Jan 11, 2003 -- Thanks for all the valuable feedback everyone!

By now, those who have been here before will have noticed the changes in organization on the main site and the way it is reflected in the forums. We tried to implement the most widely agreed-upon changes that took the least amount of effort. We think you'll find it easier to find things now that they are organized more logically -- more-or-less as parts of a computer. I am sure you'll let us know. This thread is locked now.

We've been meaning to ask your opinions about this for some time. I think almost everyone would agree that the navigation on the forums is transparent & obvious & easy.

But what about the main site?

I often see questions/comments from people on issues that are clearly and sometimes obviously addressed on the main site. It makes me wonder:
1) Are these people just too lazy to look around for themselves?
2) Have they already tried looking and been frustrated by difficulties with navigation?

Thus this poll. I really appreciate the time you'll spend answering these questions. Hopefully, it will tell us about any weaknesses that can be addressed to further improve our site. Thanks for your effort!!

Mike Chin

Specifically, I have these questions --
1) Does "articles" tell you enough about what that section is about?
2) Would brief summaries in the listing pages for Articles or Reviews or Mods & Projects help you?
3) Does the organization of the page accessed under "List All Topics" make sense to you?
4) When you go into one of the categories under "List All Topics" -- say news -- is it easy to figure out how to view ALL the items in that category?
5) Are you aware that there is an FAQ & that it is fairly extensive?
6) Ditto Web Links?
7) Do you ever use the search function on the main site? Does it help?
8) Do you use the back button on your browser often while navigating the site? Is this normal web browing behavior for you?

1) Does "articles" tell you enough about what that section is about?
Kinda, I just wondered round the site to see what was on it...

2) Would brief summaries in the listing pages for Articles or Reviews or Mods
& Projects help you?
A quick heading and really quick abstract would be nice
3) Does the organization of the page accessed under "List All Topics" make
sense to you?
yup
4) When you go into one of the categories under "List All Topics" -- say news -- is it easy to figure out how to view ALL the items in that category?
yup, nice and easy to make
5) Are you aware that there is an FAQ & that it is faiurly extensive?
Nup
6) Ditto Web Links?
yeah I knew about them, some are really cool
7) Do you ever use the search function on the main site? Does it help?
Never used it

Do you use the back button on your browser often while navigating the
site? Is this normal web browing behavior for you
yup, there's is a link back to the main page from the forums page but I never remember to use it so I just hit back, and who wants to vote for a new colour profile for the phpBB



PS. Not so easy option up there is listed twice ^^^

yep, but maybe a some small explanation of what the section is about on the "article page" would be appropriate.

that would be nice

hmm.. actually i find it a bit confusing, most of those topics are immediately accessible from the links in the left frame. why is it there at all?

yep

yep, heave read a lot of it too

yep

never used it. (it's still not that hard to find whatever you want to find on the site, ie. it's not yet as large as some other sites are )

First, I'll assume a user has a general idea of what spcr is. If not, then the big "Welcome" block should fill them in. At first glance, I'm tempted to say "Yes, Articles is descriptive enough."

Before clicking on Articles, I look at the other links, and think about what might be on the other side. News, Reviews, Recommended and Mods & Projects all seem obvious. After clicking on Articles, and looking over the links, I'm not sure the title is 'clear' (or at least not the content).

Quiet and Fast?, Computer Noise in the 21st Century, Run a Power Supply without a Fan?, Choosing Fans for Quiet, High Airflow: A Scientific Approach and CPU Undervolting & Underclocking: A Primer all seem related. The two "IDF" articles seem out of place. The first list sounds more in-line with the Mods & Projects sections when compared to the IDF articles. Not a major issue, just an observation.


Possibly. Most article titles are very descriptive, so there isn't a large gain. As the site grows, with more articles, the summary may be more helpful.


Until now, I'd never used the link. The page appears to be a duplication of the "Main Menu/Topics" section. Just Plain Cool, Just Plain Weird and Site News seem to only be available from this area. A side note/minor comment: After clicking on the various topics here, I think the icons (Book, "The Fonz", etc.) are too large next to the topics.


Only now that you've asked . The "View all articles for this topic" link is a bit hidden on the gray/grid background (which I like). If this is changed, an additional link might be useful at the 'bottom' of the page too (or perhaps a "Page 1 of x" navigation tool).


I've read of it in the forums, but haven't looked for it. Checking the main site, it is easy to find.


Same as FAQ.


