WiserEarth Editors
Collaboration in serving the greater WiserEarth community
As active community members, we would like to make this group into a gathering point where we can work together to transform WiserEarth.org into an effective platform of support for the global community of concerned citizens and organizations who are working to create a more just and sustainable world. ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Nov 20, 2007
Updated: Nov 25, 2009
Membership: Invitation Only
Semi-Private
Topic: Revisions to Home Page - what do you think?
Posts (1 - 20 of 35)
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At present, the header bar is melted into the background, and your features really stand out. My first impression is that they need to be a little more integrated. Either choosing a look that is more gentle, or putting more colour into your header.
However, your feature sections are quite clear and vibrant now.
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An additional thought leads to the organizational profile theme, in selecting colours for the site overall, if those were to be changed.
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Good point Ortixia. I've only realized that it's even truer after viewing the homepage in Safari browser the day before yesterday. Here's the difference between Firefox on the left and Safari on the right (click image for larger view):
In Safari, right hand side is even stretched downward due to the different way Safari render fonts. So, let's try to change font properties of the main text and feature title, and also change border color. I'll post back with a mockup of how this would look like. In the mean time, any other ideas/suggestions/feedback anyone?
A particular issue of concern is that while images provide more impact, we seem to have too many (and big) of them, which is not helping users with slow dial-up connection.
And Camilla asked some good questions, which I'll repost here: Should it have photos or not? Should it link to featured content? What about users with slow connections? Should the site focus on allowing people to search immediately based on their interest areas or location? Should the home page be more minimalist (like LinkedIn or FaceBook) or more like a Yahoo! news home page? Please share your thoughts or immediate impressions you had when you saw the new home page.
Thanks Ortixia. Looking forward for more and also from others.
Best, Bowo |
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I hope that you all don't mind that I jump into the conversation. I saw this on my watchlist and I can't resist a good old design conversation.
Some of the answers to the questions that Camilla asks really depends on what are the specific goals that WiserEarth is trying to achieve in 2009 and beyond.
My original understanding of WiserEarth when I first began using it was that it was a resource for connecting organizations and businesses as well as members which is slightly different than sites like LinkedIn and Facebook that focus primarily on connecting members.
In the member context every individual has his/her own member home page (with pushed content) and so the non logged in public home page is really only used to get non members to sign up. But in the context of WiserEarth it has been less about the individual member and more about the groups, organizations and resources. Of course members are an important piece of the puzzle but the focus has been more on the network, connections, and collaborations that happen. This is actually why the current global navigation has a recessed feel to it. The goal was to make the primary content the focus and the navigation and persistent member details secondary.
I think that if the focus of WiserEarth is going to remain community based and the homepage is going to still be an important jumping off point for current and future users, it should probably contain featured content but maybe in a more editorial manner than a general overview of everything on the site. Like maybe one week the primary focus is on a subject like 'climate change' and from there you can include groups, members and multi media that combine to create a narrative about the subject. In addition the secondary piece of this would be to allow really robust ways for all visitors to easily search their areas of interest.
But... if the focus is member based like Facebook then every member should have his/her home page (with their connections and areas of interest) and the public home page is a brief description about WiserEarth with a call to action to join that is only viewed when not logged in.
Also, I'm not really sure if its useful to ask a general question like "should a home page have photos or not" without agreeing on the primary goals of the page because photos are neither inherently good or bad on their own. Its really all about context.
I wouldn't be too concerned about 2 or 3 photos loading on dialup... I'm coincidently on dial up today because my broadband is down and actually all the photos loaded much faster than the scripts that are running in the background. I also wonder how many users actually access the site on dialup. I think if we were going to be concerned about data loading it should be focused more on mobile application limitations than computer terminal dialup.
- Shawn
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Hello Shawn!
Of course it's very good have you here with those insightful comments. Will respond to them a bit later, and in the meantime, here's a mockup incorporating Camilla's and Ortixia's feedback along with other ones we have in staff's internal discussion. We're likely to implement this by Monday night PST.
(click image for full-size)
The goals for this revision remains the same: 1. Visitors understand about WiserEarth within a few seconds seeing the homepage.
