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Hey Bowo,
Yes. The idea is that all the sections would be collapsed when the user enters the page.
Also, anyone else that has a quick moment...
1. Was it clear to you where to click if you wanted to edit the content? 2. Did you make the connection that there's two different editable sections of the page? Organization profile and Connections?
Thanks,
Shawn |
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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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1 to 3 of 3 Comments
I just read the dialogue about doing a home page variation that's simple and search based. I'm not sure if any of you have seen Ning. I guess its a social networking site that allows you to create your own niche social networking site. I don't really know any details about it but their home page is super simple. All it consists of is a short description, sign up and search. I've also done 2 or 3 search based homepages for Vinfolio (a tool used to organize large wine collections) and Foxmarks (online bookmarks for firefox) and I could share those designs if you want to see other simple search based homepages.