I have read many of the suggestions offered by other members of this forum and concur with most of their suggestions. I would like to add a few of my own for consideration. I’m a very visually oriented person, being an architect and graphic designer I’m perhaps overly sensitive and analytical about how information is graphically presented. Upon trying to navigate this site I was very frustrated with the difficulties I was having. Once I found out that I needed to have “cookies” enabled I no longer had to re-login to each page to view and enter information but I still haven’t found where that necessary requirement is stated anywhere. As I continue to learn about the various features and structure of this site, it occurs to me there are some easily accomplished items which would make the site more user friendly.

Suggestion #1 – Create a user HELP page, and put the button right on the top menu bar. This page(s) should include all the requirements for user setup, should include descriptions and uses of all the major site attributes, this could also contain the FAQ items or at the very least a link to them.

Suggestion #2 – Appropriately organize and prioritize the presentation of information. This means moving the menu bar box to the top of every page. All the verbiage that currently sits atop each page is not the most important and should not command top billing. The information about dates and times for Chat Events should be located in the CALENDAR page not atop every site page. Now I know the Chat sessions are an important, indeed vital, feature of this site, but a simple one line announcement in the existing Chat Forum such as “The next hosted Chat Event will take place on September 20, 2008, at 17:00 GMT with a second Chat 5 hours later.” should suffice. The details about time adjustments and countdown are appropriately located in the CALENDAR section of the site.

Suggestion #3 – Reduce the “visual noise” There is entirely too much use of differing text formatting effects which bring unjustified emphasis to the text containing them. The very first line of of text atop each page is a perfect example. The word bulletin for example is colored red, in bold face, italicized capital lettering, visually this is the equivalent of screaming at me! The next two words in the sentence are each started with a capital letter, then the next word is all capitals, colored red again. This condition of exaggerated emphasis on various portions of the text is distracting to the reader and I believe actually causes confusion rather than clarity of information. If I were to try to read any book with this type of text formatting I would drop it after two pages! I don’t believe it was the designer’s intent to confuse but that is the net effect.

Suggestion #4 - Reduce the amount of verbiage in the dialogue box titles (this relates back to Suggestion #3). For example with the main menu bar, “Forum Home Page” > “Home”, “Order Jack’s (2nd) Key Sound Training Seminar” > “Purchase Seminars”, “Personal Coaching with Jack” > “Coaching”, “Gold Nuggets Success Stories” > “Nuggets”, “Google Site Search” > “Search”. This kind of simplification makes it much easier for viewers to quickly read, find and pick a category to go to.

Suggestion #5 – Reduce and consolidate some of the separate little item boxes or eliminate the formatting box they exist within, for example when multiple pages become available the small colored box that pops up which says “Page ? of ? 1 2 >” could be automatically included at the bottom of the appropriate pages or if that is not possible simply removing the color and frame so that it appears as plain text against a white background.

Suggestion #6 – Let the KISS (Keep It Simple Simon) principle be a guide for all aspects of the site layout and texting. This will go a long way toward making the site more usable and friendly. There are many powerful features incorporated within this website but they are probably being underutilized because of the confusing complexity and lack of available information for implementing them.

For what they're worth, those are a few of my suggestions.

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