WiserEarth Group Support
Help and advice for WiserEarth groups, discussions about groups and examples of successful groups.
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Feb 20, 2008
Updated: Nov 19, 2009
Membership: Open
Public
Implemented:
Under the new homepage redesign and the new group layout, the link to return to the homepage should be visible at the top left corner of every page.
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Update on suggestion:
I believe the main reason for this was users and groups, where the group frame would overshadow everything, and the link to return to WiserEarth wasn't very visible. We've sinced changed that group environment, and the home button should be visible just about on any page of the site. Given that change, I believe this ticket no longer applies, and I will retire this suggestion accodingly. Please let me know if the suggestion still applies, as there may be something I'm overlooking. :)
Best,
Honore
Hey, all:
First, Michael and Sheri: Well done! Excellent idea to get suggestions and ideas more out in the open!
I have edited this page to focus only on one suggestion per page. This page now focuses only on the suggestion to have a consistent presence of the "Home" button on every page. There are several other suggestions for consistent features on every page, and together they all make for a more usable interface.
As it is now, the "Hosted by WiserEarth" link often is not visible. I seldom visit the Home page for this reason. When I do, it is easier, rather than finding a page on which the above link is present, just to delete the letters in the URL in the box on the browser until "org" is all that is left.
The "Home" button should be present on every page, to allow users to get back to Home much more easily which would increase visits to that page.
Roger's and Michael K's comments below remain with this Suggestion,
since they are the originals and Roger specifically refers to the
"Home" link.
David
Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!
Comments (1 - 9 of 9)
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As for this suggestion, I agree - there's a need to have a better, more prominent way to exit out of the group and return to WiserEarth. I'll ticket accordingly, and we'll see if we can toss out a few designs that addresses this issue.
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Hey John,
I can definitely attest to why this radical design transformation happened. We had looked at Ning.com's groups model, and thought it might be a good idea to give group admins their own "web space" as much as possible. It's an idea that has decreased in popularity over time, and we're already currently looking into ways of redesigning the group layout to be more in concert with the rest of WE. |
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Hey, All;
Hey, Michael: Thanks for the explanation. It seem the intention was to have the appearance of some autonomy from WE for Groups, so references to WE and a "Home" button would interfere in that autonomy. I agree that is not very important, and unless formatting of the Group page could be completely changed by its members, it is hard to mentally dissociate from WE, assuming that is all that desired. Even so, a relatively simple "Home" button would not be too ostentatious, and greatly improve use of the site and increase visits to the Home page. I also think the feeling of community would improve with visits to the Home page, reminding all of us about some important principles. Thanks for the support, everyone! David Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun! |
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home page button on every page - gotta have it.
I don't understand why the groups should be so differentiated from the main of WE. Can you say more about the philosophy that was driving that? |
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Now that I remember, the design intention behind the absence of a home page button while browsing a group, was to avoid reminding the user that the WiserEarth "group" was a part of WiserEarth. Perhaps this is not too important though...and a WE button of some sort could be displayed more prominently to lead users back to the home page.
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A foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of small minds, but the consistency David is calling for here is a Wise consistency. I have looked tor that Home link myself and felt the disappointment that it was not there. Unless there is a definite reason otherwise, consistency should be observed from page to page.
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Hey David, can you please break apart your suggestions into separate wikipages? I think it'd be easier for others if the title of the suggestion can reflect its content.
In the future, I think maybe we can consolidate suggestions together as a "package" so that they can be voted on against other packages, but for now I think we should focus on voting for individual suggestions. |
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This comment was removed by a WiserEarth editor for the following reason:
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Hey, Honore: First, thanks for the feedback.
My suggestion here applies to more than just the "Group" pages, so I hope that will be kept in mind. Also, this "exit" does not have to big to be useful--a consistent location--e.g., the "Hosted by WiserEarth" link--would work fine. If the left side Navigation column were present on all pages within reason, "Home" could be another logical part of that. It seems either of these positions or combinations would suffice and not add/change the appearance. Ideas?
David
Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!