How to make our website easier and more pleasant to use? Examples what are we aiming for

Web Developers UX Team
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Hey, Amazing Focallocal Magicians :tophat:

Thank you for all you’re doing.

I wanted to ask your expert feedback.

Me as I a user found this points a bit difficult to use a platform:

  1. Feel a bit clattered with options even at the front page
  2. Losing myself in different groups

https://publichappinessmovement.com/docuss/build

  1. Forum itself difficult to read , toooo much , overwhelming feeling, people can lost:

I am not expert at all.I know just that everything really matters for people comprehension: colour, size, text, positions, angel, etc.

  1. More CLEAR SIMPLE platform looking maybe smth like that:

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  2. Maybe instead of grouping it by blocks just make a clear page and just ONE thing in a middle where person can type any WORD and can find by this WORD any group, project: UX/UI; Dev; Project management; Activities, Financial, etc.
    Maybe some main NAMES of groups too, but it should look different than now, more clear, spacy, you know better :wink:

I don’t know how but you might suggest how to make it more:

SIMPLE

CLEAR

INTUITIVE

In a wat that a user wants to be in this platform, wants to spend time here, not run away after 1 min you saw so much things and it’s overwhelming, cluttering his/her mind.

Please, help to make our common dream reality :pray: without your magician hint it would be very difficult :frowning:

Maybe let’s start putting here examples of websites which inspires you, to have a common imagination how it should look like.

And by small steps start moving towards that.

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@MarinaOhNo Thank you so much for this feedback! I think everyone would agree with you- this is most certainly a priority to everyone on the team. It’s very valuable to have a fresh set of eyes to identify these things themselves, so we know we aren’t influencing that thought or working on the wrong problems.

I’d love to pick your brain more in terms of what types of WORD/NAMES you would see as simple, clear and intuitive (love these attributes, can we steal them & make it the UX team’s tagline? lol). What do you envision when you think of basic blocks or groupings?

I consider the grouping of information presented to anyone viewing the site to be “information architecture” or IA. So IA is concerned with figuring out the most logical and intuitive labels for things, or groupings of certain objects.

Have you heard of affinity mapping or card sorting? This type of activity can help uncover what categories regular people would place different words or ideas into. I wonder if you think that the results from that could help us restructure how we show people the content of this platform.

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just validating your point of a less overwhelming homepage, this was a mockup I made the other day playing around with a more focused first impression

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https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-banner-theme-component/122939?u=danyalamriben this is a change we can make specifically to our forum. It sounds a bit like your suggestion of being able to type in any WORD and kinda get started from there. @AndyatFocallocal I can also see this theme component being very useful if specifically implemented in our “documentation” (or community support) category. Perhaps it would help make that category clear to users that “this [documentation] is the place to ask questions and get community member’s answers”.

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just a point about your meteor graphic… i’m not sure a dinosaur extinction level change is what we are aiming for :rofl::rofl:

everything else, awesome :slight_smile:

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IT WAS THE FIRST ICON I CLICKED haha I also found these cute lil homies

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those are pretty damn cute :slight_smile:

the search bar is cool, although the idea is to access the forum via the section it’s related too. For example:

  • Home > Build > UX > UX Team (forum)
  • Home > Gather > Communities > The Liberators International (map page) > The Liberators International (forum category, or threads depending which element they clicked in their map page)

I also thought we decided to move documentation into the category for its team. So in the UX category you’ll see a sub category called UX Documentation. (although i guess we were still discussing that)

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I think @MarinaOhNo 's take on this would be valuable since it is a question of what is most intuitive to someone to find that information. She mentioned both a simple search bar and a few major categorizations, to begin with. I would imagine something like this for that second thought:

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i still worry that you’re looking at the forum as the entry to the teams, or the site. the ‘forum’ menu link will be hidden, the forum is a communication and community shadow on the main site. it’s a backdrop, never in the foreground (although experienced users may choose to use it in that way)

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so the categorisations of teams are in the build section. users click on them to access that category (or tag-page) and engage with that team

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what you posted above looks very much like this:

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exactly, but I thought that you said any rebuilds to the action center would be at least months away because it would require more developers

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True. I would prefer to make quick changes to the existing structure which means via the ‘build’ section, and getting people to use the forum for community interactions on the existing site.

If that’s really not practical then you’re right, we can focus on the forum only. It feels like a step in the opposite direction, which will make it difficult to change the behaviour of users/the team later on.

If you can make the build section useable without big changes, that would be preferable.

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Aw, Thank you @danyalamriben

For such quick repose.

And I like your mock-up. Great job! :raised_hands:

OMG , I love this idea with AI , information architecture.

Yes, I guess card sorting can help to restructure how we show people the content for this platform.

And for sure please steal that for UX team’s tagline: simple, clear, intuitive.

WORD/NAMES - so for now in Action center as example : Projects, Global Action Days, Core Teams, Financial, Suggestions - are kind of good at the first glance BUT the actual design and looking is kind of not intuitive and clattering I would better maybe SEE it more clear just

PAGE with these 6 groups BIG THIN Font

That when I just enter the page Action center I just see 6 groups CLEAR and press on any which seems relevant.

I guess the main thing here is that maybe you guys create a mock-up how do you see to redesign every part: first page, forums, gather. etc.

But on the other hand @AndyatFocallocal dy is right we have to do small changes which is making this web usable and then create a big beautiful picture.

AWwww @danyalamriben btw it’s alreadyyy much better I like your mock-up for search bars.

What are your thoughts on that?

What execution strategy would be the most effective from your point?

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I suggest doing both:

Step 1) a quick change to remove the road blocks so we can have more people in the teams who are able to work more effectively and to implement the changes
Step 2) a change which requires complete redesigns

The other thing i imagine seeing, is that as more users join in we will become clearer about what users needs are, which will then change the designs built in Step 2.

So i would value the small changes that can be made right now higher than an in-depth future plan, as they will lead to an ever improving site which adapts to the changing needs of users as the site scales.