[Sigia-l] defining acct. profile

[Jody Hankinson]

Recap:

Project: extranet with 10,000 users, wide skill range, wide technology
including shared computers.

- In June, new functionality will include unique user ID and threaded
discussions
- If user can subscribe to threads, where does that user manage those
subscriptions?
a) account profile (that requires user validation)
b) threaded area (no user validation)
c) other
- Testing is not an option

My concern is that novice users on shared machines will change each others
settings causing maddness. Tech/customer support budget is limited. I
think the subscriptions should live in the accout area with links from the
threaded discussions. The technologist, who thinks of himself as an IA,
thinks users will not make subscription changes if they have to validate.

My solution: be conservative, do it my way to start, test as soon as money
and time are available.

The tech solution: no user validation to make any account or subscription
changes and if someone complains, change it later.

My question to the group: Now what? I think the alternate solution is bad.
I am willing to concede I may have lost perspective, but with this user
base I would hate to have some account confusion and loose them entirely
than an extra step.



Jody A. Hankinson
  Information Architect........| Translating strategy and processes
hank99 at bway.net                | into digital experiences.
917.749.0910