Some minor suggestions for improved navigation

[raupachz]

Improvement proposal

I'd like to suggest some minor refinements for a cleaner, more intuitive user experience. Opinionated, yes, I am fully aware.

Header

• Remove the "Apache Maven Project" image from the top left
• Move the "Maven" logo from the right to the left
• Drop the Breadcrumps, the two links "Download" and "Get Sources" and move last published to the footer line.

I would even go for the Maven Owl - it's cute - not sure if that is the correct name of the Maven mascot, or if it is even the Maven mascot, but I think the Maven logo is more well known. Anyways, these changes would significantly reduce visual clutter. I don't think the removed stuff really adds anything to the site. I don't want to be rude, offend anyone, just giving a personal opinion.

About Maven - left site navigation

• Rename "What is Maven?" to "Introduction". This matches the heading of the linked site.
• Move "What's new in Maven 4?" right below and rename it to "Journey to Maven 4"
• Remove "Maven Daemon" from this section.

I am not a fan of questions in site navigation. Also "Journey to Maven 4" makes it clear, that Maven 4 is not generally available yet - and it takes much time and effort to get to it. Maven Daemon is a Maven project and fits better in the other section.

Maven Projects - left site navigation

• Rename "Maven" to "Maven 3"
• Add a new item "Maven 4" below and link to the to the Maven 4 project site
• Move the removed "Maven Daemon" here as "Daemon".

This makes it easier to understand that there is Maven 3 and Maven 4. One is the current one and the other one is the road ahead. Maven Daemon is moved where it belongs. I think calling it "Daemon" here is good enough. Everything is Maven in the end: plugins, archetypes...

I considered submitting these changes as a PR, but wanted to get your opinions first. I understand these changes are tricky to implement since many Maven project sites share the same template and I do know know the ins and outs of site generation.

Feel free to give feedback or close this issue if you disagree. Just trying to help a bit.

[Bukama]

Hi @raupachz ,
thank you for the issue!

Since (about three months now) I'm updating more and more outdated things on the site, I get lost on the page even more (as I look at more pages than as a regular user) and I don't think only renaming some entries will help users to find what they are looking for. Aside my current tasks, I was already thinking about a more deep improvement, but I'm have not gathered all thoughts (and their pros/cons) nor written them down (and will not before April/May due to lot of regular work and upcoming conferences). I will mention you, when I post them somewhere.

Some thoughts about some points you suggest:

Articles of the page are constantly updated, because most of it applies to all Maven version. So I don't think we should rename the page to Maven 3 (or 4, which is close). If something is outdated the page needs update. However, especially with major version changes they are still mentioned in the specific sections so the changes are visible to all users (those of older and newer versions). That's why there are in general no version specific pages. I think (but not sure) the article about multi modules (Maven 3) and multiple subprojects (Maven 4) is one of the only ones due the naming changes (but I'm not happy with it yet).

I would even go for the Maven Owl - it's cute - not sure if that is the correct name of the Maven mascot, or if it is even the Maven mascot, but I think the Maven logo is more well known.

The owl is not the official project logo (as can be seen at https://www.apache.org/logos/ )

Move "What's new in Maven 4?" right below and rename it to "Journey to Maven 4"

Renaming the current article "Journey to Maven 4" would be a total wrong title for it. It's content is not about the almost a decade long road to Maven 4 nor a migration guide, but about changes between Maven 3 and 4.
I'm working on a migration guide and when creating the PR for this, I indeed plan to move the "What's new in Maven 4" article. I'm trying to get in done this week.

Remove "Maven Daemon" from this section.
See the comments in the PR #719. We decided to make the documentation visible in first place and rethink the location later (together with future location of mvnsh and mvnenc). One of the points on my thoughts, mentioned above.

I think calling it "Daemon" here is good enough
No it's not, because the correct name is "Maven Deamon" ;)

So personally, I'm slightly against your specific suggestions, but not the overall intention.

[raupachz]

No it's not, because the correct name is "Maven Deamon" ;)

Didn't stop you from calling it just Deamon in #739

[Bukama]

No it's not, because the correct name is "Maven Deamon" ;)

Didn't stop you from calling it just Deamon in #739

Point for you. However I see a different in a more name of a PR/commit message and a documentation navigation point.

[sparsick]

Some thoughts about some points you suggest:

Articles of the page are constantly updated, because most of it applies to all Maven version. So I don't think we should rename the page to Maven 3 (or 4, which is close). If something is outdated the page needs update. However, especially with major version changes they are still mentioned in the specific sections so the changes are visible to all users (those of older and newer versions). That's why there are in general no version specific pages. I think (but not sure) the article about multi modules (Maven 3) and multiple subprojects (Maven 4) is one of the only ones due the naming changes (but I'm not happy with it yet).

Maven 4 has new features and changes compared to Maven 3. IMHO it would help, if we have a distinction between Maven 3 and 4 in the cases, where it is necessary.

For user centre and plugin developers centre, I'd like to make a proposal:

[hboutemy]

great view: we just need to start simple with the 2 index pages for (future) Maven 4
we act as if Maven 3 was obsolete: it's the default, and will remain "for some years", we just need to create the first Maven 4 (= the edge case) explicit new pages