WaveMetrics web sites: informal discussion

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Sat, 05/27/2017 - 08:21 pm

Greetings Igorians!

Our main web site, https://www.wavemetrics.com, was created before there were smart phones, even before CSS!

Since then we've accumulated a few related web sites, most of which could use an update.

https://www.wavemetrics.com (ordering, main Igor site, XOP Toolkit info)
https://www.igorpro.net (Igor 7 info)
http://www.wavemetrics.net (installer downloads, FTP archive)
http://www.igorexchange.com (forum, projects, snippets)

We are looking to take corrective actions, basically:

- consolidating the non-forum websites into one modern responsive site.
- possibly updating IgorExchange to a more recent version of Drupal.

Some of the web developers we are considering hiring want to know what our users think of the current web sites.

--------- Questions start here ---------

How often do you visit any of the sites for

- Before-purchase education about features of Igor and other WaveMetrics products:
- After-purchase education about how to use any WaveMetrics products:
- Updates to Igor or other products:

How important are "Projects" on IgorExchange:

How important are "Snippets" on IgorExchange:

Things you like about the web sites:

Things you don't like:

--Jim
JimProuty wrote:


How often do you visit any of the sites for

- Before-purchase education about features of Igor and other WaveMetrics products:


Since I've been using Igor for a long time, it's rare but I point others to Igorpro.net. The person on the mailing list who complained that this site looks too modern is missing the point. This website is superior (in design) to wavemetrics.com because it looks modern and tells potential users that Igor is not outdated and has a future.

JimProuty wrote:

- After-purchase education about how to use any WaveMetrics products:


I love IgorExchange! I also really like the blog feature on Igorpro.net.

JimProuty wrote:

- Updates to Igor or other products:


When there's an update or I get told to download a nightly build.

JimProuty wrote:

How important are "Projects" on IgorExchange:


This is excellent. I worry about permanence of IgorExchange and so I have hosted my bigger projects at GitHub.

JimProuty wrote:

How important are "Snippets" on IgorExchange:


VITAL. I learned so much from snippets and I've tried to give back by posting a few things. The comment feature there is good too. I got some good feedback from other users on some of my snippets.

JimProuty wrote:

Things you like about the web sites:


They could definitely do with consolidating. I think the gallery and blog are great ways to show what Igor can do. IgorExchange is fantastic. It's better than other forums I visit, but also the ImageJ forum for example (http://forum.imagej.net) has some nice extra features (better tracking of activity, replies, digest email etc.). That would be cool if they could be brought in. I really like the mix of Support and user-to-user help that Igor has online. Ways to strengthen this are key. I use other software that has many more users but the quality of contributors on IgorExchange means that the help I get here is far more valuable.

As mentioned above the design etc needs to be modern. My colleagues call Igor "MATLAB for hipsters*" and it would be good to point people to modern-looking web resources to prove them wrong.

* if this doesn't translate well, think of a hipster as somebody that stubbornly uses a typewriter rather than a laptop.

JimProuty wrote:

Things you don't like:


I don't like the fact that it is fragmented. Maybe there's historical reasons, but I don't see why you can't roll all four sites together.
Igor mailing list archive is broken on wavemetrics.com.


--
Finally a big thank you to all who work(ed) on the web resources for Igor, it's much appreciated!

May 27, 2017 at 11:06 pm - Permalink

I post here what I replied in email.

| On May 26, 2017, at 20:30, Jim Prouty wrote:
|
| --------- Questions start here ---------
|
| How often do you visit any of the sites for
|
| - Before-purchase education about features of Igor and other WaveMetrics products:

I already know what Igor Pro is but … I direct folks who don't to WaveMetrics.com all of the time. It seems I should be using WaveMetrics.net from now on.

| How important are "Projects" on IgorExchange:

Highly Important. This is the real showcase of the power of Igor Pro IMHO.

| How important are "Snippets" on IgorExchange:

Important. That folks can post short segments of code in this way to help others do something is priceless.

| Things you like about the web sites:

I have greatly appreciated the ability to host packages and snippets as well as get / give help on IgorExchange! Tremendous kudos to Adam for starting the site!!!

| Things you don't like:

I would welcome consolidation of all of the WaveMetrics.*** sites to the modern style on WaveMetrics.net.

I would welcome a change in the format of the Forums on IgorExchange to a Discourse-style approach.

I would welcome the ability for users to post video tutorials on IgorExchange (recognizing that a need for upfront vetting or community-level policing of content should NOT be a reason to nix this option).

--
J. J. Weimer
Chemistry / Chemical & Materials Engineering, UAH

May 29, 2017 at 06:30 am - Permalink

I tend to only visit wavemetrics.com and igorexchange.com and mostly use the Projects and Forum sections on igorexchange.com
I find there are so many "Snippets" that it is hard to find one that applies exactly to what I'm working on.

One thing that I would useful would be combining the Igor Mailing List Search page from wavemetrics.com (https://www.wavemetrics.com/search/mlsearch.html) with the forum on igorexchange.com

Ken

June 5, 2017 at 09:08 am - Permalink