Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Feedback on www.userland.com?

Author:Oliver Wrede
Posted:9/5/1999; 5:05:18 AM
Topic:www.userland.com
Msg #:10599 (In response to 10572)
Prev/Next:10598 / 10600

I think what people are missing is an overall solidity in the structure (which is very much visible at www.adobe.com).

Problems with the structure

Dave, I do not think the navigation bars to the left are very intuitive. Nor are the domain/location names on top of the pages.

They do not reflect the structure - they reflect intention - which is not visible for the users who do not read your texts (and you don't help them much where actually to start to be able to understand it).

You have some virtual domains, which all start with something.userland.com. This is visible to the User by URL and headline image. The navigation usually starts with "Home", and it takes a few seconds to understand that this "Home" relates to that headline. The usual conclusion is, that the links below belong to that domain (thus providing access to certain chapters). But that is not the case -- somethimes these might be links to other domains, sometimes they might be hierarchical items, sometimes functions. And sometimes, if a user changes the domain, he/she does not see why the navigation changes unrelated to the former. For instance I can get to discuss.userland.com or start topics at linux.userland.com -- the similarity of the layout may irritate new people.

How should one know that docserver.userland.com is describing Frontier verbs and not my.userland.com?

Suggestions

Seperate hierarchical navigation, global functions, local functions, sites features and domain switches.

The problem here is, that you have global domains for local functions (like discuss.userland.com) is a piece of news.userland.com (in difference to linux.userland.com).

How to solve this?

You have topics (like outliners,scripting,xmlrpc,etc) which are dedicated to innovative technology (thus often making a www...com domain) -- make these look like "topic domains".

You have products (like frontier.userland.com) - I'd make them look like a product pages -- illustrating that "Frontier" is a copyrighted commercial product - not a general topic.

You have global features (like my.userland.com, search.userland.com, whois.userland.com) which add value to your users (things they can use to improve their own navigation) -- I'd separate those and call them something like "Features" or "UserLand Goodies" or whatever).

You have local features which are part of *some* domains (like "Top25", Discuss, etc) - I'd keep thema local and maybe even index them like saying "Discuss Outliners" and not just "Discuss". If you want to foster a general discussion I would provide a "To the general discussion". (Aehh, what was the skull for??)

You have global functions (like prefs.userland.com, "Members sign in/out" which should be visible as such -- thus having effect on all userland.com domains).

You have content in your pages - which may be texts, forms, overviews and such ...

You have a Headline/item/claim or key visual at the top of each page representing the domain or "location"

Copyright

This would make 8 areas

on your page, which can be put in a single template. Possibly some get hidden, once a user navigates down the hierarchy.

Ironically, that is exactly what you are doing on the startpage of www.userland.com. You build a imaginary hierarchy of "editorial sides of userland", "standards", "making it easier", "developing apps".

But doing this with a lot of words on the startpage is not enough. Your pagedesign and structure should help as well (and you may not even need a single image or icon for it!).

Oliver



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