MSDN suggestion

Before

After

Here are some screenshots of a sample MSDN page. I made a bunch of changes:

A lot of the content is gone. There are two reasons for this:

1. Some of the content is duplicated. For example, the left-side table of contents and the mouse-over responsive header line duplicate the same information. The bottom half of the screen also has the same contents as the both of these.
2. Some of the content is of the quality: "Want more...", or "Maybe you shouldn't be here...". These interjections have the quality of the well-known "clippy" abomination. Although they are not as intrusive as the aforementioned devilish monster, they have the quality of presuming the user's thoughts and actions. If the software is smart enough to accurately predict the user's intentions- it probably shouldn't have sent the user here. Alternatively, if the user doesn't want to be at the page, it is faster to read the title and choose a different search criteria than it is to read each individual pop-out. To accommodate the user who uses a more time-intensive approach, mouse-overs with pop-outs provide the same capabilities without making the page overly busy.

I changed the font of the paragraph-style text. If the text is intended to be read like a book, it should use a book-like typeface. Serif typefaces are intended for this purpose.

The tabs at the top of the page (Home, Library, Learn, etc.) are gone. They only serve as links to a different parts of the main website. See this page for an explanation of good tab usage.

The search box is more prominent.

The table of contents on the left side has no scrollbars. Scrollbars are not prohibited, but avoided if at all possible. The amount of information displayed in the table of contents therefore had to be reduced. This change will be mitigated by using mouse-overs and limiting the display of contents above the current chapter. This approach assumes that a user drills-down his search more often than he or she backtracks. The common case is optimized.

As mentioned in the previous blog entry, the URL is more intuitive.

Where at all possible, the screen is not refreshed. The only exception might occur when creating a bookmark (because a URL is required).

Much of the content at the bottom of the page has been removed. Too many features overwhelms me.