s pretty obvious, too, so…
Task 3
You want to change the design of your website. Find the menu item that lets you do that and choose a new design (use the help in the admin or on other sites on the internet to if you need help to do this).
When you have found a design that you like, preview it, and activate it on your website. View the front page of your website.
Task 4
Next, add a blog post. Find the menu item that lets you do that and click it. Add a title and some text to your blog post, and add an image. When you’re done, publish your post and view it on the front end.
Task 5
Return to the admin of your website. Your website has a sidebar and you want to add a calendar of your blog posts to it. Find the menu item that allows you to do this and add a calendar. (use the help in the admin or on other sites on the internet to if you need help to do this). When you’re done, save and view it on the front end.
The users were also asked some questions after they completed the tasks. For posterity, here are the questions we gave them:
What frustrated you most about using the interface?
How can we improve the interface to make it easier for you?
Were you able to find all of the help that you needed?
What additional help would you have found useful?
]]>1. Handbooks
@hanni has adopted the Plugin Developer Handbook and will be acting editor to drive progress.
@sewmyheadon is editing the Theme Developer Handbook.
2. Monthly Meetups
WP Seattle’s Monthly Docs Improvement Meetup is this Saturday, September 21, 2013 at 10am PT / 1pm ET. If you can’t make it in-person, you can still help by logging into the IRC channel and working remotely.
@sewmyheadon will also be organizing a second monthly Docs Improvement Meetup, which will be virtual only. Dates coming soon.
Hopefully, by having two Meetups per month, we’ll be able to make real progress on the Handbooks.
3. devhub
Siobhan posted notes on this week’s developer.wordpress.org meeting.
4. Codex Spam
@kimparsell posted about a rise of spam in the Codex.
We need to still be vigilant about taking care of anything spammy found in the Codex. mrmist and the other folks do a great job, but can always use an extra set of eyes to spot things.
5. Inline Docs
The Inline Docs weekly meeting yesterday addressed some workflow issues. All resolved, things should be much smoother moving forward.
DrewAPicture has been given guest commit priviledges for the Inline Docs.
That’s all for this week – have a great weekend!
]]>The Docs Team would love to see other WordPress Meetups and local WordPress groups hold their own Documentation Meetups. Of course, Docs can use all the help it can get.
Things to keep in mind when organizing a Docs Meetup
- Your location needs good internet access and power outlets. Duh, right? Great coffee also helps.
- Figure out what to work on in advance. The hardest thing about contributing to these meetups is simply figuring out what to work on. So, as an organizer, prepare in advance by finding a handful of specific things that the group can work on. Keep it small and manageable. You can touch base with one of the Handbook editors, Docs Team Members, @hanni or @siobhan or @sewmyheadon to help make your list. There’s always plenty to do, but some things need quicker attention.
- Publicize it. Ask people to contribute and encourage participation of all user levels. You don’t have to be a developer or designer to contribute. There are plenty of things you can do to help including:
- Screenshots – we need folks to take, and edit, screenshots to augment written documentation
- Examples & Code Snippets – need formatted code snippets and examples
- Editing / Proofreading / QA
- Transcribing video to text
- Developer support – non-devs need coders to help clarify functions, hooks & filters.
- Post pre-meetup instructions. Before your meetup date, make sure to post some pre-meetup instructions so new contributors can be prepared when they come. Here’s an example of a Docs Improvement post from the Seattle WP Meetup site. At minimum, you’ll want to make sure people have reviewed the
- WordPress Style Guide
- Handbook Tutorial Template - a starter template with typical sections in a tutorial doc.
- Prepare to be a helper. Organizers should expect to spend about 30 to 50% of their time at the Meetups just helping others get situated, reviewing other’s docs, answering questions, etc.
- Be okay with slow progress. Writing docs isn’t always a quick task, in fact, it’s usually the opposite. It’s a win if you can complete one or two documents in one 4 – 6 hour Meetup.
- Join the #wordpress-sfd IRC chat room. During Docs Meetups, we encourage folks to login to IRC so they can ask questions, post progress, request docs reviews, and generally help out.
