Design/UX #3525
closedBlog vs Site
Added by Samantha Raddatz about 10 years ago. Updated over 9 years ago.
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Description
After spending some time in the 'Blogs' tab, I'm noticing that the blogs are being referred to as both 'sites' and 'blogs' in different places throughout the Commons. Since those terms do not always describe the same type of webpage, I find it confusing to be using both.
For instance, if a user narrows their feed on 'My Commons' to just 'Sites', they may not know that those sites are being pulled from their 'Blog' tab.
This might be a longer conversation, but with the Favorites functionality and My Commons tab coming out in 1.7, it's probably a good time to discuss this.
Files
| Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 5.16.06 PM.png (77.4 KB) Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 5.16.06 PM.png | Samantha Raddatz, 2015-03-24 05:36 PM |
Updated by Matt Gold about 10 years ago
- Assignee changed from Matt Gold to Samantha Raddatz
Good idea to have the discussion, Samantha. Do you think you might be able to make an initial list of places where this discrepancy exists, and then we can pass that list on to the Dev team to see whether we've left any yout?
Updated by Samantha Raddatz about 10 years ago
Yes, I'll make a list and then we can go from there!
Updated by Boone Gorges about 10 years ago
Agreed that this would be a good change. BP and WP convention has moved toward "Site" in the last few years, so I think it'd be wise to move in that direction.
Regarding the 1.7 target version: making this change will require changes in documentation text and screenshots. Probably not all of these changes would have to be ready to go on day 1, but certainly any documentation of My Commons and 1.7-specific features should include the correct nomenclature. I want to be sensitive to the amount of time it takes Scott to put this information together and update it. So if we're going to make the changes for 1.7, we should try to do it as soon as possible. (I've added Scott as a watcher for any feedback on the change.)
Updated by Samantha Raddatz about 10 years ago
- Assignee changed from Samantha Raddatz to scott voth
I just looked through the Commons and, as far as I can tell, the only place where they are referred to as 'Blog' is the main navigation (the main menu and the upper-left dropdown menu). They are referred to as 'Site' in all other links and buttons.
I'm reassigning this to Scott to determine which release this should be a part of. It would be great to implement with 1.7 since we're already making a change to the tabs by adding My Commons, but I understand the trickle-down effect for documentation and don't think it's essential for this release.
Updated by Chris Stein about 10 years ago
I would be happy to have this resolved. It's been on my wish list for a while. There are some other places where blog is mentioned
- News page in the Filter dropdown, "Show Blog Posts" and "Show Blog Comments"
- Create a Site process: Blog is used numerous times throughout the process.
- Step 3 in the Group creation process is Group Blog. that page refers to blog throughout the page
As mentioned there are a number of posts in the codex that refer to blog. This search gives a good idea of that
http://codex.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?s=blog&submit=Search
This probably can't be done for 1.7 but should be done eventually.
Updated by Marilyn Weber about 10 years ago
Yes, when you click "Create a site," you then see "create a blog." Perhaps we could just keep blog as the verb there - "There is no limit to the number of blogs you can have, so create to your heart's content, but blog responsibly"
Updated by Samantha Raddatz about 10 years ago
- Target version changed from 1.7 to Future release
Okay, since this seems to a bit complicated, and will require updating many areas of the site as well as the codex, I'm going to push this to 'future release' for now.
Updated by Samantha Raddatz over 9 years ago
- Assignee changed from scott voth to Samantha Raddatz
- Target version changed from Future release to 1.8
After user testing and our meeting discussions, it seems we're in agreement that all instances of 'blog' should be changed to 'site' to reduce confusion. Any objections?
Boone, what do you need from me in order for this to be implemented in the code -- a list of pages where 'blog' is used? Chris has mentioned some specific areas previously in this thread, but I imagine there's more hiding.
As Boone mentioned above, this has implications for the codex and help pages too, so we should try to implement in advance of the 1.8 release in order to give Scott time to make those updates.
Updated by Boone Gorges over 9 years ago
Fine by me. A list of locations would be really helpful - I can try searching, but it's complicated to search the codebase in exactly this way.
How about URLs? It's much easier to leave them the way they are, but if people feel strongly, I will see what I can do.
Updated by Matt Gold over 9 years ago
I'm not sure where blog appears in the URL, but it seems to me that the major thing to address is the user-facing text; if changing URLs is a pain, I think we should leave them alone for now.
Updated by Samantha Raddatz over 9 years ago
It would be great if the URL matched the tab title in the case of http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/blogs/, because it's such an uncomplicated, clear connection. But, I agree that the page text is the main issue here, so if it's overly complicated to change the URLs, it's okay to leave them.
I'll come up with a list and share soon!
Updated by Samantha Raddatz over 9 years ago
List of instances of 'blog' that I could find:
Homepage
'Recent Blog Posts' -- recommend changing to just 'Recent Posts'
Menus
Update in both the top right navigation and tabbed navigation
Groups
An individual group's site is referred to as 'blog' in the left menu within a group.
Create a Site
https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/blogs/create/
Many of the steps to create a site use the word 'blog'
Create Group
https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/create/step/group-blog/
The blog step refers to 'blogs'
Step 6 (https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/create/step/external-blog-feeds/) also refers to external blogs.
Site Footer
"This blog is part of the CUNY Academic Commons, an academic social network for the entire 24-campus CUNY system."
Profiles
There is a field in personal profiles for blogs (see attached screenshot). I'm not sure this spot should be changed, since we want it to be differentiated from website in this instance, but I wanted to take note of it.
If we do decide to change it there, it should be changed in profile settings too: http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/members/samradd/settings/profile/
Reminder for Scott
All instances of 'blog' will have to be updated in the Help text as well (like http://codex.commons.gc.cuny.edu/navigating-the-commons/). The Terms of Service and Privacy Policy will need to be updated as well.
Updated by Boone Gorges over 9 years ago
- Assignee changed from Samantha Raddatz to scott voth
Thanks for this, Samantha.
- "Recent Posts" widget title https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/11f8a444d1762e4bfd4cfb438c71612547d008ba
- "CUNY Academic Commons" admin bar dropdown sub-item https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/2a00d4aec46a0572f8cebd3a367a5a641b02e2be
- Single group "Blog" nav item https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/4c5407acb4e7a6d21067134f7c400e95a06ca64f
- Site creation https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/21070260a582ba7e25eb8fd496b2571822677cd9
- Group Site management (group creation, etc) https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/ae3dbee20997d75f76066562a5cf64830cd16220
- Sitewide footer https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/34262489158db5adab0150d9023aa5ca8d75e959
Tabbed navigation is a database-level change. I've made a note to make the necessary changes when 1.8 is released.
There is a field in personal profiles for blogs (see attached screenshot). I'm not sure this spot should be changed, since we want it to be differentiated from website in this instance, but I wanted to take note of it.
Agreed. Let's leave this as-is.
Reassigning to Scott to handle documentation changes as necessary. Scott, feel free to mark resolved when you've done what you need to do.
Updated by Stephen Real over 9 years ago
Scott, can your piece be done in time for the 1.8 release. We deploy on 5/21. If not, I can postpone to the next release.
Updated by scott voth over 9 years ago
No - I think this is fine. I have updated the all FAQ to refer to site rather than blog already - and I think most recent Codex posts refer to both the terminologies - I will look further - but don't anticipate an issue with going live with this in 1.8
Updated by Boone Gorges over 9 years ago
- Status changed from New to Resolved
Clearing out the milestone. Scott, please feel free to open another ticket if you'd like to track more of this work in Redmine.