NI Homepage

[JackDunaway]

Recently, the NI Homepage was upgraded, and I like the clean interface! Looking forward to the new LabVIEW Homepage upgrade! There's one thing missing... can you spot it?

 

Let me give you a hint by clicking on the Support and Community tab. Now, do you see it?

 

Here it is! A small, insignificant link to the forums. The forums are relevant to the entire line of NI products - hardware and software - and it's truly a world-class support forum (most industrial, commercial, and even consumer product forums aren't worth squat). I think it should be highlighted as a top-level link on the upper bar.

 

Going even further, I think it should be a permanent item on the rotating Billboard.

 

[RavensFan]

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JackDunaway wrote:

Recently, the NI Homepage was upgraded, and I like the clean interface!

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How recent do you consider this upgrade?

The NI homepage has looked like this for perhaps a year now.

This is also how I regurarly log into the forums.

NI  ctrl-enter

3rd tab

discussion forums link.

Why this way?  Because on my home and work PC, going to www.ni.com automatically logs me in.  Then two clicks later I'm in the forums logged in as me.  No need to type any passwords.

If I saved a link to go directly to the forums, I'm not automatically logged in.

[tst]

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Ravens Fan wrote:

If I saved a link to go directly to the forums, I'm not automatically logged in.

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I have the following link in my favorites and it logs in automatically:

http://sine.ni.com/niforum/niforum?lang=US&requireLogin=True&forumDU=http://forums.ni.com/

[Ben]

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JackDunaway wrote:

Recently, the NI Homepage was upgraded, and I like the clean interface! Looking forward to the new LabVIEW Homepage upgrade! There's one thing missing... can you spot it?

...

Here it is! A small, insignificant link to the forums. The forums are relevant to the entire line of NI products - hardware and software - and it's truly a world-class support forum (most industrial, commercial, and even consumer product forums aren't worth squat). I think it should be highlighted as a top-level link on the upper bar.

..

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Quoting out of context "A prophet is not honored in his own house."

Ben

[Laura F.]

You could also go to one of my favorite pages, ni.com/support 😉

The forum icon in the Browse by Resources section will auto log you in as long as there is an ni.com cookie on your machine.

[JackDunaway]

This suggestion is not primarily for the people who regularly visit the forums, or for someone who has the forums bookmarked, but rather for new visitors to the NI website. From a marketing standpoint, the forum community is just as marketable as a new PXI feature, the device driver library, or the CLAD certification (see the billboard screenshots).

Many people (including myself) allow themselves to be steered through a website based on how the links are arranged and the relative sizes of those links. Take the protruding green tab at the top for NIWeek... Austin in August was not on my radar until I was steered there visually, and within a week I was registered for NIWeek. Bingo! Proper web design steered me where NI wanted me to go. I would like it to be easier for users to be steered to the forums through the use of a top level link and a permanent billboard on the rotation saying how AWESOME the forums are.

[JackDunaway]

I should take a big step backwards and explain why I'm making this suggestion in the first place. There seems to be two separate entities from within NI that are vying for my attention: the Forums and the Communites. From all I can gather, they are two totally separate arenas with little overlap. They each have their own profile pages, image galleries, logins, features, interfaces....

So, which area am I supposed to spend my time in? I would rather be fully invested in one place rather than half-assed in two places. For the past year, I have been active in the forums and lurking in the communities, and although both have their advantages, I prefer the content and format of the forums.

For someone as participative as me in the past year to still have doubts in my mind as to whether I should be using the Communities or the Forums... there's a problem with that. I want it to be very clear from NI's homepage where I should go for community support and interaction, and based on my experiences and conclusions, that place should be the forums.

(I'm still impressionable. By no means am I saying I don't appreciate the Communities, but it's just irksome to have two competing mechanisms and no direction on which to use. Maybe the long term goal at NI is to merge these two, but in the meantime, I sure would like to see the Forums highlighted on NI's homepage.)

[smercurio_fc]

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JackDunaway wrote:

So, which area am I supposed to spend my time in?

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Why don't you just clone yourself then your problem is solved.  Then we'll have TWO Jacks to shower us with love!

Err... then again...

[RayFarmer]

Jack,

This was my post regarding the Communties.  http://decibel.ni.com/content/thread/1080

regards

Ray Farmer

[Deirdre]

Thanks for your feedback about the discussion forums and the developer community.  Internally, we are working to create a more unified online community experience.  This has been a slow process since there are so many things to factor in and we appreciate your insight and opinions.  We are  currently evaluating several options, such as unifying aspects of the two sections (such as reputation), better cross-linking, etc.

For now,  here are the best practices for using each of these resources:

NI  Discussion Forums (ni.com/forums)

*Obtain  product-specific technical support

*Share your expertise by  answering questions from your peers

*Post LabVIEW feature ideas  for R&D or vote on your favorites (ni.com/ideas)

NI  Developer Community (ni.com/community)

*Download or  submit LabVIEW code

*Read or write technical blogs and tutorials

*Join  more than 500 online groups based on your location, industry or  application area

I look forward to continuing this discussion.