As you have probably noticed, the WCF Dev Center has changed quite a bit recently. If you are a returning visitor, you may be wondering where your favorite links went.
The driving principle behind the redesign is to better cater to the different audiences that visit our page.
In its previous format, the WCF Dev Center catered very well to the return visitor looking for fresh content. The various content feeds on the main page made it very easy to check back periodically and see new content.
However, our usage data shows that a lot of our traffic comes from first time visitors through search engines. Our redesign is an effort to present a friendlier face to those folks, and to help them find introductory materials.
The main page now has links to three main areas:
1) Get it: This page gives simple instructions for what you need to install to use WCF. It also gives links to additional WCF Tools that are available in the Windows SDK and how to download them.
2) Get Started: This page has a streamlined set of content that we feel is most useful for programmers just getting started with WCF. As part of this, we are introducing a new series of “Learning WCF Tutorials”.
3) Learn More: This page is the portal into all of the available learning resources and community content. If you miss the old site, you might want to just bookmark this page as it is now the “one-stop shop” for experienced WCF programmers.
There are also two feeds on the main page:
1) The “WCF Highlights” area where we will make important announcements such as Beta releases, important new content, and conference events.
2) The “What’s New” feed which will be a fast moving feed combining blog entries from the WCF Team Blog, syndicated MVP blogs, and the Social Network Bookmarking.
Please let us know what you think of the new design and make suggestions for any future improvements you’d like to see.