Homepage content

[Dani]

I know a lot of the regulars and moderators are unhappy with the content currently on the homepage. In actuality, the homepage is designed to be an overview of what DaniWeb has to offer for newbies, while catering to more active DaniWeb members by only showing articles that are in the user's areas of interest, and have new content since they've been last viewed. The reason that regulars tend to be unhappy is because they visit DaniWeb so often, there isn't enough fresh content for the homepage to show. The Latest Posts button offers a stream of all the latest content that's been posted.

All that being said, I'd like to open this thread up to anyone who has ended up at an article they think should have been on the homepage, but wasn't. In other words, if the homepage isn't showing you the content you want to see, let me know by telling me what content you would have wanted to be on the homepage, but wasn't.

Note the homepage, by design, will always only link to the first post of a thread. This is by design, and is not subject to change anytime soon.

[rproffitt]

It's been a week so I bit my tongue to see what folk would write. Not much happened so here goes.

The homepage when I look at it does not showcase what DaniWeb has to offer. It's pretty, it has the new look but to a newby I don't see how they would get what this place is. The stream that I see makes no sense at all. It's a shame there are no user preferences.

As to the item about "by design." Your choice. To me this is broken. Seems like a simple thing but why it does that is a mystery to me. It's just another nail in the coffin for the home page.

[Dani]

The homepage when I look at it does not showcase what DaniWeb has to offer. It's pretty, it has the new look but to a newby I don't see how they would get what this place is. The stream that I see makes no sense at all. It's a shame there are no user preferences.

Are you visiting it while logged in, or not logged in? You're saying that it's a shame there are no user preferences, but if it's designed for newbies to "get" what this place is, then preferences won't help that problem since they won't be logged in. They need to "get" what the place is before deciding to sign up.

[rproffitt]

About logged in or not. I've looked at it both ways. In either case I would be confused about what this place is about. This definitely needs some (new?) user testing.

Just for kicks I went to Dazah.com and the location looks busted to me. I had some matches with 0 miles to their location but they appear to be in other countries. If this is to be a pivot to matching, why not let us put in our location? I see the Update location but that still can be broken due to VPN or other reasons.

Back to the "get" what this place is. I'm not feeling that home page is doing the job. Good looking and a current design but not engaging as far as I can tell. My thoughts don't matter here. I think the traffic and new member sign ups will tell the story.

[DavidB]

Another aspect: it displays differently, depending upon what browser is used.

In Google Chrome, I see three columns presenting a variety of topics being discussed on Daniweb. It reminds me of the old Yahoo! page from 15 - 20 years ago, and all its copycats, that threw everything out on the front page: latest news, weather, sports, horoscope, hollywood gossip, etc.
And the "Toggle Menu" button at the top left of the screen works, so I can drill down through the various menus.

In Internet Explorer, there is only one column, the left-most. The other two columns are empty space.
And the "Toggle Menu" button does not work. I can click it as often as I want--nothing happens. In fact, I logged in last week through IE, couldn't see much on display, couldn't work through any menus, so I wondered what was going on. (I even IM'ed Dani about it. Now that I am using Chrome, things don't look quite so bad.)

[alan.davies]

Mentioned this issue about ie and Edge here https://www.daniweb.com/community-center/daniweb-community-feedback/threads/518370/android-issues-with-hamburger-menu-and-buttons

[Dani]

The homepage when I look at it does not showcase what DaniWeb has to offer. It's pretty, it has the new look but to a newby I don't see how they would get what this place is.

As a newcomer, what impression do you get from the homepage? I understand that you're saying you think the homepage doesn't showcase what you believe DaniWeb is all about. As a newcomer looking at the homepage for the first time, what would you think it was about? Would you be able to tell it was a site about tech? Would you be able to tell it was a site about programming? Would you be able to tell that there was user-generated content with members posting things?

[rproffitt]

@Dani. To answer that I took a moment to forget what I know. I opened another browser and hit Daniweb.com and see cards with 6 onscreen about 5 "viewed a topic" and one replied to a topic. So with that and the two boxes with messaging and start new topic this tells me this is some sort of discussuion site.

A newbie might start clicking around but that screen gave up no "What is Daniweb". I don't see any About, Policies and the usual you find on discussion and meeting sites. There was nothing there that gave me any indication this was a place to go to meet others.

I can hear you telling me to try the hamburger. We're talking run of the mill folk here. They won't know that's where more information is.
The Hamburger itself may need to go into the grinder. If you just let it be on screen then you are approaching the Facebook design where it's a meet and sharing place which is the message I've been getting as you take the hamburger menu and tune it to your Dazah goals.

