From technology to politics to video games; these are the random thoughts of a geek with too much time on his hands

For years now, the Help section at WinCustomize has been pretty lacking.  For the last two site revisions it's just been a bulleted list of links to product pages or long outdated tutorials and documentation.  With the number of new users seeking support and assistance growing at an increasing pace, the time has come for a complete redesign of the page.

To that end, I've spend the last few days working on a new Help page that is hopefully a bit more "helpful" than what we currently have.  The focus is on usability, and providing more information to users about what they're looking at.  Product information is being improved, we're linking back more and more to the WinCustomize Wiki etc.

Currently the page is all blocked out and I'm working on filling in all of the links and content.  Here's a small preview of the page.  Ignore the jagged images, they're being redone this afternoon.  And yes, the text is placeholder content just to fill out the page a bit.

If you want to see what the individual product links will bring up, click here for an example.

Huge thanks to nauticalpixel for helping me with the CSS for this page.  This is my first attempt at using CSS and boy did I need a lot of help!

I'd love to hear your thoughts!


Comments
on May 09, 2008
As always you folks seem to put a pretty good amount of thought into this stuff before making changes.  

What you have shown us looks very good and easy to use. If it allows you, (Stardock/WC not us) to add items with ease then I say go for it.  
on May 09, 2008
Nice improvement
on May 09, 2008

Adding blocks of content is really easy on that page.  I just toss in a new div onto the page and type in my content and it automatically lines up with whatever's around it.

on May 09, 2008
Looks great...visually pleasing, user-friendly design...functionally manageable format. I'm very pleased that the Help Page is receiving much needed attention. Thanks for the hard work that's going into improving WC...you're doing a great job! BTW, the Winky icon with the life preserver looks cool!
on May 09, 2008
Thanks a bunch. I will now know the right way to do something rather than my normal hit and miss method.
on May 09, 2008
  Good to see the Help page is getting some love. It really was a calamity before.

I'll see if I can make more contributions to the Wiki soon...sad to say I've begun to neglect it.
on May 09, 2008
Monkeys ought to be admitted into schools.
on May 09, 2008
Monkeys ought to be admitted into schools.


Huh?   
on May 09, 2008
Monkeys ought to be admitted into schools.


Huh?


Read the fine print Philly
on May 09, 2008
Looks like a great improvement. I was lost when I started out here and the old map was all wrinkled and folded wrong!  
on May 09, 2008
and the old map was all wrinkled and folded wrong!
Ahhh . . so that was the trouble . . my wife used the page.    

ZubaZ runs
on May 09, 2008
Well you have the best person for the job there to help you!
Dan is very good at any web development issue you want to figure.
Plus you have the best idea I have ever seen so far. I really like the this and it should help a lot of people.

Very good work Zoomba! Your one of the best!!!

SGT  
on May 09, 2008
this will really be an awsome addition to the site.......give newbies a place to go, and the rest of us a break......  
on May 10, 2008
great