5S Red Tag Event for this Website

Hi Jon,
First, I think this is a excellent web with a lot of value-added information for me.
I also think it is a great idea to apply 5S to this blog. I am looking forward to see the result!
As I only started to read this blog (and some other too) just recently, there is a huge amount of articles which I didn’t manage to read yet, but I’d like to do.
So please, if you decide to “sort out” older articles, would it be possible to put them into a some kind of archive? (maybe a downloadable file?)
And here are a few tips from me for the “new version”:
– add a “counter” for most popular articles
– adjust the design to fit the screen on 1024×768 resulution, so that no left-right sliding bar is needed
– although there is quite a lot of advertisement, these are OK for me as long as the web stays “free to read” 🙂
– think about adding a small section where famous lean quotes and sayings could be displayed (for exaple one new each week)
– and yes, a more simple look would be nice
Maybe it would be a good idea to “combine” more lean-blogs to one place. Besides your blog, I also enjoy to read the evolving excellence, lssacademy, leanblog.com and got boondoggle for example. This would maybe even increase the number of “customers” and boost discussions on interesting topics.
Thanks for great job
Best regards
Jan

Admitedly, for one who has a long following on your blog – it was easy for me to browse through the current structure. But change – as “kaizen”, is the only thing permanent.
I could suggest to filter the contents by type in a web page, say – having all articles in one page and further sorting these articles by Headings (Arranged with an option to chose chronologically and/or by Subject/Topic Groupings)in an “Articles Page”. By parsing through a similar structure, you would have “Video Clips” page, “Seminars” page, “Reference Materials” page, etc. as selection from the Main Page. A “Main Gemba Panta Rei Page” would be nice to direct everyone to the proper web page location that they intend to browse…this would cut down search/location time and drastically reduce clutter in one blog page.
I’ve noticed that you have placed “Recent Articles” block in the middle and the Article itself on the far left side. “It’s like driving a left hand drive car in U.K.” It may be nice to have the subjects of articles on the left hand side and the Article’s body in the middle of the blog. This would make for more room to display the whole article with just the “up and down” slider to browse more articles listed on the “Recent Articles” block within the “Articles Page”. This will also add more space for longer article write-ups and give a larger area to accept comments from readers and have them posted on the same article page.
Off course archiving articles will be done chronoligically and under a subject Header such as 5S, Gemba, Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing, Lean Office, etc. depending on the topic of the article.
Its a huge undertaking! But it does not need to be done in one swift change. It can even take gradual steps until the most optimal set-up has been achieved…one small step at a time. These are all cosmetic, off course; as long as we still get the added value in reading and visiting the blog space, transitional change and a few “hick-ups” are acceptable. (Chuckles!)
Lastly, I want to extend my congratulations to you Jon because this means your blog space gained a lot of following already.

This is definitely one of the more confusing blogs to navigate.

Hi Jon
Perhaps you’ll consider change to start with the home page; “blog” should be in the top nav bar. Combine “contact” with “about us”.
Visitors like being able to subscribe to the comment threads of posts they contribute to. See the post a comment box on my site for an example. RSS for comments isn’t preferred as much as direct email notifications but you can do both.
I hope you’re not using Ron’s site developer (UBD); I had a bad bad experience, lost $1,000 deposit I wasn’t going to fight over, they were weeks behind their own delivery dates and couldn’t even be bothered to read the front page to get the gist of the site. All they saw was “fashion” and threw up a bunch of fairy fronds, curlicue fonts and high fashion models in the mock ups. They did this more than once meaning they didn’t process my feedback. I got tired of repeating myself and resorted to resending them what I’d already sent them to little effect.
Lastly, I recommend reading _Don’t make me think_ by Steve Krug. It’s dated (2005) and doesn’t cover blogs but I doubt you will think it isn’t worth the price. Lots of show-me rather than theory.

Wow! I see is stating to take form! The Gemba Pata Rei Main Page now shows first before going to other topics.
Suggestions:
Probably its better to use larger fornts on the main page, unless you plan on having other things included on the empty spaces. The RSS for subscribing by E-mail shows in the Main Page 2x – although I don’t know wha the difference between the two are.
The Gemba Pantarei font and background on the main page needs re-work – either have a darker background or have a heavier font color to make it “float” on the page.
Kathleen is right, we could use a “Contact us” link, for other suggestions other than the topic’s comment box. I had to go back to this write up just to contribute some more suggestions on the subject.
But what I really want to say is – CONGRATULATIONS! Things are starting to take shape! Keep up the “Kaizen” ball rolling Jon! I’m excited to see how things will look in its new face…