[Design-team] Tutorial ideas for the new fp.o site

[Máirín Duffy]

Hi Ian!

On Fri, 2010-07-16 at 08:21 -0700, Ian MacGregor wrote:
> I'm happy, no excited to be a part of the new fp.o website and have
> come up with some ideas for tutorials:
> 
> * Agave tutorial - creating color schemes with agave
> * Crontab tutorial - creating a cronjob
> * Desktop launcher tutorial - creating a desktop launcher
> * GIMP tutorial - creating custom desktop wallpapers
> * Gnote tutorial - using the gnote app
> 
> I can write most of these as I use all of these apps, and I have
> taught a class on crontab recently. I'm submitting these for feedback.
> What does everyone think?

This is a great start! I think we should be looking to produce tutorials
on how-to do things posed in terms of the user's life rather than the
technology, which is really the only critique I have of your list. For
example, here's a stab at how these might be posed better to reflect a
site visitor's POV:

- How to build beautiful color palettes for your home and wardrobe
(Agave)

- Automatically upload your files to a backup drive every week
(crontab)

- Access your favorite app with one click
(desktop launcher)

- Decorate your desktop with family photos
(Gimp tutorial)

- Get organized and build a personal database
(Gnote)


Out of these, though, I think crontab and desktop launcher stand out to
me as maybe not being the best for beginning users. Crontab is not
really for the faint of heart (I have an RHCT and I still prefer GUI
apps to interacting with crontab on the desktop - I only crontab on the
servers I admin). The desktop launcher I think, is kind of difficult to
pose in terms of something the user can accomplish - I think it's too
implementation/desktop specific. 

One tutorial you forgot from the list is turning your friends into the
Hulk with cheese. I think that could replace the crontab one quite well.
I would suggest maybe coming up with a different idea to replace the
desktop launcher one as well, unless you can think of a strong user
story behind it.

~m