I have to say the new Articles page has really suffered since the redesign. While the old version may not have looked great or exciting, or very web2.0 with breadcrumbs and dropshadows etc, it was incredibly functional.
If I wanted to look for articles on nmm, all I had to do was open the main page, hit ctrl-f, and type 'nmm'. Or whatever term I wanted to see. It would jump across the articles to all the relevant titles. Or if I wanted to skim all the articles by one author, again, ctrl-f, author name, and then I can ctrl-g down the page, hopping from article to article.
If I want to do that now I have to go to Advanced Search, click Articles, enter a username, and search that way. First of all, this is just inelegant to have to navigate to an entire new page and follow several extra steps to get the same information. The new redesign shows less information overall, and the new information it shows is not really of any use, which is a really poor trade off as far as interface useability goes. As it is now, a user has to click open all the subsection drop downs (Painting > Techniques >) To get to a page of listings that shows the first 20 articles, and a breadcrumb of the first 4 lines. All these breadcrumbs do is waste space that could otherwise be used to display more data more efficiently. Breadcrumb/previews are supposed to help the user decide if the article is the one they are looking for. Lets look at few and see if they help us at all.
Topic: "metallic oxydiation, weathering and the like."
Preview: "Hopefully, this little article will help you with some weathering techniques for both metal and nmm painting styles"
This one addresses metals and nmm. So you get a little info more than the title. Thats useful!
Topic: "Speed Painting Lesson 1 - Custom Colors "
Preview: "Hello everyone!One thing that I think all miniature painters have in common is that we all want to speed things up. I enjoy"
Useless preview. We already know its about speed painting.
Topic: "metallics "
Preview: "MetalsAlmost since the day I found the online community, I have been a huge admirer of the amazing metallics seen from minis "
Useless preview. We already know its about metallics.
Topic: "Rust "
Preview: "Hi, I just found a technique for doing rust/oxidised metals which seems to work and just wanted to share this with ..."
Nothing new there. We already know its about rust.
Topic: "Ethnic Skintones "
Preview: "Ethnic Skintones
Okay, before I even begin with any info on this delicate article, let
me ..."
Less than useless preview. Not only do we not get redundant information, we get NO information. At all.
Aside from the one nmm example above, the vast majority of articles do not contain any additionally usefull information in the first 4 lines to allow any more of an informed decision to be made by the user on wether they want to read them or not. If that is the case, then including the previews accomplishes ... nothing. All it does is fill up space, the result being less article titles, and thus less useful data, being displayed on each screen. This means the user has to click more times to go to new pages, and the data he or she wants is that many more steps further out of their reach. This could be somewhat mitigated by at the very least including a 'view all' option on each page. If there are 100 articles in the category, why force the user to click through 5 pages of 20 articles each without allowing them the chance to load all 100 on a page. Especially since these are previews with no images, the bandwidth argument doesn't work at all. Its just loading text. The vast majority of connections these days are 56kbps at a minimum, and I'd bet a a significant portion are now on broadband of at least the most minimal capacity. 100 article headings, all text, is not going to slow the load time down. Or, if you're worried about that, then don't default to View: All, but at least give the user the option.
Now, aside from the UI design concerns about obfuscating data and wasting space with the breadcrumb previews, lets look at the most common counter argument to my wanting to be able to ctrl-f through a master list of articles. You might say, well, if you want to see all the articles by one author, just search for them.
Ok, sure, lets try that. I click Advanced Search. put a check box in 'Articles', type in 'blackfly' in the author field, and click Search Now. And I get:
"Caucasian Flesh Recipes
Published by blackfly, 05-08-2010
Results 1 to 1 of 1"
Huh. Thats strange. I've written more than one article. Maybe some didn't get transferred over when things moved? I'll search for content I know to be in my other articles.
Check in 'Articles'. Keyword: 'dinosaur' > Search Now.
"Painting Dinosaurs / Reptiles
Published by blackfly, 04-17-2008
Results 1 to 1 of 1"
Huh. Well there is another article I wrote, listed as published by me, the same username as above, and yet it didn't show up when I searched by author.
Lets try searching on the keyword 'verdigris'
"Verdigris
Published by blackfly, 02-11-2008"
There it is too.
So, I can't rely on the tools provided by the application here to return all search results, and due to the presentation of the data, I can't use a more reliable tool (built in browser search-within-window function) because the data is not presented in a way that allows it.
I'll admit that the old page of article listings could have benefitted from a bit of a face lift, but what is the point of dressing it up and making it look different when it is actually less useful than before?
I realize that some might think this is all aesthetic choices in the display of data. But I don't think aesthetics should ever trump useability, especially to this degree. And regardless of the arguments on either side of the number of articles per page, and useless article previews, clearly search is just /broken/. :/
I hope my criticisms are helpful. I tend to get a little excited about it since I manage an online knowledge base professionally. But on the other hand, since that is my job, I spend a lot of time studying data presentation and usability, and I think my critique is pretty valid. The site could gain a considerable amount of functionality & usability
with some pretty minor design changes. Problems that have that big return for a small investment are some of the best to tackle
If I wanted to look for articles on nmm, all I had to do was open the main page, hit ctrl-f, and type 'nmm'. Or whatever term I wanted to see. It would jump across the articles to all the relevant titles. Or if I wanted to skim all the articles by one author, again, ctrl-f, author name, and then I can ctrl-g down the page, hopping from article to article.
