Editorial Sprint Episode II

Between  the 24th and 26th of April Episode II of the typo3.org Editorial Sprint took place in Moenchengladbach, Germany.
Our main goal was to finalize the work which we started about a year ago at the typo3.org Code Sprint in Wiesbaden...

Going back in time, preparing for the future

Back in March 2013 a small group of Marketing and Editorial Team members, known as Christian Händel, Ben van't Ende, Roland Schenke and Boris Hinzer, sat together in Wiesbaden to analyse the existing content structure and potential issues on typo3.org. The output of this gathering was the so called  "New Content Concept" for typo3.org which lead us to the following main issues which needed to be tackled sooner rather than later:

• typo3.org was only focused on TYPO3 CMS.  The other products:  Neos, Flow, etc were missing completely
• Illogical Navigation - E.g. "About" contained most of the content about TYPO3 CMS, mixed with News, Brand information, etc. . 
• Important content was spread across several subdomains - even with old layouts -  seeminglyleft behind - e.g. certification.typo3.org
• No targeted group approach - The content on typo3.org was mainly written for a developer audience and didn't address other groups such as Decision Makers and Users

During the beginning of the concept phase we were confident that a new "Products" main navigation was a must-have, to reflect the existing and upcoming TYPO3 products. Remember that back in march 2013 we saw TYPO3 Neos coming towards its final release at the end of 2013. We considered it very important that every product should get the same navigation structure and - if possible - the same prominence and opportunity for access within typo3.org.  This lead us to analyse the navigation which seemed a bit "mixed" at that point in time. Visitors were forced to take unneccessary routes through the site and the main navigation had product related links mixed with people related ones. Additonally we found that important content was simply missing on typo3.org -  which in our opinion should act as the central information hub for typo3 related content. Good examples were buzz.typo3.org or certification.typo3.org which simply looked a bit "antiquated" and a not very up-to-date from a design perspective compared to typo3.org. Regarding the missing target group approach we came up with the so called "Swimming Lanes" concept. The "Swimming Lanes" should offer specific information according to the appropriate target groups' needs, but also offering "Islands" as exit points to further information on certain topics on a one-pager landing page. 

Decision Makers "Swimming Lane" topics:

• Return on investment
• Case studies
• Security
• Stability
• Future proof
• Professional help
• Key features
• Companies using TYPO3
• Extendibility
• Certification

Users "Swimming Lane" topics:

• First steps
• Learning TYPO3 with tutorials, screencasts, documentation, videos, best practices
• Usergroups
• Get help
• Professional help
• Books
• FAQ

Developers "Swimming Lane" topics:

• Development resources
• Source code, documentation, ext, snippets
• Events
• Contribute
• Extendability
• Kickstart a TYPO3 Project
• Community
• How to get help once stuck
• Usergroups
• System requirements
• Product advice (Flow, Neos, CMS)

As we found that certification.typo3.org is a really important part of the TYPO3 Universe, we agreed to integrate most of the existing content in typo3.org directly during this sprint. Also we focussed on smaller "quick wins" and reworked the content of existing pages, a good example being the press page. 

First Editorial Sprint - October 2013

After we presented to the "New Content Concept" to marketing team and finally got the approval, we started to get our hands dirty during the first Editorial Sprint in Oktober 2013 at the web-vision Office in Moenchengladbach, Germany. The goal of the sprint was to implement the main points of the new typo3.org Content Concept:

• Integration of the existing TYPO3 (CMS, Neos, Flow, Fluid, Surf) products in typo3.org
• Rearranging content for the new About Pages covering the whole TYPO3 Universe
• Logical revision and creation of new content and navigation
• Further Integration of certification.typo3.org 
• Rework of existing content
• Creation of a "target group" approach for business decision makers, users and  developers in the context of the "Swimming Lanes"

As most of the people in our community might know, sometimes the aims you set yourself are too high. To make it short, we were glad to finish the most prominent 80% of our tasks, leaving us with the remaining 20% and a view for an Episode II of our Editorial Sprint.