Some notes: - Main image is reduced from three to one to reduce loading time for dial-up users. - Color tone is softened as Ortixia suggested - Each bullet points text/graphic will link to a wikipage elaborating further each benefit and relevant tools. - Getting started text is shorter to prevent overflow in Safari/Mac browser. - "Government agencies"in the main "WE is... " text will be removed as they're not currently part of our target audience. - We're roughly doubling the sign up numbers last week. Usually we have about 200~250 sign-ups per week, and last week we have about 400~500 sign-ups. This is probably a combination effect of the email blast to organizations and the new interim homepage launched simultaneously on Tuesday last week PST (need more checking on the stats).
~Bowo |
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@Shawn: Part of the distinction to be made is as you said about the audience for this page and what members are / will see. Clearly the homepage is for non-logged in visitors who are probably looking for content (the directory, jobs, events) and secondarily community (groups / people). For members, my hypothesis is the homepage is more a distraction on the way to their groups or a specific search. So as it stands now we will probably be redirecting members who have a log-in cookie straight to a simple dashboard connected to their profile showing email inbox and a friend feed - more Facebook-esque! WiserEarth is in a 'middle' position as you said - but despite orienting towards organizations / content - I strongly feel there needs to be an active community that generate content, maintain the site and help new members find their way. Hope that provides context. Best, Angus
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@Bowo: Please consider getting rid of the green color of 'connecting' in the new design as I'm sure its drawing lots of clicks as it looks like a link.
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@Angus: Good point about the green color. Will change it.
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Hi Shawn - great comments. The key purpose of the site is based on WiserEarth's mission which is to "Help the global movement of people and organizations working toward social justice, indigenous rights and environmental stewardship to connect, collaborate, share knowledge and build alliances in order to address and solve the world's problems". In order to start build alliances, users first need to connect and in order to connect they first need to find what they are looking for.
The key outcomes we're looking for are about 'connecting' users to the right information - whether that is a search for other organizations working to protect elephants or whether its for a group working on water rights issues, or whether it is simply to browse all the people who are listed in WiserEarth in their local area. Eventually however, WiserEarth also needs logged in users who are going to help to keep the information updated and who are willing to share their knowledge - so membership is also important. Effectively, I see WiserEarth positioned as a mix between a LinkedIn (connecting professionals) and FaceBook (helping to connnect/share), but with the caveat that it is open, transparent and creates a commons that all can participate and share in (as well as repurpose on their own sites (eventually)) |
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Here's the latest mockup. Some notes: - Added "Join WiserEarth to..." in main box - Main image would link to About Us, while each bullet point links to a wikipage explaining things further. - Changed testimonial content, and add a "More..." link in the box linking to the testimonials page.
(Click image to view full-size)
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Ok,
so this is going to be a tad outthere..... but looking at thefeatured new front pages the past few days while at the same time wrting an article on the role of social networking groups in feeding that part of our 'infant' brain which deals with attention via orientation and so is designed to seek out the new stimulus ... and is in a sense addictive in that one can get programmed to just 'go for'the shot of adrenaline ... ah here are some snippets from my article
At a recent speech before Britain's House of Lords, famed British neoroscientist Lady Greenfield warns that social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Bebo risk 'infantilising' the human mind. In a Feb. 27 Guardian Article Greenfield, a professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution, urges a close examination of how our impacts such as short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity.
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Ok. Another good argument to simplify then.
Here's how it would look like without "Featured..." and "Getting Started". Any ideas to improve this further?
(click on image to view full-size)
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Here's some important questions the homepage should answer:
1. What is this website about?
Do you think we're answering these questions ok with the above mockup? If not, what's missing?... and what needs to be removed or modified? |
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i sti ll gotta wonder do we want to go real simple .... like twitter say here's the jetpak i mentioned
1. connecting,discovering, finding experts, building 2. hard to find content of relevance --- not easy to find where action is 3. connect engage in discussions, find simliarities between what's happeneing locally with hat's happening around the globe. 4. WHY??????zThat's Our JOB TO CONVINCE THEM!!!!!
