Please re-work the navigation on this site
After weeks now of using this new community and really trying hard to get used to its functioning I have to report that the most frustrating thing with it is the confusing and inconsistent navigation through the site. I feel like I spend far more time trying find questions to answer than I do answering any. The following too long post will review the five different ways to get to the actual full list of posts and end with a plea to simplify down to one efficient, consistent, straightforward method.
Navigation 1 - To get to posts in Community News and Community Help via the Home menu button.
1) Click on Home. 2) Wait for the scrolling panel to show your choice then click on the panel.
This brings one to the full list of posts. Click on a post to read and reply. The back button works to return to the list of questions.
Navigation 2 - To get to posts in my groups via the My Feeds menu button
1) Click on My Feeds. 2) Click on My Groups on the right hand column of options to open the list of groups. 3) Click on a group name. 4) Scroll to the bottom of this rather static short list of apparently random selections of old questions. 5) Click on View All.
This brings one to the most recently posted or answered ten posts and the group resources. To see all the posts, scroll to the bottom of this page and click on All Discussion at the cost of losing all the group resources. Click on a post to read and reply. The back button does work to bring one back to the list of posts.
Navigation 3 - To get to posts in my groups via the Groups menu button.
1) Click on Groups. 2) Click on My Groups in the left hand column of options to open a page of too large thumbnails. 2) Click on a group name.
This brings one to the most recently posted or answered ten posts and the group resources. To see all the posts, scroll to the bottom of this page and click on All Discussion at the cost of losing all the group resources. Click on a post to read and reply. The back button does work to bring one back to the list of posts.
However, clicking the back button again does not take one back to the list of My Groups but rather to the All Groups page.
Navigation 4 - To get to posts under Q and A (AKA Help Center)
1) Click on Q and A. 2) Click on one of the large blocks.
This brings on to the full list, with page controls at top and bottom, of posts. Click on a post to read and reply. The back button does work to bring one back to the list of posts. Click the back arrow again to return to the page of large blocks to choose another category.
Navigation 5 - To get to posts under Ideas
1) Click on Ideas. 2) Click on one of the large blocks.
This brings one to the full list, with page controls at just the bottom, of posts. Click on a post to read and reply. The back button does work to bring one back to the list of posts. Choose a different category by clicking on the list of options on the left hand side of the page.
Why five different styles of navigation? It confusing and time wasting. Please find someway to combine the best features of all these five varieties and work to give the website a uniform style of efficient navigation. I feel that #5 above is the best option in that one can effectively scan through multiple topics of interest.
Please consider the mock-up for what I would consider a better design for reaching and efficiently working through my groups that I will post below.
Comments
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I'm afraid that, unless I have a lot of spare time, I've given up.
Compare the number of places that I had to look in to help out before the Big Bang. Four? - i.e. GetSat plus 3 groups? Now...?
I don't even know whether I've seen it all, even now, because I keep seeing references to Questions and Discussions but the lists appear only to refer to Discussions. Is this significant? No idea... And a sort order that's useful to people trying to help out, rather than social influencers might be helpful, but again I don't see the means to alter that.
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Adrian said
"I don't even know whether I've seen it all, even now, because I keep seeing references to Questions and Discussions but the lists appear only to refer to Discussions. Is this significant? No idea..."
I don't belong to any Groups, although in the past I have posted responses in Groups, but this is no longer permitted.
I do however look at some Groups and this is what the Germany Genealogy Research Group says. Under "Announcements" there is a post "Posting - Question or Discussion"
"Questions are best used the majority of the time - good for asking for translation help, searching helps, location helps and other items you want help with... To post a question, select the arrow to the right of New Discussion.
Discussions are best used to share new links, ideas, processes...
When you ask a question you are given the opportunity to accept answers - Did this answer your question? Yes or No. This helps our community know that you got what you needed or that you need more help".
Following the Announcements category, the next category heading is "Discussions". If you look at the content of the posts, it is apparent that these are in fact QUESTIONS. Perhaps Discussions for this Group are only available to members and do not display for non members. Perhaps the category heading "Discussions" should be "Questions and Discussions". Who knows? However in view of the previous distinction between Questions and Distinctions I think the terminology needs to be clarified.
I do not live in the USA so perhaps the above wording is accepted usage. Or perhaps it is FamilySearch jargon? Who knows?
Regarding the navigation, the stream "Recent Discussions" which really should be "Recent Questions" should be made more prominent, linked from both the home page and the side bars. As far as I can tell, it is currently only linked from individual posts, whether they be in Q and A, Groups or Ideas https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussions. It however seems to contain posts from only Q and A, and Ideas apart from questions from a two Groups, which do not however seem to be listed under "All Groups", so where those Groups come from, and why they are listed and not other groups I do not know.
If this link was made more prominent, perhaps people would feel they did not have to look in so many places.
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This quite artificial separation of Ideas, Questions, and Discussions appears to be simply unworkable since from what I have seen most people are just ignoring it. There is also the problem that there is often no difference between the three. Is "Shall we go to the store?" an idea, a question or the start of a discussion? Needing to designate what it is by choosing how to mark it only shows how little sense the separation makes.
I think the division should be dropped and everything should just be Topics.
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"This quite artificial separation of Ideas, Questions, and Discussions appears to be simply unworkable since from what I have seen most people are just ignoring it"
I can work happily with a difference between Ideas and Questions - Ideas refer to possible changes to alter the system, Questions are about the system as it is now. But I had a whole career in IT distinguishing Enhancements from Bug-fixes - which isn't quite the same distinction - so I think sort-of-like-that automatically. I doubt "civilians" think that way.
But what's a Discussion? I mean, how does anyone formulate a decent Discussion without using a Question Mark? And what happens when a decent discussion turns into an Idea for an Enhancement?
And please don't bring up ideas about one giving the facility to accept answers while the other doesn't. That's a feature of this platform that, in my view, is a solution in search of a problem.
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I think those of us who regularly used the getsatisfaction.com platform for many years have now given the new format plenty of time to see if it fulfils the needs of the community. Quite frankly, it doesn't. I genuinely enjoy trying to answer questions relating to areas in which I feel I have the appropriate knowledge. But, currently this is really too much of a pain - especially when I check daily for new posts in "My Groups", only to find there has not been anything posted for several days, or even weeks.
Would those responsible (for this project) please be realistic, and brave enough to admit this has just not worked out as you might have hoped - then (possibly in conjunction with the "vendors") redesign /simplify the whole platform as soon as possible?
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Hey friends, thanks for the feedback. @Gordon Collett Appreciate you starting this thread and providing detail on what/how we can improve the site navigation.
We are actively exploring ways in which we can improve navigation through the community, so this is great timing. We will incorporate the suggestions in this discussion thread into our planning.
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@Adrian Bruce1 Great points, thanks for sharing the feedback. I’ll take this topic back to the team for discussion.
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