Email I could not resist to share
Concept of the 'new' Country Portal Template
What is it? Why do we need it?
I need to explain using analogies, as a kind of road map so that you may understand my way of thinking.
I've looked through a few of the Country Portals and References, and made critical notes on what I saw there. Below is the result of what I have found, what information was there, what was not there, and how the
information was presented.
This is a conceptual "overview", rather than actual "fixes", an attempt to draw attention to a need and how to address that need, rather than merely pointing out deficiencies.
Currently, there exists two kinds of information on Geni, grouped as follows;
1) the bulk of the information which are the projects and profiles of individuals.
2) the much smaller part, is the help info, the "How to", the Curators, the Wiki, and other reference info.
Most people visiting Geni, will only be interested in the first group, only if they become sufficiently interested is adding/correcting information, will they want to look at the second group of info.
If visitors are presented with information that they are not interested in, they will, very quickly lose interest and go to another site. Put too much undesired information, and things become boring, fast.
This is something that Web designers know, and they design websites accordingly. And Geni is a website.
Look at any News website, e.g. BBC or CNN, you have a "structured design" and it's logically laid out. You can quickly and easily find the news you want, maybe you'll have to navigate a few pages via links, but it's easy to work out how to get there, plus you don't waste time having to page through stuff that you are not really interested in, just so that you can get to what you want.
Consider the individual profiles on Geni, they are consistent, structured, and the information therein is divided up into various categories and stored accordingly. The really important stuff, such as name, dates, locations, that which identifies the individual is consistent, we find it where we expect it, in the Overview and it's not obscured in a description of something else. Less important details, marriages, family, etc are stored in other parts, but also in a consistent fashion, so, once we know where to find it, we can expect to find similar information for other profiles in the same place/in the same way. Other information will be stored as images or documents in the Media and Sources. All neat and tidy.
Now consider the project pages, and the Country Portals..... Whoops! now we're in a new place, it's no longer quite so neat and tidy anymore, is it?
Sometimes, it's a real pain to find out something, because "it's ALL there, in ONE place, and there's no index or structure, and now it's a real MESS"
Maybe, the situation is not quite as bad as the scenario above, but it can get to that point fast.
The sad part is that, a lot of effort has already been put into the Country Portals and References, and they're not really usable as they should be, it's become a time wasting effort to have to revisit a Portal. It's all there, yes, but to find it!
How can this be prevented and remedied?
It will take a bit of work, and a bit of education/training. (if you agree with me, of course!)
Going back to the example of the News websites, what you have there is really an index / road map which one follows until one gets to the desired news item. And that index it what makes the whole website work. It takes a lot of work to setup and maintain the index, because the news items are constantly changing as news becomes old, it is updated constantly, and eventually it is archived away and a new news item takes it's place, and more and more news items keep being added. The bad news is the large amount of maintenance needed to keep the site "up to date". The good news is that unlike a news website, Geni data is mostly static, after it has been captured.
What is missing on Geni, is the awareness of the need for those indexes and how to keep them going without excessive effort. The problem will not be cured overnight, but if people understand what needs be done and how to do it, bit by bit, the problem will be eroded away.
How? Easy.
Firstly, move the info to where it belongs. The reference info, the "How to", the FAQ, put that all onto it's own project page(s), and clearly put links so that those pages can be found when required.
Secondly, cleanup and structure the Country Portals - this is where you'd expect a visitor to land. It's necessary to group the information together logically, to keep it almost "skeletal" at this point. Ideally, you want to present the first time visitor with enough info, that the next step will be to go there, without needless scrolling down, and paging through unnecessary detail.
At this point, all you really need is a "Welcome", a very brief description, and the index (or rather, the top index). What you need to show is
1) you are here, this is what is new since dd/mm/yy,
2) you can find a), b), c) and d) here,
3) you can find help here.
That's it.
The other stuff only gets in the way, so put it somewhere else, out of the way, but show where it may be found when it is needed. Where necessary, entries will be bi-lingual, to help those members of the country's Diaspora who no longer know the language of their ancestors.
The first time visitor, will think, and decide where to go next, the repeat visitor will maybe read the news items and move on. Neither will have to page through screenfulls of detail to find what they are looking for.
Now you have most, if not all, of the info that you had previously, but it's now spread out, over different pages. There will no longer be necessary to look at everything all at the same time, when one is merely looking for one specific item, and one can still find everything, by using the new indexes.
It won't be perfect, it will require work, both to think about the new 'indexes' and then typing to implement the changes. Also the curators will have to ensure that the collaborators understand the need for a '"lean" start page, and do not add unnecessary information there.
Discipline will be needed! (may need to express this diplomatically)
