Searching: One User's Experience

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KathrynGZ
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Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:59 pm
Location: Draper, Utah, USA
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Searching: One User's Experience

#1

Post by KathrynGZ »

Hi all,

I had an interesting experience this morning trying to find the booklet True to the Faith on lds.org :) Though I use lds.org often, I didn't know how to navigate to it immediately. I've listed the steps I took, the results I got, and the results I expected:

1. I clicked Search at the very top right of the window (next to A-Z index), then entered "True to the Faith" in the search box.

I expected that True to the Faith would show up at or near the top of the search results, but I got mostly magazine articles.

2. Then I noticed over to the side a Filter box, and one of the choices was Support Manuals. I chose "All Support Manuals."

I expected that this time, the manual (or its table of contents) would be listed at the top or close to the top of the search results. It wasn't, but I did see several chapters from True to the Faith.

3. I clicked on the Faith chapter, thinking that once there, I would be easily able to navigate to the table of contents and find the chapter I needed.

4. I noticed "Show Navigation" on the left, so I clicked that.

I expected it would either give me a list of chapters--the navigation for the manual I was viewing), or at least a link to the table of contents. Instead, Show Navigation only listed "Youth Home" and "Search Youth."

5. Not seeing any other way to reach the table of contents, I started clicking the Previous Link to page backwards. After a while I gave up on that :) and decided to send feedback using the link on the web site.

After I started that note and retraced my steps so I could describe them accurately, I discovered there's a link at the top of the chapter that led to the table of contents. I think I didn't notice it before because it's a darker blue, close to the color of normal text on my laptop, and not underlined--so it didn't stand out as a hyperlink. (I know non-underlined links are used in other places on the web site, but on that page there were many underlined links so I didn't think to check non-underlined ones.)

So, I wrote everything out and clicked Submit...and I got an error message saying the submission couldn't be longer than 2000 characters. LOL! Thank goodness for the tech forums. Incidentally, when I counted the characters in my word processor, the count was only 1766. Maybe one counts spaces and the other doesn't.

Anyway, that was my experience, which may provide some useful information for making a few improvements for users.

Thanks!

Kathryn
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Mikerowaved
Community Moderators
Posts: 4734
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:56 am
Location: Layton, UT

#2

Post by Mikerowaved »

Hi Kathryn,

I've also had difficulties searching on lds.org for a specific item and I consider myself to be well above average in "surfing skills". I can't remember now what it was I was seeking, but I know it took me a LONG time of sifting through search results to find it.

BTW, how's the garlic crop this year? I lived in Morgan Hill for several years and recall many mornings of the blessed aroma when the wind was just right. ;)
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
KathrynGZ
Member
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:59 pm
Location: Draper, Utah, USA
Contact:

Searching & improving

#3

Post by KathrynGZ »

I think other users have had similar challenges from time to time. It's awesome that the engineers are open to feedback and making constant improvement.

So you lived in MH! The garlic isn't too strong this time of year, but that will change soon :)

Kathryn
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