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[Meta] Bad Usability Problems in LtU

Here are some bad usability problems I found in the LtU site:
  1. The link for posting is "create content". However the general convention is for this to be "Submit". (or at least "Post").
  2. The links at the left are right-aligned instead of left-aligned which makes them harder to read.
  3. Some of the links do not start with an uppercase letter.
  4. The FAQ is one monolithic text, instead of a list of bolded question + answer, with a ToC. For a good example, see my FAQ.
  5. In http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/add , there isn't any link for adding a post to the front page. This should be added even if it is just a pointer to an empty page.
  6. The navigation menu on the left could use some "<hr />"'s, spaces or Re-organisation. At the moment it's too dis-organised.

Regards, Shlomi Fish.

By shlomif at 2007-05-18 10:07 | Site Discussion | previous forum topic | next forum topic | other blogs | 7933 reads

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Not "bad", but "could be better"

None of these fall into the "bad problem" category for me, and I think #5 is on purpose and helps keep LtU's quality high. And you missed what is actually the one "bad" usability problem on LtU, IMHO: the attractive nuisance of the "Post new comment" form at the bottom of any discussion page, which frequently leads careless posters to post replies as if they were new comments.

By Doug Landauer at Fri, 2007-05-18 17:34 | login or register to post comments

Why #5 is bad.

None of these fall into the "bad problem" category for me,

They make the site harder to use and so they are bad.

and I think #5 is on purpose and helps keep LtU's quality high.

It's the wrong way to think about this. People want to know a way to submit a story for possible inclusion on the front page. By all means, there can be a moderator to moderate what they say. But there should be instructions on how to do it. I ended up emailing Ehud Lamm to his gmail account for lack of knowing how to do it better. So it's still a bad usability issue.

By shlomif at Sun, 2007-05-20 09:37 | login or register to post comments

Subjective

They make the site harder to use and so they are bad.

That's a somewhat subjective opinion. Taking your points in order:

  1. Although I don't find "create content" or "new topic" confusing, your point is well taken - most sites use something like "submit story". I don't think it necessarily follows that "create content" makes the site "harder to use".
  2. I completely disagree with that assertion. In fact, I think that right-alignment makes the links easier to read in this case. Of course, that just my opinion.
  3. The only link that starts lower case (at least in the main menu) appears to be "(new topic)". It is also distinguished by being wrapped in parentheses. I agree that some other way of distinguishing or highlighting that particular link may be desirable. Again, I fail to see how having one distinguished link makes the site "harder to use".
  4. The FAQ is not so much poorly structured, as it is misnamed. It's really not a FAQ.
  5. Front page stories can only be added by contributing editors. By design. This fact is documented in LtU's policy document. About the only change I would suggest making is to add a link to the policy document on the "create content" page.
  6. I agree that a little more structure in the nav menu might be helpful.
By Allan McInnes at Sun, 2007-05-20 18:32 | login or register to post comments