Re: [kDev] Usability: Login to Kendra and Wiki...

[David Jennings <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Daniel,

At 1:31 pm +0100 15.10.05, Daniel Harris wrote:
> Hi there David,
>
> As per your comments I've added a 'Login' page to the Kendra website.
>
> Also, I've tried to streamline the wiki login procedure. It's still 
> a bit convoluted. The starting point for it is:
> http://www.kendra.org.uk/wiki/wiki.pl?HowToComment
>
> Let me know what you think.

Firstly, let me try and say what I think would be further 
improvements, recognising that the wiki environment may constrain you 
from implementing these improvements fully.

At the moment there is:
Step 4, which says 'click here and follow steps 5 and 6', then
Step 5, which just says 'now click here', then
Step 6, which says 'click on the complete kendra wiki login button'

So what is really one step has become three. Is there any scope for 
automating the steps (especially since the intervening ones do not 
have any branching paths, as far as I can see)? Or for 
short-circuiting them? This would avoid the frustration that might be 
caused when the imaginary user is thinking "you know what I want to 
do; why are you making me jump through all these hoops to do it?"

Secondly, by adding the new login page (as I suggested), there are 
now two different types of 'login' link which go to different places:
- the login link at the top of 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/wiki/wiki.pl?KendraWiki goes to 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/wiki/wiki.pl?action=editprefs
- the login link at the top of 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/login-wiki.php goes to 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/login.php

Suggestion (a): can you change one of these to disambiguate the two 
links? From my initial poking about, I'd suggest changing the link on 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/login-wiki.php to read 'edit your profile' 
or something like that - since that's what 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/login.php appears to offer

Suggestion (b): can you change the text on the page at 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/wiki/wiki.pl?action=editprefs to account for 
users who may arrive at the page from places other than 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/wiki/wiki.pl?HowToComment - in which case 
the reference to 'Step 5' will look odd to them (they won't know what 
steps 1-4 were)? I'm thinking of something like "To complete your 
login, please go to the [http://www.kendra.org.uk/login-wiki.php 
Kendra Wiki Login] page". Generally using 'click here' links is poor 
for usability and accessibility, as explained at 
http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/noClickHere

If you can just delete/short-circuit Step 5, as mentioned above, so 
much the better.

> Note the reason for the wiki login convoluted-ness is because we are 
> locking down access to the wiki to only those people that have 
> listed themselves as Kendra participants - this has knocked wiki s p 
> @ m to zero - and that's a big bonus!

I know this problem from running my own wiki. I'm not sure what wiki 
engine you're running (and I am a very non-technical beginner in this 
area), but do you know how others using the same engine get round the 
s p @ m problem?

Hope that helps, David