Kabissa 2.0 Suggestions Box!
Tell us about problems, suggest features and join our web group!
We are currently in the final testing stages of our new online community website for African Civil Society. We hope you like what you see! We know there are problems with the site - and we need your help to iron them all out as quickly as possible so that we can launch it so everyone can begin benefitting from it soon. If you have a little more time to devote to helping out, please check out the betatesters tasks.
Please use the form below to tell us about any problems you encountered on the site or suggestions you have for improvements you would like to see.
Also, consider joining the Kabissa Web Group over at Google Groups, an e-mail discussion group of people interested in making this website the best it can possibly be. Thanks!
Process note: we are tracking problems and feature requests submitted here on the Open Issues page. We also are maintaining a Parking Lot of Good Ideas page and a Wishlist.
Betatester tasks
List of tasks
Beyond simply clicking around and
trying to "break" things so we can fix them as soon as possible, please take 20-30 minutes to test out at least the following
functionality:
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first, make sure you have an account!
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option 1: register as an individual by clicking "register" and following directions
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option 2: if you are eligible, sign up your organization as a new member by clicking "showcase" and following directions
- option 3: if you are already involved with a member organization or think you might already have an account but don't have the password, click "login" then the password reminder tab - and follow directions
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check your email for account email and follow instructions to log in
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change your username and password to something you will remember, and verify your account settings
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update your bio and photo
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browse the site and look for general problems (see below)
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try out all the functionality: add comments to content, forward to a friend, bookmark content on delicious etc,
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if you are part of a member organization, update your organization’s profile details and add people to your organization
- if you are part of a member organization, add some content: a blog post, member news or resource listing (remember - this is a real site so post something you want people to see!)
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find and contact other organizations through the "connect" member directory
General feedback we are looking for
As you go through this process, please take detailed notes of general feedback and issues you think we need to work on and send them to us. Here are some areas we are particularly interested in:
- general feedback on the design/layout of the site
- usability problems (eg. can't figure out what to do)
- speed of site pages loading up
- did it take you too long to complete any of the steps above? how long did the process of signing up take you? Why did it take so long?
Report specific problems
When you encounter bugs, error messages, web design issues or any other problems with specific pages, click the "BETA" link to submit a problem report. This will record the web address of the problem page for us and the time/date you submitted the report. Be as specific as possible!
Here are some specific issues we are looking for:
- old/outdated content
- bugs and error messages that appear on the screen
- problems with the design/layout of the text and graphics on pages (eg overlapping text, text not where it is supposed to be, not legible etc)
CSS and Design Task List
High Priority do ASAP
- CSS Bug: Flickr/YouTube embedded media is pushed to the bottom on blog posts - should be either embedded in the text of the intro paragraph or on its own at the top.
- CSS Bug: Frontpage latest content tab has messed up CSS - should look more like the blog pages
- CSS Bug: Fix float left issues all over the place (still exist!)
- CSS Bug: On pages with wide links or pictures,right menu gets pushed down below the content
- CSS Bug: Formatting of nested comments overlaps and looks ugly
- Cross-Browser compatibility troubleshooting
- safari search link does not work (adds 20 to the search term again and again ad infinitum)
High Priority do soon
- Redesign frontpage completely to reflect other pages (eg same theme as other pages with showcase/connect/learn pulldown menus in top-right corner but slicker design in the white box)
- Improve and standardize formatting styles for content - eg H1, H2, H3, P, BLOCKQUOTE
- Solve problem of where search form lives on the page
- All civicrm stylesheets need to be updated and made more attractive
- remove borders if possible
- try to keep content on left side, so it does not interfere with right blocks
- beautify profile pages
- beautify/integrate colors and design of listings and search results
- Create gorgeous SHOWCASE, CONNECT, LEARN and ABOUT landing pages
- Usability audit to make sure site is easy to navigate
- Create gorgeous template and icons etc for the Kabissa Guides to make them really attractive
- Create attractive "printer friendly" CSS template for books (which prints out a whole book at once) and other content (egto print one blog at a time)
- Incorporate groups into the navigation of the site
High Priority do later
- Write drupal modules for accessing all civicrm content, as laid out in our specs
- Create hooks to access and edit orgs from within the my account -> edit pages
- Create hooks to link to orgs from user profile pages (and vice versa)
- Create link to groups in blog posts that are in organic groups, similar to the tags. E.g. "Groups: Kabissa Meetups Kabissa Ambassadors Kabissa Beta"
Low Priority do soon if easy
- icons at the bottom should be the same size or laid out better
- Create badges for people to add to their sites
- Beautify Navigation menu on books (it's along the bottom and has ugly prev/up/next style that does not look nice - can it be made more beautiful with better alignment and maybe icons?
