Lookit what I made!

[sonia]

I am very proud of making an Articles by Category page for my website. I'm new to programming for Wordpress, so it took a lot of perusing blogs and following examples to put this together.

Feedback welcome!

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I've got a bunch of thoughts, and I'm kinda cranky, so you might want to read this later.

"Article" appears in so many places that I think the initial impression is "writing site" instead of "therapist site with educational info."

Q re structure: Do the ARTICLE TOPICS sidebar links display one portion of the info shown in full, here:
http://traumahealed.com/articles/articles-by-category/

Both "Article Topics" & "Articles by Category" are programming terms. I wish I could suggest something which invites the reader. "Ideas to Explore" is more along the lines, but I hope you can come up with something better.

"Recent" and "Popular" organizing is natural to program, but what benefit does it bring the first time reader? I don't think I care about other people's behavior in this context.

I don't know which ones should go there, but I suggest a better approach might be: "Background Info on My Techniques"

[sonia]

Thanks for the great feedback! I will give it all serious thought.

Yeah, there's a definite tension between "writing site" and "bodywork site." Sitting with that. I wonder if it would feel better to have fewer of the article links on the home page and bodywork-related pages.

Good point about topic/category and I should at least be consistent and stick to one of those until I come up with something better! Currently the single topic pages give the beginning paragraph of each article rather than the 2 line summary.

To me, Recent articles seems useful to know what's new. The old site had just the latest, but I like the idea of having the latest 3. Popular is an attempt to keep people reading on the site - "Hey, here are things other people found useful." Also I think it's fascinating that the list is fairly constant, and I don't know why those particular articles are found so often. Sounds like both are actively off-putting for you, which is great information to have.

Thanks again for taking the time to give me feedback!

[sonia]

Made the easier changes Articles By Topic. Still considering whether to remove the Popular Articles section, and whether to make a different sidebar for the bodywork pages.

Thanks again for the feedback!

[jesse_the_k]

Good choices! Showcases your various skills, and helps folks navigate to what they need.

I'd tighten up the vertical space between the >h2>.s. I browse with larger fonts, and several sections fit in one screen plus blank. So I didn't think "oh, there's more!"

[sonia]

Good point! It turned out to be the ul tags, with 80 pixels after them. I'm slowly learning CSS...

[jesse_the_k]

You're way ahead of me! I get all these things conceptually, and have so far avoided putting them into practice. Back in my youth, women would never admit they were good typists so as to not be slotted into secretary jobs.