New front page for Open Steno Project

Svetlana Kouznetsova

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Feb 7, 2014, 5:41:55 PM2/7/14

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Hello!

I'm attaching a wireframe (rough sketch) for a new front page to be used on: http://openstenoproject.org/. I've been working with Mirabai on this.

The wireframe will help us figure out whether certain parts of content are relevant or could be updated. We need your feedback on the wireframe regarding structure and content. Some words that are underlined or in buttons have links to give you a better idea of where those links/buttons go.

Once we get feedback on the wireframe and get answers to questions below, I will convert the wireframe into a bare-bones HTML page and get your feedback again regarding content and functions. Then we will finalize the page with design, color, photos, etc.

Also, I have some questions that will help us with feedback:

- Do you like both Aviary and Google groups or would you prefer to participate in just one group - i.e. Google?

- Do you prefer the download link on top of page instead of going down to the "Get Started" section?

- Which of the "Ways to Pratice" parts do you use most and why?

- Which parts are more relevant to you as a coder/technie/developer or as a writer/translator/data person or as a current or prospective steno student?

- Why are you interested in Plover - are you a coder or a writer or a steno student?

- Where would you use the page most - on a desktop or a mobile device?

- Any other feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,
Sveta
Web/UX Designer and Accessibility Specialist
www.svknyc.com
www.audio-accessibility.com

plover-wireframe-final.pdf

Johnny Sagan

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Feb 8, 2014, 8:22:33 AM2/8/14

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I definitely think that only one group is better!

Sent from my iPhone

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Mirabai Knight

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Feb 9, 2014, 6:35:21 PM2/9/14

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Thanks for the feedback, Johnny! Anyone else like to weigh in? The
more opinions we can have from this core group of Plover users, the
better! And many thanks again to Sveta for doing this for us on a
volunteer basis. It's gonna be really useful to have a single powerful
hub to point people to from now on.

Scoon

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Feb 9, 2014, 8:26:52 PM2/9/14

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I definitely agree that having one single landing page that links to all the separate resources would be great. It's a little hard explaining plover / stenosaurus to people, and so something like this would work really well.

-Scoon

Mauricio

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Feb 10, 2014, 1:29:33 AM2/10/14

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Hi Svetlana

Personally, I would prefer only one group. I have to admit that the Google group feels more convenient since I haven't checked the Aviary in months, but I do like the layout of the Aviary forum.

I prefer the download link under the Get Started section. Considering that installation isn't identical in all the supported operating systems, it makes sense that the user be led to a "Get Started" section where the different approaches can be better explained. On top of that, the user will notice that they do need at least an NKRO keyboard for the full experience, so it helps to manage expectations if they still want to try it out.

I would use the page the most on a desktop, simply because that's where I run the software.

Other feedback: Great job on the layout. I like the idea of pulling everything together in one place.

1. There are a couple of videos in the plover wiki http://stenoknight.com/wiki/FAQ that I really enjoy. They illustrate the world of difference of the typing experience between QWERTY and steno. I wish there were something like that on top of the speed comparison; the numbers are serious business, but the videos help a new user to understand how it can happen. I'm not saying that we should use the particular videos in the wiki, but short snippets of steno in action like the split-screen demos would fit nicely in that page.

2. There is a section of "How is Plover different from commercial steno programs?" above "What is stenography?" It's probably already the case, but I think that "What is stenography?" should appear before "How is Plover different from commercial steno programs?".

3. I feel that the "How is Plover different..?" section could benefit from more formal wording, e.g. "...$700 upgrade fee after shelling out for a..." -> "...$700 upgrade fee after purchasing a $3,000..." or "... other court-reporting flimflam..." -> "...other proprietary professional court-reporting software/utilities..."

4. Maybe you can show a screenshot of the cluttered-up proprietary software running on Windows to contrast with the seamless execution of Plover for writing e-mails or editing vim.

Looks great so far. I'll be keeping an eye, for sure! :D

Mau

Daiko L.

