[TheForge] ABANA problems

[Steve Smith]

GHS wrote:

> Saint Phlip wrote:
> 
>>
>> Dave, while I'm sure your organization makes perfect sense to you,
>> where on the site doesa it say, "For membership problems, contact
>> LeeAnn? Or for magazine problems contact Rob? Etc.
>>
>> Dave, the "Business" designation indicates to me that that is the area
>> to look at if I want to buy advertising from one of the magazines or
>> something. The biographies are nice, but none of them gives any
>> indication of what involvement the appropriate person has in the
>> organization.
>>
>> My suggestion is to make the website a bit more informative. Members,
>> and particularly prospective members, aren't going to know intuitively
>> that LeeAnn is the person to contact regarding memberships. Many of us
>> could give a hoot less who the personalities are. I've avoided
>> membership because I had no interest in the politics- I get enough of
>> that crap in the SCA. Just give me a hammer, and leave me alone ;-)
>>
> ABANA is far from alone in this.
> I frequent some other sites that are intuitive only to those who write 
> them.
> I often think that several large buttons with the appropriate tags, 
> placed on the home page would help.
> The site statistics should be able to point out places to start when 
> selecting  which buttons are needed.
> 
> These sites remind me of my father in laws workshop. It is 
> pathologically organized. The problem is that the scheme of the 
> organization escapes everyone but him.
> 
> Mike Graf
> 

This is a common sort of problem in software interface design. The fix 
is simple. Try it out, cold, on people. Watch them (no prompting!) and 
see how they use it. Hint: when the author of the page sees something 
that the user isn't doing right, it isn't the user's fault. It takes a 
good double handfull of users from different walks of life...

Steve