Editorial Sprint - Episode II

This time Episode II of the Editorial Sprint was attended by Roland Schenke, Guido Haase, Moritz Krauß and Boris Hinzer live at the web-vision office. Daniel Siepmann (sick at home) concentrated on producing new content for typo3.org and then pushing it to our permanent remote connection to the United Kingdom where Den Denyer proofread and corrected everything. Also during the Editorial Sprint Ole Hartwig and Daniel Bachmann joined our Sprint to rewrite the Extension for the Certification Listings.  (The #t3es Team: Roland Schenke, Guido Haase, Boris Hinzer, Ole Hartwig, Daniel Bachmann, Moritz Krauß - missing in the photo: Daniel Siepmann and Den Denyer)  During the last three days we completely reviewed and rearranged the existing pages and created new content to meet the requirements introduced during the period TYPO3 Neos and TYPO3 6.2 LTS were released. Now typo3.org has an "About" navigation entry which reflects the TYPO3 Universe including its history, brand, association and news.  The navigation entry "Products" now includes every of our main products - TYPO3 CMS, Neos and Flow and also the additional products Surf and Fluid. The Overview introduces each of our products separately whilst screenshots offer a quick look at CMS and Neos and the roadmap shows the history and the future of the developments. Key Features and Facts comes with a complete breakdown of their respective product's' attributes. Also Case Studies were included for Neos and Flow and are now open for further suggestions from the TYPO3 Community. Additionally "Certification" is now an integral part of typo3.org which contains full and latest information about our TYPO3 Certifications. Thanks to the Server Team redirects from the former website <link http: certification.typo3.org>certification.typo3.org have already been made. Also please expect a new, shiny Certified Integrator Listing soon. Also the overall navigation was reorganised and a new footer was included in typo3.org

What about the "Swimming Lanes"?

If you take a closer look at the new footer of typo3.org you might also notice that significant changes have been made there. Underneath the first column "Information for..." you will find the "Swimming Lanes" for Decision Makers, Users and Developers. We have asked the design team for their assistance to show some sort of key visual on the "home" of typo3.org. We expect that these landing pages will become far more prominent really soon.

What's next?

We still have some smaller tasks which need to be done after this sprint, like "pimping" of existing content with graphics or the integration of the new Certification Listing. The TYPO3 Editorial Team will soon join up with the typo3.org team again in one of their upcoming sprints to work on the further development of typo3.org. Also new, very interesting projects have been started during this Editorial Sprint which will shift typo3.org to the next level. We are really looking forward to working on these matters again as soon as possible.

Thank You Very Much!

We would like to thank the following people and parties which helped us to reach our goals:    

• The <link http: association.typo3.org _blank>TYPO3 Association for granting budgets for accommodation, food and travel costs for our Editorial Sprints
• All participants at the above mentioned sprints - what a great community!
• Ben and Olivier for always having an open ear for our concerns and questions
• <link http: www.web-vision.de _blank>web-vision GmbH for hosting the Editorial Sprints
• The <link http: forge.typo3.org projects team-t3o-relaunch-week _blank>typo3.org Team for having us at their sprint and their great ongoing cooperation
• The <link>TYPO3 Marketing Team for helping us to unfold our creativity and believing in our concepts
• The <link>TYPO3 Server Team - for always being available, even on weekends
• The <link>TYPO3 Certification Team and <link>Educational Committee - for great responses and new thoughts
• The <link>TYPO3 Design Team - always a pleasure to work with you
• Everybody else we forgot or we reached out to via Twitter, Facebook or Slack - saying it with the words of of Moritz "Community is all about friendship".

Speaking for the whole team, we think the sprint was a huge success and are very happy that we have finally published our efforts.  Please let us know your thoughts, critiques and ideas and send us issues in our <link http: forge.typo3.org projects team-editorial _blank team on>forge list!  We are all very honoured and pleased to be part of this great TYPO3 community.