Action Items from Redesign Post Mortem

[ethanresnick]

The list below doesn't represent everything that was discussed in #65, but it is a concrete set of items that will make the main site way may more maintainable and extensible, and therefore give us the option to think later about what level of integration with our other sites is appropriate.

• Convert the Livescript to JS.

• Remove the features related to pagination. (By this I mean the way that the site "sticks" at certain discrete "pages" as the user is scrolling.) These features weren't adding much, and they make the site slower and the code much more complex. Taking them out should be relatively easy.

• Update the Navigation dramatically.
  I’m thinking we could have:

  • Home (the tech@nyu logo)
  • Events (described below)
  • Job Board (just a link off site?)
  • About (with the team section and a link to Ship + Medium, and probably Press)
  • Contact
  • Sign Up (not yet, but eventually; this would be a way for people to create a profile in the API and, possibly, get a customized version of the site)

  All the content currently under the "Get Started with the Tech Scene", "Improve Your Skills", "Build & Socialize with Cool People", and "Follow the Latest in Tech" sections would get pulled under the Events section.

  Per yall's suggestions above, the events section would have:

  • some intro copy ("Events are the best way to get involved with tech@nyu, meet our members, etc. The types of events we run are...")
  • a calendar, maybe with filters or whatever
  • Promote ways to subscribe to notifications about our events (facebook page; the various calendar feeds!)
  • A link to Demodays.co
  • when startup week is happening (or close to happening), a prominent link to/preview of the SW microsite

  Maybe @oa495 and @danagilliann could design that section?

• Possibly move the site to Jekyll. It already works very similarly, actually, but Jekyll has some nice conventions and usability improvements that we're already used to.

• Integrate @aliceyli and @grungerabbit's suggestions [1] [2], all of which I agree with (except that I wouldn't have the microsites open in new tabs; that's considered bad practice. People know how to use the back button and, I think, often resent sites that open new tabs for them).