- Beautify icons like "calendar", "flag" etc along bottom of posts and lay them out better
- Create dynamic user directories based on roles and/or organic group
- Kabissa Team
- Kabissa Board
- Kabissa Advisors
- Kabissa Ambassadors
- Kabissa Meetups
Low priority do later
Kabissa 2.0 Open Issues
This page is where we're collecting all reported issues with the new Kabissa.org beta launch. This encompasses all bugs, ranging from "this particular page doesn't look right in Internet Explorer" to "I got an error when I tried to sign up" ... and any other feature improvements, suggestions, and feedback we receive through our Problem Report Form.
Graphic Design
- Anonymous: IE: In IE 6, search form appears in front of the showcase/connect/learn pulldown menu, blocking it from view.
-DC: Note: Check search box CSS, Z-index.
- Anonymous: In IE 6, alignment of photos on blog posts is not within the text (eg to the left/right with text wrapping around it).
-DC: Will check CSS, photos entered correctly in TinyMCE (with alignment set specifically) should be working.
- TE: I fixed the blockquote issue in blog posts (see previous issue submitted today). Input Format was not letting blockquotes through, which I have changed. Input Formats need a review, though.. seems a nubmer of tihngs offered by the tinymce editor will be blocked by the input format which is strange to say the least.
-DC: With the ton of TinyMCE features currently enabled, we should set default filter type to "full html". I recommend severely limiting TinyMCE either way, to just the *absolutely* required functionality. (Suggested list: bold, italics, ordered / unordered lists, links, images).
- Peter Eigen: Cannot find "My Organisations"
- TE: http://www.kabissa.org/blog/useful-tip-sharing-lots-meaningful-photos-wi... -comments text is floating right on this page.
-DC: Comments look ok in FF2/Kubuntu, but I see breakage with the search box (title is too long) and the syndication buttons at the bottom of the post.
- TE: need new icons for footer plus maybe a "web credits" page explaining how we use drupal and civicrm
- TE: maintenance mode page is not themed.
- TE: in Internet Explorer, my organizations page pushes menus below. "My organizations" appears twice- in heading and in table
- TE: my account pages - tabs are too many horizontally to fit in the space if there is a menu on the right
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Content
- Create "Kabissa Pulse" page at http://www.kb2.org/pulse to contain all delicious, flickr, etc blocks that are cool but we can't accommodate elsewhere just yet - using drupal panels.
- TE: Learning section still very much a work in progress
- TE: remove old primary links menu and old pages
Drupal Modules/Added Functionality
- Sokari:Under blogging categories there should be the following additional features: Country (with a drop down list of countries and or regions) Theme / Topic (with a drop down list of Kabissa member organisation themes / topics) a "Diary" or "Journal" category.
Possibly we need to explain the content of each category ??
Dave: This may or may not be best with hard categories; is it better to tag them more flexibly? If hard categories, we should definitely add some explanatory text so they know about multiple selections, for example (for a blog post that involves multiple countries, regions, etc).
- TE: Sitemap is too informative - need to clean up menus and change settings so it does not display quite so much information about blogs etc
- TE: turned off messenger and buddy list. Invite feature remains.
- TE: Showcase - signup form blocks appear on all signup steps, should only show up on the first step. Problem is with question marks etc - the "show only on x page" does not work for urls that contain question marks. Need to change it to a PHP variable check, don't know how. Currently set with "civicrm/kabissa/signup*"
- TE: Showcase - signup form: Do not display this notification, if logged in, on first step of signup form: "If you continue, you will be automatically assigned as the Administative Contact for this new organization. If you want to have a different Administrative Contact assigned, then logout before filling in a new application."
Parking Lot of Good Ideas
This is a fairly random list of ideas that are not yet
categorized elsewhere and which we do not want to lose sight of. If
you have a great idea not already listed here, please post it to the
group or suggest it to us using the form at at http://www.kabissa.org/beta.
- Schedule regular "shared browsing" times to get on a skype conference call with anyone interested in learning how to use the site, and listen to them trying to post to the blog, update their preferences etc. Could be weekly?
- New functionality: Kabissa store like this: http://store.freecycle.org/
- Block: KCN subscribe form on various places:
- CiviCRM: It is possible to completely customize user profile page: http://drupal.org/node/133856
- display civicrm contact info
- display links to organizations person is related to
- Content: Terms of Use needs to be updated - potentially a virtual lawyer volunteer (e.g. shawn, ann, amy?)
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Use “small multiples” principle (e.g. if you know Word, you also know Excel)
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Create “community” drupal user
using community@ mailbox. This user automatically added as a
buddy/colleague to new users as they are added.
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virtual volunter task: tag flickr photos (workshops, connect/networking, fundraising pics)
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calendar view of events. Liz
mentioned she’s more visual and prefers a calendar representation of
events, as do probably many others.
