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NEW PLATFORM STRUCTURE for our Community
- This topic has 59 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by
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Hello wonderful people!
I decided to dedicate my Design Bachelor Thesis to the Topic “Online Community / Collaborative Research & Design”.
Focus will be to improve/find a better solution for the platforms of our (Precious Plastic) Community!
To describe in a few words:
This Forum contains so much valuable information, so much potential, but – like in every forum – there is a lack of overview, so things get lost, same questions get asked several times, it’s hard to keep track etc.
There is also a high demand and potential for (local) exchange and collaboration, so I won’t force myself to stick to the format of a forum but imagine it more as a platform for collaborative research & projects, with a good structure/way to find information and work with it.
As the outcome should work for YOU, the whole Community, I am hoping to get a lot of your feedback and ideas, so we can TOGETHER work on a solution which suits our needs. 💪
Aim: Design a new structure & user interface for our Community.
Outcome: Probably (as a start) an interactive prototype of the platform(s), and then see where it goes.
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WHOEVER INTERESTED in clicking his/her way through my (maybe a bit chaotic) thoughts, feel free to TEST THE PROTOTYPE here:
➡️ Precious Plastic Platforms – FOCUS on the FORUMS (including map etc.)
💡Share your feedback with me, what aspects you like/don’t like and what other ideas you have!
💬 You can even comment it IN the draft (you will have to create an account though).
☝️Bare in mind: this is all work in progress and a lot of trying-out. So don’t be irritated by visuals/layout or weird links.
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UPDATE (Dec 2018): Topic closed – We have a webteam now, creating a super powerful platform! 🙂
For anyone interested, here my THESIS 📖
@katharinaelleke
Wooooooooooow I completely missed you were already that far with your project!
AMAZING work & ideas, I cannot wait to see them becoming a reality!
Keep up the wonderful work!
All the best
Flo
Thank you @flo-2, happy to hear! 🙂
@yuri-fabris, indeed I had that in mind as well – actually pretty much EXACTLY how you described it 🙂
It would definitely be nice to have an extra page for all the workspaces/projects.
One option (don’t know how complicated to do) could be that for PP workspaces and other projects there could be shown a small summary on their Map Pin, directing to both Bazar Profile as well as Forum posts.
Currently not focussing on that, but it’s on the list!
Attachments:
@flo-2 @siemenc @yuri-fabris @imuh @xxxolivierxxx @jegor-m
Worked on the SUMMARIES and would be happy to get some more feedback (wrote some questions/thoughts in the draft, in yellow).
You can just try clicking on things and it will show you existing links, so go ahead and click your way through it!
Am currently trying to figure out:
1. In which MAIN TOPICS, CATEGORIES/ SUBCATEGORIES we can split up.
Would be happy to get your input here, it’s kind of tricky to cover everything without making it too complex.
(For this it’s maybe easier to comment in this GOOGLE-DOC.)
And also what aspects you’d like to have in the summaries – showing Results, FAQ, Top Topics, Contributors, Links,…?
2. How to best visualise it.
– OPTION A: Better to show a very quick content overview where you have to dive into more details by clicking your way through it?
👍 Easier to “digest” (not too much information) & “straight forward clicking”
👎 More clicking, maybe not instantly knowing the content of each area
– OPTION B: Or rather show more content (subcategories) earlier?
👍 More information to digest in the beginning, maybe confusing
👎 Less clicking, because you see more content
…?
Any other suggestions?
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@katharinaelleke
Just saw the post…
I will follow closely 👍 and comment 😁 when I take the time…
For your last post option B for me.
Thanks for this fantastic analysis
Dimitri
Hey @katharinaelleke !
I would rather go option B for the following reason : the more complexe the architecture, the more people will get lost.
Also, just tossing an idea like that, but it would be awesome if subjects could be emphasized considering the “advancement” of the user.
For example: a new comer on the forum would have more info on research on plastics & building the machines. Then once the user went through let’s say 5-6 topics on each of those 2 mentionned subjects, a new part of the forum would be emphasized with a logical follow, maybe the collecting & cleaning process (just an example).
