Organization of the AAW website....

[underdog]

I've spent quite some time last night and this morning, *hunting for the critique "Evaluation Form" on the AAW website.

I found the design article by Keith Tompkins over on the "Resources" area.**
I found the "Critiquing Members Work" in the Chapters Best Practices area,
as well as the "Promoting Demonstrations" article.
I finally found it last night on the "Chapters" page..

This morning I couldn't remember where I found it and spent another 10-15 minutes hunting for it, and finally found it on the "News" page, and then realized it was on the "Chapters" page again... Boy do I feel like an idiot!

Gah! :mad:

Is it just me, or do any of the rest of you have the same difficulty?

The thing that bothers me about all this, is that I can't put my finger on why I have such a difficult time with navigating this website, and so I can't make any positive suggestions... I don't wish to be overly negative about this, and so I hope that this can be turned in a positive direction.

*If the search feature were *EDIT*had been*EDIT* working, perhaps I would have found what I was looking for sooner...

**By the way... does anyone else find that the crosslink to the Resource Directory from "Products" area and the "Resources" area to be as confusing as I do?

 

[Mark Mandell]

Don't Worry

Jim,

CRS

It could be worse [and probably will be, given time]

Had hoped that last years' software project would correct a lot of what you're talking about, but it got canned.

mm

 

[Barry Elder]

AAW Website

Jim,

That's one nice thing about retirement (despite the starvation). I can spend all the time I need to find something like that. However, since I'm very likely to forget the same way that you do, I have finally learned to "bookmark" anything I may want to come back to later.

 

[Ed Davidson]

Jim,

The site's search function works...see the upper left-hand corner of all of the site's main pages. "Evaluation Form" yields 9 woodturner.org hits...check it out: site search results. Some of the lower level page's search function has not been enabled yet...I just haven't gotten to all the pages on this site yet to add a working search button.

Also, at the bottom of every page on the site, you'll find a link to the site's Sitemap, which is also a useful tool to help find stuff.

BTW, there are over 1,000 active pages of text, forms and photos on the AAW site, drilling down to as many as 12 levels deep, so yes...it is complicated.

 

[underdog]

Thanks for the reply Ed.

I don't know what was going on last night, but I could not get the search feature to work. I kept getting some error message or something (I forget what). Anyway, that was highly frustrating.

But I'm glad the resource is there, and that I've finally found it...

 

[Bill Boehme]

What organization? As far as I can tell this site is about as organized as my shop (that is not a compliment, BTW).

I have had the feeling for a long time that everytime something of the sort of thing that you mentioned in your OP is added that somebody just makes a wild stab at where to put it.

 

[Steve Worcester]

Since this is for the most part a volunteer run organization, you are all welcome to volunteer.

 

[Bill Boehme]

How much does it pay?

 

[woodwish]

Maybe I just don't look for much on here but I think this site is great, and especially for a volunteer job. I appreciate all that the web-geeks have done for us on here. Have a beer on me while at Portland! I can't be there so I guess you could send me a bill?

 

[underdog]

See... now this is the thing that (as I mentioned before) that frustrates me about this. I don't want to be negative about this, but I have not the wherewithal to suggest something positive.

Organization is VERY difficult for me. Obviously it's not everyone else' forte either....

I can see the problem, but can't suggest a solution. If I could, I would. I depend upon many others to help me with that. (If I think of some things, I'll let you know.) So instead, I've tried to focus on MY difficulties with the site, and not make a value judgement about the site, or the people running it.

If you all see the problem, and can suggest a better method of organization, the by all means, volunteer...

But please lets not beat up the folks who DO volunteer. I'm sure they put in quite a few hours a week just keeping up with what's already in place, much less thinking about how to upgrade it. It's one thing to criticise a company that you've spent a LOT of money with, it's quite another to criticise folks in a volunteer organization...

All that being said, I appreciate the work that the moderators and webmasters do. Thank you for providing this resource for us, and keeping up with it all. (If I had it to do over again, I would have contacted you "off air".)

 

[Brodie Brickey]

Underdog,

I tried what you did and managed to find the item within about 3-4 minutes using 'hunt and peck' from the AAW homepage. Yes it was a little frustrating.

If I had used the search bar on the homepage and entered "evaluation form" I would have had it in 1 click. YoYoSpin noted that not all the search buttons are available everywhere, but the search button will always be available from the homepage because it would be the first one updated.

Part of site navigation or design of site navigation is wrapping your head around the way the designer and or user will think. Is an "evaluation form" a chapter kind of thing or a resource? Or is it both? Once you wrap you head around the method of thought, the design suddenly makes a lot of sense.

Depending on what site software they are using, it may be possible for it to come up in both locations by adding a tag in the XML, but from some other posts here, I think they may be changing individual pages. This will affect their efficiency in rolling out changes to the site and making it searchable.

Just remember, from anywhere on the site, you can click on the AAW logo in the upper left corner to jump back to the homepage. From there, search will work for most if not all of the site.

In software, there are always at least two ways to get something done. (ie. In Windows, how do I get to the control panel?, Start > settings > control panel --or-- Windows explorer > scroll down left window to control panel)

In all, this site is layed out rather well. There are things I might change or additional categories that might be added, but it is pretty solid and sound conceptually. In the next year or so if I acquire the time, sadly unlikely, I will look into volunteering on the web side.

 

[Ron Sardo]

How much does it pay?

Volunteer
vol·un·teer –noun
1. a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking.
2. a person who performs a service willingly and without pay

 

[Ed Davidson]

If you ever get stuck and can't find what you're looking for on the site, just send me an email at webmaster@woodturner.org and I'll do my best to sort it out for you.

Regarding the website structure and content, we do have a committee who is charged with overseeing this stuff...if you'd like to volunteer to serve on this committee, just drop me a line.

BTW, I get conflicted all the time with where to put things. For example, if you read the Summer AW article on our new Young Turner program, there are dozens of how-to files that will be sub-linked to the new page we're drafting that introduces and explains this program. At this point, I'm thinking that it should go under the page heading "Community", but like Brodie said, there's always at least two ways to do stuff on the web, and it would just as logically fit under the heading "AAW Info" or maybe even "Resources". Here's a link to the draft (not yet completed) Young Turner Program page ...if you have any thoughts on this, again, feel free to send me an email.

 

[Jerry Hall]

Young Turners Page

Ed,

Great start on this page! I have been teaching two home-schooled neighbor kids woodworking as a graded for credit school project for the last year, and we have just been getting into turning. This page is going to be of great help to us. I think I will give them the project pdf a week before our "class" for them to read thru and think about. We will be starting up again in the Fall, and I am looking forward to the growth of this page.

This subject might be a good one to put on the Tips forum as a thread so that we could add and discuss ideas and projects for the program. The first project we did was a pair of madrone door stoppers which worked out well. Each boy did their own design and made their own story board for the spindle work.

Thanks again.

Jerry

PS. This stuff would also be great for our club mentors to use for beginning turners in our club who are well past the "Youth" stage.

 

[Ed Davidson]

Thanks Jerry...all of the credit for the AAW's new Young Turners program goes to Dave Bowers, who came up with the original concept and has expended a lot of effort to get it into a workable form. I'm just formatting the content.