Suggestions for the Redesign of Nostalgia Web site
When redesigning a Web site, it is necessary to keep in mind
the users' original needs and the new ones that have arisen from use
of the site. In this case, Nostalgia is a very basic Web site.
This was one of the main concerns during the creation of Nostalgia --
the users and designers wanted it to be as simple as possible. It
is very easy to get carried away by adding unneccessary features which
do not enhance the site, rather just complicate it.
We were surprised to find that issues we thought would be of concern
to the users were not mentioned in the surveys or in the interviews.
This does not necessarily mean that the site is perfect and everyone
likes the features in their present existance. It is obvious
that the site has some problems since the number of submissions have
reduced and the activity of the site is decreasing.
So, what is causing the decrease in interest and use of the site?
Perhaps, as John Kelso mentioned in his interview, the site activity
has reduced because the initial excitement of having a site to host
past experiences has worn off. This reduction in activity could also
be attributed to the lack of publicity, or lack of things about which to write.
One solution for increasing activity would be to advertise the site.
Making more people, in Blacksburg and outside of Blacksburg, aware
of Nostalgia would bring some new activity. Another solution, addressing
the lack of things to write about, would be to add a photo album.
This was suggested by several users. A photo album would give the
users the ability to browse through the old pictures, perhaps
reminding them about past experiences/places they have forgotten.
This would help increase the activity since it was seen in the
qualitative analysis that annotations, which indicates activity,
were mostly written in response to a specific location mentioned
in the story.
The users can also compare the way Blacksburg used to look with how
it looks now if they have a photo album. It was very popular for
the users to use reference
points when explaining the location of places which existed in
the past. And of course, a picture is worth a thousand words,
giving the user more time to read stories and write about his/her
various experiences, instead of having to spend the majority
of his/her time trying to explain the location or surroundings
of the locations mentioned in the story.
Of course, a major problem with having a photo gallery has to
do with the time it takes to load images over the Internet.
This however, can be facilitated by providing small picture icons (thumb nails)
allowing the user to browse over rough images and select the
picture he/she wants to see in greater detail. Of course,
those that do not want to be bothered by the lengthy time to
load these images have the option of never using the photo album.
A guest book was suggested in one of the surveys. We feel that this
would be a great addition to Nostalgia. This would provide
users with the ability to see who has visited the site, without
having to traverse through all the stories, looking for familiar
names. This would then provide users with the ability to contact
familiar people and past friends, even those that no longer
reside in Blacksburg.
By making this an option, users don't have to feel like they
must provide personal information, but allows for those who
want to provide more information about themselves with the
ability to do so.
We found the organization of the site to be somewhat confusing.
This partly has to do with the fact that the organization method
was changed after some stories had been submitted, and the old
stories in the site were not changed to reflect this new ordering
strategy. It would be beneficial to categorize the stories based
on their subject, providing more structure to the site.
The use of banners or navigation toolbars listing all the
features found in the site would help better
organize the site and provide the users with an easy
way to navigate through the site. It would also provide
consistency throughout the site.
For example, the following toolbar could be found on the main
page:
Compose | Guestbook | Photo Album | Story List
Then the list of categories can be displayed in the same
manner at the bottom of the pages found in the "Story List"
or could also be listed underneath the above toolbar on the
main page providing the user with the ability to go
directly to the subject of stories of interest.
On the list of stories, the title
of each story can be links (as they are in the present site) with
the titles of its annotations also listed. The site should allow annotators to
provide a title for their annotation. This would allow the user to
immediately see the number of annotations made and provides the
user with a little more information regarding the activity of
that particular story.
A search engine would be a wonderful addition to the Nostalgia
site. It would provide the users with the capabilities of
gathering stories that have a specific keyword the user is
interested in finding.
This could be confusing and frustrating for users that do not
know how to use a search engine properly, however, the pros
in this case, outweigh the cons.
Overall, our suggestions were made based on the feedback we
received from the users, the information gathered from
the interviews with Dr. Rosson, John Kelso, Dr. Carroll, and
Dr. Furr, and the observations made in the qualitative
analysis. The addition of features to better enhance the
site seemed to be the majority of the suggestions we had.
Adding more structure and organization to the story listings
and providing more detailed instructions are the only
revisions we suggest for the present system.
|