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Bug #761

closed

Implement "Send a Comment" Function

Added by Matt Gold almost 13 years ago. Updated almost 13 years ago.

Status:
Resolved
Priority name:
Normal
Assignee:
Category name:
WordPress (misc)
Target version:
Start date:
2011-05-14
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Estimated time:
Deployment actions:

Description

Take a look at the homepage of academia.edu ; at the bottom of the page, there is a text box that says "Send the academia.edu team a comment." When one clicks inside the box, it opens up a nice ajaxified and simple interface to send an email to the team.

It would be great if we could come up with something like that for the Commons -- it removes a few clicks between us and users who want to contact us and makes it very easy for people to get in touch. The email would go to

Please let me know how much work what you think might be involved.


Files

Screen_shot_2011-06-01_at_12.35.43_AM.png (234 KB) Screen_shot_2011-06-01_at_12.35.43_AM.png Matt Gold, 2011-06-01 12:36 AM
2011-06-02_132441.jpg (400 KB) 2011-06-02_132441.jpg Screenshot of new UserVoice widget on site Raymond Hoh, 2011-06-02 04:27 PM
Actions #1

Updated by Boone Gorges almost 13 years ago

This is easy to do.

How does it relate to the Feedback slider on the right? I mean, I know how it relates technically (ie, not at all), but it should be clear to our users how this is a different feedback mechanism.

Actions #2

Updated by Matt Gold almost 13 years ago

Boone Gorges wrote:

This is easy to do.

How does it relate to the Feedback slider on the right? I mean, I know how it relates technically (ie, not at all), but it should be clear to our users how this is a different feedback mechanism.

great to hear that it is feasible.

I'm not convinced that it has to relate to the feedback button, which some people might not even notice. I see this as a bit of useful redundancy, ie., the buttons can be in two different places on the page and can offer two different ways of reaching us.

Having said that, I'm open to feedback. Do you have ideas about how they might relate?

Actions #3

Updated by Boone Gorges almost 13 years ago

I don't necessarily think they should relate. I just think it should be clear that they are meant for different kinds of feedback (assuming that they are, in fact, meant for different kinds of feedback). For this enhancement, it might mean saying "Email the Commons team" or something that indicates that this is different from the public, vote-up-and-down UserVoice tab. Another possibility is to integrate something into the Contact Us page that already exists.

I guess I'm just wary of adding something to every page without either being clear about how it's new and needed, or without taking away something that it duplicates. Whiz-bang buttonry does not a beautiful site make :) That said, I'm willing to entertain the idea that I'm overthinking it.

Actions #4

Updated by Matt Gold almost 13 years ago

Now is when it would be nice to have a UX specialist on our team. One thing I'd say about the feedback tab is that it does pop up the "suggest new features" page first instead of the "report a bug," and I've found that people are much more likely to use the Commons email address to report bugs than to use UserVoice.

So, I'm on board both with having "Email the Commons team" as the pre-populated text in the box AND adding this to the Contact Us page.

Actions #5

Updated by Raymond Hoh almost 13 years ago

I'm no UX expert by any means, but here's my two cents.

The reason Academia.edu uses the AJAX form at the bottom of their site is they do not have a Contact Us page. CAC does. Like Boone mentions, too many call to actions can distract the visitor. Perhaps all that is needed is to install one of the many, popular contact forms from Wordpress.org on the Contact Us page?

A few other things to note:

  • Academia.edu also utilizes UserVoice much like CAC. However, on their site, they have a link called "Feedback" that links directly to their UV forum.
  • What do you guys think about linking the existing "Feedback" button directly to the UV forum instead of the lightbox popup that appears currently? One could argue that the current lightbox popup is confusing. We could also mirror the verbiage that Academia.edu is using on UV and add a link to the UV forum on the Contact Us page as well.
  • FYI, Uservoice also has a built-in contact form. Click on the link above, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Contact CUNY Academic Commons". A lightbox contact form should appear.
Actions #6

Updated by Matt Gold almost 13 years ago

Raymond Hoh wrote:

I'm no UX expert by any means, but here's my two cents.

Thanks, Ray, and apologies for the late response.

The reason Academia.edu uses the AJAX form at the bottom of their site is they do not have a Contact Us page. CAC does. Like Boone mentions, too many call to actions can distract the visitor. Perhaps all that is needed is to install one of the many, popular contact forms from Wordpress.org on the Contact Us page?

If memory serves, we used to have a contact form on the site, but we removed it due to security concerns. Perhaps the form plugins are better now or we were being overly cautious. In either case, I'm absolutely fine with putting one back in.

A few other things to note:

  • Academia.edu also utilizes UserVoice much like CAC. However, on their site, they have a link called "Feedback" that links directly to their UV forum.

I'm not a fan of that setup, actually -- it seems better to keep people on our own site; I think that the pop-up works well. I do wonder whether that pop-up should show the "Report a Bug" contact form first, instead of the feature ideas. . . .

  • What do you guys think about linking the existing "Feedback" button directly to the UV forum instead of the lightbox popup that appears currently? One could argue that the current lightbox popup is confusing. We could also mirror the verbiage that Academia.edu is using on UV and add a link to the UV forum on the Contact Us page as well.

As above, I think that taking people to a new site is more confusing that throwing up a pop-up. Do you disagree?

  • FYI, Uservoice also has a built-in contact form. Click on the link above, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Contact CUNY Academic Commons". A lightbox contact form should appear.

Yes. As mentioned above, we might look to see whether that form can appear first on the pop-up. I should look at he UV settings . . .

Actions #7

Updated by Matt Gold almost 13 years ago

Just FYI, this is what one sees when one clicks "Give Us Feedback" on UserVoice itself. I like the layout here; we might want to customize our own feedback tab a little more . .. .

Actions #8

Updated by Raymond Hoh almost 13 years ago

Matt Gold wrote:

Just FYI, this is what one sees when one clicks "Give Us Feedback" on UserVoice itself. I like the layout here; we might want to customize our own feedback tab a little more . .. .

This would be better, because the existing popup is not really "Feedback" related like the button says, but more of a feature request form like you mentioned above.

If someone could pass me the login, I can take a look at customizing the popup; I'm pretty sure there's some configuration options on UserVoice.

Actions #9

Updated by Matt Gold almost 13 years ago

Thanks, Ray. I'll send you the account info via email.

Actions #10

Updated by Raymond Hoh almost 13 years ago

Looks like CAC was using an older version of the widget. The new widget code adds the popup that Matt took a screenshot of:
http://redmine.gc.cuny.edu/attachments/143/Screen_shot_2011-06-01_at_12.35.43_AM.png

I've attached what the button will look like on the site. We can change the color scheme as well if desired.

Actions #11

Updated by Matt Gold almost 13 years ago

Awesome. Looks fine to me. Thanks, Ray.

Actions #12

Updated by Raymond Hoh almost 13 years ago

  • Status changed from Assigned to Resolved

Added to master branch - remove old Uservoice widget, add new UserVoice widget to wp_footer():
https://github.com/castiron/cac/commit/e130077185690e88226d9e45d6e467d08da15fd4

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