Currently, I haven't had a need to. As the site grows, a search feature would be very helpful.


Probably. I've been doing that since before graphics were on the Web


While there are areas for improvement (aren't there always?), I don't see any reason your average person should have difficulties enough to cause frustration.


One comment I've been meaning to make for a while is related to navigation within an article. Specifically, I noticed it while reading Hard Drive Sandwich - Revisited. "Previous page (2/7) Next page (4/7)". What if I want to go to page 1, or 6? This is cumbersome. Especially after I read the article, I wanted to go back to a certain page, and had to click through to get to it.

Great site, keep up the good work.

P.S. I voted "easy"

EDIT: Fixed typo.

OK, this has been fixed. There was no need for some of those articles to span 7 pages. I spent the last half hour going back and making most of them span only 2 pages. The other longer ones already have internal nav links, so... Hope that helps.

Thanks much for all who responded so far, especially with the details! That is very useful. I am relieved that most find the site easy, and Kurt & I will work to see which enhancements we can implement without a major makeover.

But only 5 votes? Surely others have opinions!!

And whoever voted difficult & confusin: please tell us why!?!

I voted "very easy" for the following reasons:

1) Just that one banner ad.
2) "Print" button for articles makes them really easy to read.
3) Pages are light on graphics so they load quickly.
4) Consistent site navigation tools on the left side of the screen.
5) Page space is used effectively (lots of links, little dead / redundant space).

I agree with the few posters here who mention that the pages that list articles or reviews could use maybe a one line summary of the article's content. But I also like how space-efficient the current design is. Maybe putting the abstract in the TITLE property of the <a> keyword that links to the articles would be the best of both worlds (so the abstract pops up like a "tool tip" when you mouse-over the links). Compact-ness is something that too many sites ignore.

Maybe some of the articles/reviews/projects should be cross-listed in additional categories.

The FAQ is split across too many pages. Many headings only have one entry. There should probably be a "view everything" entry.

I think the "Web Links" link from the main page should maybe be renamed "Useful Links" or "Silence on the Web" or something like that. It's really an excellent resource, and I think many people ignore it because the name isn't very descriptive.

In the forums, the "silentpcreview" link that takes you back to the main page should maybe have a little text underneath (in small point font) that says "Return to home page" or something like that.

And this doesn't have much to do with site navigation, but an introductory article that gives a general overview of silent computing might be a nice thing to reference in the "Welcome" text on the main page. You know, "If you're new, check out 'Getting Started With Silent Computing'" or something like that. It could present some general concepts (heat vs. noise; underclocking/undervolting; causes of computer noise), and also introduce readers to features of the site that they might otherwise miss-- like the "Web Links" page.

All in all, this site is a pleasure to use, especially compared to most computer hardware sites out there. Even high-traffic "professional" ones like Tom's Hardware are just a nightmare in terms of usability.

And while I'm at it, I'd also like to say that I think SPCR is one of the best computer websites I've encountered from a journalistic viewpoint as well. For example, Mike C.'s editor's comments in articles are very valuable at providing balance while still allowing different voices to be heard. Also, SPCR's reviews are not scared to call shenanigans on products that aren't really up to snuff, even when they're sent free from the manufacturer. And the testing methodologies are always rigorous.

Here are my answers to the questions:

1) Does "articles" tell you enough about what that section is about?
Sure. I can't think of anything more descriptive.

2) Would brief summaries in the listing pages for Articles or Reviews or Mods & Projects help you?
See comments above.

3) Does the organization of the page accessed under "List All Topics" make sense to you?
What's strange is that "List All Topics" lists all of the topics that are reported under the "icon" system used on the main page. So for example, if you click on "articles" there, you see a list of "articles" overviews that appeared on the main page when the article was published. This is different than if you just click on "Articles" from the main page.

4) When you go into one of the categories under "List All Topics" -- say news -- is it easy to figure out how to view ALL the items in that category?
Like someone else said, the contrast between the text and bg is poor.

5) Are you aware that there is an FAQ & that it is fairly extensive?
Y

6) Ditto Web Links?
Y. They rock.

7) Do you ever use the search function on the main site? Does it help?
I don't remember. And it can't hurt.

8) Do you use the back button on your browser often while navigating the site? Is this normal web browing behavior for you?
I use it most often when the thing I want to go to isn't obviously accessible from a link somewhere on the page. Why are you so interested in when we use the back button? Does it affect your bandwidth usage, or maybe your ad view count? Is using the back button a lot supposed to be good or bad?