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Feb 9, 2014, 7:37:29 PM2/9/14

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I like what I've seen so far, but I'll add more to this after I take a closer look at the layout- I really would like to have a donation button on the site so I can contribute to the projects in the future when I have some funds to spare since this is very important!

Thank you all for the hard work so far~

Web Presence:

Joshua Harlan Lifton

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Feb 13, 2014, 6:23:25 PM2/13/14

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Hi Svetlana,

Thanks for putting this together and getting the ball rolling. I think
the Open Steno Project website should answer three fundamental
questions:

1) What is the Open Steno Project?
2) How can the Open Steno Project help me?
3) How can I help the Open Steno Project?

Of course, these three questions can be broken up into a bunch of
pieces. For example:

1) What is the Open Steno Project?
a) explanation of stenography
b) benefits of stenography
c) history of stenography
d) people involved
e) projects involved
f) motivations and charter statement
2) How can the Open Steno Project help me?
a) education, tutorials, and practice aids
b) free software for existing stenotypes
c) low-cost hardware
d) advice from a friendly community
e) home for your related project
3) How can I help the Open Steno Project?
a) donate money
b) buy a product
c) request a feature
d) file a bug
e) join a mailing list
f) start a sub-project
g) test new releases
h) write a guest blog post
i) contribute to the wiki
j) donate real goods (keyboards, stenotypes, etc.)
k) contribute code via Github

Of course, none of this necessarily maps to the actual layout of the
website, but it helps me to keep our goals clearly in mind. I probably
missed some points. Any suggestions?

Cheers,
Josh

S K

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Feb 13, 2014, 6:56:15 PM2/13/14

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Josh,

Thanks for your feedback. What Mirabai and I are working on is a “hub” page, not the whole website. :0) It will list most important things and users can explore more on other websites linked to that “hub” page (like Plover Wiki, Mirabai’s blog, Gitnub, etc). Users would feel overwhelmed when seeing too much content on that page. That’s why I developed a wireframe to include only important components. The questions you asked are already on that page and you did not answer mine.

Regards,

Sveta

-------------------------------
Svetlana Kouznetsova

Web/UX Designer and Accessibility Specialist

Website: www.svknyc.com
Website: www.audio-accessibility.com
Twitter: @svknyc

Facebook: AudioAccessibility
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paulo paniago

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Feb 13, 2014, 10:12:02 PM2/13/14

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Hello Svetlana, I thought that Josh had made a great summary guiding our feedbacks. Through those simple questions, its easier for us to know where to focus our attention when analyzing your wireframe.

Now that you said he didn’t answered your question that confused me.

The questions he did might be answered in your wireframe but are not easily distinguishable as the way he did.

Could you give an example of what kind of feedbacks you are looking for?

And those other questions, you made as items, are to be answered here?

Mike Neale

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Feb 14, 2014, 6:03:05 AM2/14/14

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Hi Sveta. Looks great!

Personally I only use the google group. Not sure how active the Aviary is but I've only ever posted in here.

Having a download link at the top of the page is a good idea I think as this will get people right into trying it. This would need to go to a page with the download links for all the operating systems.

I think a really important feature of this page would be a "Try It!" link somewhere at the top which would go to the "Plover Demo" page so users can try steno right there in their browser. That's the first thing I did when I found the Plover home page and it was AMAZING to be "playing" with steno merely seconds after googling it.

I think the order of the page should be something like:

"What is stenography" followed immediately by "What is Plover".

First of all, telling the user what steno is and then getting to the good news of Plover being free and able to work with their current keyboard.

On the "Ways the Practice", I think "Steno 101" could probably be removed as all aspects of this are covered in "Learn Plover!".

I think the core ways to practice (and learn) are:

Learn Plover!

QwertySteno

Plover Dojo

StenoTutor

I think having them in this order would be good based on what they each offer but I'm the author of QwertySteno.com so I'm biased :)

Here's my justification:

Learn Plover! is instructional and completely tailored to the Plover steno theory. This is obviously the best place to start.

