Viil's dashboard

Viil replied on March 18, 2009 22:10 to the problem "new member registration email wording needs some attention :)" in Zapatag:

also for later, when you get public registration going: after clicking on the confirmation link in the email I get taken to a page that congratulates me on the registration, but does not provide me with any clue for what to do next.

Suggestion: add call to action items on registration confirmation page :)

Viil reported a problem in Zapatag on March 18, 2009 22:04:

need to link "zapatag.com" in header to home page

just tried to click on the header "zapatag.com" with no success... turns out only the logo to the left is linking to the home page.

Viil replied on March 18, 2009 21:44 to the problem "new member registration email wording needs some attention :)" in Zapatag:

I guess you can disregard the comment above as I wasn't supposed to be able to register the way I did in the first place :)

Viil replied on March 18, 2009 21:42 to the problem "hard to find feedback after registering for account" in Zapatag:

Aha! That explains the funky email notification too :)

As any usability expert I was just following the user interaction flow and affordances offered by the system, to see what most new users were likely to encounter.

To be honest I really liked that the register option was there next to the login option, right below the zap form. I would suggest you keep it there (or re-introduce it when you are ready for public registrations). It would be a much more pleasant experience for your new members if you were able to remember the form information they had already entered into the zap form, and display it to them as soon as they log in for the first time.
I know its a hazzle, but I think it would make quite a difference in your new members' first impression of the site (and we all know first impression is king! well that and content...) :)

Viil replied on March 18, 2009 21:34 to the problem "make tag form state field blank for default" in Zapatag:

I think the user's state is a great option for default state value.

Since the system allows you to start entering a zap without being logged in or registered (which is a great way of getting new users involved) the default should be blank when the user is not logged in.

Viil reported a problem in Zapatag on March 18, 2009 21:32:

new member registration email wording needs some attention :)

So, I registered and got an email from "(unknown sender)". You might want to put something in as sender for trust building reasons :)

The email I received reads:

"Dear , Please click the following link to proceed for further. http://www.zapatag.com/activate.php?v...
Zapatag.com "

...I am guessing improving notification email texts may be somewhere on the to-do list, but until then you might just do a couple of quick fixes:

- if pulling the new member's name from the database is not working properly you might just skip it temporarily and say something like "Dear new Zap-a-Tag member" until you get around to fix it.

- "Please click the following link to proceed for further" is polite and friendly, but not a proper sentence...

- since the email is so short feel free to add a little white space between the main message and the greetings :)

Just some quick ideas for quick fixes until you get around to spend more time on improving email communication with members.

Viil replied on March 18, 2009 21:19 to the problem "cannot correct user errors in confirm form" in Zapatag:

I realized that it was because you wanted to show the plate design, and I think that is a good idea. Why not do both? If you are Ajaxing the plate design it can immediately provide user feedback if the state or number is corrected?

Viil reported a problem in Zapatag on March 18, 2009 21:17:

hard to find feedback after registering for account

I was happy to find a quick and easy way to register for a zapatag account before the system allowed me to enter my first zap :)

so I registered for an account (yay!), and the page refreshed and took me back to the top of the page. There saw no feedback on my last action (registering) until I scrolled down to the registration form again.

I suggest to add a big (relatively...) friendly welcome message at the top of the page after I have registered. Registering is one of the big first steps for your members and this should be properly acknowledged and celebrated.

Viil reported a problem in Zapatag on March 18, 2009 21:08:

cannot correct user errors in confirm form

It is a good idea to have the confirm step so the user can check if they entered the correct information before it gets saved. Unfortunately the confirm form doesn't allow the user to correct it if they have entered the wrong state (or just forgotten to entered state, so the default Alabama value is selected) or have mistyped the license plate number.

In the current solution the user is forced to return to the front page and re-type all the form input in order to correct state or license number :(

I suggest to add fields for state and license plate number in the confirm form, so the user can easily correct any errors before saving the zap.

Viil replied on March 18, 2009 21:01 to the problem "make tag form state field blank for default" in Zapatag:

I also noticed that by having Alabama as a default value for the state field the system does not detect if the user forgot to enter/modify the state field, and Alabama gets recorded as the state.

This can cause some pretty bad situations where license plate owners in Alabama can get zapped for issues regarding license plate owners in other states with same number... yikes!

Viil reported a problem in Zapatag on March 18, 2009 20:58:

label inconsistency between "what?" and "details"

when the user forget to fill out the "what?" field a pop-up window tells you to "please fill out the details". There is no indications to which form field "details" is referring to, but I assume it is the "what?" field.
I suggest to rephrase to link the system feedback to the issue it is trying to communicate to the user, so there is consistency in wording and labels across the system.

Viil reported a problem in Zapatag on March 18, 2009 20:50:

make tag form state field blank for default

I know its just because Alabama happens to be at the top of the list of states, but the fact that the state field seems to be pre-filled with Alabama may be off putting to a user as communication-wise it is subtly indicating that Alabama should be the most common entry for this field, and it is forcing the user to "correct" this field if the state is not Alabama.
It would be much better to add a blank default for state value.

Viil Lid shared an idea in Zapatag on March 18, 2009 20:35:

add a tag line to provide context

I would love the see a tag line on the front page providing the context for the tool.
Something like "your feedback to traffic bullies and traffic saints" (maybe not that good, but you get where I am going).
A tag line would provide new users with context, and remind everyone not to use the site only for negative zaps...

Viil Lid started following the idea "Mobile Zapatagging via voice-to-text?" in Zapatag.