kevin_standlee (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevin_standlee) wrote2009-02-18 03:18 pm
kevin_standlee) wrote2009-02-18 03:18 pm
Entry tags:
Usability Question
If you are ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kproche or anyone else who has worked on the 2009 World Fantasy Con web site, you're ineligible for this question because you already know the answer.
If you wanted to find you whether you were a member of the 2009 WFC and you went to the convention's web site, where do you think you would find this information, if anywhere? If you can't figure it out, what would you suggest changing to make it easier to find? Update: To do this in the spirit intended, I ask that you don't look at the comments until after at least trying with or without the hints below. The comments essentially give the game away, and I'm trying to learn something.
Hint 1: I assure you that the membership list is on the web site, and it is linked from one of the pages that is linked to the top level; that is, if you are at the home page, you're only two clicks away from it.
Hint 2: When you click on some of the menu items, a second level of menus will appear below the first level if there is more information available.
The underlying issue is that if you label the section "Membership" then people will ask (and they have) "How do I register to attend?" or "How much does the convention cost after I've bought my membership?" or "Why do I have to buy a membership when I only want to attend?" or something like that. If you label it "Registration" (which is what I did after getting those questions too many times), you get people asking "I can't find anything on your web site about membership." And if you label it "Registration/Membership," you use up too much real estate and probably confuse both groups of people.
Some people solve this by linking everything from the home page, but that turns the home page into a sea of nothing but links, and it causes a lot of people's eyes to glaze over. I prefer a heirarchical style, but it's not good for people who don't see logical relationships between the subject headings and the items under that subject.
My basic problem is that I want to make everyone happy, and I think it's impossible to do that because of the significantly different ways that people look at information.
kproche or anyone else who has worked on the 2009 World Fantasy Con web site, you're ineligible for this question because you already know the answer.If you wanted to find you whether you were a member of the 2009 WFC and you went to the convention's web site, where do you think you would find this information, if anywhere? If you can't figure it out, what would you suggest changing to make it easier to find? Update: To do this in the spirit intended, I ask that you don't look at the comments until after at least trying with or without the hints below. The comments essentially give the game away, and I'm trying to learn something.
Hint 1: I assure you that the membership list is on the web site, and it is linked from one of the pages that is linked to the top level; that is, if you are at the home page, you're only two clicks away from it.
Hint 2: When you click on some of the menu items, a second level of menus will appear below the first level if there is more information available.
The underlying issue is that if you label the section "Membership" then people will ask (and they have) "How do I register to attend?" or "How much does the convention cost after I've bought my membership?" or "Why do I have to buy a membership when I only want to attend?" or something like that. If you label it "Registration" (which is what I did after getting those questions too many times), you get people asking "I can't find anything on your web site about membership." And if you label it "Registration/Membership," you use up too much real estate and probably confuse both groups of people.
Some people solve this by linking everything from the home page, but that turns the home page into a sea of nothing but links, and it causes a lot of people's eyes to glaze over. I prefer a heirarchical style, but it's not good for people who don't see logical relationships between the subject headings and the items under that subject.
My basic problem is that I want to make everyone happy, and I think it's impossible to do that because of the significantly different ways that people look at information.
no subject
no subject
Trust me, I've been down that road designing the CC26 site and content management system. I had the argument several times with certain staffers who were insistent proponents of dynamic/dropdown menus. Having run into their failings many times, I had no interest in adding that complication to our site.
The WFC content management system, on the other hand, is based in WordPress, as opposed to the roll-your-own system we had to develop for CC26.
The style of the buttons is determined by cascading style sheet; I don't know if the webmaster can specify a separate button element for the submenu/breadcrumb appearing at the top of the content section.
no subject