Justin, that's fabulously detailed feedback, tells us tons! Really appreciate the time you spent writing all that out! Thanks for the kudos about the site. You are too kind.

We'll study everyone's comments here and implement improvements we can do easily. The rest we'll save for the makeover that will inevitably come some time in the future --when there is more time and resources.

Search & Back: labelled by the best analysts of website usability as the button of death, especially on commerce sites, but also relevant to all sites. I am glad to see almost no one uses them -- this was also the result with several usability studies I conducted sitting next to folks who navigated the site. Here's the amazing but totally validated data: On e-commerce sites, when a user hits the back button ONCE, the odds of him/her finding what him/her wants and buying in that session drops to 18%. Twice, and it drops to 2%.

Silent PC Review Usability
Mike Chin phoned me and we had a chat about usability on this website. This is further reflection on SPCR.

GOOD


I am finding lots of useful information on the site.

Information is current, high quality and well written with a great mix of bits of theory with lots of practical. Way to go to all authors, especially Mike Chin.

Having quality, $ and noise rating on 'recommended component' articles is a great summary. Especially the correlation of with this CPU, pick heatsink 7+ or higher.

Active forums mean the information is current and being thinked about (as opposed to being years old).

Overall, I can find what I want (or at least I think I can). I do seem to miss some sections (like the quiet Systems).



--------- COULD BE IMPROVED -------



Someone else mentioned about the welcome area introducing / explaining SPCR.
It needs highlighting / improving and maybe even a touch more prominent. I skimmed it the first time, and ignored it from then on. If I had started there and moved on to the FAQ, i would have got the same inforamtion quicker.

Welcome section 1st para. After the sentence about reading the article 'Quiet and Fast', add a sentence resembling ' The FAQ will further explain our purpose and give you an easy way to answer some of your questions about our information and our site.' By moving the FAQ up here, it will be more visible and accessible to newcomers.

Welcome 2nd para. Explain all Topics / Features. (All items listed under TOPICS seem to be FEATURES, so I am not clear on the distinction). Explaining all sections with the same heading as under MAIN MENU would clarify the links between them.

Forums - 'more icons' link brings up a window with nearly the same icons -- there are only 2 new ones. Either lose two or add some more unique ones. No need to show me the same ones again.

Browsing problem when using Mozilla. The site has mostly disabled right clicking on links. This is put to good purpose in that left-clicking will open a new window for external or separate article links. This defeats my method of browsing by right clicking and opening a new tab (in the same browser window). For those of you not familiar with this, in most Windows control dialogs (display properties, time, regional settings) and many other palces, there are multiple file tabs across the window that have different options. In Mozilla, each one is a separate browsing window.

(as already reported to Kurt) There seems to be 2 logins - 1 for main website and 1 for forums. The 2 do not seem to talk to each other.

in forums, icon of SPCR is a very unclear link back to main section. I Only realized this after MikeC explained there was a link back.

the search at top of page is not clear what it searches (it does not appear to include the forums ), but the advanced search does.

Every so often when browsing the main site, I get this error: Warning: Failed opening 'modules/phpBB_14/phpBB_14tables.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php') in /home/www/silentpcreview.com/includes/search/phpBB_14.php on line 31
Even though this appears, search results come up.

web links - systems section -- add the province / state and country where country is based (Many people for cost / time reasons want to order from somewhere 'close') Here they are for listed companies:

@mbient area code California, USA
armsystems California, USA
Csystems - Seoul, Korea
CapTech - Sweden, Norway and Australia
Carillon Audio Systems - London, United Kingdom
HP e-PC world-wide
NEC Netbrain Fanless Server (Japanese Site) - Japan
Panadora Digital Media Systems -California, USA
Signum Data (English site) - Dieselstrasse,Germany

Overall, the website is well organized and has no major problems. All this in less than a year - Its agreat start
CONGRATULATION

Thanks for the feedback. Couple of comments that I thought I'd throw in:


I use Mozilla (and it's slimmer brother Phoenix) on both Linux and Windows and have no problems right-clicking anywhere on the site. I also have my middle mouse button set up to open a new tab on click and that works well also.

Can you point to a couple of specific links that you can't right click on?



This is correct -- an unfortunate side effect of our decision to upgrade forums. It's on the radar list of things that we'd like to fix, but we have no timetable at this point for when it will be done. (will most likely be done as part of a larger site overhaul)


When you see this in the future, can you either email me the link or send me a PM on these forums? I'd like to track down and squash those errors.

