<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Just gathering a wish list with no structure will be difficult to interpret and prioritise, particularly if we are not clear about which groups of users we are seeking to serve.<div><br></div><div>The first question for Strategic could be what purpose (and I imagine it will be several purposes) is the OSM site trying to fulfil? Explaining the project and showcasing our data, becoming a destination, soliciting donations, encouraging new mappers, supporting the active community, re-engaging the passive sign ups etc.</div><div><br></div><div>Perhaps we could run a short questionnaire/survey of people visiting the site to better inform our discussion before getting into the detail of what changes we should be making. </div><div><br></div><div>Steven<br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><font color="#999999">_____________________</font><br><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><div class="moz-signature"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#999999" face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><b><br></b></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></span></span></div><div><div>On 27 May 2011, at 07:17, Frederik Ramm wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Hi,<br><br>On 05/27/2011 06:12 AM, Kai Krueger wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite">In addition to usability testing that some are currently doing, it would<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">possibly be good to gather some more statistics of what people want to<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">do with the homepage, what is currently missing and what bothers people<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">most with the current design.<br></blockquote><br>Before that, it would be good to have a (attention marketing-speak) "mission statement" from which we could derive what kinds of people we want to please with our main page.<br><br>For example, I'm sure I could find a number of people who would say that our main page lacks the option to show aerial imagery (as compared to $COMMERCIAL_MAP_PROVIDER); to which our answer would clearly be "this page is intended to showcase the power of OSM maps and not that of a third-party imagery provider, so if you want aerial imagery, look elsewhere".<br><br>But this is an easy example; there will be others much less clear, and most along the well-known fault line of whether our target audience is (a) mostly mappers, (b) non-mappers whom we encourage to become mappers, or (c) the great unwashed^W^Wgeneral public.<br><br>You acknowledge that further down (very far down) in your posting when you say<br><br>> Many/most of the suggestions will likely never be<br>> implemented. Either because it would take to much effort to implement<br>> or because osmf might decide it is not desirable or does not fit in<br>> with its strategic goals.<br><br>I just think it would be good to have well-defined strategic goals to begin with, against which these suggestions can then be measured. That would make for a clearer process.<br><br><blockquote type="cite">I would thus like to suggest to add such a feedback mechanism onto the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">homepage for a while to get a decent feeling for what the community<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">wants from the webpage and see if any of it can be implemented.<br></blockquote><br>The above paragraph contains the possible misconception that "the community" would use the feedback mechanism. It is just as likely that random visitors would; so if you do build such a mechanism, make sure to let people identify themselves ("I am a mapper/regular user/occasional visitor/first-time visitor" or something like that).<br><br><blockquote type="cite">In order for this to work, everyone has to be very clear that this would<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">be simply a big wish list with a voting system to try and understand the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">wishes of the community.<br></blockquote><br>The above paragraph contains the possible misconception that "the community" would use the feedback/voting mechanism and that we should do what "the community" wants. It is entirely possible that 65% of male respondents tell you they want more boobs on the front page; so you have to measure any responses you get against what the front page is *supposed* to do.<br><br>The front page is certainly not supposed to "please the maximum number of random people who happen to take part in a feedback/voting system". It is clear that results *must not* be taken at face value; they may be "genuine wishes from users" but they may not apply to what *we* want to achieve with the web site.<br><br>Bye<br>Frederik<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Strategic mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Strategic@openstreetmap.org">Strategic@openstreetmap.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/strategic">http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/strategic</a><br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>