rethinking geonet Places

[ElliottRobinson]

Sol Wuensch's "Were the previous forums better than this GeoNet Community?" poll, with 14421 views at last count, is perhaps the most commented entry on GeoNet.

Obviously changes must be made, and here I propose a couple of simple changes that may help the average user.

First, let's change the poorly named but trying hard to be hip "Places" to "Groups".

I don't call my Husqvarna chainsaw "Slayer of Trees", I call it my chainsaw.

Second, and here I take a leaf out of the Apple Support Communities book, let's make it easier to find the groups that interest us.

Let's have a peek at the discussions.apple.com website:

This chunk of the website clearly shows a few hardware-oriented forums and one software forum. The iPad forum is neatly divided into two sub-forums, upon clicking the iPad image.

A similar simple and effective breakdown (sans images - I am not a graphic artist) could be something like this:

3D mapping                                                  GIS Developers                                             Software

                                                                        - python                                                       - ArcGIS Pro

MOOCs                                                            - Arcobjects SDK                                         - ArcMap

  - spatial analysis

                                                                      Web Developers                                           Web GIS

Industry & Government                                       - ArcGIS API for javascript                         - ArcGIS online

- utilities & communications                                - ArcGIS REST API                                    - story maps

- forestry

- ArcGIS for local government                      Servers                                                          Older software

                                                                       - ArcGIS for Server                                        - ArcView

GPS                                                                - Geoevent                                                    - ArcIMS

- Collector for ArcGIS

Note: This is not an exhaustive list, just food for thought.

Please rate/like/enjoy/comment on this if you're in my grid square.

[TimothyHales]

Elliot,

Excellent feedback. Sure there needs to be some changes to the user interface and user experience in general. The Apple Community gives a different take on how to structure our community. Definitely some good there, but at the same time Apple's community focuses on product support and doesn't have much focus on industries, connecting users, events, etc. There should be defined paths for users to follow depending upon the reason they are coming to GeoNet. These could include Product Support, Developer Support, Product Education, Industry Best Practice, and Event Info. I have been working on some ideas, but this kind of feedback will help drive our future changes.

Thank you,

Timothy

[ElliottRobinson]

Thanks Timothy,

the Apple Community only came to mind because Apple is at the cutting edge of simplicity and function, and I agree, they are focused mostly on products.

But how easy would it be to replace an iPad icon with a icon representing what I gave as an example above, Industry & Government. Say a hammer & sickle. j/k. Whatever the icon is, it could be hovered over and more icons appear for the specific groups: forestry, local government etc.

[KevinMacLeod1]

The old forums were organized, effective, had a good interface on the desktop, and provided basic forum functionality. They were on a time-tested platformed used by many other sites and companies.

This is actually a case where a good idea might be to actually bring the old forum back. Just completely scrap this new site. Regardless of how much time and money went into it. You have to know when to pull the plug. Seems like the overwhelming majority of customers hate the new site, but like the old site.

Time for New Coke to go away, bring back Classic Coke. We liked the taste and we'll keep buying it.

What is the business case with ESRI keeping this site?

Step 1.  Social media stuff 

Step 2. ???? 

Step 3. Profit!

[KevinMacLeod1]

artb4mathyour idea of organization with icons and hierarchies like the Apple Site is a great idea though, if we end up stuck with GeoNet.  Apple is an example of a good site and good site nav design. What's also instructive about their site though also is its interface hasn't changed in over a DECADE!  It has slowly evolved and added slickness but the overall navigation has remained. Perhaps just slickifying the old forum would have been better than attempting to shoehorn GeoNet into a vBulletin forum style.

[ElliottRobinson]

I am doing my best to learn how to most effectively use the new forum. Reminds me of breaking in a new pair of boots.

I wonder if it will be:

(1) like the Nike hiking boots I bought that had holes in the soles after 3 months, or

(2) like my La Sportiva's - Italian made and still great after 15 years of hard use and 2 sole changes.