Website usability issues

Hi folks

I'd appreciate some feedback on the usability aspects of the following
webpage:

http://feedback.atspace.com

The page is designed to be used by a small number of people whose
businesses are participating in a software trial.

{don "boots:asbestos"} The page is designed for IE v4+. {/don}


My design intentions were as follows.

- The page is divided into logical sections.

- Each section has a list of topics.

- Each topic has associated detailed text.

- Initially, the detailed texts are hidden.

- If the user clicks a topic, the detailed text for that topic is
shown (if it is currently hidden), or hidden (if it is currently
shown).

- Clicking a topic should only affect that topic. It should not affect
the other topics.

- The "Details" link displays the detailed text for *all* the topics
in that section.

- The "List" link hides the detailed texts for all the topics in that
section.

- The user can click the List link, the Details link, and/or
individual topics, in any order or combination, to see the detailed
texts that he wants.</li>


I showed this to a "web capable" friend, but he did not immediately
see how it worked. So maybe there's a usability problem. Here are some
of the things I've considered:

- Should the "buttons" (List, Details, Top & Help) be proper buttons,
instead of links?

- If they stay as links, should I always show them as non-visited?

- Is there better text than "List" & "Details"? (I also tried
"Contract" & "Expand")

- When the user clicks List or Details, it moves that section to the
top of the screen. Is this confusing?

- Should I use some other method completely? (frames? treeview?)


I also considered replacing the List & Details options with a single
option whose caption (or buttonface) changes back & forth. (Eg. if it
is showing List, & you click it, it changes to Details, & vice versa).

The problem with that approach, is as follows. Say the button shows
Details, & the user clicks it. This displays the full text for every
topic in that section, & changes the option from Details to List. Now
the user clicks each topic, one by one, until he has manually hidden
all of the detailed texts. Now the section is back in List mode, but
the button would still say List - not Details! This would be just as
confusing as having the List & Details options seperate, as they are
at present.


Please note:

- I've reduced the page to three sections (NEWS, FAQ, BUGS), but only
the first one works. FAQ & BUGS are non-functional dummies. The actual
page has 6 sections, each with 3 to 8 topics. A typical topic has 3 to
20 lines of detailed text.

- I'm not concerned with the HTML. I *know* that it is not very
cosher! I'll worry about that later, when I've got the usability
right.


Thanks in anticipation,
TC

TC wrote:

http://feedback.atspace.com

I showed this to a "web capable" friend, but he did not immediately
see how it worked. So maybe there's a usability problem.

Yeah, I'd agree. The UI is confusing.

The problem, I believe, is with the heavy use of targets. Clicking List,
for example, jumps down the page, giving the impression of completely
new information.

Try taking a look at some of the best-designed blogs, which seem to be
presenting information in a similar manner to you.

http://1976design.com/blog/
http://www.mezzoblue.com/
Anything using Movable Type as a basis

I'd suggest moving each list item to its own page, as well as the FAQ
and the other thing.

--
Mark.
http://tranchant.plus.com/

Mark Tranchant wrote:

TC wrote:

http://feedback.atspace.com

I showed this to a "web capable" friend, but he did not immediately
see how it worked. So maybe there's a usability problem.

Yeah, I'd agree. The UI is confusing.

The problem, I believe, is with the heavy use of targets. Clicking
List,
for example, jumps down the page, giving the impression of completely

new information.

Ok. I think you are spot-on, there. Do you think that changing the List
& Details links to buttons, would help?

Try taking a look at some of the best-designed blogs, which seem to
be
presenting information in a similar manner to you.

http://1976design.com/blog/
http://www.mezzoblue.com/
Anything using Movable Type as a basis

Ok, I'll look at those sites.

I'd suggest moving each list item to its own page, as well as the FAQ

and the other thing.

I initially used a single page, because the free host that I used,
worked best with just one page. But AtSpace works fine with multiple
pages, so I will revist that choice.

Thanks for your (very fast!) comments. I can not even see my original
post on google yet!

TC

aatcbbtcc... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com wrote:
(snip)

GAK!! Google just swapped me over to google groups 2 beta - and posted
my email adrs instead of my nickname :-((

Folks: rember to re-enter your nickname, if & when this happens to you!
TC

On 6 Dec 2004 00:36:25 -0800, <aatcbbtccctc (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

aatcbbtcc... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com wrote:
(snip)

GAK!! Google just swapped me over to google groups 2 beta - and posted
my email adrs instead of my nickname :-((

Folks: rember to re-enter your nickname, if & when this happens to you!
TC

Or, or ...