--kurt

Here are some:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/ Welcome section --> None of those links will do anything when I right click on them. Your suggestion of middle clicking works well. But I won't be doing that often, as the middle button on my trackball is a scroll wheel and is really stiff (at least 500g) to push down.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=7&page=1
The links in this paragraph:
But it is possible that today’s PC is as loud as it will ever be. There is evidence of a backlash against noisy computers, even in the forums of PC gaming websites where the most fanatical speed addicts hang out. Noise has long been known to be bad for health and productivity. Quiet and efficient fans (YSTech's new Tip-Magnetic Driving Fan for example), quieter alternatives to air-cooling (C-System's heat-pipe solutions), bigger heatsinks (like the Zalman flowers), and quieter hard drives (such as Seagate's Barracuda IV) – these products are steadily gaining prominence. There are companies marketing not only quiet components or quieting accessories, but entire PC systems described as silent. Companies as mainstream as Compaq and Dell have promoted quiet PCs in recent months.


Thanks for working on making the site even smoother and easier to use.

What are you expecting a 'right-click' to do? Mozilla and Galeon (based on Mozilla) work fine for me. What version of Mozilla are you using? I don't think this is a site problem.

Mozilla is 1.2b date 20021016. I have confirmed that another identical machine in the office is working fine. It is a puzzle as to why I only noticed this problem at this one site. I'll have to reinstall Mozilla and see if this improves.

Thanks for clarifying this issue as being some strange configuration on my machine.

First off, I will echo the often expressed praise and enthusiasm about SPCR. Bravo, and job well done. And since you asked I'll throw back a few thoughts about how you might tweak the structure a bit.

Frankly, I think the article-intro-boxes on the main page and "List All Topics" are the best structure for the whole site (takes care of question 2). You could enhance the Main Menu so that it serves the same funtion as "List All Topics", but each link goes to an 'all items viewed' page (eliminate question 4). The format of the seperate box for each item could be enhanced to include the # of reads. The icon (article/review/news/mods&projects etc.) should be shrunk a little (or left off except on the main page), the extra pics lined-up horizontally (e.g.Socket A Heavyweights is too tall). Use the whole page width to give better vertical density. What I'm saying is that the 'text only' listings in the special sections articles/reviews/recommended/mods&projects are redundant, not so pretty, and may be confusing to some newcomers (have only one pathway to each item).
Now, to question a really basic strategy, I wonder about your strict delineation between reviews, news, aticles, etc.. Many other hardware sites would group everything along topic lines like Storage/HDD's/CD's, CPU's/HSF's/Under/Over-Clock, Cases/PSU's, Fans/Ducts, Software/OS's, Events/Industry-News, etc.. These are just some concept groupings, but each would include reviews, news, aticles et al on that topic. Then your main page serves the cross-topic what's recent function. I guess that when people come to SPCR, they are looking for information on a topic, and don't care so much if it's in a review or an article, but more that it's about this thing or that thing.

FAQ is good, but needs to tell people to join to gain ability to ask questions. This FAQ could easily be condensed into a beginner's guide / quieting basics type intro with it's own persistant link on the main page. The links are great.

Having read all the articles, have little need

Yes, often. Opera is very fast at 'back'. But I really like how many links and all forum links give me a fresh tab, please don't change that.


I noticed this in forums once, a question was asked, answered in detial, then re-asked in response by the original poster. <Scratch Head Here> I note that on a more innocent note, many topics repeatedly cycle through the forums, and the inherent nature of forums causes many good answers to be hard to find when they get old / long gone. Also many good answers are burried in threads where you would never guess to find them. I keep on getting this nagging feeling that we have a good enough crowd in the forums to grow and maintain a really exclellent WikiWiki. That would give a more coherent and persistant form to the very high quality material that flows through there. It would also discourage the 'same questions over and over' phenomenon a bit. I brought this up once before here in site feedback, but the notion just won't go away, so here are a couple of links to some great WikiWiki's that are in the ballpark as far as what can be grown.
SeattleWireless < the best example here
BC Wireless < a more local example
Portland Pattern Repository < the mother of all Wiki's
SeattleWireless seems to be the least 'religious' about being a Wiki; they simply enjoy it for the cool tool it is. And that community has really built a great resource with it. Very worth a look.

Sorry for bieng such a jerk with all these big ideas, I know how much work could be entailed.

[nt]