I think this email is useful, but not quite in the way you might think. I'd like to point people to this article:
Title: First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Users http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010805.html Written by Jakob Nielsen, one of the top experts in usability. Now, the point of the article is not that users don't matter (he he) but that rather to pay attention to what they *say*, pay attention to what they *do*. User experience is invaluable for finding problem areas. But users are awefully bad at designing usable interfaces. For example, they have a tendency to rationalize. A user might say "if the link had been bigger I would have seen it". Well... we don't know that. What we know is that the user didn't see the link. There are other problems. I suggest reading the article. It's a good resource. It's short, clear, and very informative. How, with that background, some things we can learn from this post: 1) The current page is overwhelming. 2) The user had trouble fiding forums. Also notice what he *didn't* say. He didn't mention mailing lists. Maybe the user didn't associate lists with help. I think that using the new "Resources" title will help make that association clearer. 3) He found the page unwelcomming. I think his suggestions about multimedia and human faces is a very bad idea. Adding those would make the site even easier, and detract even more from important sections; not to mention that they would increase the page load time for dialup users; plus some people really hate multimedia sites anyways. However, I think that looking to make the page visually appealing and friendly is not bad. And I think both of Matthew's styles do that. Cheers, Daniel. On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 10:55:41PM +1300, Tony Sutorius wrote: > Hi all, > > I am a communications professional, and a business owner who has now > switched to OOo throughout my company. > > I suggest that the main OOo site is flawed in that it has a somewhat > underpopulated feel to it. For someone to whom the prospect of ditching > something as familiar as MS Office is kind of daunting, it would be very > good to be immediately met with the presence of HUMAN BEINGS who offer > reassurance that it really works, it's good, it'll all work out OK. > > I heartily recommend the following:- > > 1. Increase the prominence of links to these forums on the main page. > Emphasise that there are 10,000 people in the community. > > 2. On the very top OOo page have a small space given to a > frequently-refreshing series of headshots and quotes from successful, > real-world users. Like this: www.epmu.org.nz <http://www.epmu.org.nz> > > 3. How about some multimedia content? Voices and talking faces. If for > no other reason, simply to give the whole enterprise a HUMAN feel. > > > Hope I don't offend anyone with these suggestions... on the bright side, > we CAN beat a dancing paperclip! > > Cheers, > > Tony Sutorius > Unreal Films Ltd > Wellington, New Zealand > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Daniel Carrera | There is no urge so great as for one man to Join OOoAuthors today! | edit another man's work. http://www.oooauthors.org | -- Mark Twain --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
