Proposed update to docs welcome box content

[jomarieminney]

Issue Description

When someone goes to https://make.wordpress.org/docs/ for the first time (or for the first time in a while?) the first thing that shows at the top of the page is the Welcome Box. Due to the length of the content in the Welcome Box, it is not possible on most desktop screen sizes to see the content underneath which is critical for people to view if they are interested in contributing to the docs team. Instead they are presented first with a link to the handbook, which is acknowledged as being out of date.

URL of the Page with the Issue

https://make.wordpress.org/docs/

Section of Page with the issue

Welcome Box (if hidden, click 'Show welcome box' toggle on top right)

Why is this a problem?

This is likely resulting in many people (including myself, until I reached out on slack) not finding the right information on how to contribute. The content below (e.g. the pinned post on onboarding to documentation team) is not visible until the welcome box is closed, and it is natural to click the first link if you are just getting started/exploring how to contribute to the team.

Suggested Fix

Re-organise/update the welcome box content in the centre column. Suggested change below.

Replace the following:

• Docs Team Handbook: An overview of what we do and how to collaborate
• WordPress Documentation Style Guide: Style guide for WordPress documentation
• Block Editor Handbook: An overview of documentation contributions of Block Editor / Gutenberg
• DevHub (developer.wordpress.org): The home of the developers’ documentation
• HelpHub (wordpress.org/documentation): The home for all end-user documentation
• Documentation Issue Tracker on GitHub: Submit any DevHub/HelpHub/”Doc Team Handbook” Docs-related issue on GitHub.

With this instead:

• Onboarding to Documentation Team: The place to start if you are interested in contributing to the documentation team.
• Documentation Issue Tracker on GitHub: Submit any DevHub/HelpHub/”Doc Team Handbook” Docs-related issue on GitHub.
• WordPress Documentation Style Guide: Style guide for WordPress documentation
• Block Editor Handbook: An overview of documentation contributions of Block Editor / Gutenberg
• DevHub (developer.wordpress.org): The home of the developers’ documentation
• HelpHub (wordpress.org/documentation): The home for all end-user documentation

Additional Notes

I would also suggest adding this note to the section on the left (as the middle column is already very long):

Please note that our handbook is currently out-of-date. If you are interested in contributing to the documentation team, please start by checking out our Onboarding Resources.

I would also suggest that this note be added on the handbook, to direct people who still land on the handbook to the onboarding documentation.

[zzap]

Heads up @WordPress/docs-issues-coordinators, we have a new issue open. Time to use 'em labels.

[jomarieminney]

@jennimckinnon

[jennimckinnon]

@jomarieminney Excellent points, thank you for posting this issue! It's certainly worth updating for a better UX.

To keep the welcome box as short and concise as possible, I think we only need the first two links (onboarding and the issue tracker) since the handbook is a work in progress, and the Style Guide is in the navigation on the page as well as in the onboarding post. If all the changes end up being concise enough, we could add more links later.

I also noticed some other redundancies that could also be taken out to make things more concise. @zzap mentioned that she added the meeting times to the sidebar last week so we could take that out as well. The rest of it needs some updating as well since some of the details are a bit outdated or else could be more concise.

So with all that in mind, here's my suggested rewrites for all 3 columns of the welcome box, with the above suggestions and original ones as well:

Column one

The original content

Welcome to the official home of the WordPress documentation team.

This team is responsible for coordinating all documentation initiatives around WordPress, including the Codex (moving to HelpHub and DevHub), handbooks, parts of developer.wordpress.org, admin help, inline docs, and other general wordsmithing across the WordPress project.

Suggested updates

Welcome to the official home of the WordPress documentation team.

This team is responsible for coordinating all documentation initiatives around WordPress, including the handbooks and other general wordsmithing across the WordPress project.

Column two

The original content

Want to get involved?

There are many ways in which you can help the Docs team. Every small contribution counts and helps! You can report an issue or typo you found in the docs, or even help us write new documentation for parts that are still missing. These are some helpful links to find out more about what we do and how to collaborate:

Docs Team Handbook: An overview of what we do and how to collaborate
WordPress Documentation Style Guide: Style guide for WordPress documentation
Block Editor Handbook: An overview of documentation contributions of Block Editor / Gutenberg
DevHub (developer.wordpress.org): The home of the developers’ documentation
HelpHub (wordpress.org/documentation): The home for all end-user documentation
Documentation Issue Tracker on GitHub: Submit any DevHub/HelpHub/”Doc Team Handbook” Docs-related issue on GitHub.

Suggested updates

There are many ways in which you can help the Docs team. Every small contribution counts and helps! These are some helpful links to find out more about what we do and how to collaborate:

• Onboarding to Documentation Team: An overview of what we do and how to collaborate
• Documentation Issue Tracker on GitHub: Submit any Documentation Team-related issues on GitHub

Column three

The original content

Join our discussions of documentation issues here on the blog and on Slack.

The documentation team holds weekly office hours and monthly Contributor Days on each Tuesday of the month in the #docs Slack channel:

First Tuesday: Docs Team meeting – 14:00 UTC
Second Tuesday: Triage meeting – 14:00 UTC
Third Tuesday: Docs Team meeting – 14:00 UTC
Fourth Tuesday: Online Contributor Day – 13:00 UTC to 16:00 UTC
Fifth Tuesday: Triage or no meeting, as needed – 14:00 UTC
Although we have a fixed schedule of weekly meetings, you can contact the Docs Team at any time through our Slack channel

Suggested updates

Join our discussions of documentation issues here on the blog and on Slack.

The documentation team holds weekly office hours and monthly Contributor Days on each Tuesday of the month in the #docs Slack channel. It's also where you can contact the team at any time outside meetings.

[jomarieminney]

Perfect!!

[jomarieminney]

As discussed during contributor call this is quite long still, and fairly repetitive. Perhaps just make the first paragraph:

"Start here to find out more about what we do and how to contribute:"

[jennimckinnon]

YAY! Updated! Going to close this issue as it's now complete. Thanks so much for your help! 🎉