General Questions and Ideas
- In general, the Admin section of the site seems very good. It explained a lot of things to me -- but, then, the average user won't see these pages. I think I would incorporate some of the explanations into a general Site Overview.
- The Admin menu items don't carry over on other pages in the Admin area. I found myself constantly going back to the Home page to get to a link. Could they be added as links in the footer perhaps, e.g.,
USER MANAGER | CUSTOMIZED PROJECT MANAGER | PROJECT BROKER | PROJECT INSTANCE MANAGER etc.
or perhaps in the header in the space to the left of TEACHERS' MODULES?
- Since the Admin area is for a limited, task-oriented audience, perhaps the instructions should be more direct, rather than descriptive. For example, see this sample file of User Manager Help with step-by-step instructions.
- Remove "The" from page titles since it's not meaningful and isn't used in the navigation list on Home page.
Page-Specific Comments
User Manager: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/usermanager.pl
- Seems like order is different than most pages. Usually, instructions are on the left and the fields to select or fill out are on the right. (This helps ensure that people read the instructions first!)
- I didn't see the Add New User link at first. Shouldn't it be a bit more prominent?
- Should School Address field be broken up (i.e. address, city, state, zip, etc.) or is that too complicated because of Japanese addresses? It might be nice to search by city or state...
- Using the User Manager: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/userman_help.html
This looks like a Help file. It would be nice if it were available from any of the related User Manager pages (e.g., when I search, then select a profile, I might like to then read about Modifying User Profiles. Maybe it's not practical given the design of the pages. Actually, the Finding Users section duplicates what's on the User Manager home page. Seems redundant (and yet I missed how to add a user when I first went to the home page). Maybe it would make more sense to just incorporate this separate Help file into the home page? (I notice some of the other admin pages don't have separate help files.) Anyway, here's a sample version of writing the Help file as instructions: User Manager Help.Customized Project Manager: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/customized_project_manager.pl
- This page seems more typical for the Admin section with instructions on the left and actions in the right column.
- It's interesting that these instructions are not included in a help page (like userman_help). A lot of the information seems like general help (or Glossary) that would be helpful in the other areas of the YF site (e.g., the definitions of independent and collaborative). I'd suggest being more consistent about Help by either moving this info into a separate Help file or moving the User Manager Help to its home page.
- Again, the Make New Customized Project button was not very obvious to me.
- Since there is no Search box on this page, I assume that all projects will be listed here. The EDIT button seems intuitive enough.
- New Customized Project: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/customized_project_manager.pl?rm=add
This has very helpful info for a general YF Glossary. I'd suggest moving the info about independent/collaborative just above the selections at the bottom.Project Broker: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/project_broker.pl
- This page follows the pattern of the Admin section with instructions on the left and actions in the right column.
- Seems quite intuitive.
- I think I'm beginning to get it. Does the administrator have to set up the matches or can a teacher match his class in the Members area? Need to check on that.
Project Instance Manager: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/project_instance_manager.pl
- To be more like other Admin pages, maybe switch the instructions and the Search box.
- Clear explanation, in general, for using this page.
- I didn't immediately "get it" that only 10 matches get displayed at a time. Now, I see it says:
Showing matches 1 - 10 out of 23. Maybe that could be bolded to be more visible?
- Project Instance Manager Help: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/pinman_help.html
This has fuller instructions, but seems to overlap somewhat with Home page. (Again, I'd suggest a more standard approach to Help.) The Search instructions would be more convenient on the same page with the Search box. Also, I found myself looking for how to add a project instance. Probably should be instructions that direct you to the Project Broker page.Translation Manager: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/translation_manager.pl
- To be more like other Admin pages, maybe switch the instructions and the Search box.
- I wasn't sure how to select an item. I was inclined to click on the icon by Needs translation. Only when I pointed at the number did it get an underline and prove to be a link. (Oh, I see now that there are instructions on the page, but I didn't read them since they were in text rather than as instructions. Oh well. :)
- Translation Manager Help: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/tranman_help.html
Again, separate help file. It is referenced from a couple of pages, so that may be why. I read about View in Context in this file, but I struggled to find the button on the actual page. Maybe it should be moved to the same line as the Translate instructions?Project Showcase Manager: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/showcase_manager.pl
- This isn't too complicated. I'd suggest rewriting in more streamlined Help style.
- Tips for Reordering Projects: http://youthforum.askasia.org/admin/showman_help.html
Not much text here. Why not just incorporate it into the main page?
Japanese Text Example (looks like Unicode encoding):
(Thought I'd see if this displays OK in my browser.)
■ Nice to meet you....HA-jimeh-MA-shi-teh.....はじめまして
■ Good morning.........OHA-yo.......................おはよう
■ Good afternoon.......KON-nichiwa................こんにちは
■ Good evening..........KON-banwa.................こんばんは
■ Good bye...............sa-YOH-nara................さようなら
■ Thank you..............ARI-gato.......................ありがとう
■ You're welcome.......DOH-itashi-mashi-teh...どういたしまして
■ I'm sorry.................go-MEN-na-sai.............ごめんなさい
■ Good night..............OYA-sumi-nasai..........おやすみなさい