Wikis are confusing places. To start with, there are tons of text links. They are literally everywhere. Not to mention the specialized wiki syntax, or “wikitext” required to edit a page. Experienced wiki readers and editors generally know where to look for the information or how to make basic edits. We love those visitors but unfortunately most visitors to RichmondWiki don’t know where to look for the information they seek or how to add or edit an article.
A few weeks ago I asked for feedback on my ideas to replace the Google AdSense ads on the right side of each page. I got some great feedback and decided that the first thing I should test is adding shortcuts to information that is relevant to the page the visitor is currently viewing. The goal is to improve the user experience by helping users accomplish their desired task(s) on any given page.
The first three shortcut boxes I built are for the Main Page, article pages, and edit pages. Without further ado…
Main Page Shortcuts
The RichmondWiki Main Page is the entry point for the majority of visitors. It also happens to be one of the most cluttered and confusing pages on the site. In addition to providing featured items in the main content well, I simply replaced the AdSense ads with links to the simple forms I’ve created to add a business, a restaurant or bar, a church, or a nonprofit organization. Other basic functions in these shortcuts include a direct link to the Search page and the top-level page for all of the Help articles.
There’s room to add more later. I might add a list of Featured Articles, a link to this blog, or some more helpful content. However, this initial list seems appropriate for now.
Article Pages Shortcuts
These are pretty self-explanatory. The objective is to encourage visitors to edit the article they are currently viewing or add a new one. The logic for determing the proper edit page URL structure wasn’t easy (I’m not the world’s greatest programmer) but I finally got it working reliably.
I would like to figure out the logic to create different Shortcuts boxes for different Categories. This would especially be helpful with articles that can be edited in easier-to-use forms thanks to the Semantic Forms extension. Anybody want to help?
Edit Pages
Quite possibly the most intimidating page in a wiki, the edit page layout and wikitext combine to scare off many potential contributors. My thought is that even providing the most basic wiki syntax could help new editors overcome the initial reluctance.
Link to the Image Upload, Help Contents, and PDF Cheatsheet all open in new windows to offer on-the-fly assistance if needed.
What other tools or information could be provided here to encourage more people to take a stab at editing? Maybe some sort of “Don’t worry, you can’t break it” reassurance. Or just remind them that an editor will be along shortly to clean up anything they add so they can focus on adding text and leave the formatting to somebody else.
Tracking the Changes
You know me as the RichmondWiki guy, but my day job is as an SEO consultant so I’m always looking for ways to measure and refine any online initiative. Even these simple shortcut links can be tracked individually. I tagged them all in Google Analytics so I can iterate towards the most useful set of links on each page based on actual usage metrics. How cool is that?
Your Turn
Like them? Hate them? Are the icons appropriate? Are these the right links to include? Please leave any feedback in a comment. Thanks.
Possibly Related Posts:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
What extension did you use to create those nifty structured fields for business, nonprofit, etc? I love that idea.
Ah-hah! I just answered my own question be following the “related links” to this page.
{ 2 trackbacks }