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AWEB relaunch: Any Answers changes answered

22nd Apr 2016
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Any Answers is undoubtedly one of the most popular areas of AccountingWEB. For this reason, our tech team spent a lot of time agonising over Any Answers during the redesign of AccountingWEB.

When the new look AccountingWEB launches next month Any Answers can be easily accessed simply by scanning the main navigation, like you do now.

There was some initial discussion of positioning Any Answers under the community navigation tab, where blogs will now be based, but after further thought we decided that this important area of the site deserved to sit on it's own, in the top nav bar.

So, what’s changing?

During user research we asked participants to search for a particular topic area on Any Answers. Let’s be honest, the current search functionality often doesn’t pull in what you’re after.

However, our usability participants noticed how the Any Answers search functionality after the AccountingWEB redesign gathers better results - just look to the top of the Any Answers page and enter the subject you’re looking for in ‘search for your question’ box, and this will gather the result you’re looking for.

Alternatively, you can toggle the ‘filter by category’ drop down box, which allows you to jump to a specific area, whether it is tax or practice questions.  

Scanning the questions, you will also notice how you can ‘like’ a question. This functionality works in the same way as how you would ‘thank’ a members comment on the current site. This allows members to immediately see which questions deserve to be viewed first.

The tech team did everything they could to ensure Any Answers usability is simple. In our usability study, the participants found asking a question on Any Answers on the new site easy. One respondent said: “This looks easy, I’m asking a question and there’s the button for it.”

A couple of questions will also be showcased at the top of the Any Answers page. So you will see which questions are trending, and this functionality allows the editors to pin questions, which should prevent hot questions slipping down the page.

So not only will posting a question be easier, the presentation of the questions will make engaging with and finding questions simpler.

You can read more about the usability study and the AccountingWEB member survey which informed our tech team in designing the new site on our previous editor’s blogs.

Catch up with the previous blogs explaining the changes coming to blogs, what’s different and changing, and the reason why AccountingWEB is undergoing a redesign.

If you didn't get a chance to complete our user survey or have any additional ideas please feel free to comment below.

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Replies (7)

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By Sheepy306
22nd Apr 2016 16:35

Changes

I assume that the AnyAnswers improvements will include the very annoying missing Subject line when you receive a comment update by email?

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Replying to Paul Crowley:
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By chatman
22nd Apr 2016 17:11

Missing Subject Line in Emails

Sheepy306 wrote:

I assume that the AnyAnswers improvements will include the very annoying missing Subject line when you receive a comment update by email?

Yes, that would be great. People often start their comment in the subject line, so the email gives you no idea of what they are saying.

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Replying to jonharris999:
Ben sitting at a We Work Anywhere office
By Ben Smith
28th Apr 2016 17:40

Quick question on this

chatman wrote:
Sheepy306 wrote:

I assume that the AnyAnswers improvements will include the very annoying missing Subject line when you receive a comment update by email?

Yes, that would be great. People often start their comment in the subject line, so the email gives you no idea of what they are saying.

 

Quick question on this one - did you mean that the email notification should carry the subject line of the original post? Or the subject line of the comment that triggered the notification email itself?

 

Thanks! 

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FT
By FirstTab
22nd Apr 2016 17:49

‘like’ a question

It would be good to see ‘like’ an OP on all sections of AW and not only on Any Answers. 

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By Sheepy306
28th Apr 2016 18:00

I don't see this header in my notifciation email

The latter, the subject line of the comment that triggered the notification email itself.

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Replying to Arthur Putey:
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By chatman
28th Apr 2016 18:09

subject line of the comment that triggered the notification emai

Sheepy306 wrote:

The latter, the subject line of the comment that triggered the notification email itself.

Yes, that is what I meant too.

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By michaelblake
04th May 2016 09:37

This is a different question about functionality but i cannot work out how to add a new topic. The question I have is that before the redesign it was possible to see a list of unanswered questions, but I cannot see that now. Am I missing something?

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