CivicActions

I WANT YOU TO READ MORE

The CivicActions team is in the process of redesigning our website at this very moment. In my role as information architect, I am helping to design the site's navigation and page structure so that users can meet their goals. Here are some sample scenarios:

• A potential client wants to find a savvy web consulting firm to transform their site and increase their audience and fundraising base.
• A job-seeker wants to find a cool place to work.
• A CivicActions team member wants to be sought after in their area of expertise, and more broadly, wants to express their ideas and get feedback from creative, brilliant people.

Click on the tiny Read more link on the far right side of the next line.

One of the small design elements that I think becomes an obstacle to meeting my self-expression goal is the placement and size of the Read more link:

When you reach the end of the first few sentences of the blog, nothing indicates that the piece is truncated; the Read more link floating way out in right field is easy to miss. Content contributors generally have a few options for addressing a usability flaw:

• Hack it. (By adding a specific html tag to the end of my post, I can force the CivicActions blog landing page to display the entirety of my post--let's say, an essay on the history of the world wide web).
• Solve the problem once and for all. Blow off other projects and deadlines, and focus entirely on the site redesign.
• Be zen. Those that are meant to read this will.
• Suffer with the knowledge that once again, true genius will be yet another victim of poor usability design.

Organization's often come to CivicActions because they've been facing just this type of devil's bargain for years. Once we start the redesign, there's the new pain of living with a site that you're so beyond over with. At CivicActions we are currently living through this syndrome known to many, loved by few--It's what I call Internet Redesign Purgatory. Sound familiar?