What's most important on a group page?

We encourage users to post events happening in the community to the community events group on https://www.drupal.org.
lisarex's picture

Hello! I'm gathering some research on what is the most important information on a group page on g.d.o.

I would like to hear from group organizers especially, but group member opinions are also useful.

List the 5 most important pieces of information, in order of importance, (excluding title ;)), and your role, e.g.

  1. Something
  2. Something else
  3. That thing
  4. The block showing the stuff
  5. More stuff
    Role: Organizer (or member)

I'm looking to gather your feedback early next week (Tuesday May 22) and will use it to inform a prototype design for Drupal Commons.

And if you hadn't already seen it, groups.drupal.org will move to Drupal 7 Drupal Commons at some point in the future.
http://drupal.org/node/1524868

Comments

1) Events -- prominently

highermath's picture

1) Events -- prominently featured
2) Pertinent discussions
3) Jobs (well vetted/moderated)
4) Local group sponsors, if any
5) Links to local resources
999) Tech questions that belong somewhere else.

Agreed, definitely events are high priority

amycham's picture
  1. Community info README - rules/etiquette, leaders, any recurring events or content, links to resources, sponsor/host shoutouts, etc
  2. Events
  3. Promoted content
  4. Jobs
  5. General discussions thread

Role: member, camp co-organizer

You didn't ask, and this may not be the most appropriate place to suggest it, but wishlist item...give group organizers control over group landing page layout. For example, a local DUG has different content needs than, say, a Drupal governance group; that group has different needs than a technical working group.

Providing a set of preconfigured blocks they could select and place for their own group would be really, really awesome and add a whole new level of usefulness to the platform.

I realize this kind of thing may not be feasible, but it was the first thing that came to mind when I read the question.


Amy C. Cham
Twitter: amycham

Group organizers do have a

highermath's picture

Group organizers do have a considerable amount of control over the layout through og_panels. If you are an organizer, you should have a "pages" tab at the top of your group page.

Thanks

amycham's picture

Thanks for the insight. This would be where actual organizers are more useful. :)

I'll bug a couple of the NYC organizers and see if someone can comment to this thread.


Amy C. Cham
Twitter: amycham

From a UX POV, giving a

highermath's picture

From a UX POV, making a readme the most prominent feature for all users can effectively discourage frequent participation.

nice to see

mike stewart's picture

@lisarex very awesome that you're working on the gdo TNG! ... If I could add to it, it seems that there are vastly different needs between "types" of groups. In other words, the five peices of information seems dependent on the type of group as well as the featureset of the site. Should we assume the same five categories (discussion, event, poll, wiki, job) and the four types of groups: (Geographical, Event Planning, Working group, Distribution)? Maybe I don't know enough about Drupal Commons?

Assuming mostly the same features, from my perspective Geographical and Event planning groups share a lot of common needs that emphasize tools to get people together. For event posts, info about organizers should be easy to find. Types of info should focus primarily on:
1) Events (meetups)
2) Jobs
3) Resources (& Networking)
4) Info (about the group)
5) How to transparently get help/contact organizers.

Topical groups like Distribution and Working groups share needs that emphasize tools to share ideas & collaboration. Focus primarily on: Discussions and wiki's and data. Menu's in these types of groups will be very dependent upon the complexity of the topic &/or project. But will often have:
1) (How to) Get Invovled
2) Resources / tools (for the topic)
3) Info (about the group)

My role: organizer of both types of groups for many years.

Currently there is lots of overlap and in many cases there shouldn't be ... which I feel is @highermath's point above, "999) tech questions that belong somewhere else" (I agree and) I feel its the result of UI not clearly directing people to forums/IRC on top of poorly defined "discussions" content type in geographic groups.

If you haven't seen, it might be worth reviewing http://groups.drupal.org/los-angeles -- it sure isn't perfect... but we've made use of the featureset (panels & pages + taxonomy & content types) as we try to meet needs of local community.

--
mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }