Initial thoughts on User Guide

Continuing the discussion from New User Guide website in the making:

Hi Glyn, Looks really good and I’m glad this is being done. The documentation on GitHub is a maze often with conflicting advice where bits have not been updated. Will this replace/integrate with all that? Can you bring in the md files directly? Lots of that is good of course :slight_smile:

Some initial thoughts;

The route into the guide is not immediately clear - The ‘Get Started’ is insignificant and you are immediately inclined to be drawn to the Google Play icon which is actually inappropriate here I feel. I think the home page needs a full menu/clickable structure to the guts of the information. I have always got on really well with this for another system I use User guides — pywws 21.4.0.dev1690 documentation I think too much of your guide’s home page is like the main site page.

It may be somewhere else, but I’d like to see more of an an introduction page that explains initially the basic structure i.e. HW (nodes, sensors), SW (EmonCMS either self hosted or emoncms.org) and the App. I think it currently jumps in too deep too quickly for a new user and is offputting to less technically minded folk. In its simplest form, you need an EmonPi, CT sensor, a power socket, wifi, an account at emoncms.org and an Android phone. I’m a KISS man (Keep It Simple Stupid).

What is the ratio of units being sold? Mostly emonPi? If so I’d suggest that they should be the focus of the Guide to get them started as simply as possible (if not the statement above is way off the mark).

A real bugbear of mine - there is no route back to the root site openenergymonitor.org I always think the top left icon should be back to root site with an additional way of getting to the subsite root. If not, it should be clear what it is. As you unify the look and feel of the various sites, it becomes difficult for a user to know where they are. I’d like to see the top images include the words, Guide or Community with a small text link back to ‘openenergymonitor.org’ (and not just ‘Home’ as which home (root)?).

Not being served as https. Is this deliberate?

Really coming together though :smiley: