Hello MPOA,
First, I'd like to say that the redesigned MPOA site looks very nice. I know how much time and effort this project must have taken. The end result is a sleek, modernized website. So for that, congratulations! I particularly like the Diploma Program section, which was previously a bit convoluted.
That being said, I feel that browsing the course catalog by grade is a huge step back in terms of usability. I'm glad last week we figured out which classes we are planning on taking through MPOA next, as this redesign would have made it much more difficult.
To illustrate the problem, we have a rising 8th grader. If you go to the Eighth Grade page, you see a list of subjects implemented as an accordion (a common design pattern). While I appreciate that the courses are now categorized, it does result in a significant number of more clicks.
More importantly, however, what's lost in the redesign is that it is no longer obvious which courses should be considered for an eighth grader for a given subject. Two examples:
Before the redesign, it was much easier to jump between the pertinent course options and read through the descriptions and pre-requisites.
That being said, I'm wondering if these issues could be improved if:
Kudos to the MPOA team!
First, I'd like to say that the redesigned MPOA site looks very nice. I know how much time and effort this project must have taken. The end result is a sleek, modernized website. So for that, congratulations! I particularly like the Diploma Program section, which was previously a bit convoluted.
That being said, I feel that browsing the course catalog by grade is a huge step back in terms of usability. I'm glad last week we figured out which classes we are planning on taking through MPOA next, as this redesign would have made it much more difficult.
To illustrate the problem, we have a rising 8th grader. If you go to the Eighth Grade page, you see a list of subjects implemented as an accordion (a common design pattern). While I appreciate that the courses are now categorized, it does result in a significant number of more clicks.
More importantly, however, what's lost in the redesign is that it is no longer obvious which courses should be considered for an eighth grader for a given subject. Two examples:
- Under Latin and Greek, Henle I and 1FL are listed. Where is 2FL/3FL/4FL? Ok let's go back to 7th grade and check out the options. Oops, 1FL and 4FL are listed instead. (We're looking for 2FL.)
- Under Classical Composition, HSC1, FoC, and CT are listed. Where is Chreia/Maxim + Ref/Con? Check 7th grade and it's not listed there either.
Before the redesign, it was much easier to jump between the pertinent course options and read through the descriptions and pre-requisites.
That being said, I'm wondering if these issues could be improved if:
- Grade level-based pages used a layout similar to the subject-based pages, as in the Latin Courses page. (Though I could do without the zig-zagging approach.)
- The All Courses table included links to the course descriptions and maybe even a grade levels column with the ability to filter by grade.
Kudos to the MPOA team!
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