Welcome page of SCN - is it displaying content which we users would like?

[former_member182041]

I was planning to write a blog describing my thoughts on welcome page of SCN. But I think a discussion would be more fruitful first.

I have been noticing welcome page since quite a while and below observations are pointed out to highlight that the front page is not very welcoming in my view:

> Repeated content displayed: There are many times when we see the same post being highlighted in more than one section. This is unavoidable because of the categories chosen to be displayed. e.g a blog post in Mentors section could be highlighted in the featured section, most liked, in one of the spaces chosen to be displayed on front page and could also be part of newsletter. I have no idea as to what was the thinking behind choosing the categories to be displayed on welcome page because we already have "All spaces" link on the right most corner side.

> Not focussed: This is again my personal view and would love to hear different opinion here. I remember in the old platform that I could reach to a good blog with comments being highlighted. Now, how many times do we find something right from the front page? Well, encapsulation and abstraction tricks comes to my mind on seeing the welcome page. This would also clean up the welcome page.

> Categories to be displayed: Do we really need newsletter section? The content that comes under this, isn't that already covered under some space. "Push display" comes to my mind to describe this.

> Static content: Welcome page often displays the same content.

In my view,simplicity is very much needed on welcome page of SCN.As I read somewhere highlighting problems is not enough, solutions too needs to be proposed. Hence, I would hint towards Amazon.

To get the discussion started would ping to know their opinion.

If   would help me I could start a poll on this to get the public opinion.

Regards,

Kumud

[joao_sousa2]

Most feature spaces on the homepage have very slow rotation so they become irrelevant very fast. SAP Mobile, SAP Cloud Computing, Business Inteligence have the same topics for ages. Sure Apple Watch was a fun April's Fool joke, but does it really deserve to stay at top of SAP Mobile for over a month?

I basically look at the most liked of the day, the rest of the content is way too stale.

[former_member182041]

Thanks Fred and Joao for sharing your thoughts! I am sure Former Member would be watching these replies!

Regards,

Kumud

[fred_verheul]

Hi Kumud and others,

For what it's worth: I never look at the home page. I've configured my activity page as my landing page, and that's my main source for interesting content, next to 'external' sources as my RSS-feed (main feed of all blog posts) and twitter.

Cheers, Fred

[midhun_vp]

Hi Kumud,

One of the blog in the home page is mine . So I don't want to reply. Just kidding..

I personally like to see technical blogs  or a major updates like "tribute to Vishal Sikka" on the homepage. I rarely reads the contents in the homepage, my favourite is to follow the communications (may be a contributor's choice).

Regards,Midhun

[agentry_src]

I am with Midhun.  I always start in Communications and until I missed signing up for the 1DX blog testing, I did not pay any attention to About SCN or any of the non-technical areas of SCN.  I now Track About SCN in my Communications which still means that I do not see the home page except by accident.  That probably accounts for its low traffic numbers.

Cheers, Mike

SAP Technology RIG

[Florian]

I'm also with Midhun,

I nearly always start with my communications and afterwards I have a look in the spaces I'm used to, just to make sure I do not miss something between.

Normally the "hot" topics are right in front and so I can jump into it.

The landing-page is in my opinion not that bad, but I would love to have also not so well known spaces sometimes placed on it.

~Florian

[former_member182041]

Thanks Mithun and Michael for comments. I myself track from communications tab.

Welcome page in my opinion needs to be modified to display the latest happenings in a compressed and precise manner. It looks too crowded with same kind of information. Hoping these would be considered in 1DX as well!

Regards,

Kumud

[former_member182041]

Hi Florian,

I understand from your comment that welcome page should be having the "dynamic" contents. I like that idea but then again which spaces to display would always be arguable. Spaces anyways could be found from "all spaces" hyperlink. Sadly, I do not have the welcome page picture of old platform wherein at least it was not overly crowded and that too with similar kind of content.

Regards,

Kumud

[catlacroix99]

Hi Kumud,

Thanks for your comments. We conducted a survey earlier this year and many of your comments were mirrored there. As the homepage editor, I can only control what's displayed in the carousel and "above the fold," that is the top rotating features and what's displayed under "events" and the twitter widget.

The widgets below that automatically pull content from around the community site, the idea being that the homepage would offer a window to the rest of what's highlighted on SCN. That said, it does mean that certain blogs and/or documents are repeated or stay in the same spot because they're getting more views and comments than other content.

We are looking to make changes this year, so your input is very timely! I'd welcome more input from you and other community members. We'll have more to share in the coming months, so please stay tuned and stay in touch. Feel free to reach out to me directly.

Thanks again,

Catherine LaCroix

SCN Homepage editor

[former_member182041]

Hi Catherine,

Thanks for coming up here. In my view and also from replies below, it seems welcome page is not really showing content which is valuable for users. It essentially means some change is necessary.

I will contact you with some additional views of mine too in email. Thanks!

Regards,

Kumud

[moshenaveh]

Hello,

Let's pull-in Former Member to the discussion.

Regards,

Moshe

[former_member182041]

Thanks Moshe for letting me know the right person for this!

Regards,

Kumud