Recently active topics in Get Satisfaction tagged with newbie

** Entering a problem
Question 2 - What product or service is it about?
I didn't realise the large icons to right was a selected product... and "Add at least one please" with empty search box implied to me I had to add something.

** [+] button on product icons not obvious..
I didn't realise it was a button (until I read the tip when I visited my products page)... "Don't make me think"? Obviously other users having same problem since you have written the tip (indicates that this is a common problem!).

** list of subscribed products needs to be quickly, obviously accessible
- Why are my subscribed products not on the home page if I am logged in?
- The list shows on the right as icons but *without* text underneath (on my dashboard | profile tab). Textual, non-visual users need names (also I don't yet recognise product icons & what about products that haven't had an icon uploaded!)
- Why not add subscribed products to my "You" dropdown menu? - why do I have to visit another page?
- Or perhaps have my subscribed products in the first "find a:" combo box to search topics?

** Search needs prominence
I had trouble finding the topic search before I signed up... Maybe just an id10t error. (I wrote another topic topic for this issue because it is very significant - search has to be first obvious thing otherwise our users would just repeat entry of same issues).

** Looking at a Topic shows "The replies people found useful"
But I didn't realise that there was a whole thread associated with the topic - Need prominent UI for me to read all thread and to know that I am only seeing a subset of the thread. - for example: http://getsatisfaction.com/rescuetime...

** word "Topics" unobvious to newbies?
I just wanted to "search". [Dumb idea?: use integrated Google search - since most users familar that 'google' means search and understand google search results]

** "10 employees are listening and participating"
Listening implies online chat??? I spent a while looking for chat feature! Remove that word or use subscribed or reading?

** I said close to the hint/tip "New feature! Now you can add products and companies...." but it shows again when I next logged in. (Perhaps because I had cookies turned off).

** the caret disappeared just in the bottom half of the "what seems to be the problem" entry box in FF... Seems to be due to the div id="live_results" and this bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug... because caret re-appears after the live_results pops up.

Sorry for multiple items - I wanted to quickly list my first impressions of UI problems I myself had.

I am just a bit worried that your service won't be suitable for use by our *very* non-web-savvy users. (Although integrating Get Satisfaction into our own website would solve some of the above).

Generally your service looks fantastic! Looking forward to seeing how it improves as you get enough time to tweak the UI.

It has taken me more than 5 minutes to work out how to use the search functionality - something that should be immediately obvious... I knew the feature *must* exist but I had trouble with it. I am sure many other newbie users would have the same problem - is "searching for a relevant post" part of your usability testing (with fresh newbies!)?

Also the go button doesn't seem to work: For example, I select 'Topic', type in 'other' (any keyword which has results), and click "go" (or press return) too quickly and *nothing* happens... Why doesn't it take you to the "See all search results" page (which is great - once I found it!). I just quickly typed in something and clicked Go before the dropdown even showed! Broadband user (in NZ - 250ms ping) using FF2.

Looks great!