[Dani]

So with that and the two boxes with messaging and start new topic this tells me this is some sort of discussuion site.

That's exactly what I want a first time visitor to notice! My goal for a first time visitor is to notice two things:

1. That it is some sort of discussion site.
2. That the headings of each box that have topics such as "Web Development" and "Software Development"

And, for good measure, perhaps also for newbies to notice the purple buttons at the top of the page that say [Start New Topic] and [Messaging]. Those things, all together, pretty much summarize what I want a newbie's first impressions to be ... which are that we're a discussion site about technical topics.

[Dani]

There was nothing there that gave me any indication this was a place to go to meet others.

Becoming aware that it's a discussion site with a [Messaging] button doesn't give you an indication that the site is a place to go to meet others? Aren't discussion sites places to go to meet others?

I can hear you telling me to try the hamburger. We're talking run of the mill folk here. They won't know that's where more information is.

I'm not telling you to try the hamburger. But I do think the average DaniWeb visitor is familiar with a hamburger menu. The first time visitor might not necessarily know what is contained in the menu, but they know to click it for more places to go on the site or for additional navigation items.

The Hamburger itself may need to go into the grinder. If you just let it be on screen then you are approaching the Facebook design where it's a meet and sharing place which is the message I've been getting as you take the hamburger menu and tune it to your Dazah goals.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean here?? I'm misunderstanding.

[rproffitt]

Meet others? Like the Dazah connections? No clue given.

Hamburger. I run into users all the time and they don't know what the hamburger is.

Hamburger into the grinder. If you want to move to a connect with others site, update the hamburger so it shows and is collapseable. Look at Facebook and see how they work it.

[Dani]

Meet others? Like the Dazah connections? No clue given.

That's not currently meant to be one of the first impression features.

Hamburger. I run into users all the time and they don't know what the hamburger is.

Do those users have any business on a programming site?

Hamburger into the grinder. If you want to move to a connect with others site

Perhaps in the future, DaniWeb will shift its focus to be more of a connect with others one-on-one site as opposed to a discussion site. However, for right now, I'm content with being a freemium service where we're seen as a free discussion community that attempts to convert you to paying to connect to people one-on-one when you want to submit a new topic and are looking for instant gratification responses.

[Reverend Jim]

My only comment is that when you go to the home page all you see is a few random posts. In order to get an idea of what the site is about you have to click on the waffle and in my opinion that is not an obvious action.

[Dani]

My only comment is that when you go to the home page all you see is a few random posts.

When logged in or out?

[Reverend Jim]

Good point. I'm always logged in so I tend to forget. LMGBTYOT.

[Reverend Jim]

OK. Better when I'm not logged in but the waffle still isn't obvious. Perhaps a line at the top could indicate that the waffle presents a site menu for more content options.

[Dani]

I think among a techie audience it's pretty obvious that when you see a hamburger menu icon, you can click it for more navigation options.

[rproffitt]

OK, "techie audience." Still a wide miss for those that get to the home page for the first time. And without controls for anyone to give a better home page experience I see no reason to ever look at the home page.

The home page is a beautiful swing (baseball), great form but doesn't connect with the ball. I think you have to ask more than the regulars here as it sounds like you like it. My hope is time will tell but is time on our side.

[happygeek]

I'm not sure how techie audience is a wide miss for people arriving at DaniWeb for the first time. Surely if you've arrived at DaniWeb you either have a coding/development problem of some sort or are looking to connect with other tech-minded folk? It's not exactly somewhere that your average Jo(e) would stumble upon, in my never humble opinion :-) All of that said, I'm an inveterate tinkerer and so would love a homepage that enbabled me to tweak it as I see fit - although I get why that might not be what Dani wants. As for the hamburger/waffle menu icon, it's pretty much a universal thing now across so many sites, services and platforms that I imagine the vast majority of users (or maybe the majority of users in a younger age group than us anyway) would immediately understand what it was.

[rproffitt]

I see some of what Dani was swinging for but I arrived here a few versions back and this feels more and more disconnected with what folk I know want.

Why should the homepage be the page to disregard for members that use this site? Isn't that a red flag right there?

[alan.davies]

I hardly ever look at the homepage. There is nothing there to pull me in. It just seems like a few random threads/posts scattered around the place - oh and a pretty big horrible advert. Is that what I'm supposed to be looking at? Sorry to say, it doesn't inspire. If the only content is old posts or new posts in my field of interest - I see no point in it as I'll be tootling off to that forum anyhow.

However, I'm assuming that it is working for the new members and first time visitors? From my perspective I'd like to see what's new on DW - not just posts. But I suppose that's really difficult, if the only new things are new posts. :(