JomSocial Usability Testing Report

JomSocial is a new exciting Joomla extension. Up until now we had to work with Community Builder which is buggy, hard to use and can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to fix (trust me, I’ve done that). From first look at JomSocial, it appears that it’s a HUGE quantum leap from Community Builder, starting from how easy it is to use (without reading the manual!), to the way the profile looks on the front end.

It still has some minor bugs and even more minor usability issues, but over all it’s a great start!This is certainly one of the best Joomla Extensions I’ve ever encountered, and I am proud to be the usability partner of Azrul, the creator of JomSocial.

Installation

It would be better if I could un-install ONE file and have all the extensions organized there in folders, rather than have to uninstall a file, and then un-install 2 other files, and then all files are together in one place and not organized by groups (modules, apps).

Configuration Tab

• Hints explain everything – good
• Walls – what are they?
• Notifications of what? Maybe move it to the other email notifications area
• Some variables are missing from hints
• Terms & conditions, maybe allow to use an article ID
• SEO layout – a bit confusing.
• Templates – a preview of the different templates would be nice

Apps

• It would be good to have all the apps listed here
• It’s incorrect to say that apps can be installed on Joomla’s plugin manager

Custom Profiles

• Very intuitive
• “Select” – what does it mean? Drop down? Check boxes?
• It would be nice if I could choose which fields show on registration
• Buttons are hard to see on the editing pop up.
• Cancel button should be on the left or removed (you have the x on top to close the pop up).
• There is a bug when adding a group, it assigns the fields of another group to his new group
• New group should show last

Templates

Very techie, it would be nice to see HTML templates I can easily edit, even if I am not a programmer

You’re using the word template twice: on the look and feel but also as far as the functionality and page layout. Maybe you should find a different word.

Groups:

You’re using the word “group” twice to describe two different things. First- for profile creation, and second, for members groups, maybe find a different word for the profile creation.

Mail Queue

Not sure what it means? When I go to documentation it’s pretty advanced stuff.

Profile: front end

It would be nice if I could set it up so that empty fields don’t show.