When request also needs skills,

I find some of our requesters don't even have proper knowledge of basic linguistics, for example, they may not know what kind of language they are submitting or requesting at all, or they may submit a text of misspelt or miscoded languages, such as Chinese coded Polish, or latinized Arabic, and so on. Maybe, they are keen on linguistics, but just ok to post a joke.

This gives me a doubt, which might be a new question for the whole conception of cucumis, that is, shall we provide basic lingustic knowledge and notes so that the requesters are supposed to have known or reminded to know these points before they ask for something. Then we will have a new task beside translation helps, i.e. teach or share some linguistic knowledge in community.

And what's more, more than one Chinese have said, this site is like a labyrinth, they hold on for a period but cannot find the door or way.

Teaching the community is a hard task, and mainly the problem comes from new members.

I agree the site is like a labyrinth.

There is something to do to make it more clear.

Maybe the home page should be more direct :

"SUBMIT A TEXT" "TRANSLATE" "ABOUT"

And maybe I should move the current home page to "ABOUT"

Can we sketch out an organization chart like in most group companies, so our visitors can have the map to guide them in the labyrinth.

Think it will be great when we use GPS in cars, which indicates where we are and where is our target at realtime on a board.

Do we have the tech or skills to have a motive organization map to localize visiting points, or at least to have a static picture of website structure.

Pluiepoco wants a "site map". That would help.

Some other suggestions...

The splash page is a problem: child w watermelon, flag logos below. The first time I went there I had to think for some time before I figured out what to do next: pick out a flag that matches my preferred language, and click on it. The design is far too telegraphic. As an American, I saw the English flag but I kept looking for a USA flag...

It would also help to redesign the sidebar menu and maybe eliminate the top menu. Put all functions in one menu, grouped by level: regular, expert, admin. Under regular: submit a text to be translated by others, translate a text, etc. Maybe use submenus.

Make the menu exactly the same on every page, only show by highlighting which menu item corresponds to the current page.

Good ideas, but damned, it's a lot of work

For the splash page, maybe I can detect automatically the language of the visitor's browser and display the main functions of cucumis "Translate" "Submit a text" "Register" "About".

Maybe also something like this on every pages to show where the visitor is :

"cucumis > translation > submit a new text"

Poping menu is a good idea, but in some browsers, at some times, this kind of poping out may not work at all, due to computer settings.

So the more skillful a website is, the harder is it for people to manipulate.

Yep, if you know websites with great interface and menus you would like to see on cucumis, let's post the links here. It's always better with an example.