Proposed User Journey

[tdcox]

The primary user journey requires that we engage the reader's attention with a succinct statement of value to them on the landing page, then provide an easily navigated narrative that evidences this statement, leading into the detailed content of the specification itself. It is expected that readers will self-pace, exiting the site when they have consumed sufficient detail for their needs.

We should, therefore, provide access to community resources from each page, to allow people to connect with additional support at whatever level of detail suits their needs.

For our technical narrative track, it must be obvious how to reach the reference section of the site directly from the landing page, allowing this audience to get quickly to the detail that they require.

The specification must be unambiguous, minimizing opportunities for multiple interpretations to hold true.

It must be obvious which version of the specification is referenced in the documentation and difficult to accidentally navigate between different versions whilst browsing. The specification should therefore be sandboxed within a consistent namespace so that relative links remain within the same version by default.

The default behavior should be to direct the reader to the latest version of the specification. Links should be provided to the specification GitHub repo to access historical releases of the spec.

The landing page shall present the key statement of value and a shortcut to the reference documentation above the fold. The remainder of the narrative introduction should sit below this on the same page, with jumping off points to details. Where detail sits within the specification or other versioned reference documentation, the landing page should always reference the latest version of these resources.

The user experience should strive for simplicity, consistency and coherency. As a reference work, it should be possible to navigate forwards and backwards through the site in a predictable manner without being redirected to an unexpected point in the content.

Active page elements such as pop-ups should be avoided. There is no requirement to collect data from the reader, nor to embed advertising or promotions within the site.