If i’m saying that is because it seems that many people arrive here thinking everything is easy & served on a platter (for example transform all plastic waste into 3D Printer filaments only); If i am correct, the aim of the guide in the download kit for instance is to really encourage people to see the supplied info as a base for RESEARCH
added somes comments on the beta forum you updated; peace !
I like the small sidebar for workspaces on the map, it also fits machines builders. It’s not hard to do (ok ok, actually, I never messed with WordPress but with other technologies, it is not complicated).
I’ve added some comments on your doc @katharinaelleke.
Aaand, I’m all about option A. There is a thin distinction that needs to be made here.
@imuh, I do agree that the first design is more complex, but it is only for developers to make it. What is more complex UI for a user to navigate through and quickly and instinctively find information: showing everything at once or funneling it down as his/her interest goes?
By sticking to option A, we are asking the user whether s/he wants something or not. Do you want to know about “Cleaning“? If so, you will get a set of subcategories about it and if not we won’t show you these things because you don’t need it.
And I don’t want all the information, I want the information that I need right now. This is how I think in the day-to-day.
It gets worse when I want to switch subcategories… it is a lot easier to spot one item amongst seven than it is to spot this same item amongst thirty. And in case the categories and subcategories big list never get removed from the page, it includes scrolling down and up because it has a lot of height. If it does get out, then you have to go back on the browser history to see it again while option A can stay there all the time and enable instant switches.
These are my thoughts. I think option A is quicker and simpler than option B.
Aloha
I agree with @yuri-fabris and am in the option A-team. I think it’s simpler and less intimidating at a first glance. You could possibly provide those subcategories when you hover over the categories, to prevent more unnecessary clicking.
@siemenc @yuri-fabris @imuh @dbougas @flo-2 @jegor-m
ANOTHER UPDATE
First of all, thank you so much for your valuable feedback!Talked to Dave and figured out it would make sense to gather all information in the “START” section where all the Video-Tutorials, Information & Download pack are. (Side note: I renamed it ”Get started” as I got the feedback that “START” is confusing for most people.)
And yep, @yuri-fabris this would probably be something equivalent to a PRECIOUS PLASTIC WIKI (There have been some around, but seems like none of them existing anymore… If you find one, let me know!)
We’ll use the existing pages and fill in the most important information (information&experiences from us AND the community/forums).
Now the trick is still to make sure to find this information through the forums as well. So forum would stay forum, but
– more visualised and filterable (therefore efficient and fun to use)
– AND linking to the relevant parts of the WIKI.
Get an impression here:
Attachments:
THE “WIKI”.
I tested the AI plugin Wordlift a bit and had a conversation with a Wordlift guy, and this plugin (at least as a starting point) could really help gathering all the information from the forums, categorising it and building up some sort of Knowledge Graph for Precious Plastic.
As you probably expect only somehow “verified” information in a wiki, it would then still be on the PP Team + experienced Community members to decide on WHICH information from the suggestions of the AI assistant will be shown in the wiki.
If anyone knows about a similar plugin/tool/service, which could work here please let me know!
[Would like to give an idea of how it works, but backend is currently not working, so I’ll add pictures later]
Here another example: Getting information about the shredder by…
1- Asking a question/ Search: Here it would show you suggestions (including WIKI entries and topics, maybe also Bazar/Map items etc.) BEFORE you are posting a new question.
2- Browsing through tags in the forums: Most used topics will be shown as tags (probably the possibility of choosing multiple tags would make sense). If existing, it will show the relevant bit of the WIKI on top of the topics.
3- Directly in the Wiki (From here you will again be directed to relevant forum topics and bazar/map items as well)
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ORGANISING DISCUSSIONS WITHIN A TOPIC
In the TOPICS themselves, the content could be categorised similarly to enable a more efficient reading (as we talked about before).
– Sorting by type of reply (question, idea, like etc.)
– And I would love if we could implement reactions like in Slack (with reactions and replies to the individual replies > wrapping it up into sub-discussions)
Attachments:
@siemenc @yuri-fabris @imuh @dbougas @flo-2 @jegor-m and everyone!
Am still working in this DRAFT and as always happy to hear how you think about it, what you like, what’s confusing/missing etc.
