Culture of Peace Initiative
Peace Practices - Peace Day September 21
The Culture of Peace Initiative (CPI) is a UN-designated "Peace Messenger Initiative" with participants in all the world's regions. Its purpose is to unite the strengths of organizations and individuals who are working to make Peace a practical reality. The highlight of the Initiative is International Day of Peace (Peace Day), which is celebrated ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Sep 14, 2007
Updated: Nov 27, 2009
Membership: Open
Public
Keep WE header and search bar at the top of every WE page
Problem
It's a bit disorienting and disappointing to have the basic WE navigation and search functionality missing from certain WE pages/circumstances. My original concern came about from the missing navigation menu at the top of the page is when you are no longer on a group page. For example, go to this page and then this other one. It's the missing navigation menu on the second page that bothered me.
Solution
Always have the same basic WE header functionality on all WE pages. For group page headers, I recommend making the WE logo much smaller (less height and prominence) or even missing, with everything else in the header the exact same as other WE pages (including menus and search bar), and have the header section no taller than it is in a current group page.
Comments (1 - 8 of 8)
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I tried today to find the single "advanced search" interface to WE. I can't find it. I want to use advanced search often, but it always takes me 2-3 clicks to get to an advanced search form. I want to add "Advanced Search" to my bookmarks, but there doesn't seem to be a single advanced search form.
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Excellent point! WE Search option available and obvious from EVERY page! Makes everything work better.
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Bowo, I really like your idea of having a WE header popup. That way you could just have a little silly WiserEarth link at the top of the page, you click on it, and you get everything you would normally want to access in the standard WE header. You click on the link again, the header is gone. Brilliant!
Can it be done? |
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@Bret: It seems to be best practice on other sites like Ning (where you can customize the entire header space, also colors, menus, etc. Not so with facebook, yahoo groups or others though... But increasingly making something feels 'yours' seems to be good practice around many other sites.
On redundancy: Yes, it will be redundant with the pencil icon, and a bit confusing since adding from Contribute tab doesn't automatically add it to the group. In reverse, do we want to incorporate the "Explore" links into the pencil icons? Something like "See all WiserEarth resources"? Could lead to link overload on the pencil menu though...
I like that, defaulting search to "this group" but also add "WiserEarth". But this may not be priority as the search bar is accessible from the dashboard, which is the first thing people see when they login from the homepage (which already has a search bar). And yes, current search module works quite allright. Let's keep looking for an elegant solution.
Another option that comes to mind is to make the "Browse WiserEarth" link pop up an Explore/Contribute/About menu with respective submenus, while keeping it clickable to take people to WE homepage. Not sure if it's doable or not, but including a search box on that pop up menu is also thinkable.... I always like having everything a single click away without cluttering things. |
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Bowo: "make the group [feel] personal" I'm really not convinced of the need for this, besides reducing for groups the prominence of the standard WE header. Is there any specific requests/data you have about this?
Bowo: 'there's already separate "Add/create a ...." in each group module.'
Do you mean the pencil popup menu in the upper right corner of each module? If so, I'm not sure that there would be any significant confusion/conflict, especially with consistent header functionality across all WE pages. At least, a well-designed header should not have this problem (example).
Angus, I think the search bar could be made completely compatible, and more powerful/useful, by adding a "This Group" default (and first) search item to it when in group pages. Alternatively, you could have a "This Group" checkbox right below (and part of) the search bar. This search bar location would be intuitive and universally available for all groups without having to do something as strange as add a specific search bar module for a group. (Removing that module would, I think, also reduce unneeded complexity for WE group functionality.) |
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The problem has been that the search bar is confusing in the group context - is that searching the group or the entire WiserEarth database? Since the groups have a search module (that only searched that group) that has been the compromise. Wish there was something more elegant but it seems to work......
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I think one of the reason for current group header setup is to make the group feels personal (not part of something, but an entity in itself). There's also the issue of redundancy if we put in the Contribute tab since there's already separate "Add/create a ...." in each group module.
But if there's anything I would love to have all the time is the search bar. I always find the need to access that and having to click the "Browse Wiserearth" to be able to do a search is one click too much. There is a workaround by a kind developer enabling the addition of the search engine to Firefox, but not everyone knows how to reach that page, and not everyone is on firefox / internet explorer 7.
It would also be nice if access to Help Desk and Suggestions group is available from group header, or the "Admin/Group Tools" menu, or anywhere else that makes best sense. |
It's most effective if every search were a search of the entire site. People need to know what content is already there so they can use it rather than post content and create redundant groups. Synergizing globally is core to the WE mission. Let's make use of ALL resources, not just those in the one group we already know about.
A good place to keep a persistent "Advanced Search" button is on a tab next to "Sign Out." Both "Sign Out" and "Advanced Search" should be persistent options from any page.
Let every user immediately know the FULL POWER of WiserEarth on every page.