My Beta Suggestions
by NomadSlim
posted on April 6th, 2008
posted on April 6th, 2008
First let me say I really like the idea and purpose of this site. But I feel like it could be more professional. Hoping to help make it more successful for you, my feedback is below.
INITIAL REACTIONS:
When I first clicked Submit a design from the homepage before I signed up, it told me I wasn't authorized, access denied. Not very friendly. Be nice, tell me where to go, what to do, how to sign up.
The thread list on the right under my user name has "dumb things were said. we're not proud of it." I am not sure what that's about, but it is pretty unprofessional and just links me back to the homepage essentially? This is supposed to be a business, maybe you're trying too hard to 'be cool'. Just tell me what it is.
What is the "Path: p" at the bottom of this submit thread box?
There seems to be too many options for users, rich text... file attachments. If you're a tshirt company first, a full access messageboard seems like a bad idea. You're going to have a riot on your hands that detracts away from the company.
People don't need that many options. I'm not going to leave because I can't make my text green. It also gives mad users the ability to post bad pictures... stuff that would probably be easier for you not to have to police.
OGnow! shouldn't be on the top menu bar. I am not here fro OGnow! If they own this company keep it at the bottom where it already seems to be.
Where are the tshirts for sale? There is a link on the homepage under a tiny tab. If you're going to sell a product, it should be up front. Everything else comes second. I don't want to look for products for sale mixed in with users comments about a design.
On the right under my user name... It looks like those are all subcategories of "threads". Also, what is catalog?
On Submissions:
I'll admit, I haven't submitted anything yet. But the idea of live revisions sounds like a bad idea. Designers should get feedback before hand and submit a final version. If there are small things that could be corrected, and the design is good enough, you could ask the designer to modify it slightly before you decide to print it. It just seems that for 10 people it would work, but if you want your community to grow it would be chaotic and bad for the user experience.
On Voting:
Canceling a vote seems odd. Changing it because the clicked something wrong on accident is okay.
After I vote on a design, it should send me to another one so I can continue voting.
The designs already voted on should not be in the same window as the ones currently being voted on.
The icon that appears over a design I've voted on could be more distinct... red maybe?
on April 6th, 2008
Thanks for the feedback. Many of your comments resonate with some things we've heard from other users.
And, some things you are pointing out are new suggestions, and seem useful to me. We'll add it all to our list...
Please continue to cruise the site and test its various functions. The feedback we've been getting these last two weeks has really helped.
on April 21st, 2008
> "What is the "Path: p" at the bottom of this submit thread box?"
The path: p thing is from the rich text editor, showing where you "are" when editing this HTML. It can be turned off in the TinyMCE settings, I think.
> "There seems to be too many options for users, rich text... file attachments. If you're a tshirt company first, a full access messageboard seems like a bad idea. You're going to have a riot on your hands that detracts away from the company."
I'd agree on this - rich formatting for comments does seem a bit excessive (and heavy on the page load). Perhaps something similar but smaller like BBcode/Markdown with Quicktags JavaScript buttons, just to enable bold, italic etc? I'd say that text justification, indentation, undo/redo and images are too much for comments alone.
PS. I think I linked this page to tame TinyMCE a little. We at Leafish fell out with it a long time ago...
(Also, any formfields that don't need to be shown to users (eg Log, comment settings) can be hidden using an unset on the appropriate part of the $form array in a _form_alter() somewhere. Permissions should also be checked to ensure users don't see things they shouldn't.)
> "OGnow! shouldn't be on the top menu bar. I am not here fro OGnow! If they own this company keep it at the bottom where it already seems to be."
Agreed on this one (and I can take the blame!) - I've noticed that several users aren't sure/aware of the beta-nature of this project, perhaps this ares could clearly state "BETA" or something? Perhaps in the long run it can be re-worked/removed.