- Be encouraging. Face it, writing docs can be relatively thankless and sometimes tedious work, so make sure to be positive, thank people for their participation, and be encouraging. The sooner someone feels like they’re contributing and their work is appreciated, the more likely they are to continue helping.
- Have fun.
Join Us
If you’d like to participate in any of the already-scheduled Docs Improvement Meetups in-person in Seattle or virtually via IRC, here’s when we’re meeting:
- Saturday, September 21 (10am – 4pm PDT / 5pm – 11pm UTC)
- Sunday, October 20 (10am – 4pm PDT / 5pm – 11pm UTC)
- Saturday, November 16 (10am – 4pm PST / 6pm – 12pm UTC)
- Saturday, December 14 (10am – 4pm PST / 6pm – 12pm UTC)
Hope to see you there!
]]>See you next week at 16:00 UTC on Tuesday!
]]>No change to the help tabs
User 1
This person didn’t have any issues. Never used the help.
User 2
This person didn’t have any issues. They did leave this comment:
I would want a help section for each category/section as well as a help search box so I can quickly find an answer
…and I can’t tell if they are saying that because they didn’t find the help, or if they are saying that because they *did* but it wasn’t how they expected. I assume the former (never found it) since they never clicked the tab.
User 3
This person did have problems, never found the help tab.
Help in the admin bar
User 1
This person commented on the lack of help documentation, but his LastPass bar was covering up the help button in the admin bar. (I guess that could be an argument against the admin bar being the final location of the help button/tab.)
User 2
This person found the help button, but it seemed to be because he was specifically looking for it (because the task said “use help if you need to”). It wasn’t natural.
User 3
Had problems, but they went to Google for help. Never found the help button.
Help tab a different color
User 1
This person never needed/never used the help tab.
User 2
This person didn’t need the help but they did find it.
User 3
This person found the help tab AND ACTUALLY USED IT (but it didn’t give him the answer he was looking for).
Conclusions
1. I think it’s safe to say the current help tabs are hard to see/find. Not one person even noticed they existed.
2. The admin bar solution doesn’t seem to work. Placement conflicts with popular password management browser extensions and it’s pretty nondescript sitting up there. The only person who did find it had to look for it.
3. The color seemed to make the help tab easier to find (maybe?). At any rate, 2/3 people found the help tab when we gave it a color. Maybe we can use MP6 themes to bring in a color that goes with the admin color scheme?
Next steps/ideas
I’m open. Here are a few things I’m thinking:
1. Replace the tab with a ? icon in the same location. Ideally colored.
2. Use a plugin that adds help in the sidebar (this will require someone to write up some help documentation for the tasks we are looking for people to accomplish for them to find).
3. Maybe another location? Like the Feedback tabs that hang on the right side of the window with GetSatisfaction stuff?
4. Possibly extend the color help plugin to pull in styles from the active MP6 theme, if possible.
Any other thoughts/ideas?
]]>New help option to test
@ubernaut & @jazzs3quence got a new plugin in the repo to test. http://wordpress.org/plugins/color-help/
This one adds a color to the help link (and a background color in MP6) and bolds the text to make it more noticeable.
UserTesting.com issues…resolved?
@siobhan contacted UserTesting.com support to ask about whether it’s possible to move the recorder thing by default. The answer is no. So we added a task in the list of tasks for the users to complete to move the recorder first.
Prepping for the next round of testing
@siobhan made the testing site a multisite so we can have separate sub-sites for each test. I created 3 sites on the network, one with the default install, one with my plugin that moves the help to the admin bar, and one with the color help plugin. I activated MP6 across the network, made all the sites use Twentytwelve, and removed all but the Meta, Search, and Recent posts widgets in the sidebar.
I set up 3 of each test, so hopefully it won’t be a problem with people trying to do things on top of each other (unfortunately I hadn’t thought of that…)
Next week we can talk about the results. (and see if I messed things up by doing more than one at a time :/ )
]]>Please be on the look out and either delete if you can, or replace the page with {{rfd}} otherwise.