Feedback on the New TMS Wiki Homepage (draft)

Well, the title says (most of) it - I need all of your feedback on the new homepage for the TMS Wiki ! Forest, Chuck, and myself have been developing this for a while now. Around the beginning of August, I started to implement all our ideas and created a draft for the homepage.

I really want to know, in your opinion, what isn't working? What is overwhelming? What is confusing? What is missing? On the flip side, what should we make sure not to change? I promise you, I will NOT be offended by anything you say. If you hate a color I've used, or you don't like the border of a box, or whatever, please say so. I want this homepage to be as useful -- and pretty! -- as possible, and you all are basically consumers of the site. Your opinion really matters here. So, if you have an opinion about something, I want to know about it. Suggestions as well as critiques are also welcome. I will say, I can't promise I'll change everything you bring up, but I can promise I'll listen

Just a note - you will see a reddish box in the top-right corner of the page with a heading that reads Today's Featured Success Story . This feature is, for now, under construction, so what you see right now is the text "This is the first* Featured Success Story" (*or second, third, etc. depending on the day you view the page). Eventually, this box will feature a success story that, thanks to some lovely technical wizardry, will change daily without us having to update it manually. The stories will be taken from the wiki's success stories database, the Thank You, Dr. Sarno letters, and this forum. So, for now, the featured success story part of the homepage isn't up yet. But, everything else should be in working order.

To view the homepage draft, visit: www.tmswiki.org/ppd/User:Becca/Sandbox3 .

Feel free to post thoughts/suggestions here, message me privately, or email me directly at becca@tmswiki.org . Thanks so so much in advance!

Becca

 

Wow, Becca! It looks so great! Thanks so much for all your hard work improving this site.

 

Like it, Becca. Like it a lot!

 

Ok, Becca the intro is great-awesome. Its exactly what our motto is (We've been there) every bit a great first place to look. And then you have our best program to date , the SEP. I have witnessed so many good people get their and heal- its a great thought out second place because here we get to walk them through or more like it they do the work and we can help with suggestions.
Then we have the Saturday drop in chat, man MatthewNJ and all the veterans are there ready to help out in a minute, I've learned a lot of information from all the good folks on the chat. Those guys are very, very helpful ( We love you guys). And the way you have the button to click here to join the chat, well that's exactly what the people needed. Its simple and direct.

That Tuesday night discussion group is often hard to find from the past so you've gone and fixed that. I went right to the page that shows all the discussions. I love this being right here for an access of ease, very good. Those guys have been doing pretty darn good. Now you have given us instant access , Thanks- I love it.

Yes, a big blue box that takes us right to the forum, very good. And it mentions 11,000 post- Wow. Again- Instant access, very good.

I love the webinars, its always good to hear from the Drs, Authors and Therapist about Tms. Just like Sarno used to do with his clients. Goes to prove this forum is more of a complete package than I even thought- very good.

You've done an excellent job so far and if I see a way we can improve ill be letting you know ok, but as of now, well id be a happy trooper to see so many folks have poured their hearts out like this- your awesome.

 

Becca, it looks FABULOUS! Way to go!

 

Great job, Becca, Forest and Chuck. As to suggestions:

1) I think newcomers might appreciate an explanation of the wiki's purpose, along these lines:

2) The PPD/TMS Peer Network label is difficult to cope with for me. Peer Network is fine but the PPD/TMS acronym is just not clear enough to carry these amazing concepts forward. It takes a sharp mind (sharper than mine, anyway) to understand and remember it. I think the ppd/tms community eventually needs to come to consensus on a better name. A brave undertaking, yes, but perhaps this is one way the wiki can show leadership. I hope so anyway.

Meanwhile, a short explanation of what PPD/TMS means seems essential to me (a clickable link to the explanation might do).

Eventually, others may have suggestions for the overall look but to me it looks beautiful and seems user-friendly as well.

 

Thank you all SO MUCH for your kind words and feedback!

This is AWESOME, and Forest agrees! It'll make the site very welcoming for newcomers. Needless to say, I've added it to the top section YAY for collaboration! (I did keep the slogan "We've been there. We can help." ...I do like having that prominently displayed!) Thanks so much, Njoy!

Also -- I'm happy to announce that the Daily Success Story feature is now up and running -- if you're viewing it today (Friday 11/15/2013) you should see Forest's face & the beginning of his success story

So, the PPD/TMS Peer Network isn't just a label - it's actually the official name of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that sponsors the TMS Wiki and all other projects (such as this forum). I do know the terminology can be confusing, though, and I think your idea of adding some sort of an explanation is a good one (you're not the only one who isn't clear on the terminology). We have, in my opinion, a pretty great wiki page explaining why people (not just us!) were starting to use the term PPD more. You can check it out at http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Why_PPD . I've gone ahead and added a link to that page in the top-left section (for the PPD/TMS Peer Network) and in the About Us section (if you click on "PPD" in the sentence, "The PPD/TMS Peer Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit" it'll take you to the Why PPD wiki page).


Getting close, guys!! So excited about this!

 

Thanks for the link explaining why PPD is a good term and gaining ground, Becca. I am a bit nuts on the subject of changing language because a few silly people have tossed out good words like psychosomatic and psychogenesis. I wrote about this elsewhere recently. The short version is that if I came across whoever invented the phrase "mental health consumer" to describe people with mental illness I would have quite a time being curious and compassionate. Chances are a dark and hairy part would thunder forth and swat him or her (metaphorically, of course). Then I'd feel really, really, really bad, lol.

