I've re-ordered the Cologne blue sidebar to try and make it a bit more ergonomic, with no real rationale, just a feel for what I do, and a guess at the expectations of new users. The general principles are:
* rule of 3s * most used categories at the top * most frequent choices in those categories at the top * don't repeat any options
...and I've moved some things into different categories: Recent Changes into EDIT, for example, as it is mostly used when editing...
I'm not saying this is the best that can be done: I just want to kick off a discussion of the options.
FIND [search box] OK
BROWSE Main Page Random page Current events
EDIT Edit this page Recent changes Editing help
THIS PAGE Talk page Printable version Watch this page
CONTEXT What links here Watch links
MY PAGES My page My watch list My Preferences Log out
SPECIAL PAGES New pages Image list Statistics Bug reports more...
http://beta.wikipedia.com/w/wiki.phtml?title=Kermit_the_Frog&action=history