If I want to do that now I have to go to Advanced Search, click Articles, enter a username, and search that way. First of all, this is just inelegant to have to navigate to an entire new page and follow several extra steps to get the same information. The new redesign shows less information overall, and the new information it shows is not really of any use, which is a really poor trade off as far as interface useability goes. As it is now, a user has to click open all the subsection drop downs (Painting > Techniques >) To get to a page of listings that shows the first 20 articles, and a breadcrumb of the first 4 lines. All these breadcrumbs do is waste space that could otherwise be used to display more data more efficiently. Breadcrumb/previews are supposed to help the user decide if the article is the one they are looking for. Lets look at few and see if they help us at all.
Topic: "metallic oxydiation, weathering and the like."
Preview: "Hopefully, this little article will help you with some weathering techniques for both metal and nmm painting styles"
This one addresses metals and nmm. So you get a little info more than the title. Thats useful!
Topic: "Speed Painting Lesson 1 - Custom Colors "
Preview: "Hello everyone!One thing that I think all miniature painters have in common is that we all want to speed things up. I enjoy"
Useless preview. We already know its about speed painting.
Topic: "metallics "
Preview: "MetalsAlmost since the day I found the online community, I have been a huge admirer of the amazing metallics seen from minis "
Useless preview. We already know its about metallics.
Topic: "Rust "
Preview: "Hi, I just found a technique for doing rust/oxidised metals which seems to work and just wanted to share this with ..."
Nothing new there. We already know its about rust.
Topic: "Ethnic Skintones "
Preview: "Ethnic Skintones
Okay, before I even begin with any info on this delicate article, let
me ..."
Less than useless preview. Not only do we not get redundant information, we get NO information. At all.
Aside from the one nmm example above, the vast majority of articles do not contain any additionally usefull information in the first 4 lines to allow any more of an informed decision to be made by the user on wether they want to read them or not. If that is the case, then including the previews accomplishes ... nothing. All it does is fill up space, the result being less article titles, and thus less useful data, being displayed on each screen. This means the user has to click more times to go to new pages, and the data he or she wants is that many more steps further out of their reach. This could be somewhat mitigated by at the very least including a 'view all' option on each page. If there are 100 articles in the category, why force the user to click through 5 pages of 20 articles each without allowing them the chance to load all 100 on a page. Especially since these are previews with no images, the bandwidth argument doesn't work at all. Its just loading text. The vast majority of connections these days are 56kbps at a minimum, and I'd bet a a significant portion are now on broadband of at least the most minimal capacity. 100 article headings, all text, is not going to slow the load time down. Or, if you're worried about that, then don't default to View: All, but at least give the user the option.
Now, aside from the UI design concerns about obfuscating data and wasting space with the breadcrumb previews, lets look at the most common counter argument to my wanting to be able to ctrl-f through a master list of articles. You might say, well, if you want to see all the articles by one author, just search for them.
Ok, sure, lets try that. I click Advanced Search. put a check box in 'Articles', type in 'blackfly' in the author field, and click Search Now. And I get:
"Caucasian Flesh Recipes
Published by blackfly, 05-08-2010
Results 1 to 1 of 1"
Huh. Thats strange. I've written more than one article. Maybe some didn't get transferred over when things moved? I'll search for content I know to be in my other articles.
Check in 'Articles'. Keyword: 'dinosaur' > Search Now.
"Painting Dinosaurs / Reptiles
Published by blackfly, 04-17-2008
Results 1 to 1 of 1"
Huh. Well there is another article I wrote, listed as published by me, the same username as above, and yet it didn't show up when I searched by author.
Lets try searching on the keyword 'verdigris'
"Verdigris
Published by blackfly, 02-11-2008"
There it is too.
So, I can't rely on the tools provided by the application here to return all search results, and due to the presentation of the data, I can't use a more reliable tool (built in browser search-within-window function) because the data is not presented in a way that allows it.
I'll admit that the old page of article listings could have benefitted from a bit of a face lift, but what is the point of dressing it up and making it look different when it is actually less useful than before?
I realize that some might think this is all aesthetic choices in the display of data. But I don't think aesthetics should ever trump useability, especially to this degree. And regardless of the arguments on either side of the number of articles per page, and useless article previews, clearly search is just /broken/. :/
I hope my criticisms are helpful. I tend to get a little excited about it since I manage an online knowledge base professionally. But on the other hand, since that is my job, I spend a lot of time studying data presentation and usability, and I think my critique is pretty valid. The site could gain a considerable amount of functionality & usability
with some pretty minor design changes. Problems that have that big return for a small investment are some of the best to tackle
