The Suggestion Thread

During this beta phase, we're asking you to contribute in two ways: tell us things that are broken, and tell us things that could be better. And thank you everyone for contributing to both of these in amazing numbers. Bugs are being handled here and this is the thread for suggestions. I'll start with a very comprehensive list we received (Jeff, from whom?) and will use this thread to discuss what we're doing about them if anything.

- on the homepage:

i would take the "design, vote, buy, threads" links and list them vertically, like they are on all the rest of the pages. this would create uniformity, easy-to-remember clicking, and take up less space, creating more space for clickable content.

- maybe add a link for "submit a design" directly following "enter our t-shirt design contest to win $250!" that sentence grabs users' attention and then the link would reel them in to submit a design.

- clicking on a design thumbnail currently only uploads (consumes time) and enlarges the design.. why not make the design title and design thumbnail have the same link where it takes users to the design for voting? voters are lazy. they want to click on a visual representation, be taken to a larger version, vote, comment, and move on to the next one. using the same link for both accomplishes these tasks at the same time.

Agreed, and done.

- when a user's profile is clicked it could show design thumbnails that they have submitted so you can click them for enlargement and voting.

Agreed, and done pending comments. Every user's page now has a "My Portfolio" tab that contains the most recent revision of every design they've submitted. I left the image to expand on clicking because I'm assuming if you're browsing a users's portfolio, you're more interested in their work than voting. Comments? Two other things I'm thinking about:

1. A quick link to instantly take you to comment or vote,
   
2. Showing the status of the revision.

I'm torn about the last one because it would show the status, good or bad, for everything the artist has done. This includes revisions and designs that were not accepted. This could swing both ways: the artist might not want people to see submissions that were rejected, but on the other hand, people could comment and protest revisions that were rejected to get administrators to reconsider.

- there could be a tab (in the right column) titled something like "guidelines" or "references" where it would open to an actual site page with information about shirt colors, design compensation, etc. Basically because important threads as such might eventually be hidden or disappear which would make designers confused and want to go elsewhere.. necessary information should be easily accessible for more people to be interested..

- could have a downloadable template (illustrator, photoshop, flash formats) for shirt colors instead of only a thread.

We're working on that. We're committed to Open Source so our primary tool is GIMP for graphics, but we're working on getting [legit] copies of Illustrator, Photoshop, and Flash.

- also "friends" is spelled wrong as "firends" in the second to last sentence.

Fixed.

- under a person's profile name (in the right column) what does the tab "dumb things were said. we're not proud of it." mean or refer to? it seems like an apology. kind of confusing. it's the same link as "threads" right? i would just keep the "threads" link and delete the "dumb things..." link altogether.

- about sample product:

i think there could be a larger preview for the product right above the sizing chart. this way people can have a better view of what they might want to purchase. people are lazy and may not know that they have to or care to click on a thumbnail to view it on a larger scale. this would also help to keep potential customers around instead of scaring them away.

- when "my account" is clicked:

you don't need the blue bullets next to the "design, vote, buy, threads" links in the right column. they just add clutter.

See below. This is fixed and appears to have been a CSS handling issue in IE. Don't know if anything other than IE was affected, but it was a tricky diagnosis because Firefox handled it correctly.

- instead of having a "create content" drop-down menu you could just show "submit a design" and "start a thread" directly in the right column. easier is better.

- in the "where" link:

i'm not sure it's a good idea to call your users "dumbass". yeah, it's joking and playful but some uptight types might take it slightly offensive and be turned off. it could be viewed as unprofessional.

- you have a link to ognow.org on tastythreads.com. why not have a link to tastythreads.com on ognow.org's homepage? that's extra promoting and a way to show that tastythreads is actually affiliated with ognow.

We've discussed this before and will have OGNow link back when we're out of beta.

- in "submit a design":

you don't need the 1 through 5 instructions. the instructions are clear in the submit form itself. i suggest moving the form to where you have the 1 through 5 currently listed, link the "terms and conditions" and "shirt colors" to actual site pages, and everything would look good on that page. it's simple to understand that way..

- paging needs to be enabled on DTWS and comments.

Paging is done on DTWS but not sure how to get this done on comments. Let me know if you see any odditities with paging. Some of the filters may not be accurate - especially on the "mine" tab. Let me know about the style changes for pagers too. Ideas for doing them differently? Should the number of links per page be customizeable?

- Add a "next" vote button on voteable nodes.