IDSA's new web site

Yes but we are volunteering for something that is awesome, and fun, and not a drudgery… I’ve volunteered for IDSA before… I know…

I’m sorry but I give absolutely NO slack on the site, and the fact that it is for a Fast Company deadline makes it all the worse. We are visual people, it would have been better to have a simple page with IDEA winners and very little else but have it be visually compelling.

I totally agree Yo, that’s the bigger issue with it aside from all the technical issues. It’s templated to the point that after !5! clicks, landing on the list of IDEA winners, the page looks like everything else. No hierarchy. I’m not a member, but I’m embarrassed. :frowning:

The only downside with volunteers building content is that you lose some focus and control.

Warren: I share the frustration. I’ve redone my own little website. It’s a huge task. I think IDSA would have been better off slowly unveiling the new website. Start with a few core features (member diretory, events) and then add the blogs, forums and chapter info later on.

I’m with Yo about the excuses and need for things to happen. Core77 can remake it’s website and likely has as many if not more articles, archived posts, etc. Core AFAIK is funded on ads. If IDSA can’t do the same quality of site with a paying membership, to me it’s a sign things are really broken.

I guess what we’re all saying to date on the new site is that a lot of content done bad is worse than a little content done good.

There are a few other great sites/blogs out there that I think would be a great starting point. The heart may be at the right place, but it seems like a case where the brain is in the wrong one.

As a starter I would question “what is the point of the IDSA site?” To me it seems unclear. Is it a membership recruitment tool? A resource? A daily offering of news? An archive? A tool for current members? Being all things to all people is the first step to fail. Not even getting into the UI issues…

R

I was reading back through this thread and I have to say this “we are listening but not responding” stuff is really starting to get aggravating. This is truly annoying given the fact that things continued to be done half way. Warren you are an exception to this as you post pretty frequent on these boards.

here is a great example of what could have been. Props to Sam Aquillano and Derek Cascio for working night and day on this. Full disclosure, I’m on the board of directors, and proud to volunteer my time here:

Yo! that is great website. Very simple, easy to see the different avenues to content. However, it has 10% of what IDSA.org has.

As a template though, that would have been a good jumping off point for IDSA.org

It has 10% in away that is 100% more readable. What good is all the content if I’m not going to look at it?

As mentioned, I’d guess Core has about the same amount of content. I also get a bit lost finding it sometime, and if you recall wasn’t so happy with the most recent revamp, but it is still way better than the IDSA site. I don’t even know where to start when looking at it, and the nav titles make no sense.

R

This is the same old IDSA. Clive and his team have worked on this web site for more than 7 months. And as I’ve been able to tell from Warren’s post, it sounds like they never sought input from chapter/section leaders or other volunteers, they just did the site the same way they do everything else–showing it to one or two “yes men” who aren’t willing to criticize or rock the boat despite the fact that it’s sinking. I heard from the leader of my chapter that they were recently told they’ll have to move their web site–which chapter volunteers create and maintain–onto IDSA’s platform, and change to IDSA’s design. That is not the way you treat volunteers! It’s one thing if you have a glut of people knocking on your door, but IDSA needs help, big time, and yet they keep cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Oh, and one other thing–the excuse about the Fast Company deadline–how long ago did they announce Fast Company’s partnership, like in late 2009/early 2010? Don’t you think they knew when they’d need to have their web site up?

Has anyone read the article in the last copy of Innovation on the IxDA (interaction designers association)?

The author claimed that the organisation and website have developed around a bottom-up approach and a lot of direct feedback with members.

Their website is also quite box heavy. It looks more contemporary to me though (at least more techie). The organisation of the website is VERY clear. The only part that doesn’t work for me is the discussion area. It seems more like a blog, but maybe that’s because I"m not a member.

http://www.ixda.org/

Does anyone (cg?) have experience with this organisation? I’d love to hear a comparison from someone first hand.

Great example of the IXDA site. Looks very easy to use, nice looking, lots of resources, social media integration, etc. This is what the IDSA site should be. Comparing the two makes it even more obvious how bad the IDSA site is.

R

That is an awesome benchmark, really nice and fun site. I like this page:
http://www.ixda.org/local/network

or this one:
http://www.ixda.org/resources

what is the membership fee for IxDA?

I have been one of IDSA’s supporters and have always learned that there is more to a story then what one sees. But the website is a big disappointment on so many levels especially after all the propaganda about how it would issue in the start of a new era and for IDSA to make excuses just follows suit. Far to many time is something completed then the explanations come as to why it wasn’t done the way they wanted it. In the end although there is effort for change it seem as if things are still being executed in the same fashion which has gotten IDSA into their current state.

I completely understand that it is hard to change direction of a large corporation (which is what IDSA is) and that unless you are a intricate part of the system there are many factors that effect things both positively and negatively which you cannot be aware of. But in the end I still have not seen the growth and development of the society that was promised.

What the solution is I can’t say but I do know that if things don’t change IDSA will lose to many current members and never be able to attract the younger generation. I would personally love to read the business plan that outlines the course of action…

On the join page, it says you only have to fill out the form… so free? :open_mouth:

that was my point :wink:

http://www.ixda.org/about/participate/donate

The member-supported IxDA gratefully accepts financial contributions from both individuals and organizations.

Without the generous contributions, participation and support of the global interaction design community, IxDA wouldn’t be where it is today. The Interaction Design Association, a 501(c)6 not-for-profit organization, is member-supported rather than membership-supported. You are a member if you say you are, and pay no dues. It’s that simple.

In order to support the development and maintenance of platforms such as IxDA.org, we rely heavily on our members’ contributions of volunteer time, as well as on revenue-generating events like our annual conference and the direct financial contributions of sponsors and members like you. We conduct semi-regular fundraising efforts, but appreciate contributions from our constituency at any time of year.

We thank you for your support! To donate to IxDA, please use this button:

Now that’s a membership model I can get behind! Also I’m sure greatly encourages satisfaction as you won’t complain if you don’t donate, and if you do, you help strengthen the popular events, etc. as opposed to paying for all and not liking what you get (IDSA).

R

There is now a Mr-914, IxDA. Pretty cool.

Having said that, it looks like IxDA does a lot less than IDSA outside of Cal. At least that’s my impression after crawling the website for a while.

Not sure if anyone’s checked it out in the midst of all the uproar, but a group of us here at Ziba have been helping out IDSA recently to get this up and running:

http://idsadiy2010.org/


It’s the microsite for the upcoming IDSA conference, and I’d be curious to hear what people think. Still a work in progress, built on a Wordpress platform with a fairly narrow range of content, but it’s aiming to address some of the concerns that have come up so far about information overload, navigability, visual consistency, etc.

I’d love to get feedback and opinions from the target audience (i.e. most of Core’s readership), as we’re going to be adding a lot more content between now and the conference in August, and are hoping to make it useful to the ID community in general, even if they’re not coming to Portland.