QwertySteno is instructional based on the Plover theory and has interactive practice material as you learn. There are also games and you can create custom practice material and it will work with any Plover dictionary / steno theory.

PloverDojo is an interactive instructional site tailored to the Plover steno theory. It works with your google account to track your progress.

StenoTutor is a word drill application that has to be downloaded but will work with any steno theory.

Read the above with a pinch of salt as I obviously know more about the features of QwertySteno than the others and I may not be doing them any justice on what they are capable of.

Thanks

Mike

S K

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Feb 14, 2014, 8:55:37 AM2/14/14

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Thanks, Mike. Your feedback is very helpful!

-------------------------
Svetlana Kouznetsova

Web/UX Designer and Accessibility Specialist

www.svknyc.com

www.audio-accessibility.com
Twitter: @svknyc

Facebook: AudioAccessibility
Subscribe to Monthly Newsletter

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paulo paniago

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Feb 14, 2014, 1:13:12 PM2/14/14

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Hello,

I don’t know if I got thinks right here, but that will the first page when people browse for plover right?

Well, I was thinking, if I knew nothing about stenography, and I opened that page, I guess I would be a little frightened.

The frame for me would look like something specific to a niche or a profession and I probably wouldn’t look farer to give it a chance.

Generally I’m not very found of new things, or anything that I’m not familiar with. When people say: “it is very a simple, you only need to open this file, press caps lock, attach the third protocol…” I generally give up before giving them a chance to complete the explanation.

The way I saw, it seamed to me like if the site was ready to go into higher cerebral functions that I hardly would have stamina to accomplish.

Most techniques with lifestyle changing potential have only worked with me when they where given in very smooth doses - one little pill at a time.

I don’t know how that applies to other folks in here. Many in the plover community are programmers and wouldn’t have the same resistance, but with me a very easy introduction generally works better.

Something like:

“Ever wanted to type as fluently as you can speak? Ever felt behind, having tons of pages to type when you could be doing so much more with your life? Ever wanted to chat rapidly with your friends in the free hours?

Than maybe stenotype is what you are looking for. Once you give it a chance you might see it is not as complicated as it seams, and the best part: our program its completely for free.

Stenotype is a system of typing, much faster than the conventional, that you can learn through a series of games that we propose in our site.

The differences from conventional typing are basically two:

- That, instead of pressing a key at a time, spelling e-v-e-r-y letter you write, you press a few at the same time, in a manner, something similar to the speech, where you say syllables instead of e-v-e-r-y letter.

- And instead of typing every key, you learn to shorten them using basically five rules (those you will learn soon progressing in our games).

Unfortunately, as this technique uses a combination of keys pressed at the same time, you will need a keyboard with a special feature called n-key rollover. We will a give you a list of currently manufactured keyboards and machines that can properly work with our software. But before that, why don’t you give it a try with your own keyboard using a method we call “appergiate”.”

Than there would be a demo window for the person to already begin trying it. Than, by that step by step process, when the person was already half way familiar with terms and wasn’t feeling the same resistance as before, he could get to the structuralized page you showed.

I don’t know if what I’m saying is off topic here, but at least that would be the way it could work with me.

Message has been deleted

paulo paniago

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Feb 15, 2014, 5:17:08 PM2/15/14

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After my last lines, I was expecting some comments that could serve as guidance - at least to have an idea of what plovers thought of what I just posted. Since I haven’t received any, I decided to continue the above introduction from where I started, hoping not to be making foul of myself.

Before continue with my feedback, since I think RSI can be equally motivating for starters as fast typing, I would like to add another phrase for the first paragraph I wrote in the other comment:

“Ever wanted to type as fluently as you can speak? Ever felt behind, having tons of pages to type when you could be doing so much more with your life? Ever wanted to chat rapidly with your friends in the free hours? Or ever wondered, after years struggling against endless medical problems, if there could be some way easier on your fingers to interact with your desktop?”

