[Sigia-l] Contextual vs. Consistent: Contact Us

[Matthew deStwolinski]

Blair:
> So does the benefit of having more specific contact information
outweigh 
> the inconsistent response from that link?

The answer, of course, is it depends.  Unfortunately, it depends on a
lot of information that wasn't included in your post.  Fortunately, your
e-mail domain gives a good guess as to what large government portal
you're referring to. ;-)

I did a Google search on 

	"Contact Us" site:gov.bc.ca

to see some examples of local contact pages.  Most of them seem to still
be using an older template (and masthead), but I found one that looks
(mostly) like the main portal, the Residential Tenancy Office.  On that
page, the masthead has already been "localized" with the options above
the search box to search the entire province site or just the
residential tenancy site.  

Assuming I'm not just getting some poor folks in residential tenancy in
trouble, it appears the sanctity of the masthead appearance isn't
complete.  Would it be an option to have a "contact us" equivalent of
the choice offered for searching?  Contact BC vs. Contact the
Residential Tenancy Office?  That would seem to be a useful alternative.

The contact information given for residential tenancy appears much,
much, much more useful in the context of this subsite (as does that for
all of the other contact pages Google listed) that the generic contact
page (which for those who haven't seen it, has 4 phone numbers, 1
e-mail, and two TDD numbers for the entire province).  Would anyone ever
likely want to go to the generic contact page, just because they noticed
the link at the top but not the local one in the left nav?  You could
put a local contact link somewhere else, but just because it's there
doesn't mean people will notice both or necessarily use one over the
other.  If they're right on top of each other, the odds increase
somewhat.  My admittedly hasty order of recommendation would be:

1. Two links up top
2. Just a local link up top
3. Just the generic link up top, with a local link elsewhere

Listera:
> You can consistently have the same label (Contact Us) point to the
"same"
> page from different contexts simply by putting up the local info up
top 
> when appropriate, then followed by global info which would be
persistent 
> on all pages.

Good idea.  They're actually already doing this somewhat, and they've
even tied it in fairly well.  If there's no office in your area, one
suggestion given is to call the generic telephone number and ask for the
office nearest you.  What's missing, though, are the other generic
contacts, in particular the TDD numbers.  If those are not listed here,
a link to the generic contact page could serve instead.

Another way to avoid confusion here, especially for differences between
one subsite and another, would be to more clearly label these local
subsite contact pages. For instance, change the page title from "Contact
Us" to "Contact a Residential Tenancy Office".  I would still prefer,
however, to have it clear to the user what contact information they're
choosing to begin with.  That's when they're most likely to notice it.

Hope you find that helpful, and not too revealing.

Matthew deStwolinski