Hiya again, thanks for the input.
We sat some new users down in front of threads and they were completely lost which is what prompted the post.
A few specifics for everybodies edification although I dont want to spoil anybodies weekend
* they could not even find the FAQ link as they did not know what FAQ meant, when they were shown it they opened it, looked, and then decided that it was to complex and muddeled on - go figure.
* my quick links is for registered users only although we have both types of fori (
), open and closed, so that once they found a forum they were interested in posting in - a problem in itself as they did not understand what Forum Index meant and when they tried a search they did not understand what the results meant - they did not under stand what Post meant nor did they understand that a post had replies.
* once we had managed to get them to register - why do you want my email address etc - they were taken back to the forum where they did not realise that they still had to log in.
* once they were logged in they were taken to 'My Home' where they were lost, they did not know what anything meant and did not know where to go from there.
Unfortunately it goes on.
What I have looked at for a first step is taking one of the language files and adding as much explanatory information in as simple a language as possible. Next up I will probably follow the advice above about a different template set and after that I will get some design work done for big bold buttons. (I will put these up as we go along.)
It means segregating the users into beginner, intermediate and power users and what I am going to try and do is use that as part of the community building as we have users who have been on the system for years and others who are new. Part of what caused the usibility testing was the fact that although we have a couple of thousand users we only have about 50 regular posters and we could not understand why people were registering but never posting.
