Case studies
We learn so little and forget so much.
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GAJOBS.COM
& GEORGIAJOBS.COM
1-23-01
**Bugs Me
- On frames pages the background color isn't specified. I default my browser to pink background so I can catch the error on my own pages. Yahoo uses the default as well, so Yahoo is pink on my browser
- I hate frames, the non-frames page is more appealing to me.
- Back button "breaks" on "members" frame page. Back doesn't work unless you've clicked in the big frame. (this is another I hate frames rant)
- "Proselect" is not very prominent I think this is a big deal: Proselect and GAJOBS.com need to seem like the same thing.
**Cheap, good, and easy things to do
- Ever look at Mindspring's site logs and statistics pages? Is anybody visiting? What are they visiting?
- Add a free site search from ATOMZ.com or others. DO THIS!
- Add a free forum, Q&A, or comment log from greenspun.com. Easy to do. A way to attract traffic.
- Add a free mailing list from greenspun.com for customers, clients, others. Easy to do. Hard part is producing spam that folks will actually read.
- Add a free click-through measuring service from greenspun.com for key links (e.g. to client sites).
**Ideas
- Is there something (other than job listings) that might make folks want to return here once they have found a job. Things that might distinguish Proselect or Gajobs from the rest? (something new every day or week, current comments from the principals, links to salary surveys, competitors, industry news, job forums, outplacement agencies, geek forums, advice, great resume's, cover letters, value of headhunters, Proselect processes, what to expect, ethics.
- Scaling requires a database and or integration with staffing pro (maybe it's already integrated in some way)
- What do you favorite employment/recruiting sites do? Which ones do you return to? Are there any sites you look at every day?
** Surprise - What a search revealed
- I added an ATOMZ.com search just to demonstrate the value of having a search.
- What I didn't expect was that the search revealed serious design and usability issues.
- The site listed many jobs on a few HTML pages.
- So, if you search for JAVA, you get some hits but the page you find lists the JAVA jobs and all of the other jobs as well.
- So, the search really didn't work. To find a JAVA job you would have to use the site search, then you would have to do a page search. (edit/find).
Neighborhoodamerica.com
12-08-00
This is a brief review of a company that provides web-based collaboration services for public projects.
1. Comment Server error (fixed - 12-12-00))
If there are no public comments for a project you get a sceen that
says, "The parameter is incorrect." See Stapleton
Parks at "http://www.publiccomment.com/MessageDisplay.asp?projectid
=152&projectname=&Forumtype=City&forumname=Denver, State of
Colorado" I guess if this is one of your projects, make sure to enter at least one comment (such as "Q&A about public comments") before you show it to customers.
Note: As of 12-10-00 Stapleton Park has comments and no error
messages. It now points (correctly) to http://www.publiccomment.com/MessageDisplay.asp?projectid
=152&projectname=&Forumtype=City&forumname=Denver,
%20State%20of%20Colorado
2. Breaking the "back" button on the browser.
Most users want the back button to work. Neighborhoodamerica.com sometimes spawns new browsers. That keeps the back button from doing what most folks expect.
For example, from the Neighborhoodamerica.com "solutions page" when you select "Stapleton Park," the application spawns a new browser for Stapleton. "Back" doesn't send you back to Neighborhoodamerica.com. From the Stapleton pages when you select "Public Comment," the applications spawns yet another browser from which you can't go "back" to the Stapleton pages.
Even when you select "National Neighborhood News" from the nieghborhoodamerica.com home page, you get a new browser.
So, now nieghborhoodamerica.com has generated several extra browser windows. Folks can navigate between them via the menus or via the Windows task bar at the bottom of the screen. But, most folks expect the "back" button to take them to the previous screen. I do.
You may not notice this if you use AOL. You will if you use IE or Netscape.
3. Where is it?
This is a "content" issue. From the "Stapleton Parks" site I couldn't tell where in the country Stapleton is. Make sure the city and state are prominent on the page. This is true on most of the "Solutions@work" projects. Maybe all the users will know, but I don't.
4. Background color
For Internet Explorer (and AOL) I have my default background set to an ugly purple. I do this to make sure I remember to set a background color on my own web pages. Neighborhoodamerica.com doesn't set a background color so I have purple Neighborhoodamerica.com screens. (Yahoo.com has the same problem) Most normal folks wouldn't reset their background color as I have. The "Stapleton Parks" site does set a background color so it's not purple on my screen.
In building the high school on-line community I'm finding bunches of really smart folks who are web-shy. It's got to be easy and predictable or people get spooked and don't come back