Usability Question

[kevin_standlee]

If you are 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.

Comments

[flick.livejournal.com]

And, now I've read the post / comments:

To clarify, I also completely failed to see the secondary menu and instead scrolled down until I say it in the text. I suspect that's partly because my sub-conscious thought process was something like "Membership list, membership list, where's the damn members section, oh, it's in 'registration': that's weird, this website sucks, and why is it a blog anyway? Guess I have to hunt through blog posts to find it", so I wasn't expecting the site to actually do anything helpful at this point.

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.

I think my inclination would be to call it membership, because I'd be more bothered about making it easier for fans than for a small number of new people. Then again, this is a media con, so it's a different demographic.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Then again, this is a media con,...

Huh? World Fantasy Convention is most emphatically not a media con. And yes, even though it's among the most literary of genre conventions, I'm getting queries from people mystified by this "membership" business.

...so it's a different demographic.

The difference in demographic is that WFC isn't directly aimed at fans, but as professionals in the field, not all of whom came up through fandom or have any idea of how fan-run conventions work. The only model they're likely to have is professional conferences, for which you generally buy a "registration" or "admission."

[flick.livejournal.com]

World Fantasy Convention is most emphatically not a media con.

Doh, sorry. I think I'm getting confused with your post from the other day about anime cons, I had it in my head that this was another one of those. Ignore that!

I suppose that it depends on who you're more concerned about: do fans need their hands holding more, or do pros? Probably the latter, so I'd stick with 'registration'.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

do fans need their hands holding more, or do pros?

Jackpot! That is almost exactly the thought process. Or rather it's "fan" versus "non-fan," because many (but not all) pros are fans. I decided that fans were more likely going to be able to figure it out, whereas non-fannish pros are less likely to understand any fannish traditions or terminology.