First impressions

[Jo7]

At this stage the Step Finder is very new and we know there are still lots of tweaks to be made. We'd like to hear your thoughts on how you think it looks so far and whether what we're aiming for with it is clear.

Is it easy to find your way around?

Does the Welcome to Step Finder article exlplain things clearly?
http://www.thesite.org/stepfinder/co...to-Step-Finder

Is it clear what the difference is between the articles and the personal stories?

What do you think of the layout/design?

Have you had any problems with any of the functionality?

Feel free to answer any of these questions and add your own thoughts and ideas

[jessie]

It might be good to have the personal stories in categories...maybe you were thinking of doing this anyway once there were more. eg. relationships, disabilites, drugs etc

[L1ttleOne]

This looks great; the content is so varied and interesting. It's really easy to use as the layout is similar to the boards.

But just a small thing (which you may have noticed anyway), people's names are being cut off when they comment on posts...

[Mavis]

Is it easy to find your way around?
I do find it a bit confusing that articles doesn’t have its own tab on the top, but instead is accessed off the home page from link on the left hand side bar. I think this is easy to overlook. You sort of anticipate that if you click on those left hand side links, you’ll get articles and discussion, bearing in mind both share the same headings.

I think I’d also agree with Jessie re grouping personal stories in categories, although I wonder if this applies more broadly to content on discussions and articles too.

I’m not sure the headings we seem to be using are particularly helpful if you come to the Step Finder looking for information on a specific topic, or with a particular barrier in mind. That said, the search facility could help with that although it does need refinement. In some respects it’s working too well at the moment as it brings up things which are only tangentially related right at the top of the list. For example, search for “doctor”, and some of the more relevant content is lurking near the bottom of the results list. In contrast, “GP” brings up no results at all!

The design feels a bit primitive, but it’s functional.

Does the Welcome to Step Finder article explain things clearly?
The article seems to fit the bill but a few thoughts:

The opening sentence: “Step Finder is a brand new service on TheSite.org to help you access the support, help and resources you need” is accurate, but it actually made me wonder how’s it different to TheSite which tries to do that anyway. I sort of feel the sentences about “what’s it all about” need moving up above the picture to explain things more as the picture seems to break the flow in the wrong place which leaves you feeling a bit cold about the whole concept.

It says personal stories are “a bit like blog posts” so if they’re only “like” blog posts, why is the term “blog” used on the personal stories page?

I think I get the difference between personal stories, discussions and articles, but it feels a bit hazy from the description that to the uninitiated I wonder if there’ll be some confusion about whether to write a personal story or start a discussion, and where to look for what. Also, personal stories are not just about barriers, but about solutions too are they not? Essentially in my mind, the differentiation is as follows:

• Personal Stories: real life accounts that describe the kinds of barriers people have faced when trying to access support and the solutions they have found to navigate their way through this minefield.
• Discussion: space for you to talk to others about the obstacles you are presently facing in trying to access support, and in turn for others to offer their solutions to these barriers.
• Articles: one page summaries of discussions, showcasing issues, ideas and ways of overcoming barriers to support. In essence this reduces potentially) pages of discussion down to something manageable for others who might want to access support but don’t want to wade through a lengthy discussion first off.

I don’t know if this is a correct interpretation or I’m wide of the mark!

I’m also a bit confused as to if I posted something in the discussion bit, in which section I’d post it. Or if I wanted an article, under which heading I’d look. I know the headings are explained in the relative discussions, but would it not be better on the first page, to have a summary of what these headings actually mean, all in one place.

[Patrick]

It might be good to have the personal stories in categories...maybe you were thinking of doing this anyway once there were more. eg. relationships, disabilites, drugs etc

This is a really good idea. At the moment we've broken stories into the standard categories across Step Finder, e.g. Supporting yourself, Getting help from others, Urgent support:



In addition, bloggers (authors of the Personal Stories) can add their add own categories to their posts or tags:



The problem that you rightly point out - is that currently it is not very easy to navigate through these different tags and categories. For example, it would be great at a glance to see on the Personal Stories pages - all the different tags and categories for other Personal Stories.

At the moment, these tags and categories are most obvious at the end of the teaser/post of each of the Personal Stories.

For example this is the tag for relationships:
http://www.thesite.org/stepfinder/bl...=relationships

[Patrick]

This looks great; the content is so varied and interesting. It's really easy to use as the layout is similar to the boards.

But just a small thing (which you may have noticed anyway), people's names are being cut off when they comment on posts...

Thanks for the feedback L1ttleone. We've tweaked the look and feel of the comments - so this bug with cutting off the names should be fixed now.

[Patrick]

Is it easy to find your way around?
I do find it a bit confusing that articles doesn?t have its own tab on the top, but instead is accessed off the home page from link on the left hand side bar. I think this is easy to overlook. You sort of anticipate that if you click on those left hand side links, you?ll get articles and discussion, bearing in mind both share the same headings.