Well, since the user have seen a first glance of stenotype and after trying to apperggiate a few simple words on the demo window, what would be his feelings, and what kind of approach would work better to bring him to the plover community?

I believe that, from the very beginning, he would be suspicious about the “best part: completely for free”. But for the moment, after just trying the demo, I believe he would honestly be curious about stenotype:

- What is stenotype?

- How did they come with this?

- Is it something serious, tested and approved or just another “willing to be” propaganda?

So I thought of some potentially charismatic phrases that could show stenography’s best face (I know they look commercial, but its just to illustrate the idea – and I couldn’t come up with anything better either):

“Stenotype is a established, century old technique used by court reporters all over the world. It is the fastest system of data input known to man. But, unfortunately, due its high prices in machinery and overall equipment, it has been historically restricted to niche market and professional use.

Stenotyping, after decades of development through a system of natural selection - where the fastest court reporters and best theories combined to give the simplest and most intuitive systems for professional verbatim writing – it entered the computer age with, up to now, unexplored potentialities.

Court reporters can type as fast as an average person can speak. We normally don’t realize how fast we can talk. These professionals attain speeds of over 200 words a minute - which is twice faster than some very fast conventional typists.

Those words per minute relation means that they are able to write a thousand words document in only five minutes.

Although these specialized writers attain that level of ability after massive training, it is not that difficult, not that hard at all, to get to somewhere in the middle of that capability. For instance, if you get to “only” half that speed, which you can expect after some months of training, you will already be typing faster than most people you have ever known”.

After an introduction to stenotype, I imagine it would be a good moment to explain what plover is, what stands for its goals, why is it an open source, and what are the motivations from people behind the project. There could be a moment to answer questions like:

- What was the previous life story of Mirabai that gradually led her into a journey for popularizing stenotype?

- Who’s the programmer who actually made the system and, naturally, by whom is it being running?

- What kind of professionals or contributors participate in the project?

Notice that all of the above shouldn’t take long to get to the main page. In the main page, which would be this organized wireframe, the user could choose to where he would want to go. I think he should come to that page already prepared for the choices the site has to offer and not having to understand what it is.

Will Young

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Feb 17, 2014, 9:43:25 AM2/17/14

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I like the wireframe and I think it covers a lot of directions people may be looking to go. I would guess the github logo at the top is intended to go to the summary of repositories (rather than github's mainpage) but I tend to interpret a guhub icon as a navigation-less trustmark. So I'd probably find a "develop" link under participate and/or "source repositories" under download first.

Also, I have some questions that will help us with feedback:

- Do you like both Aviary and Google groups or would you prefer to participate in just one group - i.e. Google?

I find the Avairy makes more sense for categorizing beginner questions but shouldn't have the in depth categories (can it link to the google group?)

- Do you prefer the download link on top of page instead of going down to the "Get Started" section?

Yes, even if I am getting started knowing immediately that there is something to download is significant and what I usually do first (to make sure I am not going to hit a pay/register wall midway through starting.)

- Which of the "Ways to Pratice" parts do you use most and why?

http://qwertysteno.com/Basics : very basic, good explanations, with visual feedback of what I am pressing (important on a -nkro laptop keyboard) and no time limits.

- Which parts are more relevant to you as a coder/technie/developer or as a writer/translator/data person or as a current or prospective steno student?

Repositories and list of package dependencies are critical for my use of plover on Linux. As a Steno beginner I really just need a nice web interface like qwertysteno.com.

- Why are you interested in Plover - are you a coder or a writer or a steno student?

Programmer interested in learning Steno.

- Where would you use the page most - on a desktop or a mobile device?

Desktop size, but often minimal HTML5,CSS,JS capabilities (Raspberry Pi's have horrible browser choices.)

- Any other feedback is appreciated.

I do think the additional content (social, video,etc) is a good idea for capturing more mainstream attention rather than already interested Steno users or programmers..

