Improve method for ordering projects on the projects page

[jobara]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

The current method for ordering projects on the projects page is to provide an order number. However, as we continue to collect more projects this ordering is becoming more difficult and will not be sustainable. Additionally it may not be necessary to maintain the order for older projects.

Already some projects do not specify an order and appear at the top of the projects page.

Describe the solution you'd like

Look into alternate ways to order the projects or sort them on the projects page. For example having a set of featured projects at the top and the rest sorted by date. At some point we may also need to paginate the projects and/or provide other ways to sort or search them.

Additional context

Projects page

[amanchouhan01]

Hi maintainers 👋

I’m exploring this project and would like to start contributing with a small PR.
Before picking something up, I wanted to confirm:

• Is this repository actively maintained?
• Are there any beginner-friendly issues or areas where help is currently needed?

I’ve gone through the README and contributing guidelines and I’m ready to set up the project locally.
Happy to start with documentation, accessibility improvements, or small fixes if that helps.

Thanks for your time — looking forward to contributing!

[jobara]

@amanchouhan01 this repository is for the website. What drew you here and what you are hoping to contribute?

[amanchouhan01]

Hi @jobara, thanks for the response!

What drew me here: I’m an engineering student interested in web development and usability, and the mission of the Inclusive Design Research Centre really stood out to me. I was specifically looking at how real-world websites evolve as content grows, which led me to the projects page and this issue.

What I hope to contribute: I understand this is the website repository, and that this issue is about improving how projects are ordered and displayed. I’ve worked with frontend and backend logic in web projects, and I’m interested in helping implement or refine the sorting approach (for example, featured projects vs date-based ordering) and exploring pagination if that’s the direction you decide to take.

I’m happy to start small, follow your guidance, and get familiar with the existing code before proposing a PR.

[jobara]

@amanchouhan01 thanks for the reply, you're welcome to submit a PR, but you should outline your proposed solution(s) first.

I do wan to mention that if you are here because you're interested in GSoC, I don't know if we'll be running a project for GSoC this year. There aren't currently any plans for that.

[amanchouhan01]

Hi @jobara, thanks for the clarification.

Here are a few concrete approaches I think could improve project ordering on the Projects page. I’ve tried to keep these aligned with simplicity, maintainability, and accessibility.
Option 1: Activity-based default ordering
Order projects primarily by a “last updated” or “last activity” field (e.g. most recently updated content first), with archived or inactive projects pushed lower.
This ensures active projects stay visible as the list grows.
Pros: Minimal UI changes, intuitive behavior
Cons: Older but important projects may be less visible

Option 2: Featured + automatic ordering (hybrid)
Introduce a lightweight featured flag in project metadata:
Featured projects pinned at the top (manual, small set)
Remaining projects ordered by recent activity or publish date
Pros: Editorial control without losing freshness
Cons: Requires a small amount of curation

Option 3: User-selectable sorting
Expose a simple sort control (no filtering complexity), such as:
Recently updated (default)
Alphabetical
Newest first
This avoids committing to a single “best” ordering for all users.
Pros: Flexible, user-friendly
Cons: Slight UI complexity

Option 4: Accessibility-oriented ordering
If metadata allows, prioritize projects that are:
Actively maintained
Well-documented
Beginner-friendly
This could be implemented via metadata scoring rather than UI changes.

If one of these directions looks reasonable, I can:
Review the existing data structure
Propose the exact sorting logic
Open a focused PR implementing the agreed approach
Also to clarify: my interest here is in contributing meaningfully to the project itself, independent of GSoC timelines.

Happy to adjust based on project goals or constraints.

Thanks!
Aman

[jobara]

@amanchouhan01 thanks for the response. However, in reviewing this issue again, we're not at a point where we can decide on the approach to take for this feature.