One of the things that the Web Oversight Committee (WOC) decided we needed to work on is a redesign of the home page. The eternal question on our mind has been whether we need to target our audience that uses the site on a regular basis or cater more to those unfamiliar with 2061. With our limited working area it's really an either/or proposition. To complicate this decision, a number of our most vocal regulars seem incapable of using methods that could get them to the content they want quicker (bookmarking the exact pages/sections, searching, using the left-side navigation).
The survey we posted seems to indicate that we get a lot of return users. Or, I should say the people most likely to participate in the survey were return users. The survey (when considered along-side monthly usage statistics) also seems to indicate that our users visit the site at best once a month. Finally, most repondents seem to indicate that they liked our site they way it is.
Considering this data (which is not scientific by any means) I'm of the mind that we should continue to cater to new users on the home page. I think this tactic will help all our users (new & old) find the content they're seeking. The specific design of our top-level pages needs to be improved, but I think the category method we've chosen is a good way to guide users to the information they need. I think that by updating the home page interface while maintaining the current scheme, removing the "New & Popular" page by relocating content to the relevant category pages, and building out the category pages so that relevant content can actually be found would do a lot more for site usability than just changing the style of the home page.
The category pages present the biggest problem in our current setup. As I've mentioned before, we don't really do a good job of presenting information that relevant, useful, and important to our research on these pages. My current thinking is that we could use these pages to list a few groupings of information: a general overview, what projects we're working on, and relevant tools and findings. Project pages would provide a good place to link to project descriptions/proposals, findings, and relevant tools. A lot of the article pages on our site relate to specific projects, so I think we could link to these from the project pages as well.
I think that kind of redesign would greatly help our users. After that we could even start looking at a customizable home page again.
The WOC seems to think we can make the site better by "fixing" the home page. The fix we're now looking at is to stop using the categories and change the home page into something resembling the current "New & Popular" page. This, even after pointing out that we don't generate enough new content and that our regular users only visit once a month at best. I probably didn't help my case by helping recommend methods of generating "new" content more often. I don't really expect this will do much for our site traffic or usability.
I guess I never made my point strongly enough. I've always been too willing to let people have their own way (even if I think another way would be better for them). Beyond that, though, I think some people are paying too much attention to the proverbial (and clichéd) squeeky wheel. I don't think this is the solution we need.
So much else I could say (on how better content and better use of current content would improve site usability better than more links, on how site traffic has to be in the context of our content and users, on how it's better to address the underlaying problems with the site rather than shuffle the deck) but I'm running out of steam and my thoughts are starting to jumble. Besides, the course of action has been chosen.
I've got a mock-up ready and will hopefully get feedback early next week. I should have a working page in the next week or two.
Once that's done I'm going to return to working on the category pages. If those turn out the way I'm envisioning them I should be able to start talking again about catering to all users rather than those noisy ones.