Svetlana Kouznetsova

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Feb 18, 2014, 12:43:23 PM2/18/14

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Thanks, Mauricio!

Svetlana Kouznetsova

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Feb 18, 2014, 12:44:25 PM2/18/14

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Daiko - there's actually a donation button in my wireframe. I look forward to your answers to my questions.

Svetlana Kouznetsova

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Feb 18, 2014, 12:45:07 PM2/18/14

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Thanks, Will!

Svetlana Kouznetsova

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Feb 18, 2014, 12:48:18 PM2/18/14

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Hello again,

Thanks to those who took a look at my wireframe and answered my questions. Today is the last day I'm collecting feedback on the wireframe before I create a barebones HTML prototype. The purpose of the wireframe is to avoid big changes after the project is complete, so the more feedback I have now for the wireframe, the less changes would be done with the each stage of the project and the more time would be saved.

Thanks,
Sveta

Steven Bhardwaj

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Feb 18, 2014, 1:50:57 PM2/18/14

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Thanks Svetlana and all,

I'm fine with leaving out the Plover Aviary. But the ploversteno google group is focused on more technical stuff right now. We don't have a lot of people reporting updates on their growing speed with plover to the google group.

Other forums like my memory techniques forum have thriving message boards about this kind of thing, where enthusiasts post their latest progress and speeds.

Ex: http://mnemotechnics.org/forums/card-deck-memorisation-post-your-times-here-1148.html

Would we welcome this category of comments in a thread on this google group?

Cheers,

-Steven

-Steven Bhardwaj

stevenb...@gmail.com

opportunityforus.net

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Mirabai Knight

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Feb 19, 2014, 12:01:53 AM2/19/14

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Yeah, the original intention of the Aviary was to be a place for steno
newbies to talk about their day-to-day progress in learning; a
higher-traffic space for people to chat and socialize, so that they
wouldn't flood this usergroup, which is more about technical and
development issues. So far it's been very quiet in comparison to this
group, but I have to admit I'm a little reluctant to close it down,
just on the off-chance that the release of the Stenosaurus will cause
the floodgates to open and leave us with hundreds of enthusiastic
steno noobs who want desperately to talk about their learning process.
I don't know that we'd want to send them here, since I think the
amount of traffic we have currently is about at the limit of casual
readability. But maybe we can downplay the Aviary for now and
resurrect it if necessary once the hordes arrive.

Joshua Lifton

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Feb 19, 2014, 1:21:59 PM2/19/14

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This might just be a naming problem. Perhaps all we need to do is
better name this group and the Aviary to reflect how they should be
used. Something like "The Training Room" or "Taking Flight".

Steven Bhardwaj

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Mar 5, 2014, 9:18:05 AM3/5/14

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On the topic of the Aviary:

Everyone reads their online forums differently; I like to receive everything in my email inbox, and I further prefer to respond from there as well.

GoogleGroups has an option under MyGroups>ManageMemberships to receive an email for every forum post someone makes.

Some months ago I searched for a similar option for the Aviary. As silly as it sounds, my inability to find such an email option was likely a contributing reason for why I wasn't posting on my progress very much over that time. Reading some of rpietro's and ploverlover's inspiring plover-beginner posts in February might have encouraged me to start posting in the Aviary more.

However, now I have stumbled into the relevant option for the Aviary!

- The Aviary's homepage is the "Board Index". It contains 9 forums: 4 Hatchlings forums, 3 Fledglings forums, and 2 Dotterels forums.

- Clicking on one of these forums brings you to a list of threads. Scrolling to the bottom, there is a "Subscribe Forum" option. (see screenshot attached) I enabled this option for each of the 9 forums, and now I will be "notified" each time someone posts to any of the forums. I hope the notification will be an email, I didn't find any "notifications" settings option in the control panels.

Perhaps a link to this subscribe option could be made more obvious somewhere in the Aviary? (low priority)

Cheers,

-Steven

aviary_subscribe.jpg

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