[isf-wifidog] UI + usecase suggestions for Wifidog portal pages

[Michael Lenczner]

On 10/20/05, Benoit Grégoire <bock at step.polymtl.ca> wrote:
> On October 20, 2005 12:47 pm, Michael Lenczner wrote:
> > there's no way in hell either of those solutions would work
> >
> > *.subdomain.ilesansfil.org
> >
> > or
> >
> > *.otherdomain.org.
> >
> > No one would use it or remember it.
>
> Actually, that's not necessarily true in the second case,  and it would at
> least allow some hand holding of the user if he mistypes, something we
> couldn't do if butting it as *.ilesansfil.org.

Okay - that we could discuss.  If someone can come up with a domain,
i'm all ears.

actually, maybe isfquartier.org?  but I still think it's not
preferred.  already  we are asking people to remember ilesansfil.org. 
so this would just be another url to remember.

>
> > Sometimes we have to do things in an ugly way, even if technically
> > it's not perfect.  And manually creating a new subdomain each time
> > can't be *that* difficult for each new hotspot.  Would it take more
> > than 15 min?  Would that be worth it as an organization to have people
> > checking out portal pages from home?
>
> Actually it is that difficult, how exactly do we call the first word in the
> cafe's domain? It's only clear and unambiguous in a handfull of places, where
> the name is a single, non-composed word.  What about   Mars Vénus,  Parc
> Émilie-Gamelin, Resto-Pub 100 Génies,  Vices & Versa, Zeke's Gallery, or my
> personal favorite Café l'Utopik (people in ISF would probably think
> utopik.whatever, but most normal people call it café Utopik , l'Utopik or
> Café Ludik).  Even if we made them all consistent and picked a convention for
> discarding illegal caracters (&, -, accents), spaces and deciding what we do
> with prepositions, how are users supposed to remember the convention?

marsvenus.ilesansfil.org
parcemiliegamelin.ilesansfil.org
restopub100genies.ilesansfil.org
viceversa.ilesansfil.org
zekes.ilesansfil.org
lutopik.ilesansfil.org

You forgot to ask how we would do chains?  That was the point you
raised last time I suggested this (a year ago).  Ex: if we had two
cafeviennes.

My proposed solution is that if someoen puts in
cafevienne.ilesansfil.org s/he gets sent to a blank page which says
only "do you want the cafe vienne on sherbrook and parc?   or the one
on st.laurent and pine?  each with hyperlinks.  depending on which one
the user clicked it would send them to cafevienne1.ilesansfil.org or
cafevienne2.ilesansfil.org  So they would learn which url to go to
next time.

>
> I think using a list or a map, plus creating a single url that will always
> redirect to the local portal when you are actually there (and to the list
> when you are not) is much more user friendly for our users, and regulars can
> always bookmark the result.

I think the single url is a great idea for people that are there.  But
I am much more concerned with getting users to use ISF from home. 
Ergo the emphasis on rss feeds.  (I know, i know, no one uses rss
feeds.  but it is an important step in the right direction).

A list?  of 60 hotspots?  You want someone to scan a list of 60
hotspots to find the portal page?  And then instead of giving them a
url that they can eventually and fairly easily remember you want them
to bookmark it?

And have you seen the map recently?  It's cool and all, but even I
have a hard time finding the hotspot that I want.  It's *very*
crowded.

I think discussing this in person and as a group would be good.

But most importantly, this is a tangible step that we can take *right
now* with a few of our hotspots to get the quartier project started. 
That's what I'm focused on.  Achieving momentum on this project that
we've been talking about doing for 2 years.

mike
> --
> Benoit Grégoire, http://benoitg.coeus.ca/
>
>
>