* Improving Accessibility of Commonly Requested Help

Please only post suggestions and requests for help on using this web site here.

For help with FAMILY HISTORIAN itself please post in the Using Family Historian - General Usage Forum above.
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LornaCraig
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Re: Improving Accessibility of Commonly Requested Help

Post by LornaCraig »

Yes, those of us who are long-term members of FHUG know that. But a new member won't know that. On seeing an index they won't know that "this is only an index of topics that can't easily be found some other way". (Just as I wouldn't expect an index in a book to miss out topics that can be found by looking at the Contents page.)

It's another case where we need to see things from the perspective of someone who is fairly new to FHUG. They see an index. If they can't find their topic in the index they assume it's not covered in the KB. If they do persist and manage to find it by an alternative method they are likely to think it's not a very good index.

This is not a criticism of all the the work you have put into it, because I know you have been building up the index over a long period. But paradoxically the bigger it gets the more likely people are to assume that it's a complete index of everything in the KB.
Lorna
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tatewise
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Re: Improving Accessibility of Commonly Requested Help

Post by tatewise »

You are of course correct, but I think we decided our starting position would be just to supplement the Search.
New users land on the home|> Home page that introduces the Search before the Index but they may not read that and just inspect the sidebar and discover the Index there.
I am quite happy to keep adding entries while it is considered worthwhile, especially as the new platform is going to take some time to materialise.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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LornaCraig
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Re: Improving Accessibility of Commonly Requested Help

Post by LornaCraig »

New users land on the Knowledge Base > Home page that introduces the Search before the Index but they may not read that and just inspect the sidebar and discover the Index there.
Well this is what they see when they land at the KB Home Page. The Search box is in the black bar at the top and is a lot less noticeable than the blue See Index for related topics. Their attention is drawn to the index, and they certainy don't have to inspect the sidebar to discover it.
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Personally I do think it's worthwhile adding to the index (others may disagree). I sometimes find the index is the quickest way to get to the page I want!
Lorna
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tatewise
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Re: Improving Accessibility of Commonly Requested Help

Post by tatewise »

It is fascinating how different people perceive things differently.
I never 'see' that See Index for related topics. because I know it just indicates where the Index entry tag exists and the related topics are those related to the KB itself, and not FH, etc.
But I can see that others may perceive it as advice about finding all topics.
So I have now hidden that text, although the Index entry is still there.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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LornaCraig
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Re: Improving Accessibility of Commonly Requested Help

Post by LornaCraig »

OK, but we might get people asking "where has the index gone?" :lol: If they always got to the index by clicking that link, they might never have noticed they can get to it from the side bar!

But don't forget that link is still on all other pages, e.g:
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Lorna
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tatewise
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Re: Improving Accessibility of Commonly Requested Help

Post by tatewise »

Hopefully, they have read the Home page advice before they visit other pages and find that Index link.
There is certainly a lot of experience gained in building this wiki that should reflect into the new platform.
I'm comfortable building technical reference pages, but the subtle human engineering techniques to guide users from problem to solution are a steep learning curve for me.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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davidf
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Re: Improving Accessibility of Commonly Requested Help

Post by davidf »

tatewise wrote: 14 Feb 2020 18:10 Hopefully, they have read the Home page advice before they visit other pages and find that Index link.
Whether they read that advice (and remember it) rather depends on why they have come to the KB.

If they have come thinking "I need to read up on this program before I ask "newbie" questions", they might.

If they have come looking for specific help for a specific perceived problem, they may scan it, but they are mentally looking for key words that match their immediate requirements, so they may not take it in.
David
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ColeValleyGirl
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Re: Improving Accessibility of Commonly Requested Help

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

Luckily there's a lot of best-practice knowledgebase guidance out there. The key is not to put any text on the Home page, just a link of topic areas and article links, and a search box. So the user either searches or navigates by a hierarchical taxonomy...
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