Website Navigation or is it more exciting to go down a blind alley?

Please get a professional with a logical mind who knows nothing about birds to help improve the navigation around this website.

I've come to this site through the recent Big Garden Watch and somehow got to read some forum posts on it. The forum seems to be a very active part of this site.

However when I look at the homepage and search all the dropdown menus there is no mention of Forum or Group - Where are they? What are the groups? Is there a list of what groups I can read?

Aah but here at the bottom it says Blog but blog is not what I understand to be forum.

The homepage drop down menus are huge - a homepage should be a brief logical window into whats on a site and where it is so that you have a mental picture of how to get around.

Blog/Forum/Community/Group/Chat/Post/New Post/New Thread/Reply/Tag  - they're all good meaningful words but put or omit them at the wrong place in an inappropriate quantity and sprinkle in badly named tabs and it turns into a recipe for frustrating confusion.

This site has some great content and it looks good - if only those bits were assembled in a less chaotic way it would be a rewarding place to visit. 

I have the biased view of a newcomer and no doubt regular users will have a different tale.

  • Haha David. You are quite right but still banging your head against a brick wall. Have a look in the forums under the About tag. This discussion has been raging since the new website last May.

    TeeJay's forum map on the main community page - first sticky - will help if you get lost.

    I should have added that this thread would be better placed in the Website Feedback forum, again under the About tag.

  • Hi-

    I found the survey a bit superficial but a good start-  It was annoying that you HAD to give an answer or the page wouldn't move on- the answer parameters seemed too narrow to me; I had to 'tick a box' to get through as none fitted me.

    Long time RSPB  member,  Keen Birder  or   Reserves regular  visitor would all have covered it. The choices seemed a bit fluffy and ' standard survey - designed'

    :)

    S

  • I agree Doggie but  I decided to give BOTD to the RSPB and figure they had seen plenty of David type feedback so had decided to get a hold of it all someplace where they could analyse it.

    I see  KF around occasionally - we've talked digi-scoping- she's cool,  and decided to give her my support.

    :)

    S

  • Unknown said:

    I started the survey but found it too simplistic so abandoned it, and reading old posts like David's that is nearly two years old and yet still relevant shows nothing will alter whatever comes of the survey.

    Doggie, you are quite right. T'was ever thus, as they say. We will always be banging our heads against brick walls as far as the forums are concerned.

     

    I'm another one who abandoned the survey part way through. I couldn't find any boxes that fitted my circumstances, and I, too, was annoyed to find I had to check a box before I could move on. A catch-all box "none of the above" might have helped.

     

  • As a professional long term question asker I find in general there are 2 approaches to getting info.

    Ask a question you already know the answer to- my lawyer buddies are good at that.

    Ask an open  question to discover if you face lack of knowledge, experience, determination or some other factor.

    A quick survey IMHO can't cover that.

    That said this was pretty shallow  ( was the  rsp B word mentioned anywhere in there? ) but let's see what the follow-up is.

    :)

    S