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Interface/User Experience : Browse Popular Ideas
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This idea is active.Interface/User Experience »2 comments for Idea: topic subscription
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This idea is active.Interface/User Experience »
Site is model of accessibility best practice
1 comment for Idea: Site is model of accessibility best practiceAll posted content meets accessibility requirements derived from
- WCAG2
- WAI-ARIA
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This idea is active.Interface/User Experience »
Keyword matching on searches
1 comment for Idea: Keyword matching on searchesThe site needs a robust search where common phrases are given higher ranking so they are easily found in search results. (An example engine is KeyMatch with Google/Google Search Appliance.)
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This idea is active.Interface/User Experience »
RSS Feed
Add your comment for Idea: RSS FeedThe City should have an RSS feed of the schedule of the City Council meetings so people that are following a particular issue can follow it.
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This idea is active.Interface/User Experience »
market research to the bone, then make a controversy
Someone said "Check out Vancover's site" I'll check that, and raise you 5000 (cities). CoA should bring on a few UT interns: Master in Library Sciences, Statistician, Designer, Master in CS and a few MBA/JDrs. Then make them work hard on a simple and fulfilling project. Make them catalog thousands of city sites, from the suckyist to the sexyist. Catalog the best and the worst features. Study usage and timeon ...more »
1 comment for Idea: market research to the bone, then make a controversySomeone said "Check out Vancover's site"
I'll check that, and raise you 5000 (cities). CoA should bring on a few UT interns: Master in Library Sciences, Statistician, Designer, Master in CS and a few MBA/JDrs.
Then make them work hard on a simple and fulfilling project. Make them catalog thousands of city sites, from the suckyist to the sexyist. Catalog the best and the worst features. Study usage and timeon sites and other stuffxx.
Then, make the interns present and propose
STRICT Proposal Rule: No suggestion on how to be better than the best. Only suggest something completely different than the rest. Proposal must be controversial. It must test boundaries. It must ruffle feathers. If at least 10% of audience doesn't get pissed, the proposal has failed
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This idea is active.Interface/User Experience »
Better search engine for library
1 comment for Idea: Better search engine for libraryThe current search engine is a waste. If you enter Tom Sawyer, you will find the actual book far down the list below other books by people named Tom.
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This idea is active.Interface/User Experience »
Combine map info in a layer-selectable map view
I've seen several suggestions for presenting geographically-based info in an easily browseable form. How about a general "Where Is It?" page with selectable layers and/or search options using Google Maps API? This page could potentially integrate a large amount of information in ways that not only allow it to be easily navigated. Possible layers to consider: - places of interest - city resources (police/fire stations, ...more »
3 comments for Idea: Combine map info in a layer-selectable map viewI've seen several suggestions for presenting geographically-based info in an easily browseable form. How about a general "Where Is It?" page with selectable layers and/or search options using Google Maps API?
This page could potentially integrate a large amount of information in ways that not only allow it to be easily navigated. Possible layers to consider:
- places of interest
- city resources (police/fire stations, libraries, schools, etc.)
- live traffic reports
- traffic accident locations
- road/lane closure locations
- LCRA river and lake level reports and forecasts
- flood warnings for low water crossings (most of these are automated)
- school district boundaries
- city and county GIS data
- any number of other city-related resources
The benefit of combining all this info in one map is that relationships between different types of info (traffic vs. accident and road/lane closures, for example, or LCRA reports/forecasts and flooded low water crossings, as just a few examples) are immediately visible and can highlight how they're interrelated. This could be a very powerful resource even for novice users, sort of a Google Maps of Austin.
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Embrace the Novice User
One thing to keep in mind for any city website is that it is the online face of the city, and may draw an audience demographic composed of a much larger population of novice or inexperienced users than other types of sites. Beyond the existing suggestions of making the site's front page as simple as possible, the overall design of the site should be assistive whenever possible. Most novice users find even their own ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Embrace the Novice UserOne thing to keep in mind for any city website is that it is the online face of the city, and may draw an audience demographic composed of a much larger population of novice or inexperienced users than other types of sites.
Beyond the existing suggestions of making the site's front page as simple as possible, the overall design of the site should be assistive whenever possible. Most novice users find even their own computer equipment somewhat intimidating, and find most websites (even ones well designed for more experienced users) far more so. The current website design is almost a textbook case of how to scare off a novice user, with an almost two page long navigation bar at the left full of cryptically abbreviated options, and a random uncategorized selection of news articles and calendar entries, all in medium to fine type. The Help link, a tiny anchor on the very top toolbar, opens another 2-3 pages of text in fine type with links scattered through it -- most novice users give up at this point and drive to City Hall.
We could do *so* much better.
If nothing else, make the initial page simple and friendly, with clearly labelled options that cover maybe 3-4 broad categories of city services at most, and for novice users, include an option (such as "I need to..." or "Help me...") that opens a fully-assistive navigation wizard, which uses expert system methods to determine what the user wants to do and guide them to short lists of clearly worded links to key pages in the desired category.
Add user assistive messaging as well, possibly triggered by unusual click patterns (caused by randomly stumbling around because the desired content isn't coming up as expected), that either feed into the expert system or provide tips based on the click trail, or both ("You seem to be looking for X, do these links help?"). The messaging could automatically turn off as the user gains experience with the site and, ultimately, is no longer a novice.
We don't have to teach users how to browse web pages, but we can definitely provide a good model within which they can teach themselves to use this one, and maybe carry a few good habits away with them.
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Open API based user selectable themes/skins
With a fully open API to the backend data, it would be possible to create multiple GUI themes for users to choose from, as well as easily modify the default front end GUI or, for expert level users, even write their own custom ones (and possibly submit them for use by other site users, if they're popular). This would get around the "there's always a complaint" problem, as well as the "change noise" problem, particularly ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Open API based user selectable themes/skinsWith a fully open API to the backend data, it would be possible to create multiple GUI themes for users to choose from, as well as easily modify the default front end GUI or, for expert level users, even write their own custom ones (and possibly submit them for use by other site users, if they're popular). This would get around the "there's always a complaint" problem, as well as the "change noise" problem, particularly with major GUI changes.
Make the default GUI as cross-browser compatible as possible so the site works for novice users in all currently supported browsers, with some fallbacks for older browsers like IE5 and the like, but give user-submitted themes the option of limiting to browsers they work particularly well with and/or allow other users to submit modifications if needed. (These should most likely be moderated, to avoid opening the site up to vandalism and other inappropriate content concerns, but moderation will most likely not require much human effort in most cases.)
API-based Ajax/DHTML is obviously preferable for server performance reasons as well. :)
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