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George Oates edited this page Jun 8, 2015 · 2 revisions

By George Oates Frankie and I sat together on June 8, 2015, to talk through ideas for improving the Open Plaques website, and to talk through how to transform it to a mobile-first system.

Here are my notes.

Generally, I think OP suffers a bit because it's hard to see any of the people involved, be they you and the team, or plaque hunters (one of whom added 1000 plaques!). Try to celebrate the humans more by making a page for each person that shows all their plaques (and facets of those plaques).

The Home Page

  • Be clearer about what plaques are, use bigger photos, definition etc. Maybe list the different types/colours?
  • Copy/tone is all over the place - be more active? “Open Plaques lists 35,398 commemorative plaques across the world. These plaques tell us stories about people and place in history. Add your favorite plaque today!” (or whatever)
  • Make sure plaque of the day is excellent and has pic
  • Note any people using the site who've added more than one plaque (and aren't you)
  • "Login" is a noun. "Log In" is what I'd label a link to log in.
  • Link color dodgy on grey bg
  • Consider a Latest From The Blog module
  • About doesn't mention any people's names. I realise it's designed as a community effort, but individual identities are important, I think. List yourselves, and any plaques you've added.

Contribute

Add Plaque Form

  • Validation is b0rked. If email address is required, make that clearer.
  • Show small plaques inline for Colour? (bigger target etc). Could also use coloured plaque placeholders (instead of blank placeholder image)
  • I can add a plaque, but not edit? E.g. http://openplaques.org/plaques/39709
  • Good, but could use a copy overhaul.

Plaque Page

  • E.g. http://openplaques.org/plaques/11208
  • Turn off mouse scroll on map (Some people like it. I hate it!)
  • Use bigger photo
  • Browse by subject?
  • Great example of a place where you can show a human; the creator of the plaque. Even generating a page for every uploader of photos would be good.

Search

General

  • Consider a "recently added" list