I wasn't using the word label pejoratively, btw. I like labels. Very handy things, labels. The new page is beautiful and if anything I said helped, I'm happy.

 

Becca, I looked the Wiki homepage yesterday and made one typo correction. It reads great and I have nothing to add or delete.

 

Becca, it looks grand. I especially appreciate the clarity. I use my smartphone(!?) to access tinternet and the page looks fab on the wee small screen. The Success Story feature is brilliant and is particularly inspiring for newbies and those more jaded of heart. Bless all your efforts.

 

Plum, so glad it worked well on the smartphone! That's something I was a little worried about, since I don't have the skills (nor do we have the software, actually) to create mobile-friendly sites. Wikipedia, for instance, has a whole different layout for viewing articles on mobile devices. So I'm so so glad that it looked OK! I should check it out on mine...

 

Hi Becca,

The new page looks awesome, it's going to help a lot of people. Below are some of the suggestions I shared on my call with Forest earlier today.

From what I understand this webpage is intended as a resource for people who already have some background knowledge about TMS. Some people will know a lot while other's will be limited in terms of their knowledge. My only piece of feedback is that when I first come to the page it's not immediately clear to me what TMS and PPD are. These terms may make sense to us, but someone who is new to Dr. Sarno's work will likely connect far better with keywords related to their symptoms ie (Back Pain, Neck Pain, Headaches, RSI, Sciatica etc.). They will also connect with the Keywords "Dr. Sarno". Below are a couple of examples of on how you can quickly work in these keywords.

1) I love the Today's Success Story idea. Instead of having "Meet Forest" something like "Meet Forest - Cured his RSI" or "Meet Forest - Cured his Back Pain" might make it stand out more.

2) Also the current header could be modified slightly along similar lines. You can probably think of something catchier but heres a quick example.

The PPD/TMS Peer Network
We can help you find relief from your back pain and other tension related syndromes.
or "Expanding on Dr. John Sarno's mission to cure people of their stress related health issues"
3) Finally, a picture can be very powerful. This suggestion may not be feasible since the design is already in place, but if you could place a picture of someone in pain this will be another clearn sign what the page is all about.

Thank you for all your hardwork! I hope to gradually become more involved in the community.

Karim

 

Thanks for taking the time to go through all of this, Karim!

RE #1 - I love your suggestion for adding the symptoms to the success story. It's also pretty easy to implement from a technological standpoint, which is always a major plus! Perhaps we can use "overcame" or "conquered" instead of cured...grammatically speaking, you cure yourself, but you overcome/conquer your symptoms. Thoughts?

RE #2 - I do like the language you suggested, but I also like that the "slogan" we have is short but still gets the point across about what our organization is. That being said, you make a really good point that we don't really explain TMS. We are making a new site that will just be for explaining the basics of TMS. Perhaps right above "Our Programs" I can add a box prominently linking to that new site, also including a short description of what TMS is. I did something similar with the For Practitioners wiki page. We were worried that might get lost, so I added it to the homepage as a separate item (below the Our Programs section). Even though the TMS basics site is not live yet, we do have an intro to TMS page. So, to show you what it'd look like, I could create that featured box/section/whatever you want to call it, and have it link to that page just for the time being.

RE #3 - love images. I agree, they are quite powerful. We have quite a few that we can use. I'll see what I can do layout-wise.

Thanks again for your suggestions. I'll get to work on them next week. For now, I have a friend's birthday party to attend, so I must run. Have a lovely lovely weekend (and that goes for all of you! )

Becca

 

That's great Becca. Feel free to use whatever wording you think is best. I just quickly thought of stuff to make examples.

Keep up the good work!

 

Just wanted to give you all an update on the homepage redesign project. First, Karim, I've implemented your suggestion for the Featured Success Story box and added the line "Overcame RSI/back pain/symptom using the TMS approach" .

Second, I have actually created two new potential homepages (both in draft form) that are variations of the draft I shared with you all before. In both of these drafts, the information about the various programs the PTPN offers is "hidden" from view (using the "Read More" link, like on Featured Resources, so viewers can easily see the rest of the content). In our research of other websites, Forest and I have found that many organizations' homepages are shorter, serving as a sort of launching point for users. They get to decide what they would like to know about. I guess that's what I'm trying to do with the "hidden" content -- give the website visitors the choice of what information they'd like.

Personally, I think this move to "hide" the Our Programs information is a good idea, for a number of reasons. First, it makes the page less visually overwhelming. You aren't bombarded with content immediately, but if you want to learn more, you can do so easily. Second, this move could allow us to add more items to the homepage (like more images, or even another section) without it becoming a gigantic page. And having more space content-wise and design-wise makes a lot more things possible.

But what do you all think? I'd love to hear which design you like best and think we should go forward with. Here are the links:

Draft #1 - descriptions of the programs are hidden, but the names of the programs are visible (similar to the Featured Resources section)
Draft #2 - descriptions AND names of the programs are hidden
Draft #3 - the original draft (all content in the Our Programs section is visible)

Becca

 

Hey Becca,

Looks great. Draft #1 is my favourite. Get's the necessary info across without overwhelming the user.