Here are a few improvements that I want to implement over the course of the next few weeks to the Related sites platform.  Please share your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.  Anything that you can think of and that you believe would improve your experience of using the sites is fair game.  Thanks!

Task	Difficulty
Responsive design (better user experience on mobile)	7
User profile (show some info - short bio for example - when clicking on a username)	3
Better categorization of the blogs	5

The responsive design fixes would be good - I try and avoid serious reading on my phone but sometimes while waiting for something it's how I get caught up.  I'm probably in a minority but I also use my Android tablet for reading; when you set up for various screens, if you can, please include that too.

I agree with lamabrew.

However, I do find that even on my phone, the current format is readable if I turn my phone to landscape mode.  Unfortunately in this mode, there are relatively few lines of text visible, so lots of scrolling is required.

Rough draft, but I hope you get my drift.

Here are some prototypes.  I think if sections are empty, they should be eliminated entirely for that user.

Ced


=================================================
User Profile Page

Yeah, Bio.

Yeah, optional direct contact info

Then,

[h2]Blogs[/h2]
[ol]
[li]Blog Title with Link to Blog
..
[/ol]


[h2]Questions in the Forum[/h2]
[ol]
[li]Question Title with Link to Question (Response Count)
..
[/ol]


[h2]Answers in the Forum[/h2]
[ol]
[li]Question Title with Link to Answer
..
[/ol]

[h2]Tag Distribution Counts[/h2]
[table]
[tr][th]Tag[/th][th]Blog[/th][th]Questions[/th][th]Answers[/th]
...
(the tag value in column 1 has a link to the Tag Profile Page)
[/table]


=================================================
Tag Profile Page

Tag Name

Tag Meaning/Description

[h2]Users counts for this Tag[/h2]
[table]
[tr][th]User[/th][th]Blog[/th][th]Questions[/th][th]Answers[/th]
...
(the User name in column 1 has a link to the User Profile Page)

[/table]

[h2]Blogs with this Tag[/h2]
Show list or search box if list is too long

[h2]Questions with this Tag[/h2]
Show list or search box if list is too long

[h2]Tag Combination Counts[/h2]
[table]
[tr][th]Other Tag[/th][th]Blog[/th][th]Questions[/th][/tr]
...
(the other tag value in column 1 has a link to its Tag Profile Page)
[/table]

Hi Stephane,

On the home page, I preferred the previous list of recent blogs to the present list, which only contains 6 posts.  The present format causes blogs to roll off the list more quickly, which may motivate bloggers to post more often.  On the other hand, IMO a slightly longer list is more inviting and may help to get clicks.

For the blog topic selection, I propose adding "digital filters" or "filters".

Personally, I don't care about the mobile experience, but then I am old.

Keep up the good work!

My vote is for:

User profile (show some info - short bio for example - when clicking on a username)

Especially in comments on a blog, it is confusing for me to have the user name in highlight green... I continue to want to click on those nice green names and see more info on the user commenting...

Matthew-

Right.  User info should include:

  1) how many posts, both original and answers

  2) upvotes or thumbs-up or something that indicates answer quality

  3) private contact (i.e. what happens now when clicking on a person's name)

I realize that item 2) might be a whole thing of separate work for Stephane.  Just suggesting.  Credibility / authenticity of users is crucial for forums these days, so anything that enhances user info would be good

-Jeff

Yes on the mobile thing -- I've tried reading it on Android and it's difficult.

Hopefully just a few .css tweaks could work wonders....

Next would be better categorization -- I think some kind of tag engine would be helpful, but I'm less sure what exactly could work.

I don't think user profiles would be very useful, but that's just my 2c.