How do we do that? 6. OVERWHELMING.... but again i think this ties in to what i excerpted from my article above and from the need for us to find the intro that appeals to the oreinting attention but whivh then can pull inquisitive into layer 2 which presents our info in a more selective manner. So far example, on GSO, you can select your region of interest or area of interest from a pull down menu and content will appear .... maybe this is a good way to get involvement
Main Page
What do YOU care about?
page 2
BIgMag colorful kinda fuzzy kinda pulsing ALIVE pull down menu ...... Region Area of focus (LIMIT TO say 8)
Page changes to region whih shows population (glowing, pulsing, clickon one, meet a person , see a video, read a short paper,see a relationship map.....
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what matters to You?
the image rotates
the peole's photos zoom in and out highlighting their focuses
interested in growing WISER?
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take a look at Kosmix for example of an active uncluttered layout..
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Hello Deborah, everyone,
Yes, twitter's homepage is really simple. http://twitter.com/
As well as facebook's: http://www.facebook.com
Here's the mockup I posted above for easier visual comparison:
(click on image to view full-size)
This is closer to Twitter's I believe with following similarities: - One picture for illustration - Text describing what the site is about - Links to the 'how' of WE - Call to action (Join / Sign up) - Sign in box - Testimonials
What's in Twitter that's not on WE: - A "what is twitter?" text to guide user's thought process upon landing on the page - A link to a video description - A link to the 'why' of Twitter
Facebook on the other hand have I think reached a status where their reputation and the services they provide is well-known by the time someone landed on their homepage. Thus: - Needs no lengthier explanation than an illustration/picture and a short sentence: "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life". - The "About" page doesn't even describet what they do!! - Sign-in box is minimal in size, while Sign up form is given prominence.
Here's my quick assessment of how well the three are answering the questions:
Questions: a. Does these two correctly worded and structured? b. If not, what needs improving? c. If we use it on the homepage, where should they be positioned at? d. Should they replace existing page elements (in the mockup above)? or should they be added there somewhere? e. Or, should we rethink entirely the homepage, and build it around these "Connect to..." or "I care about..." page element? f. Anyone willing to create a sketch of how that might look like? (even if only with words...?) g. How does the page after one click 'Search' / 'GO' should look like? What needs to be there? (Deborah answered this already)
And here's two other ideas of page elements that should be on the homepage:
Just throwing in some of the ideas in mind / we have at the moment. You're welcome to elaborate further on 'anything is possible' basis. We're kinda playing around with ideas here, so play freely!
Thanks and looking forward, Bowo |
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Here's another simpler one. Thoughts?
(Click image to view full-size)
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Here's what we'll end up using this week:
(click image to view full size)
And here's Deborah's (boatsie) comment in the WE Intro Video wiki:
so i really like the simpler version of the front page ....
i still prefer ACTIVE words,
possibly a question to draw in.... like Get "WISER" .... Join WiserEarth
a community .....
I also like the idea of a "In the News" button which can either profile an active organization, or a very active issue .... and I still like motion and I know im still stuck in the late 90s and splash pages but i love it how for example Sierra Clubs page moves you from one project to another ... It really moves smoothly. and now im going to go watch the video...
Thanks Deborah, I think we're using some active words already. As for a more complex and interactive homepage, that will be for the full redesign scheduled a bit later on. Our interim homepage with the revisions is meant to test different page elements, content and layout and see which one produced the least bounce rate (% of people who leave immediately after opening the homepage), most clicks, longest page view, and most sign ups.
Here's a statistic and map of last week's revision to illustrate which page elements is getting clicked. One dot = one click.
We can see that the search box is getting most clicks. That's why we're eager to test one or two revisions that is search- focused as opposed to explanation-focused. |
Hi everyone,
An interim home page design was launched this week to enable a new navigation to be implemented across the site. We want to keep improving it on an iterative basis through ongoing testing which will allow us to improve it over time.
Should it have photos or not? Should it link to featured content? What about users with slow connections? Should the site focus on allowing people to search immediately based on their interest areas or location? Should the home page be more minimalist (like LinkedIn or FaceBook) or more like a Yahoo! news home page? Please share your thoughts or immediate impressions you had when you saw the new home page. Thanks a lot.