[Sigia-l] correction

[Samantha Bailey]

in my recent post a key sentence should read: "we are NOT operationally set
up to make this easy on our users and they will typically be routed to
several people in their interactions with us.


Samantha Bailey
samantha at baileysorts.com | http://baileysorts.com

"Do you know what that trick is? Magicians would call it the redirection.
A theologian would note that it parallels a theme found in all religions:
the paradox of turning away from the goal to achieve the goal."
-Karl Fast


----- Original Message -----
From: "Samantha Bailey" <a2slb at earthlink.net>
To: <Sigia-l at asis.org>; <argus-alumni at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 10:45 AM
Subject: [Sigia-l] examples of well designed directories


> Hi,
>
> This is a relatively long post--if you have interest in or experience with
> creating directories, please read on, as I could use the input of fellow
> professionals on this one.
>
> I'm working on a project that involves several directories of contact
> information (name, phone, address, email). Our primary challenge in this
> project has been that presenting our information in aggregate via the web
> more or less forces us to reveal how complicated our inner workings
> are--when it comes to getting our users access to a specific person, we
are
> operationally set up to make this easy on our users and they typically
will
> be routed to several people in their interactions with us rather than
having
> a convenient single point of contact.
>
> To that end, there has been a lot of debate over the best way to present
the
> directory. I have been opting for a version that presents the full
directory
> via a long menu of categories presented alphabetically with the reasoning
> that by the time the user has gone to the effort and has successfully
found
> the directory, we should get them to the contact information as quickly as
> possible. The folks in the later part of the alphabet, who appear well
below
> the fold, however, are unhappy with this approach and would like the
> directory to be set up in more of an onion format, inserting some
additional
> layers but making each group of categories smaller and thereby fitting all
> of them into a single screen. There is some scroll vs click preference
stuff
> going on here, but really this seems to be more about ego and presentation
> than a desire to do what is best for our users.
>
> I have two sets of questions:
> *What are the examples of the best directories you've seen out there and
> why? Do they tend to function as scrolling menus, onion layered menus,
> other?
>
> *Is anyone aware of research around directory structure/functionality?
>
> Thanks very much. I will summarize all responses for the group.
>
> Samantha Bailey
> samantha at baileysorts.com | http://baileysorts.com
>
> "Do you know what that trick is? Magicians would call it the redirection.
> A theologian would note that it parallels a theme found in all religions:
> the paradox of turning away from the goal to achieve the goal."
> -Karl Fast
>
>
>
> ------------
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> *Plain text, please; NO Attachments
>
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