🕵🏻♂️ Main areas/scenarios where you can explore:
– looking for shredder/motor/motor alternatives
– looking for plastic/polystyrene
– asking a question
ℹ️ Tipp: Click on an empty space on each site, then you will see the “clickable” items.
💭 Still trying to figure out how to best show/apply the filter in the forum so it covers the most important categories/tags, but is not too much at once. How does it feel now? Too much/too little information shown? Any thoughts, ideas?
💭 Then also details/design like SEARCH & START A TOPIC: where is the best position, best wording, best way to go through the steps?
NEXT STEPS:
1) Have to write this f**king theoretical, scientific part 🤦🏽♀️
2) Outline 3-4 scenarios, like:
– Looking for information about PLASTIC BAGS (WIKI)
– Looking for experiences to CLEAN plastic (FORUM)
– Posting a question about MOULDS
– Answering to a topic
– Sharing an idea/progress/…
Sorry for coming in that late.
The overall direction of this thread is the main point that I’m missing about the PP story: a collection of all information that have already been discussed.
From my perspective the best solution for that topic is still the wiki way based on discussions and solutions of the forum.
Please proceed this way by raising a wiki (here or besides that community) to save every participant a bunch of time of scrolling, reading and getting lost in forums. (I do not say, that the forum should die.)
The quality of the wiki will raise each day due to the interest of the participants to help and be helped.
Hi @katharinaelleke
I have emailed Dave asking if we can collaborate together. As you, I see a huge potential in this platform, but the structure and organization must be adapted to get all the real potential.
Some time ago I spent some time doing some drafts about a platform-like website focused similar to Dave’s one, but much more sophisticated and complex.
Maybe I can help you extracting some concepts from mine and implementing them here.
Tell me what you think. 🙂
Hey @katharinaelleke
You are rocking ! so much work has been done, congratz !!
I love the way you are looking to centralize all the big guidelines and info; also good job on searching at an AI to centralize the information; there will have to be some sort of sctrictiness in the thread creating in order for “it/her/him” to be able to sort everything out (or am i totally wrong ? :p)
(sorry have issues adding comments on the virtual copy you are working on 🙂
– on the Events part you added ; do you think it should be free for anyone to add or would some sort of moderation be needed ?
-on the main page of the forum “plastic” you point the “learn about plastic” to the davehakkens page, which will integrate _i suppose_ wiki content + link to wiki; i know you brought it up already but couldn’t the AI help us out on setting a wiki up? :p
Concerning your “<b>ORGANISING DISCUSSIONS WITHIN A TOPIC” </b>i see you wish to add a slack feature; i’m not quite sure to understand how it would appear on the front end; the slack subdiscussions be public ? or specific to each slack server ?
Keep up the awesome work !
Peace
Nick
@katharinaelleke
Of course, I will examine some information and I will publish and, of course, cite you to get your feedback and also see what other members of the community think. 🙂
Merci beaucouuuup @imuh!
on the Events part you added ; do you think it should be free for anyone to add or would some sort of moderation be needed ?
Didn’t really think of that yet. I guess we could try with public first and if it gets too messy, we’ll have to take over? Something we can try to figure out, once we really implement it 😀 But I can imagine it could work without big troubles.
i know you brought it up already but couldn’t the AI help us out on setting a wiki up? :p
Yep, pretty sure about this possibility. The only question is how easy/expensive is it to apply it to our website…(?)
About the SLACK feature: I didn’t think of implementing Slack itself in our website, but rather copying some features it has (like the sub-conversations and adding emoji-reactions to each comment – very important 😁)
@whitaker, cool! Don’t know if it will become too much/too messy, but (depending how much it is) consider to add your thoughts/drafts in here, so it stays all together in one topic?
Of course, we can keep everything in this thread. It will be much easier to keep all easily accessible.
From previous experiences, I know that if we open one thread for each idea, then it’s much less efficient to find the information.
(sorry to cite you so much)After reading a little bit about all the ideas, I think they are really great. There is a huge amount of work to do, as always. After experiencing with some other projects, finally, a small amount of people has to do all the hard work.