Thanks Mavis this is a really valid piece of feedback. It makes a lot of sense. The tab "What is Step Finder?" is essentially doing two different things: it's the home for Step Finder (which aims to explain Step Finder briefly); but it's also the section home for the articles on Step Finder.

To sort this out we need to split these two different things and create two separate tabs to make this clearer. We will get on with doing this.

I think I?d also agree with Jessie re grouping personal stories in categories, although I wonder if this applies more broadly to content on discussions and articles too.

I?m not sure the headings we seem to be using are particularly helpful if you come to the Step Finder looking for information on a specific topic, or with a particular barrier in mind. That said, the search facility could help with that although it does need refinement. In some respects it?s working too well at the moment as it brings up things which are only tangentially related right at the top of the list. For example, search for ?doctor?, and some of the more relevant content is lurking near the bottom of the results list. In contrast, ?GP? brings up no results at all!

Agreed - we definitely need to work more on how we present the different categories and tags. Up to now, we've thought about 'categories' being used in a way that refers to what process of getting support being discussed, e.g. supporting yourself, getting support from others, and urgent support.

Tags - are a way of referring to a specific keyword, topic or issue. It would be great to use this across Step Finder. Currently if you click on 'tags' that will bring together content across Step Finder. For example:

http://www.thesite.org/stepfinder/tags.php?tag=doctor

It would be great to improve the search functionality that we currently have for Step Finder as this could be one way to join up content across the different areas of Step Finder: articles, personal stories and threads

The design feels a bit primitive, but it?s functional.

Design is pretty basic- and it's something we'd love to improve as it becomes clearer how people are using Step Finder. In particular, we're looking at what functionality is being used and the ways in which we need to improve the navigation around Step Finder.

Does the Welcome to Step Finder article explain things clearly?
The article seems to fit the bill but a few thoughts:

The opening sentence: ?Step Finder is a brand new service on TheSite.org to help you access the support, help and resources you need? is accurate, but it actually made me wonder how?s it different to TheSite which tries to do that anyway. I sort of feel the sentences about ?what?s it all about? need moving up above the picture to explain things more as the picture seems to break the flow in the wrong place which leaves you feeling a bit cold about the whole concept.

We've moved the picture - so it doesn't break the flow. We can change it and make it more welcoming and give people a better sense of what Step Finder is about and the mood/tone we're aiming at. Accept the image isn't ideal at the moment.

It says personal stories are ?a bit like blog posts? so if they?re only ?like? blog posts, why is the term ?blog? used on the personal stories page?

I think the word 'blogs' is still being used - as it's useful shorthand- where 'Personal story' is too long. But we could shorten this so that terminology is consistent across Step Finder. For instance, referring to 'Stories' when shorthand is needed. What do you think?

I think I get the difference between personal stories, discussions and articles, but it feels a bit hazy from the description that to the uninitiated I wonder if there?ll be some confusion about whether to write a personal story or start a discussion, and where to look for what. Also, personal stories are not just about barriers, but about solutions too are they not? Essentially in my mind, the differentiation is as follows:

• Personal Stories: real life accounts that describe the kinds of barriers people have faced when trying to access support and the solutions they have found to navigate their way through this minefield.
• Discussion: space for you to talk to others about the obstacles you are presently facing in trying to access support, and in turn for others to offer their solutions to these barriers.
• Articles: one page summaries of discussions, showcasing issues, ideas and ways of overcoming barriers to support. In essence this reduces potentially) pages of discussion down to something manageable for others who might want to access support but don?t want to wade through a lengthy discussion first off.

I don?t know if this is a correct interpretation or I?m wide of the mark!

This whole issue of the links, crossover and distinctions between the different types of content/areas on Step Finder is a whole massive subject. I'm going to copy your thoughts Mavis and start a new thread on this.

I?m also a bit confused as to if I posted something in the discussion bit, in which section I?d post it. Or if I wanted an article, under which heading I?d look. I know the headings are explained in the relative discussions, but would it not be better on the first page, to have a summary of what these headings actually mean, all in one place.

This is a really good point. It is a definite concern that if not knowing where to post could become a barrier to getting support on Step Finder itself! We're thinking that this is something that will organically evolve to some extent, but for sure, we need to ensure that this flexibility does not lead to confusion about how to get involve and contribute.

Thanks Mavis for all your thoughts and comments on this. They are really appreciated and are a great help. Massive apologies for the delay in responding fully to you.

[danny]

Just a minor one, but I'm getting logged out a bit too quickly, so that by the time I have written my post and want to submit, I'm already logged out

[Patrick]

Just a minor one, but I'm getting logged out a bit too quickly, so that by the time I have written my post and want to submit, I'm already logged out

Thanks Danny for this feedback - we've upped the time before the cookie expires so you should find you're not getting logged out as quickly now.