You could check out <http://www.individual.net/> to find a free high
quality newsprovider that runs the plain text groups from usenet. If you
do so, you should also check
<http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/> for a good news client, as
Outlook Express is not so good for that.

--
Weblog | <http://home.wanadoo.nl/b.de.zoete/_private/weblog.html>
Webontwerp | <http://home.wanadoo.nl/b.de.zoete/html/webontwerp.html>
Zweefvliegen | <http://home.wanadoo.nl/b.de.zoete/html/vliegen.html>

Barbara de Zoete wrote:

On 6 Dec 2004 00:36:25 -0800, <aatcbbtccctc (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:


aatcbbtcc... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com wrote:
(snip)

GAK!! Google just swapped me over to google groups 2 beta - and
posted
my email adrs instead of my nickname :-((

Folks: rember to re-enter your nickname, if & when this happens to
you!
TC


Or, or ...

You could check out <http://www.individual.net/> to find a free high

quality newsprovider that runs the plain text groups from usenet.
(snip)

Ok, thanks for the suggestion. But google groups has been an invaluable
source of information to me over the years, so I'd be very reluctant to
stop using it for anything less capable.
*NOT HAPPY* with my nickname being ignored, though!

TC

On 6 Dec 2004 01:02:29 -0800, <aatcbbtccctc (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Barbara de Zoete wrote:
On 6 Dec 2004 00:36:25 -0800, <aatcbbtccctc (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Or, or ...

You could check out <http://www.individual.net/> to find a free high

quality newsprovider that runs the plain text groups from usenet.

(snip)

Ok, thanks for the suggestion. But google groups has been an invaluable
source of information to me over the years, so I'd be very reluctant to
stop using it for anything less capable.

Google Groups *is* a valuable source of information, especially if you
know how to search them. The archive is vast and you can practically find
the answer to any of the questions you have (but then it would get kind
off way too quite in here, wouldn't it ;-) ).
News clients, news servers are there for a reason. Especially
individual.net has a good reputation of being reliable and complete and
fast. Google is just a shell around usenet. Why use a secondary system if
you can use the primary at no cost and with ease?


--
Weblog | <http://home.wanadoo.nl/b.de.zoete/_private/weblog.html>
Webontwerp | <http://home.wanadoo.nl/b.de.zoete/html/webontwerp.html>
Zweefvliegen | <http://home.wanadoo.nl/b.de.zoete/html/vliegen.html>

In article <be37bfe0.0412052335.62593768 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>,
aatcbbtccctc (AT) yahoo (DOT) com (TC) wrote:

{don "boots:asbestos"} The page is designed for IE v4+. {/don}

I appreciate your savviness about the IE4+ asbestos issue, but I'd dump
the reference on the page when you go live. Since there's a small number
of people involved, I assume you know their browser specs.
If not, you'll just insult them with the "best viewed" stuff.

leo

--
<http://web0.greatbasin.net/~leo/>

Leonard Blaisdell wrote:

In article <be37bfe0.0412052335.62593768 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>,
aatcbbtccctc (AT) yahoo (DOT) com (TC) wrote:

{don "boots:asbestos"} The page is designed for IE v4+. {/don}

I appreciate your savviness about the IE4+ asbestos issue, but I'd
dump
the reference on the page when you go live. Since there's a small
number
of people involved, I assume you know their browser specs.
If not, you'll just insult them with the "best viewed" stuff.

Ok, thanks for your comment. I doubt they'd be "insulted", though.
They're a relatively unsophisticated audience from a PC viewpoint. They
may not even *understand* the message! (But perhaps that is another
argument for removing it.)

Eventually I'll change the code to use feature detection. At that
point, the message will definitely become irrelevant.

Thanks again,
TC

Barbara de Zoete:

aatcbbtccctc (AT) yahoo (DOT) com>:
Ok, thanks for the suggestion. But google groups has been an invaluable
source of information to me over the years, so I'd be very reluctant to
stop using it for anything less capable.

Don't stop using it, but use it for what it's intended - an archive and a
last-ditch means of getting a message up.

News clients, news servers are there for a reason. Especially
individual.net has a good reputation of being reliable and complete and
fast. Google is just a shell around usenet. Why use a secondary system
if you can use the primary at no cost and with ease?

I second the suggestion of news.individual.net. Extremely pleased with it.