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Sokari: i realise this is not a big deal but i think we should reconsider the
font and colour for the text on the site. i feel it could do with
being a bit softer on the white background and also there seems to be a
lot of white space to the right of the page? We also need to fix the
grapics so they wrap the text or stand alone but in a neat way. Anyway
just ideas.
Free Email Newsletter Templates
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/templates/templates/03b/27.html
http://www.mailchimp.com/resources/templates/free_templates/html_email_newsletter_template_b.html
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/templates/templates/01b/6.html
Steering Committee
The following people are in the Kabissa Web projects steering
committee, and have been very ably guiding our projects since it was
started in the fall of 2006. They are receiving an honorarium from us
for their efforts. They have all been invited to also participate in
the Beta Web group and we hope they will stay involved once the
projects are completed.
Contents of this page:
Steering Committee participants
First assignment only:
- Naceur Kefi, Arab Institute for Human Rights (Tunisia)
- Teresa Syombua, EASSI (Uganda)
First and second assignments:
Assignment 1: Community Website specifications (completed)
This assignment was completed in autumn 2006, resulting in the Kabissa - CiviCRM Project Specifications on the CiviCRM Wiki
Assignment 2: Web hosting options survey (completed)
This assignment was completed in summer 2007 by 7 of the steering committee participants. The assignment was carried out in the form of a Survey Monkey survey, the results of which are attached to this page below.
Assignment 3: Community Website testing (completed)
This assigment started in spring 2008. This assignment will be considered completed once the four tasks below have been verified:
- set up and accessed an account on the site
- updated your own contact details and "about me" information (and added a photo or logo if possible)
- updated your organization profile and added people in your organization
- posted to the blog or member news
Essential info on getting logged into your existing account and carrying out the above is in the getting started guide at
http://www.kabissa.org/learn/about/kabissa/getting-started
- Jare Ajayi, ASETO (Nigeria)
- account on site: YES
- "about me" bio and photo: YES
- updated org profile and added people: YES
- posted to blog: YES
- Joe Asila, Social Needs Network (Kenya)
- account on site: YES
- "about me" bio and photo: YES
- updated org profile and added people: YES
- posted to blog:
-
Rachel Kagoiya, FEMNET (Kenya)
- account on site: YES
- "about me" bio and photo: yes
- updated org profile and added people: yes
- posted to blog:
- Gisele Dovi, LEAD Togo (Togo)
- account on site: YES
- "about me" bio and photo: YES
- updated profile and added people:
- posted to blog: YES
- Tinshu Genesis Gemuh, HINT (Cameroon)
- account on site: YES
- "about me" bio and photo: YES
- updated profile and added people: YES
- posted to blog: YES
- Mark Okowa, ELCI (Kenya)
- account on site: YES
- "about me" bio and photo: YES
- updated org profile and added people:
- posted to blog:
- Chiku Malunga, Cadeco (Malawi)
- account on site: YES
- "about me" bio and photo:
- updated org profile and added people:
- posted to blog:
- Oby Nwankwo, CIRDDOC, CENGOS, NCAA (Nigeria)
- account on site: YES
- "about me" bio and photo: YES
- updated org profile and added people: YES
- posted to blog: YES
Assignment 4: Web hosting testing (in progress)
Status
- Jare Ajayi, ASETO (Nigeria)
- Assignment 1: completed
- Assignment 2: completed
- Assignment 3: completed
- Assignment 4: in progress
- Joe Asila, Social Needs Network (Kenya)
- Assignment 1: completed
- Assignment 2: completed
- Assignment 3: completed
- Assignment 4: in progress
- Rachel Kagoiya, FEMNET (Kenya)
- Assignment 1: completed
- Assignment 2: completed
- Gisele Dovi, LEAD Togo (Togo)
- Assignment 1: completed
- Assignment 2: completed
- Assignment 3: completed
- Assignment 4: in progress
- Tinshu Genesis Gemuh, HINT (Cameroon)
- Assignment 1: completed
- Assignment 2: completed
- Assignment 3: completed
- Assignment 4: in progress
- Naceur Kefi, Arab Institute for Human Rights (Tunisia)
- Mark Okowa, ABC (Kenya)
- Assignment 1: completed
- Assignment 2: completed
- Assignment 3: completed
- Assignment 4: in progress
- Chiku Malunga, Cadeco (Malawi)
- Assignment 1: completed
- Assignment 2: completed
- Oby Nwankwo, CIRDDOC (Nigeria)
- Assignment 1: completed
- Assignment 2: completed
- Assignment 3: completed
- Assignment 4: in progress
Teresa Syombua, EASSI (Uganda)
Wishlist
List items here that we'd like to consider adding to the site in
the future. If you have an idea for a feature you are particularly
eager to see appear on the Kabissa site, please send a message about it
to the google group or submit it to http://www.kabissa.org/beta.