[Sigia-l] defining acct. profile

[Christopher Fahey [askrom]]

> -- I also belive subscription option should be part of the account
> maintenance section, along with changing password, update job 
> title, etc.
> 
> The technologist ... is convinced the user should be able 
> to change a subscription without access the account 
> maintenance section. From the position of a novice user on 
> a shared machine, I think there's room for problems. That 
> of course there should be a link from the threaded 
> discussions, but as the site grows there will be other 
> subscription opportunities and they will all be managed in 
> the account section.

You have at least three relevant user goals to support for users looking
at a discussion list page:
 1) I want to quickly make a simple change (i.e., subscribe/unsubscribe)
to my settings for this discussion list. 
 2) I want to make some more complex changes (i.e., digest on/off,
html/text, etc) to my settings for this discussion list. 
 3) I want to make some changes to my user account profile, some of
which have nothing to do with this discussion list. 

The third option is moot because it should be easily available anyway in
some global navigation/tools area. But what about the first two? Why not
have both? Have two features (links/buttons) on every discussion page:
 1) "subscribe/unsubscribe to this discussion"
       (button text changes based on whether or not the user is
subscribed)
 2) "more discussion settings"
       (jumps to the appropriate account management page where the user
can then make more detailed changes)

Just an idea...


> Am I too attached to my solution? 

You may simply be reluctant to do something seemingly 'inconsistent'
with the idea that all account changes must be made in the account
management section. I have found that non-IAs sometimes come up with
great user-centric ideas ("just put a link right there!"), ideas that
"real" IAs overlook or rule out because of our own biases towards
consistency, compartmentalization, hierarchies, etc. 

Cheers,

-Cf

[christopher eli fahey]
art: http://www.graphpaper.com
sci: http://www.askrom.com
biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com