I have been experimenting with different types of organization of tasks and management I have learned, at least, what hasn’t worked for us.
The things we’ve learned is:1. The rule of the 2 pizzas -> big groups usually loss efficiency. A specialized group must be no more than 7 people.
2. Keep only efficient people -> sometimes (and it always happens), some member of the group doesn’t do the tasks. This produces a contagious effect and the group starts to lose efficiency. There are some people that replace the 20% less efficient members of the group after a period of time.
3. Reward your team -> always give more than the things you promised to your team.
4. Develop efficient tools to perform tasks more efficiently -> always keep in mind that we need to constantly add efficiency to our processes. A tool that is incredibly efficient can exponentially reduce the time that the team needs to develop the concept.
5. Keep all the tools in only one platform -> make like Google with their tools. All are stored in the same platform. You don’t need to go to Yahoo to use one tool, then to Microsoft to use another tool, etc… All must be in one place.
6. High level of work division -> Do you remember the guy that spent 6 months and 1500 USD to get his sandwich? Well, if we add a very high level of work division, it will be possible to get better and faster results. I remember been working when I was 19, in a pizza shop and we had highly specialized tasks assigned to each person. For example, one guy was in charge of placing the cheese on the pizza, the next one placed the tomato on the pizza, etc. The result? high efficiency. The key? High specialization of work. Simple tasks, high speed while doing them.
For example, in website development a person that only programs HTML will be much more efficient than a full-stack web developer. HTML can be learned in less than a week. We can have a person that programs HTML in less than a week, working. A full-stack web developed takes months or even some year to get. And after, to get enough practice programming full-stack takes even more time. The HTML guy is faster and knows better all the tricks of HTML while the full stack guy is less efficient because it takes more time to get a full stack person than an HTML person. And full stack is exponentially more complex than HTML alone.
Tell me what you think.
@whitaker sorry for the late one (theoretical part is consuming quite some time at the moment).
I even got a notification from your post but couldn’t see it. Maybe try again now?
@whitaker probably your post was tagged as spam as was one of mine some time ago. You should contact a moderator to check it out. How many hyperlinks does your post contain?
@yuri-fabris, thanks – unspammed it! (could have checked that earlier 🤦🏽♀️)
@whitaker haha I actually just had to google the guy with the 1500USD sandwich – brilliant 😀
Very good points for making teamwork work. Not my focus at the moment, but will keep it in mind for the further development of the platforms, when we’ll think about introducing workgroups etc.!
Hi Katharina, don’t worry about that. It was strange to me don’t see you in this forum for days. But I was sure you would reply to the message. 🙂
Well, after reading again this thread I see that the post that disappeared is again in this thread. Maybe it was classified as spam (as @yuri-fabris suggested) and the moderators deleted from spam so the post is online again. The post I was referring to is the 9:49 one. In that post, I explained about 6 critical points I learned while experimenting with the creation of online projects and online groups.
Hi @yuri-fabris
As I told Katharina, the post is again in this thread. Maybe, as you said, it was classified as spam one and after a moderator reviewed it, the moderator placed the post again online.
As you can see, the post didn’t contain any link so I don’t know the reason it was deleted. But anyway, it is again online.
About the sandwich guy, it’s about efficiency. As you watched in the video, the guy wanted to get all the ingredients by himself. It took 6 months of his life to get a simple sandwich. What he demonstrated? the division of work is critically important. Lots of people performing simple tasks are much more efficient than one guy performing lots of tasks.
I cannot find the reference, but I remember reading some years ago a case that was explaining about the time it took to translate one book of Harry Potter. In less than 30 minutes, it was fully translated. Why? because there were tons of people translating just 1 page at a time rather than 1 person translating the whole book. Maybe one single person could spend weeks and lots of hours per day if he/she wants to translate the entire book. Tons of people spend few minutes in translating one single page of the book and the book was translated in few minutes. 🙂
Hi there, I have been seeing more in detail your suggestions for the website. I think it’s great. Maybe we can join your project and mine, the problem is the coding work will be so huge and complex even for a professional coder!
I don’t post a lot here, but I am working on this project.
Regards,
Jose.
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