In a forum discussion about improving user experience when creating new topics, Cerix notes that many new users fail to select a category, forcing moderators to re-categorize topics. They suggest adding a modal or alert before topic creation if the default “Uncategorized” is selected, to prompt users to choose a category. JammyDodger mentions the existing admin setting allow uncategorized topics, which can enforce category selection — but Cerix clarifies they want to keep uncategorized topics enabled, as they’re useful, and the issue is purely UX. jimkleiber proposes CSS or JavaScript solutions — such as highlighting the category selector or blocking composer interaction until a category is chosen — and asks for more detail on the desired workflow. Cerix confirms their ideal solution: a modal or alert triggered after clicking “Create Topic” if the category remains “Uncategorized”, asking users to confirm their choice. The thread centers on enhancing UX without removing functionality, aiming to reduce moderator workload through gentle user guidance.
In my forum many new users never select a category for new topics, so moderators are forced to edit the topic to categorize it correctly.
This is mainly due to the fact that is not explicitly asked to the user to select a category when creating a new topic.
The interface also does not focus on selecting an appropriate category.
if the category is the same as the default one (Uncategorized), a further step (like a modal) before opening a new topic would be useful to invite the user to select a category.
Just in case you aren’t aware, there’s an admin setting allow uncategorized topics you can toggle that would make people select a category on topic creation by disallowing ‘Uncategorized’, if that would be any help?
There might be something you could do with CSS to highlight the category selector box so it’s more obvious to people they should start there.
There could probably be some more advanced techniques with JS to not allow people to click the body of the composer until the category box is filled, or to pop an alert that asks if they really want to submit it as uncategorized. Or even an alert that when you click the body box first that nudges someone to choose a category first.
I’m a little unsure what is the solution you’re hoping to see, maybe I just didn’t understand, could you describe it in more detail, ie, the user clicks this, then the user sees this, etc?
