e14 changes and updates

battlecoder said:

Maybe a website map would help (or maybe there's already one and I've not found it).

Like this ?

/sitemap

cstanton I'm using a PC. vmate already described a bit of the issue with actual examples, but in summary it's sections with similar names but different content, or sections nested under non-intuitive labels, menus that go to empty pages, etc.

The problem of empty sections could be solved if they only show up when there's content in them. For example it would be great if the ever-present "Documents" or "Files"  options  don't appear in menus or tabs if there are no Files or Documents associated to that group or section.

Take this with a grain of salt, as it could be just a "me" problem, but navigating the site doesn't feel natural, and if I can easily find "some" stuff now it's because I've sort of "memorized" where some things are, and I'm starting to develop a "notion" of where to possibly "look".

Maybe a website map would help (or maybe there's already one and I've not found it).

Now, the more time I spend on the site, the more I "think" I "get it", but I've been going in circles trying to find stuff several times. And the first many visits were quite a struggle.

vmate said:

I agree, the site is a bit confusing. It's not a technical problem, the site works as intended, it's the organization and menus for me.

The issues you touch on here are caused by three issues:

1. Opinion-led UI/UX decisions by staff members. Which like strange persons lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

2. How verint works 'out of the box', by default it has a lot of cyclical links, most are unnecessary, others are more intended for an 'intranet' style design or an assumption of how people use a web site. Often due to needing to update and patch the site, we do not touch 'core functionality' lest it breaks things. It can take them 16 months to change anything.

3. When we moved from Jive to Verint within the space of a year, it was a struggle to get all the groups designs up to standard. A lot of them are still lagging behind, and some of them should be incorporated/flattened/redesigned (especially due to point 1).

vmate said:

It's a lot of these small issues, that result in awkward and cluttered interfaces, and having a hard time figuring things out. There's a billion options on screen, with less than half being actually something anyone would want.

I appreciate the feedback. When I can throw resources at it, we'll have substantial changes made. Anyone who pays attention to Feedback and Support announcements may notice that we usually have a development release every month, and that's been on hold for a while, we're mainly pushing out fixes when things break in a major way at present - but there is a queue of items waiting that are in development being worked on until then.

I agree, the site is a bit confusing. It's not a technical problem, the site works as intended, it's the organization and menus for me.

Here's one example:

I go into Products -> RoadTests (I really don't think this should be in Products by the way, just because it involves products)
There's a bunch of menus at the top, which is really confusing. Let's go into "Documents". Now I can choose between "Documents", "Polls", "Setup"(whatever that is).

So I need to go to Documents -> Documents, to actually see documents. There's also Documents -> Polls, which is the same as just going to Polls immediately.

What's the point of the Files and Mentions buttons? Or the Sub-Groups button, when there's nothing in it? What is the Tags menu good for? It just shows a bunch of tags, which really don't need a separate page.

Or another example, Challenges & Projects -> Raspberry Pi Projects, and Products -> Raspberry Pi go to two different pages that look essentially identical, but aren't. I understand what the difference is after some time of using the site, but new people won't immediately get it, and it's very confusing.

It's a lot of these small issues, that result in awkward and cluttered interfaces, and having a hard time figuring things out. There's a billion options on screen, with less than half being actually something anyone would want.

battlecoder Are you mainly using a mobile phone to browse the site?

Thanks for the update! I've only been "active" here for a handful of months, despite having an account since forever. The site's structure is definitely a bit intimidating and confusing, so it's good to hear that some consolidation efforts are happening. And visibility of all of the initiatives becomes a bit of an issue when there's so many sections. For example, I didn't even know about Project 14 until quite recently when someone mentioned it.
The more I browse this community the more I like it, but the site is not particularly easy to navigate, so I feel like I might be missing out on a bunch of cool stuff, and that I'm discovering them at a very slow pace.

Perhaps just needs a simple alphabetical list/table of themes/topics and if they have already been used in Project14, then a link next to them to the appropriate Project14 content.

javagoza said:

I believe that the current portal organization, placing project14 project blogs in a separate tab, has diminished the visibility of these projects.

There are limitations to how Verint presents content. I'll admit I've never liked tabbed widgets either.

javagoza said:

This is similar to the issue with road tests, where I often miss content due to the inconvenience of navigating multiple tabs.

There are a few different ways to navigate RoadTests in particular.

 RoadTests 

 RoadTest Reviews 

 And whatever's listed on  RoadTests & Reviews and elsewhere. Enabling notifications also helps. 

dougw said:

The list of suggested Project14 topics has grown quite long

Using 'ideas' for Project14 is good for themes.

When it's maintained, and it hasn't been. The idea to 'upvote' themes / ideas and then 'resolving' them and ticking them off is how it should be organised

dougw said:

This is one place where the number of "Likes" might be useful in selecting contest topics.

Or upvotes, yeah. 

I'm not deciding on anything here, only throwing thoughts around.

The list of suggested Project14 topics has grown quite long. It would be useful to organize this list in some way so we can easily determine if a suggestion has already been posted. Maybe all suggestions would include  a "P14Topic" keyword so they could be effectively searched. There could be other category keywords that would be useful in searches as well. This is one place where the number of "Likes" might be useful in selecting contest topics.