[thelist] Usability question: home page vs dashboard at same URL

Fri Sep 16 14:17:02 CDT 2016

Since my original email I actually looked at Twitter while signed out and
they do have completely different content for '/' depending on whether the
user is logged in. I am guessing the designer was taking a cue from huge
sites that do this.

I agree the main reason to allow logged in users to see the home page
similarly to non-logged in is going to be so they can share the marketing
material - this is a specialized and private social network that will only
work for users if other people they personally know are also users.

Projecting into the future, the marketing videos on the public home page
are going to be created at some expense and I am guessing on that account
alone the owner is going to want them available to all users all the time.
The obvious solution to me is to keep the home page after the user is
signed in and make the signed in dashboard a different page. I suppose I am
mostly frustrated that it doesn't seem my co-workers are thinking ahead in
the same way I am.

My favorite suggestion so far though is to make the dashboard a different
url and replace the home page content with an error, "Sorry, the content
you are trying to view is public. Please sign out to access this content."
Ha ha.

On Fri, Sep 16, 2016 at 1:45 PM, Nadeem Hosenbokus <nadeem at nadeemh.com>
wrote:

> " Users who want to remind themselves why they are using the service" -
> brilliant! Have you ever seen a TV show called Argumental? You'd be perfect
> ;-)
>
> I understand though - the marketing still has value for registered users in
> terms of their information for word-of-mouth promotion. That would
> constitute a big difference between this and Facebook and Twitter.
>
> Those would be the selling points to the client if you have to convince
> them
> to provide access to a fixed homepage and put the dashboard on a different
> URL. Also, there's nothing to lose is there?
>
> What is the gain in value by replacing the homepage with a dashboard? If
> it's ease-of-use, then you could automatically redirect logged in users to
> their dashboard if they hit the homepage.
>
> Using a GET parameter can disable the redirection so, for example:
>
>         "index.php" would redirect to "dashboard.php" for users who are
> logged in (identified by a cookie or session).
>
>         "index.php?redirect=false" would not redirect.
>
> So in the navigation for logged in users, you would put the GET parameter
> on
> the home link, but not on the navigation for public users.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Nadeem Hosenbokus
> (230) 5766 9169
> www.nadeemh.com
> http://mu.linkedin.com/in/nadeemhosenbokus
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
> [mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Mattias Thorslund
> Sent: 16 September 2016 18:28
> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: Re: [thelist] Usability question: home page vs dashboard at same
> URL
>
> I guess the value of showing the marketing content to "sold" users might
> be:
>
> * Users can refer to it when recommending the service to someone else.
> * Users can refer to it when someone questions the benefit of spending
> money/time/resources on the service.
> * Users who want to remind themselves why they are using the service ;)
> * Not confusing users who want to do any of the above.
>
> There may be value in making the marketing content difficult to find for
> "sold" users:
> * Users cannot compare the promised benefits to those actually received. ;)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mattias
>
> On 2016-09-16 15:50, Nadeem Hosenbokus wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm assuming that the marketing on the unauthenticated homepage is to
> > sell the service. Once sold, the user wouldn't need to see the marketing
> anymore.
> >
> >
> > Is there any value in the marketing content for someone who has
> > already registered?
> >
> > Incidentally, wouldn't there still be a "home" link regardless? It
> > would link to either the marketing homepage or the dashboard.
> >
> >
> > Nadeem Hosenbokus
> > (230) 5766 9169
> > www.nadeemh.com
> > http://mu.linkedin.com/in/nadeemhosenbokus
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
> > [mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of erik mattheis
> > Sent: 15 September 2016 22:40
> > To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> > Subject: [thelist] Usability question: home page vs dashboard at same
> > URL
> >
> > I have a project that has a "public home page" containing marketing
> > messages and overviews of the site's functionality. There is also a
> > logged in dashboard with user generated content.
> >
> > I am implementing the design and noting the absence of a link to "home"
> > from the logged in page and an absence of any way to get to the
> dashboard.
> > I heard from the UX person on the project that "there won't be a
> > public home page if they're signed in".
> >
> > Sites like Facebook and Twitter have completely different content at
> > the root URL, but there are two major differences I see:
> >
> > A. We have a lot more than a login form on the not-logged in home page
> > - videos, marketing materials and overviews of services.
> > B. We are not Facebook or Twitter
> >
> > Is it that big of a deal to make a significant amount of mostly
> > marketing material unavailable to users after they have logged in?
> >
> > What are your thoughts? If we are going to hide the content what is
> > the best way to do it? redirect logged in users to the dashboard from
> > / or replace the content of / with the dashboard?
> >
> > What would be the best way of explaining the problem I see so if I end
> > up being overruled, I'll know I did everything I could?
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Erik Mattheis
> >
> > http://www.flickr.com/gelk
>
>
> --
>
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-- 
Erik Mattheis

http://www.flickr.com/gelk